Labor Day Near the Four-Corners

Dear Maia and Isaac,

I am behind on your blog – I needed to focus on healing and on my resilience plan. I managed to camp out until the end of the season, but it was all way more low-key than usual. (The post is backdated so it is a good journal of the summer.)

So, The Saturday before Labor Day, the pups and I headed to Mancos State Park. That is pretty close to Mesa Verde. In fact, last year we went to Mesa Verde because it was too hot for Maizzy to hike. This year, I had issues wearing glasses because of the healing – so we hiked around the campgrounds and read in the tent when the rain came on Sunday afternoon. You can see Mesa Verde from our campsite.

Mesa Verde is awesome – I hope you get the chance to go someday. The Ancient Pueblo Indians built amazing houses in the cliffs there – sort of like Manatu, but true ruins. In fact, some of the ruins at Manatu came from the area where we were camped. Before the ruins were protected, they sold some of them. I wish I had felt up to going again this year. (PS – I got Sazi the day after we visited Mesa Verde last year – her name is Sazi Ana which is a variation of Anasazi. Anasazi is an old name for Ancient Pueblo Indians.)

Mesa Verde National Park Labor Day Weekend 2017

This year, in the morning, we walked around the reservoir. It was like Vega Lake and Ridgeway earlier this year – very low because of the drought. I am posting photos of last year and this year so you can see the difference.

In fact, when I arrived, the first thing I saw was a fire ban sign that the rangers put on our grill. So, we ate cold soup. The dogs liked it better than I did! 🙂

Signs of the drought are everywhere this year!

In the afternoon, I read a book in the tent as the rain fell. I love the sound of rain on a tent. It was very relaxing. Honestly, the weekend was too relaxing. I really hope that I feel better next year so we can hike or go to Mesa Verde! Dogs can’t hike at the National Park, but there are other ruins in the area that we hike to sometimes. It was good to get away and act normal even if I didn’t feel normal. Have you ever done that when you were sick?