March 1, 2010

It's hard to believe that we've been here two months. Sometimes it feels like we just arrived, usually when something new comes up that we would never have given a second thought before and we have to figure out how to cope with it. Other times, it feels like forever. We've made good friends, learned a lot, and actually have settled into this little house as if it were long-term. Then again, we haven't done a lot of what we wanted to and expected to when we first arrived. We haven't managed that canyon tour, and now there is only one weekend left to do it.

However, we did finally get back out on the North Rim road yesterday. Rain and snow were predicted, but we decided to go anyway, as we could see patches of weak sun now and then. It was colder than we thought it would be, with a sharp wind blowing. We both wished we had taken our hats.

We started with the Massacre Cave overlook, but the pictures from there were disappointing. The cave is barely visible from the overlook, and impossible to photograph from the angles we had. Budd leaned over the barrier and stretched his arm out as far as possible, but it was a roll of the dice what he got, since he couldn't see the viewscreen that way. As we looked out at the scenery, two girls came up the path and asked if we would take their picture. Budd did, and they returned the favor. It's rare to get Budd in front of a camera. He usually prefers to be behind it, especially if he can find a way to take embarrassing pictures of me.

The story of Massacre Cave is very sad. It was named that after 1805, when Spanish soldiers chased a large group of Navajo women, children and old men up Canyon del Muerto to the shelter of the cave. Most of the younger or more able-bodied men were out hunting at the time, leaving the group defenseless. The Spaniards were looking to punish the Navajo for raids on livestock, as well as to take slaves. Over the course of a day or two, they picked off most of the Indians, who had no guns to defend themselves. About 30 were taken as slaves. One of the incidents that the Navajos preserved through their oral tradition of story-telling was that a young woman, desperate to help protect the remaining people, jumped on a soldier and carried him with her off the edge of the canyon, falling about 600 feet to their deaths. The Navajo call the place where the overlook was built 'Two Fell Off' to commemorate the story. It's also interesting to note that the stories preserved from survivors of the Long Walk often mix this incident into the Long Walk stories, which occurred more than fifty years later.

We then walked around the path to the Yucca Cave overlook. This was easier to see...an Anasazi ruin with a storage room in a smaller cave at the same level. It appeared we could actually climb to that if we were brave enough, but it would have been illegal, and it's been years since I scrambled around sandstone 'slickrock', anyway. It isn't actually slick, although the nickname implies it might be. One can stand and walk up a relatively steep incline fairly easily. I have always scooted down them in a sitting position, though, even as a kid.

When we had looked at that for awhile, we went back to the car to drive to the next overlook. That one, Mummy Cave, is spectacular. It is a huge cave full of well-preserved structures, linked to a smaller one to the left with structures representing about 20 rooms. In between is a later, fortress-like structure built outside the shelter of the two caves. They are all so well-camouflaged that my eyes didn't pick out the whole complex at once. I actually missed the fortress until I started looking for the likely path between the two caves. The pictures on Facebook will show how amazing that is, because it isn't concealed at all. It's just the same color as the surrounding sandstone.

We skipped the Antelope House overlook, because we had seen that one before and we also expect to see it from a closer perspective when we do the canyon tour. There is another overlook that we watched for, but never found, called Ledge House ruin. I'm hoping we can find that one before we leave, also. It's the closest to the entrance of the park. Since we missed it, we continued around and went back up the South Rim road to the White House overlook. From there, tourists can take a trail over the top of the canyon edge, down the cliffside and across the wash to get a close look at White House. With weather threatening, we decided to do that another time. It is said to be a 2-mile round trip, but it sure looks longer than that. I did walk out to the place where the trail drops off the canyon ledge, just to see how it was accomplished. It's steep but not a technical climb. Budd got a few pictures there, which are also on Facebook.

On the way back to the car we were both suffering from frozen ears, so we were happy to stop exploring for the day and go home.