A dam, canyons, rocks and pueblos

From Bryce Canyon we headed on down to Page. Originally known as Camp Page, it housed the 7,000 workers that spent seven years constructing the Glen Canyon Dam, the second highest in the country. Lake Powell is a great place to cool off in the summer and covers a vast area

The next day we headed towards Vermillion Cliffs and on the way we had a short hike to Horseshoe Bend, and this is the amazing sight we saw:

Vermilion Cliffs showed some wonderful colours and rock formations

And we got to visit Antelope Canyon on the way back

Time to move on so we took the scenic route through Monument Valley

On the way we passed through Four Corners which is where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico meet. We’ve been in Cortez, Colorado for a week now and have spent time in a couple of National Parks.

First was Canyon of the Ancients National Monument which covers 170,000 acres of high desert. Thousands of archaeological sites have been recorded and there are thousands more still to be documented. By about 750 A.D. farmers, now known as Ancestral Puebloans, lived in this area and their year round homes began as clustered pit houses

Then developed into larger masonry homes above ground

We spent a few days in Mesa Verde National Park. A number of pit houses were there too, dating from 550 AD to 750 AD. A number of villages were built into cliff overhangs and could only be accessed via hand a footholds in the cliffs. Cliff Palace could only be accessed as part of a tour with a guide and we had to go down very steep steps and up ladders, but it was worth it.

The Long House was another village under the cliffs which housed a community of c. 300. Again, access was only with a park ranger as a guide

And the view across the valley was fabulous

Tomorrow, we head down to Santa Fe in New Mexico where we’ll spend the next week exploring that part of the country.