North to Wutapki . . . Friday, Day 3

Because of a lack of internet connections when we stop at the end of each day, we have fallen behind in recording our road trip.

Tonight Sherwin and I decided to divide up our next day, morning-afternoon.

We have truly been on a home inspection tour, I believe.  We have seen every monument available on this route.  The homes dating back to the mid 1100's are admirably ingenious.

We arrived at Wupatki by lunchtime after having toured the volcanoes and another set of 'ruins' in the morning.  For the morning activity see Sherwin's blog; click here.

Wupatki is a community built in the mid 1100's in one of the driest spots on the Colorado plateau.  This 100 room pueblo, a community room and a ceremonial ball court was home to 85-100 residents.  This was the largest pueblo for at least 50 miles and several thousand early dwellers lived in the surrounding area.

I took this shot from the approach off the Visitor's Centre...

Behind the pueblo to the left was the spring that gave them the water they needed to live.

...and here is the same shot in colour.

How many of our homes will still be standing 800-900 years after we are gone?

In the 1930's early settlers came to excavate and start the preservation processes that we enjoy today. These men lived in the original pueblo.

The ceremonial ball court looks similar in size to the pickle ball courts Sherwin plays on every morning.

...and again in colour.

The community room has a bench around the entire circumference of the building.

...another view of the bench.  We have a serious appreciation for well-done rock work.

I am working on building a black and white portfolio so will be doing a lot of experimenting to find the right photos for my file.  I would love any feed-back on any of the photos.

Playing with our cameras, shooting from every angle, kept us there for at least an hour.  Anyone who has done any building will feel a strong connection to this site.

You can see that some patching has been done by recent amateurs if you look on the right side half-way up the wall...

Close-up:  If you look closely it appears that someone wanted to close up a window size hole and just did it in a very haphazard way.  They wanted to close out the weather or prying eyes and they just did it...the people who had came before were not so careless in their workmanship.

You can see how they integrated their building around the existing large rocks.

We reluctantly packed up our gear and headed off over the hills to find our next adventure...

For more information about Wupatki click here.  And if you have the opportunity to travel to the southwest put this site on your itinerary.

Stay tuned and above all, be well.