The Canyon of the Ancients was a place we knew nothing about. We still don't. It was just a place that we stopped for a short stretch of the legs based on a ranger's recommendation at a visitor center.
Initially Leesa was more excited about it than I was. That changed as soon as we started to walk. We started at the southern end of the Sand Creek Trail and just intended to walk for 15 minutes of so and then get back in the car and drive.
Shortly after we started walking, we passed natural monuments of sand and stone. We also passed ruins of the native puebloans. They weren't protected as they are in the national parks. We felt as though we were the 1st humans to stumble upon these ruins.
The monuments were very accessible and the trail wound right through them. Quite interesting.
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| Trailhead sign |
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| Leesa at the trailhead |
The start of the trail began on a huge slab of ground rock. I've never seen one so big. As we walked, we kept passing one amazing feature after another. The only thing that kept us from flying further up the trail was the ominous weather that began to descend upon us.
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| The first of several native puebloan ruins |
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| Look at this rock! |
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| Another native ruin |
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| Fascinating alcoves |
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| I couldn't resist |
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| Look at this ruin... |
We knew bad weather was coming, and by the time we had walked a couple miles, it was overhead. The rain broke out and we put on our rain coats. It poured. The dry clay underfoot became a sticky mud. We headed back to the car, but were fascinated by the skies above us. Leesa wanted to take cover under an alcove and just watch the storm. I wanted to get back to the car because flash floods were forecast.
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| Look at those skies |
When we got back to the car, the rain subsided, but the threat of flash flooding was real. We left to continue our journey but were turned around by a flooded road. I headed a different direction to take advantage of high ground. We lost a little time, but better safe than sorry.
This was an area we would have liked to explore further. Maybe next time...
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| The first indication of flash floods |
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