En joying a breath of fresh air as we "stay at home"! I took these today on a lazy hike into our back country, this is about the natural aged beauty sur rounding us .  Some of the wood shots were once living and now dead wood that still portray certain elements of beauty to some eyes, like mine, I am forever fascinated by wood,  it's grains and fibers showing how it lived once and was strong.  Now home to various bugs and seeds . You will see cliff faces and mountains as well as wonderful still living ancient juniper and pinion bushes . I added a few yard shots show our spring 'gras s circles' in our yard, hmm, mole tunnels or alien landing sites or maybe deer droppings? :

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is approximately 174,000 acres, so there are many places which the public may visit, which are not well publicized. Sand Canyon Trail, beginning just 2 miles west of Kelly Place, is highly visited and on some days the small undeveloped parking area cannot hold the number of vehicles of people who wish to go hiking, biking and horseback riding. Here are just a couple places along Road G in McElmo Canyon where you can go to find remnants of the Ancestral Puebloans without those parking problems. Cannonball Mesa: Travel west on Road G along the rocky cliffs and old ranch holdings. About 9.9 miles west of the Kelly Place road sign, you will see a gated turn-off on the right. You may pass through the gate and continue on after closing the gate. Continue on this dirt road (high clearance vehicle recommended), for another 2 miles and you will come to the Cannonball Mesa pueblo complex. You can see more details and pictures on this website:

Marc and I were rather surprised when we were initially looking at purchasing Kelly Place, to find that they were selling fetishes.   We were from San Diego—What did we know….? For those of you (like us) who are unfamiliar with Native American fetishes, here is the scoop: The Zuni people (northern New Mexico) have, in their tradition, picked up stones which remind them of particular types of animals.   Over time, they began to modify the stones, shaping them to more closely resemble the animals.   Now, there is an entire generation of artists who carve, inlay and shape a wide variety of rock types to represent many different kinds of animals and also corn maidens.   These are not objects of worship, but objects meant to convey a particular trait such as strength or wisdom in honor of or to assist the owner in this characteristic.   It brings the characteristics associated with the animal to the owner.   Others are meant to remind the owner of or bring some connection to a

Yes, it will take you an entire day and you still won’t see everything—even in winter when some of the park is closed.   In the summer, there are several ranger-guided tours you may take.   They cost $4 per person and may be obtained a day in advance at the park Visitor’s Center near the entrance or the Colorado Welcome Center on Main St. in downtown Cortez.   If you are going with children and don’t have a problem crawling through a short tunnel, Balcony House is the best tour.   You have no other option for viewing Balcony House except for this tour.   We generally do not recommend the Cliff Palace tour because you are never going into the ruin, only in front of it.   You can see Cliff Palace directly just above it off of Cliff Palace Loop or from a distance on the Mesa Top Loop overlook.   You may do the first option in winter if snow doesn’t close the road to Cliff Palace.   The Mesa Top Loop is open in winter.  The above photo is taken of Cliff Palace from the Mesa

Nearly everyone will have a birthday this year, so this is appropriate for all except those youngsters born on Feb. 29, who age only a quarter as fast as the rest of us.   (I remember my grandmother’s sixteenth birthday!) Birthday wishes are timely here at Kelly Place.   Kelly Place has been in business for 35 years!   McElmo Canyon Research Institute is celebrating 25 years of existence.   And our partner Elderhostel Inc., providing educational and economical vacation packages-- now called Road Scholar, is celebrating 40 years.   Kelly Place has been working with them from our beginning, 35 years ago.   So enjoy your cake and candles this year.   We wish you all very many happy returns!