Ruth Soller » Blog

We enjoyed visiting Mesa Verde and toured several of the cliff dwellings including Cliff Palace and Long House and Spruce Tree House. One balmy evening we visited the Cortez Cultural Center where we experienced Ute tribe storyteller Reggie Lopez and his three lovely daughters who performed dances in dresses of the Ute tribe. Storm clouds threatened a downpour as a glorious double rainbow graced the eastern sky. I imagined traveling back 700 to 900 years in time when the cliff dwellings were occupied by hundreds of Native Americans.

Nina is painted at Newspaper Rock in southeastern Utah. Newspaper Rock is a petroglyph panel etched in sandstone that records approximately 2,000 years of early man’s activities. Prehistoric peoples, probably Archaic, Basketmaker, Fremont and Pueblo cultures, etched on the rock from B.C. time to A.D. 1300. In historic times, Utah and Navajo tribesmen, as well as Anglos, left their contributions. In Navajo, the rock is called “Tse’ Hane’” (rock that tells a story).