Speaker 1: They vanished. The ancient Bablown people of masa Verdi completely
Speaker 1: deserted their homes and communities, effectively disappearing. Like other communities
Speaker 1: that seemingly fell off the face of the earth. Maybe
Speaker 1: like the people of Roanoke, Virginia. They left nothing behind
Speaker 1: but their homes and their spirits, which still live in
Speaker 1: these mazas. Yes, and like Roanoke, I'm completely obsessed and
Speaker 1: won't let it go. They in park Landia, We're obsessing
Speaker 1: over something else, masa Verde National Park. I'm Matt and
Speaker 1: I'm Brad. We sold our loft in Chicago and gave
Speaker 1: up our city dwelling existence to live in an r
Speaker 1: V and travel the country full time. Just us and
Speaker 1: our dog Finn. Thanks for listening. So the year fifty
Speaker 1: Native American peoples were establishing deep roots and what's now
Speaker 1: southwestern Colorado, forging pit houses of top mesas, and eventually
Speaker 1: along these deep cliffs, huge communities were formed. In about
Speaker 1: the late eleven hundreds, these cliff faces were veritable cities,
Speaker 1: filled with homes, towers, central plazas. Presumably, these enclaves were
Speaker 1: popular debate people to no fear of heights because these
Speaker 1: cliffs are steep, like if you fall, you will die
Speaker 1: kind of steep. Yeah, And just to delve in that
Speaker 1: a little bit more, is like you're just looking at
Speaker 1: the side of a mountain with a cliff and then
Speaker 1: there's just homes in the mountains. Like it's it's really
Speaker 1: hard to describe, but that was just so beautiful to see.
Speaker 1: I mean everything about this park is enriched in mystery
Speaker 1: and intrigue. I mean, why did the ancestral people leave,
Speaker 1: especially after investing so much time and effort. How did
Speaker 1: they live there? What was it like? It's hard to guess,
Speaker 1: but I mean, at least we can appreciate respect what
Speaker 1: this ancient society accomplished by visiting this eye opening national park.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the first of its kind designated to
Speaker 1: protect a prehistoric culture. Um and that's when Mason Verde
Speaker 1: was established in nineteen oh six. Yeah, it's really a
Speaker 1: milestone in justin credible and also these places established by
Speaker 1: these ancient civilizations are just so monumental and what they
Speaker 1: accomplished with what little they had. Today, much of these
Speaker 1: prehistoric remains are preserved for visitors to tour and marvel
Speaker 1: at the accomplishments achieved. By. These civilizations are so impressive. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean I can't even figure out how to run
Speaker 1: the coffee machine in r V and these people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and these people managed to construct these elaborate ancient cities
Speaker 1: along sheer cliff walls. It's amazing. Had I been alive
Speaker 1: in the year seven fifty, I probably would have been
Speaker 1: thrown into the canyon like trash. Yeah, that's what I
Speaker 1: would have deserved. I Mean, when you hear about the
Speaker 1: Masa Verde National Park, most of what they hear is
Speaker 1: going to be the historical and cultural aspect, which is
Speaker 1: definitely huge. I mean, but the natural beauty of this
Speaker 1: place is totally understated. I Mean we've read articles and
Speaker 1: looked at magazines and everything, and they're just all like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: the views aren't that stunning. I mean, but it's just
Speaker 1: mind blowing when you go there. I mean, they really
Speaker 1: are beautiful views. I mean they're just so majestic. It's
Speaker 1: one of those places that just take my breath away.
Speaker 1: As you drive in the main road at zigs and
Speaker 1: DAGs up through the canyons, there's loss meadows. I mean
Speaker 1: you just see these soaring mazas everywhere. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 1: a show stopper. I it's so surprising. I like, I
Speaker 1: feel like we were kind of misled reading some of
Speaker 1: the guide books because they highlight and talk about the
Speaker 1: cultural aspect and these cliff dwellings obviously, which are important
Speaker 1: and focal points. But it really does a disservice to
Speaker 1: this park to kind of understate how naturally beautiful it
Speaker 1: is and how overwhelming in a great way of these
Speaker 1: mazas in meadows and cliffs and valleys are. It's really incredible. Um.
Speaker 1: In that road you mentioned, there's really just one main
Speaker 1: park road that kind of goes in and then steeply
Speaker 1: escalates to the top of the mazas. It really reminded
Speaker 1: me of the road that leads into Arches National Park.
Speaker 1: But the rain here is so much greener, much greener. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really really vivid, which I don't know why I
Speaker 1: was so surprised. I expected it to be more desert like. Um,
Speaker 1: but then when you think about a severity means green table,
Speaker 1: so I'm like, uh um. Anyway, after several miles, you
Speaker 1: wind up by the chape in Mesa, which is the
Speaker 1: most popular area of the park. You have a museum here,
Speaker 1: a restaurant, hiking trails, and access to the park's most
Speaker 1: well known tours, which are definitely worth checking out. Trails. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when we arrived, we started at the Petrol Left Point trail.
Speaker 1: It's a two and a half mile trek along the
Speaker 1: cliff and the top of Mesa. Yeah. I mean it's
Speaker 1: a real showstopper of a trail, not only with its
Speaker 1: amazing views, but like also how unique and hands on
Speaker 1: it was. I mean, this was the kind of trail
Speaker 1: that requires you to scramble on hands and knee squeeze
Speaker 1: herself through rocks. It's well worth the effort because of
Speaker 1: the views from the Maza top are incredible. I mean
Speaker 1: you just see these sweeping views of the tree line
Speaker 1: Masa floor. I mean I feel like an eagle purched
Speaker 1: on a high branch, which is my favorite animal, but
Speaker 1: looking down on the world below me. I mean, in
Speaker 1: modern days, you can say it looks like you're a
Speaker 1: drone flying through the air. Oh yeah, totally. You have
Speaker 1: a drones eye view. Yes, a drones eye view. Yes,
Speaker 1: forget eagle eye view. Just kidding, I love you eagles.
Speaker 1: The I mean the trail looks back around to chap
Speaker 1: In Masa. Yeah, the chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum. Yes, it's great.
Speaker 1: I mean it has these exhibits of local wildlife culture
Speaker 1: and history, as well as a beautiful little movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that movie. It's great. That's always fun anytime, just any
Speaker 1: time you visit a visitor center at a national park,
Speaker 1: always see if they ask some sort of movie. A
Speaker 1: lot of them do, and they're always worthwhile and really informative.
Speaker 1: And let's talk about there's a section in a in
Speaker 1: a museum here which is just filled with these taxi
Speaker 1: der meat animals, especially birds, are a lot of birds
Speaker 1: in this park. And as someone who pretty much burst
Speaker 1: into tears anytime I see roadkill, it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: ironic and funny that I'm so obsessed with taxidermy. I
Speaker 1: could just spend hours staring blankly at taxidermy hawks. It's
Speaker 1: really for me. It just creeps me out though I
Speaker 1: tried to dash through this experience, and roadkill doesn't bother
Speaker 1: me like it does use it just really yeah, we're
Speaker 1: backwards again. You know, we're very different people. Yes, very
Speaker 1: much in love. Yeah, I'm weirdly comforted by dead stuffed hawks.
Speaker 1: Um so after we after I spent two hours in
Speaker 1: the taxidermy room. UM we moved on and the Masa
Speaker 1: Top Loop is the six mile route that weaves around
Speaker 1: UM they're parting from the chape in Mesa area and
Speaker 1: this is what takes you to some of the most
Speaker 1: beautiful overlooks and historic sites and also most importantly the
Speaker 1: cliff dwelling tour, which UM we booked UM at the
Speaker 1: initial visitor center by the entry point of the park,
Speaker 1: and you that's a must, you have to do that.
Speaker 1: But they're very accessible that it's not like some tours
Speaker 1: and some parks which fill up super fast and then
Speaker 1: you're kind of out of luck. This one they do
Speaker 1: periodically throughout the day. I think every thirty minutes they
Speaker 1: do cliff dwelling tours, so there's plenty of room to
Speaker 1: go around and most likely you're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: get on a tour, which is wonderful, great. It really
Speaker 1: took the stress out of that situation. And for the
Speaker 1: whole five dollars per tour, it's worth yeah, so easy,
Speaker 1: so affordable. Forget to skip your coffee if you can't
Speaker 1: afford it, go to the quiff. I'm not skipping coffee
Speaker 1: I've tried to appreciate the sentiment anyway. Yeah, so we
Speaker 1: hit the maze top loop and kind of started off.
Speaker 1: We stopped off at a few overlooks which were great,
Speaker 1: including there's one where you kind of look out over
Speaker 1: the Masa valley below, and we saw a snake squiggled
Speaker 1: across the writer the trail recently. Why did the snake
Speaker 1: cross the road? I don't know, to get to the
Speaker 1: other Masa. Yes, it's probably literally. One really nice thing
Speaker 1: was that the drive to the Masa Swap dwellings. I mean,
Speaker 1: before the Publion people started moving into the cliff dwellings,
Speaker 1: they had homes and communities on the Masa surface, and
Speaker 1: several of these were preserved for visitors to see today.
Speaker 1: The main attraction that Masa Verde, though, is the cliff dwellings,
Speaker 1: which are only accessible by range of tours. But seriously,
Speaker 1: if there's one thing you do in Masa Verde, you
Speaker 1: must go into these cliff dwelling tours. I mean they're
Speaker 1: just when you get down there and you realize how
Speaker 1: small these people were. They were only about five five um,
Speaker 1: and how unafraid of heights they were, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's like it is the perfect place to be because
Speaker 1: as like the wind goes by, because they're inside of
Speaker 1: these cliffs, you know, they stay pretty cool and calm,
Speaker 1: and it was just it was so beautiful to see
Speaker 1: the engineering of these native people to these lands. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: these cliff dwellings are honestly like the bread and butter
Speaker 1: of the park. It's such an essential component here and
Speaker 1: obviously the most iconic and famous thing at ma sever Day,
Speaker 1: and rightfully so, because it highlights the work that these
Speaker 1: intextual people did, this incredible work which gives me anxiety
Speaker 1: to think about, because I would have slipped and died.
Speaker 1: Like the first day. The tours that we did, which
Speaker 1: like we said, our offered every thirty every thirty minutes
Speaker 1: other day, so super easy. We did the Cliff Palace tour,
Speaker 1: which is the most I would say, the most famous
Speaker 1: one in the park. Um. It's probably because it's the
Speaker 1: largest by far. It has about d and fifty rooms. Um. Huge.
Speaker 1: It's basically like their version of a city carved into
Speaker 1: the side of this sliff base. I know it's the
Speaker 1: Manhattan and May sever Day for sure. Uh, which explains
Speaker 1: why it's so popular. I mean, yeah, it does it does,
Speaker 1: and it's really really special to tour this um. The
Speaker 1: tour we did it was the largest crowd, which made
Speaker 1: sense because the place is so huge and it accommodated
Speaker 1: group size like that. We had a really friendly ranger
Speaker 1: Um who was really cheeky and fun and definitely pandering
Speaker 1: to the younger members of the audience. She was talking
Speaker 1: like a cartoon character. It was really cute. It was
Speaker 1: like the perfect park range of experience she was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she made it really fun, really informative by also being
Speaker 1: kind of quirky and charming and reminding you not to
Speaker 1: bring snacks and stuff. Yeah, it's I mean it's really
Speaker 1: important not to touch anything, just like in Laddin and
Speaker 1: the Cave of Wonders. I mean, if you touch anything,
Speaker 1: you'll be chased out of the park by lava. Yes,
Speaker 1: just kidding, but still don't touch it. Because human skin
Speaker 1: has all these oils. I mean, we have sun block on,
Speaker 1: we use lotion, you know, um, all the hand soaps
Speaker 1: and so as you touch these fragile structures, they just
Speaker 1: your oils black in them, and it ruins that experience
Speaker 1: for future generations. There are some points when you're going
Speaker 1: to be able to go and touch the inside of
Speaker 1: things for balance, and they will tell you and instruct
Speaker 1: you when you can do that. But don't touch the
Speaker 1: structures because we want to preserve them for our children's
Speaker 1: children's children. Yeah, and honestly, if you do disobay and
Speaker 1: you touch something, you deserve to be chased out of
Speaker 1: there by lava. I'm just gonna say that. UM. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it takes one hour to do the cliff Palace tour
Speaker 1: uh and heads up. Even though the tower doesn't go
Speaker 1: that far, it still entails some steep um cliff side
Speaker 1: steps and some physical maneuvering. So it's not really for
Speaker 1: the faint of heart, or definitely not for people who
Speaker 1: are afraid of heights, because like we mentioned several times,
Speaker 1: these are cliff walls and there's no real danger of
Speaker 1: falling off. It's pretty well guarded and there are railings
Speaker 1: now and you don't get you close to the edge.
Speaker 1: But still it's it's nerve wracking. Um. But as long
Speaker 1: as that's not an issue, it's an absolute must to
Speaker 1: do this. UM, to see these time worn structures, and
Speaker 1: considering how laborious it was to build anything of that time,
Speaker 1: I can only imagine how much effort and time went in.
Speaker 1: It took decades to build communities like like Cliff Palace.
Speaker 1: So the fact that these dwellings were completely abandoned by
Speaker 1: the y is so intriguing, Like what would inspire what
Speaker 1: would motivate you to abandon something that took so long
Speaker 1: and so much effort to establish? I don't understand. That's
Speaker 1: like me building uh town from scratch and then one
Speaker 1: day just being like I'm gonna leave. I'm done. They
Speaker 1: say it took like over seventy five years to build,
Speaker 1: Like that's what this is huge history is telling us.
Speaker 1: And you know, just seeing all these rooms seventy five years,
Speaker 1: I mean, we can build a skyscraper in like two
Speaker 1: in two years, yeah, but you're talking about sending of years.
Speaker 1: And that's because they did this by hand. You know.
Speaker 1: They went and they grabbed all those rocks, those boulders,
Speaker 1: and they stacked them and they manually labored every bit
Speaker 1: of this. And these people were like they're not these
Speaker 1: big early people, but there was so much strength and
Speaker 1: soul into what they were building that they were able
Speaker 1: to just continue to build. Yeah, I know. And that
Speaker 1: just the fact that like this stuff just wasn't sitting
Speaker 1: right there at they're disposal ready to stack up. Like
Speaker 1: they had to climb way down into the valley and
Speaker 1: then climb back up with heavy rocks, heavy materials, and
Speaker 1: you can imagine the involvement with that. And they had
Speaker 1: to find specific rocks that were soft enough that they
Speaker 1: could like chisel it to certain specifications and sizes and shapes,
Speaker 1: because there were some buildings that were round, like perfectly rounded,
Speaker 1: and they had to mold it that way like by
Speaker 1: hand and by forests, And there's no blueprints to that.
Speaker 1: It's all word of mouth. That's how they built. And
Speaker 1: so um a beautiful thing that was in the back
Speaker 1: of all these caves were these springs. Yeah, oh that's true. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the reason it's kind of signify as a big
Speaker 1: reason why they picked these locations is because water in
Speaker 1: this environment can be hard to come by. So they
Speaker 1: picked these cliffs because there was this natural like rocky
Speaker 1: springs tucked away in the back of these caves here,
Speaker 1: and it just forms by water trickling down from the
Speaker 1: Earth's surface and eventually spilling out and forming these little
Speaker 1: fresh water pools that are drinkable and or can be
Speaker 1: used as a water source. And I would never have
Speaker 1: thought that if I was looking at this from the outside,
Speaker 1: I would never think like, oh water is here. It
Speaker 1: does not look like it whatsoever. And one of the
Speaker 1: things that they did was they actually grew corn in
Speaker 1: crops above these mass so that the men and young
Speaker 1: gentlemen they would go up um the hills and every
Speaker 1: day and to go tend to their corn. And they
Speaker 1: would take all this time and effort and energy to
Speaker 1: collect that. So most of their meals were corn. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they get corn. The park Vanger mentioned squash was a
Speaker 1: big thing as well, so um a lot of that
Speaker 1: growing on the surface above the cliff. Which again, how
Speaker 1: tedious to have to like get yourself up there harvest things,
Speaker 1: bring it back. It's like NonStop work in physical labor.
Speaker 1: It's really unbelievable. And sometimes there was days on trips
Speaker 1: to go find meat, um, you know, for hunting. You know,
Speaker 1: they were not vegetarians, that's for sure. No, they were not. No, No,
Speaker 1: So I guess like deer, a lot of deer here.
Speaker 1: So they would hunt deer, dry meat to make basically
Speaker 1: dear jerky as well use the hides to make leather.
Speaker 1: Just a lot and they would think their think before
Speaker 1: every meal, you know, they would they would give their
Speaker 1: thanks to the animal for sacrificing themselves as part of
Speaker 1: their culture history. Beautiful. It's just that that soul that
Speaker 1: goes into this place. I mean, there's so much of that.
Speaker 1: It's very palpable. You can just get a sense of it.
Speaker 1: You can see it, you can you can't feel it
Speaker 1: because don't you dare touch it, but you can just
Speaker 1: you're like kind of surrounded by it in every sense.
Speaker 1: And there was one like as we're kind of leaving
Speaker 1: Cliff Palace, there was this tall tower and the park
Speaker 1: ranger asked us to stick our heads in and kind
Speaker 1: of look up and at the very roof you can
Speaker 1: see the remnants of artwork of play blue and artwork
Speaker 1: in single really the only petroglyff that we saw in
Speaker 1: the park, and its way up on the roof of
Speaker 1: this tower and very cool to see, and it was
Speaker 1: it's just beautiful and also like another impressive feet like
Speaker 1: having to shim me up to the top of the
Speaker 1: tower um to draw on the roof of the cliff
Speaker 1: just amazing to me. It is one of those most
Speaker 1: beautiful sites to see because there's so much history and
Speaker 1: soul into that absolutely, and they abandoned everything. Presumably by
Speaker 1: the year this is all just completely desolate and they
Speaker 1: were gone. And this community, all these communities, these hundreds
Speaker 1: of cliff dwellings were just utterly abandoned. I mean, was
Speaker 1: a drought, a lack of resources, conflict in foreign communities? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Was it Aliens? Probably not. This isn't Roswell in Mexico.
Speaker 1: But you never know. You were listening to the park
Speaker 1: Landed podcast from my Heart Radio hosted by Brad and
Speaker 1: Matt CARROLLAC. We'll be back with Martha parklandi of podcast
Speaker 1: from my Heart Radio. I'm Matt and I'm Brad. You
Speaker 1: were listening to the park Landed podcast from my heart Radio.
Speaker 1: We're in the midst of doing some of these cliff
Speaker 1: dwelling tours and fresh off our Cliff Palace tour, which
Speaker 1: was the biggest and most immersive of the tours we did. Uh.
Speaker 1: Another one we did was the Cockney House tour, which
Speaker 1: is also all located along mas the Top Loop. And
Speaker 1: this one's much smaller than the Cliff Palace only. Yeah,
Speaker 1: only about forty rooms compared to like a hundred and fifty,
Speaker 1: So it's not it doesn't feel quite a city size,
Speaker 1: but still very substantial and incredibly impressive the engineering that
Speaker 1: went into this. It's definitely a more adventurous tour, and
Speaker 1: the rangers are really good about pointing that out and
Speaker 1: for warning you in case you have any anxieties or fears.
Speaker 1: It's very hands on. There are some deep it's very steep,
Speaker 1: and it requires some ladders along some very steep cliff faces.
Speaker 1: There's some tight spaces that you gotta squeeze through, so
Speaker 1: if you have a fear of heights and or tight spaces,
Speaker 1: be warned. Yea, we saw young girls cry mom's butt
Speaker 1: cheeks Titan. We saw me almost cry. Yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I even shivered and I love heights. Yeah. For me
Speaker 1: it was mostly I guess I'm not crazy about heights.
Speaker 1: But for me, the thing that kind of uh freaked
Speaker 1: me out a little bit here was the narrow spaces.
Speaker 1: It's not like you're super lunking through several hundred feet
Speaker 1: of a cave or anything like that. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: short period, but still it's I'm not used to being
Speaker 1: an environment like that or having a shimmy and crawl.
Speaker 1: It's not my most comfortable zone. Um, totally worthwhile. Though
Speaker 1: that being said, this tour um like Cliff Palace, also
Speaker 1: takes about an hour and it takes you along some
Speaker 1: pretty steep ladders, like we said, through some narrow passageways,
Speaker 1: and along the way you'll learn or really guess more
Speaker 1: about the pay blown people who lives here. And this
Speaker 1: is most notable, I think in the kiva's um. As
Speaker 1: we're on this tour, the rangers were talking a lot
Speaker 1: about these central gathering places that were kind of subterranean,
Speaker 1: tucked into the earth, used as ceremonal rooms to pray
Speaker 1: for rain and or meditate on the notion of where
Speaker 1: humans came from, which is pretty deep for a living
Speaker 1: space um. And then those living spaces there at these
Speaker 1: little holes in the ground, and that's where they said
Speaker 1: that humans came from, with this little hole in their kiva's. Yes,
Speaker 1: So in the middle of all these kivas are these
Speaker 1: small little holes only about like six inches wide, probably
Speaker 1: less in the earth, yeah, probably even less. And so
Speaker 1: I guess the speculation, according to the park rangers is
Speaker 1: that people we talk about how humanity or humans as
Speaker 1: spirits would emerge in the earth via these little holes
Speaker 1: and then flourish in these communities and carry on and
Speaker 1: pass on generations that way. It's kind of floating up
Speaker 1: like spirits. These kivas are beautiful. I mean, they're they
Speaker 1: definitely wear their homes as well as their spiritual place.
Speaker 1: But the point blue and people, they didn't have a
Speaker 1: written language. Um. I think there was actually one petroglyph
Speaker 1: in the whole entire park that we saw, and so
Speaker 1: they didn't have a written language. So they had to
Speaker 1: speak from the past us to the future. By passing
Speaker 1: is down into generation after generation, and these kivas are
Speaker 1: what actually develop that relationship for them. That's where they
Speaker 1: passed on their stories. And the rangel led tours. She
Speaker 1: was telling us all about the different speculations of how
Speaker 1: they passed on knowledge. And I just remember playing the
Speaker 1: game of like telephone growing up and I never got
Speaker 1: it right. So it's going to be pretty hard to
Speaker 1: pass that generation after generation. Yeah, um, but that's why
Speaker 1: you know their spirits still live there, right and exc
Speaker 1: they feel. Yeah, Apparently there was no real written history.
Speaker 1: It was all oral history. And like you said, it's
Speaker 1: basically this long drawn out generations long game of telephone
Speaker 1: and things get foggy and so now all we can do,
Speaker 1: and all the park rangers can do is really speculate
Speaker 1: and kind of piece things together and connect the dots,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that is really apparent at Balcony House.
Speaker 1: We're in addition to the Kiva as they have these
Speaker 1: little the namesake Balcony is kind of perched on these
Speaker 1: wooden structures and the rangers were just kind of guessing
Speaker 1: what these balconies were used for. I know when we
Speaker 1: were on Archur she would suggesting they were used for
Speaker 1: sitting outside of the windows, or for drying meat, storage
Speaker 1: for and yeah, exactly, and pottery and lots of potential
Speaker 1: even to climb up to like the second level of
Speaker 1: the rooms, which is only about six ft off the ground,
Speaker 1: but because again there were only five fives, only gave
Speaker 1: them a couple of feet um of head space. But
Speaker 1: they would climb up into the second level, which is
Speaker 1: crazy because you're just like that, does that look smaller
Speaker 1: than the house in Manhattan? Right? Definitely does. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks like a studio apartment, um so. And some of
Speaker 1: these went pretty high. The balconies, like most of them
Speaker 1: are only like two stories, but there was one that
Speaker 1: went up three or more. It's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: tell because the balcony is no longer there, but you
Speaker 1: can see like where it could have been. UM, but
Speaker 1: not all of them are able to withstand the weather
Speaker 1: and the elements as well as others. UM. There was
Speaker 1: even at one beautiful area where you could see the
Speaker 1: smoke where was carved out the walls and it was
Speaker 1: like their fireplace that he did that whole balcon house area,
Speaker 1: I mean, And then the beautiful thing behind that was
Speaker 1: we got to crawl through that little like cave, which
Speaker 1: is the only entrance in and out, like you couldn't
Speaker 1: in and out other ways. So like some people even
Speaker 1: speculated that that might have been a jail or for
Speaker 1: people that were in trouble. You know. There's just all
Speaker 1: these different ideas of how they separated each other from
Speaker 1: each other. So that was pretty to learn about. And
Speaker 1: then as you go into that where they had the
Speaker 1: two big kivas um and in all the small rooms
Speaker 1: above it, Yeah, very very cool, And I just can't
Speaker 1: get over the fact that like there was no other
Speaker 1: entrance into the balcony house. You had to crawl through long, narrow,
Speaker 1: claustrophobic passageways, which is again for I mean I'm very
Speaker 1: lucky I didn't live during this time. Keep thinking that,
Speaker 1: because I would not not too well with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. There was definitely a lot of times when
Speaker 1: were like, like what claustrophobia, fear of heights, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: like everything, Yeah, the only thing missing is like a
Speaker 1: great white shark. Yes, that is true. You are afraid
Speaker 1: of jaws. My trifecta of nightmares. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: just observing all of it was crazy. I even remember
Speaker 1: the ranger was so close to the edge at one point.
Speaker 1: Um others she was like she goes, um, you're getting
Speaker 1: a little close there, and she goes, oh, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: done this a lot, like don't worry about me, honey. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then like right after that, somebody dropped their sunglasses
Speaker 1: over the edge. Oh gosh. I was like they wanted
Speaker 1: to get this, like put your eyeglass traps on. Stop
Speaker 1: messing around, right. I had no sympathy for that person,
Speaker 1: Like sorry, I was actually real yeah, because I'm like, okay, great,
Speaker 1: now they just grow in there, Like a ranger is
Speaker 1: not going to go down there to remove your glasses.
Speaker 1: So you really have to make sure that like when
Speaker 1: you go to these National Parks that you're bundled up,
Speaker 1: you are tidied up. You know your hair is done.
Speaker 1: Don't put on a lot of loan or anything like
Speaker 1: your sun block, because you have to protect your skin.
Speaker 1: But like oils, for me, the true lesson from this
Speaker 1: in particular tour was that oils can really damage stuff.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know how many chemicals we have on
Speaker 1: us on a daily basis. So going back to that
Speaker 1: natural lifestyle a little bit more. I mean, I love
Speaker 1: my cologne and my things, but you know there's a
Speaker 1: time and a place for you. Don't ready to put
Speaker 1: on your cloone to go to the national park. You know,
Speaker 1: use minimal impact, especially in these areas. Yeah, absolutely, And
Speaker 1: she pointed out the park ranger along the tour. She
Speaker 1: pointed to one of the walls since she says, like,
Speaker 1: see all this black, kind of smudgy marketing, like this
Speaker 1: is from human hands touching this too much. And this
Speaker 1: is what happens when and chemically humans. You know, we're
Speaker 1: filled with chemicals. It's not a pretty thing to think about.
Speaker 1: But if you put your hands all over these delicate,
Speaker 1: centuries old structures, then you can erode them, you can
Speaker 1: mark them. Up. It's just it doesn't look good. It's
Speaker 1: not respectful. Just leave the leave the lotions and stuff
Speaker 1: in Cologne. You know this isn't a Sisia restaurant. No
Speaker 1: need to get dolled up. And you know what it
Speaker 1: was really amazing is I didn't realize like this park
Speaker 1: was just recently discovered. I mean it was by ranchers
Speaker 1: and they were like chasing down their cattle into the
Speaker 1: mountains and they that's how they discovered this National park.
Speaker 1: So you see these old pictures of like cowboys. I
Speaker 1: think she handled those around and she was just showing
Speaker 1: us like who these people were and that discovered it.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, wild West cowboys. I love it.
Speaker 1: Like it's kind of cool to see that they rediscovered
Speaker 1: it and like they were blown away obviously, but at
Speaker 1: this point there was photographs and throw things around, so
Speaker 1: it's more recent and it is yeah, and like the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things, and compared to a lot of
Speaker 1: other National parks, especially um, that's crazy that they were
Speaker 1: just like chasing a like a cow or something. I'm
Speaker 1: worried about that cow that fall off the cliff. She
Speaker 1: she never completed that thought and told us what happened
Speaker 1: to the cow. Not all animals are as cleansy as you.
Speaker 1: I'm actually very adept. Thank you. You're listening to the
Speaker 1: park Landia podcast in my Heart Radio, hosted by Brad
Speaker 1: and Matt Carouac. We'll be back with more of the
Speaker 1: park Landia podcast from my Heart Radio. Hi. I'm Brad
Speaker 1: and I'm Matt, and today we're talking about Masa Verde
Speaker 1: National Park. We weren't able to access the weather help
Speaker 1: mace of the park area since our view is too long.
Speaker 1: They do give plenty of places to drop off trailers
Speaker 1: if that's the issue. This one, the one that we did,
Speaker 1: was the most popular and has the most tours and attractions.
Speaker 1: There's another area called the weather A Mesa which is
Speaker 1: not accessible for larger view cool So we weren't able
Speaker 1: to do those cliff dwelling tours, but that's fine. Balcony
Speaker 1: House and Cliff Palace are wonderful and amazing and for
Speaker 1: a good reason, the too most popular tours at May
Speaker 1: Severe Day. But aside from the tours, we've actually done
Speaker 1: a lot more hiking trails, like the more Field crampground area,
Speaker 1: which is the best bet for the trailheads of which
Speaker 1: Matt did all of them. Yes, we've reached the part
Speaker 1: of the park where I hike obsessively. Yes, and I
Speaker 1: take some relaxation and kick back a little bit, but
Speaker 1: I also go on some amazing hikes with Matt totally.
Speaker 1: So the part of the park which is best for
Speaker 1: hiking is the more Field campground area. It's kind of
Speaker 1: close to the entrance point, and it's got a few
Speaker 1: trail heads here, all varying levels of difficulty. I was
Speaker 1: able to do all of them, of course. Um starting
Speaker 1: with the I did the Knife Edge trail first, which
Speaker 1: is super easy. It's like an easy two mile out
Speaker 1: and back along the northern edge of the Mace. Says,
Speaker 1: great amazing views of the valley floor and then everything
Speaker 1: is kind of lowered and flat for most of what
Speaker 1: you can see. There are like mountains in the far distance,
Speaker 1: but it's just like a really vivid, flash green valley
Speaker 1: and then rocky terrain kind of falling down into it.
Speaker 1: And while you were doing that, I was actually at
Speaker 1: the RV, cleaning bugs off the windows and relaxing, hanging
Speaker 1: out with Finny, you know, enjoying that little bit of
Speaker 1: time by myself. But I think that you know, that
Speaker 1: is one of the greatest trails because you actually get
Speaker 1: on the top of the highest mesa right in the park. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well that's another one that's not it's a different one,
Speaker 1: oh perfect, Yeah, which one was that? That's the Point
Speaker 1: Lookout trail, which the trailhead is not far from the
Speaker 1: Knife Edge one, and that is pretty surrenduous just because
Speaker 1: it's so steep. It's about the same length, it's like
Speaker 1: two miles round trip. But the big difference here is
Speaker 1: you're going up some seriously steep switchbacks to get there,
Speaker 1: and it brings you directly up to the top of
Speaker 1: the mesa and right over top the park. It's incredible
Speaker 1: your way up there, and unnervingly close to the edge
Speaker 1: at at times for sure, but the views are just
Speaker 1: unlike anything else you're going to see here or most anywhere.
Speaker 1: And it was very cool to be up there. I
Speaker 1: think I was up there by myself. There's no other
Speaker 1: people on that trail at the time. And you said,
Speaker 1: there's like no railings or anything, no railings. They really
Speaker 1: trust you not to slip and fall, which I appreciate
Speaker 1: the vote of confidence, I guess um. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: went up there. I had a little time to myself.
Speaker 1: Took some amazing photos. You could see way down in
Speaker 1: the distance the campground where we we're staying that time. Um,
Speaker 1: like little dot way down in the valley. Just loved it.
Speaker 1: And the crazy thing it was, everything is kind of
Speaker 1: quiet up there at that level of atmosphere, guess. And
Speaker 1: they'd be these little birds that were like very fast
Speaker 1: moving birds and it would zoom zoom by me and
Speaker 1: it would sound like a little jet. It was kind
Speaker 1: of scary. Um. I was a little afraid that they
Speaker 1: would fly into my head or something. And then I
Speaker 1: I Maki in the face, right into my head and
Speaker 1: then chaos and sues. Um. So that's the point, like
Speaker 1: a trail, and that's those were by far the best
Speaker 1: views I saw in the park. It's you're not going
Speaker 1: to get um vantage point like that at any other
Speaker 1: time any other trail. Yeah. And then a short drive
Speaker 1: from there was the pratter Ridge trail, right. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the one that we did together. It's pretty moderate, but
Speaker 1: it's the longest trail in this section. It can I
Speaker 1: think like you can do a larger loop where it's
Speaker 1: eight miles, or you could do when it's kind of abbreviated.
Speaker 1: I think it's like five and a half. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like five and a half. And there was some switchbacks
Speaker 1: and it brings you up to the top of a mesa,
Speaker 1: but you're not nearly as high as point like that
Speaker 1: trail and it's not as tough. Yeah, there's something north
Speaker 1: and then there's the south loop of it, and then
Speaker 1: the whole loop. And you know, as we were walking
Speaker 1: through it, I just thought it was so beautiful because
Speaker 1: you've seen a lot of like dead trees, like beautifully dead, grayish,
Speaker 1: beautifully like uh, not dead to me, but then you
Speaker 1: see these like this lush greenery and it's to me,
Speaker 1: it was just so beautiful being able to like walk
Speaker 1: up and down that trail with you and have like
Speaker 1: these cavil casual conversations, um, and just see other people,
Speaker 1: Like I saw the people giggling and like having fun
Speaker 1: and yeah, yeah, definitely. And there actually could be bears
Speaker 1: on that trail. Um. We were warned that there's a
Speaker 1: possibility to see bears and things like that. So as
Speaker 1: we're walking through this area, um, we see a ranger
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, maybe he's looking at of air
Speaker 1: and he wasn't but um, he's a temporary raiser from Oregon,
Speaker 1: we found out, so he actually comes down for the
Speaker 1: summer um on. This is Timon, but he goes to
Speaker 1: different National parks every year because you can sign up
Speaker 1: and do that. So I think that that's like a
Speaker 1: fun aspect of the National Park Services, like they do
Speaker 1: look for like different yearly volunteers and and items like that,
Speaker 1: um along these trails. Yeah, it sounds really fun, very tempting.
Speaker 1: I like that idea a lot. Yeah. Oh you know
Speaker 1: that huge snake. There are so many snakes in the
Speaker 1: severity apparently, I mean we walked directly into two. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, there was a big snake up here on
Speaker 1: this trail. I almost walked right into it. I used
Speaker 1: start randomly recording at different times, and at that point
Speaker 1: I just started recording a video of you, I mean
Speaker 1: like three seconds and then you're like huh and I
Speaker 1: like throw the camera down and because I didn't know
Speaker 1: like what was going on, and then there's a snake
Speaker 1: there and I was like, oh my gosh. And so
Speaker 1: then I was like, okay, I need to start recording again.
Speaker 1: So then I started recording the snake, you know, come
Speaker 1: dorble distance thank goodness for the the zoom on my
Speaker 1: camera phone. But you got a real candid squeal from
Speaker 1: me that video. That snake was rather large, sprawled out
Speaker 1: across the trail, just sitting. I don't think it was
Speaker 1: sleuther was just lying there and blended in kind of
Speaker 1: the ground sun bathing, bathing. Sure, I get it, um,
Speaker 1: but I think this is a snake where we learned
Speaker 1: that it eats rattlesnakes. That's insane. Yeah, what what was
Speaker 1: the name of this one? It was the something about
Speaker 1: its headbutting abilities. Oh my god, Oh my gosh. How
Speaker 1: well that's fine. We'll we'll have to follow it up
Speaker 1: on Instagram with what the name of the snake was
Speaker 1: the top little snake. Snake was pretty big. Jumping back
Speaker 1: to those bears for a minute, you know, the same
Speaker 1: thing is I've watched the news and one bear had
Speaker 1: to be put down because it attacked human because it
Speaker 1: was used to being close to humans. And then I
Speaker 1: just read an article last night about other bears, um
Speaker 1: having to be put down because they've been fed and
Speaker 1: bred into society too closely and they're afraid of them
Speaker 1: turning on people. So going back to the idea of like,
Speaker 1: you know, taking care of the parks and leaving it
Speaker 1: better than you found it is. We really want to
Speaker 1: make sure that you understand, don't feed these animals. Don't
Speaker 1: mess with these animals. If they are crossing the road,
Speaker 1: you work around them. They don't work around you. Um,
Speaker 1: because we don't want to harm these animals or have
Speaker 1: to unnecessarily put them down because we start feeding them.
Speaker 1: So really taking care of your parks is more than
Speaker 1: just your parks, because these animals, these bears were not
Speaker 1: out were outside of this park. But um, it's a
Speaker 1: really in super super important part of taking care of
Speaker 1: our nature. Um. But continuing on in a nondepressive the
Speaker 1: thing is the beautiful hike and continuing that, Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a great hike. Um. There were just so
Speaker 1: many like lookout points, which are my favorite part of
Speaker 1: this trail. You could just get so up close and
Speaker 1: have these huge panoramic views of these deep tree lined
Speaker 1: valleys below. Um, just amazing and the best best photo
Speaker 1: opportunities for sure. I loved it. Yeah, And I remember
Speaker 1: when we got to the halfway mark, we did the
Speaker 1: North Trail together, the North Loop, yes, and then you
Speaker 1: went on into the South Loop so I went back
Speaker 1: down to the RB, checked on finny, relaxed, got some
Speaker 1: more water. It wasn't that I couldn't continue, but I
Speaker 1: had my my heartful. You know, we have our hearts
Speaker 1: full at different times, and Matt is when his is
Speaker 1: completely exhausted. Yeah, mine seemingly never gets full, and I
Speaker 1: just keep going and going and going. But I thought
Speaker 1: maybe you could take the time to tell us about
Speaker 1: the South Loop and how it might have been a
Speaker 1: little bit different. Yeah, I thought the best views were
Speaker 1: along the South Loop portion um kind of a three
Speaker 1: mile area that branches off the main North Loop, and
Speaker 1: that's where I had so many of those lookouts where
Speaker 1: you can get close enough to the edge while still
Speaker 1: feeling safe and see these huge, huge, sprawling valleys that
Speaker 1: go on and on and on, and parts of it
Speaker 1: you see, like the park road weaving through it, the
Speaker 1: cars way down below, that was really neat. Uh, and
Speaker 1: just kind of put some respective like, wow, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: high up. I'm crazy high up speaking about cars and
Speaker 1: r vs and Masa Verde. I think that we need
Speaker 1: to give us special props out to Masa Verde for
Speaker 1: how r V friendly this place really is. I mean
Speaker 1: from the visitor center to all the trail heads. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of rooms for r vs of all sizes. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was a super easy park visit with r V
Speaker 1: who just had to drop off our trailer, never have
Speaker 1: to worry about parking, which is frequent headache and national parks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was really nice that they had that special designated
Speaker 1: area for r vs to drop off trailers. Just makes
Speaker 1: it so much easier. We were able to move our
Speaker 1: ur V around and navigate easily. We couldn't get the
Speaker 1: weather on Masay area because we're too long, but aside
Speaker 1: from that, everything was a piece of cake. Now the
Speaker 1: drives are very easy, and you know, after we come
Speaker 1: back from this quick break, we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the town of makos Hi. I'm Brand and I'm Matt
Speaker 1: where the host of Parklandia and today we're talking about
Speaker 1: ma Severity National Park food. We're gonna talk about quaint,
Speaker 1: little artsy town of Mankos. Yeah. Mankos is talking of
Speaker 1: the town where ma Severite is located. Although the heart
Speaker 1: quote unquote downtown area of Mankos is a few miles
Speaker 1: away and it is so beautiful and lovely. Highly recommended
Speaker 1: visit here, especially for breakfast at Absolute Bakery and Cafe,
Speaker 1: which was such a surprise. We absolutely loved it. I
Speaker 1: mean absolutely loved absolutely absolutely. I mean I have absolutely
Speaker 1: on my hat because I love the word absolutely. It's
Speaker 1: just absolutely the best. Yeah, we actually learned we got
Speaker 1: that recommendation to go here from another traveling couple that
Speaker 1: were randomly camped next to you when we were in
Speaker 1: New Mexico at Carl's by Kavern's National Park, which we'll
Speaker 1: talk about. They were so nice and clearly have great
Speaker 1: taste and breakfast because this place was wonderful. Yeah, hippies
Speaker 1: don't die, they bake. That was their slogan. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: I thought that was just something you were saying. No, nope, nope.
Speaker 1: So this place was super popular. We um had to
Speaker 1: wait for a little while, So just keep in mind
Speaker 1: if you're starving to I don't know, have a snack
Speaker 1: or something beforehand, because you're most likely gonna have to
Speaker 1: wait for a bit. It's a smallish place, it fills
Speaker 1: up really quickly. Um, it's bustling, but well worth it.
Speaker 1: But that really brings us into the perfect setup for
Speaker 1: They actually asked us if we wanted to be seated
Speaker 1: with another couple or another two people. Yeah, because they
Speaker 1: said that they wouldn't another two top for a little while,
Speaker 1: but they had a four top and they were like,
Speaker 1: do you guys want to do this sharing thing? And
Speaker 1: obviously we had Initially I'm just like no, but you
Speaker 1: were like your enthusiastic and much more like open to
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I was like absolutely, and I'm like okay.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was great because meeting Kate and
Speaker 1: Marianne it was probably the highlight of that. It worked
Speaker 1: out so well. I'm so glad we did it. We
Speaker 1: sat at a little table with um, these two women
Speaker 1: who were also going to sever day that day, and
Speaker 1: they had been there before, but at thirty years before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is a severday reunion. They've they're like guides,
Speaker 1: like they've done a lot of like different like trail
Speaker 1: guiding and like outfitting. I think they both owned outfitters.
Speaker 1: Kate used to own an outfitter and Marianne currently does
Speaker 1: at a different part in Colorado. And so I just
Speaker 1: thought it was amazing meeting these two as I would
Speaker 1: like to say, trailblazers of national parks and public spaces
Speaker 1: very much. You know, they were just so fun and
Speaker 1: full of energy. They really were. They were inspiring to
Speaker 1: be around and very joyous and pleasant. And Kate, I remember,
Speaker 1: was also a writer, so we connected over that. She
Speaker 1: was much more poetic than I was. That became immediately here.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, you're very poetic, well spoken person. Snaps
Speaker 1: for Kate. Yeah, she was. She was great. They were
Speaker 1: both great and it was lovely to talk to them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Marianne I thought what was interesting is she was kind
Speaker 1: of like you, and that that situation where she was like,
Speaker 1: I just want to be with my friend, you know,
Speaker 1: like where we relate to her. I'm like, as like
Speaker 1: Kate or Marianne, we completely understand you, but we are
Speaker 1: so thankful that you guys both said yes because it
Speaker 1: was like one of those moments where we just got
Speaker 1: to enjoy amazing food, made happies and joy beautiful company.
Speaker 1: And then they even taught Um talked to us about
Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon and how they're building there, trying to
Speaker 1: build a gondola, and there's a gentleman there that is
Speaker 1: trying to stop that, you know, because we need to preserve,
Speaker 1: not to add tourism to our national parks. Yeah, these
Speaker 1: aren't amusement parks. No, we don't need rides like that.
Speaker 1: Although I remember thinking when they were first talking about
Speaker 1: this gondola, I thought they were talking about like the
Speaker 1: gondola boats and like Venice, and I'm like, what, how
Speaker 1: would that work? Yeah, No, we do not want to
Speaker 1: ruin our national parks. So hopefully that this brings a
Speaker 1: little voice to that and people start to hear about
Speaker 1: the different things that they're trying to do at national parks.
Speaker 1: We want the John Muir Teddy Roosevelt Parks, not the
Speaker 1: tourism filled national parks. Yes, not the Walt Disney parks,
Speaker 1: although I love those for their own thing. Shout out
Speaker 1: to them. We do love your animal kingdom. Yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: A great time at Absolute Bakery and Cafe. Just delicious,
Speaker 1: wholesome Americana diner food and then also wonderful pastries too.
Speaker 1: We got some snacks on the the way out, um,
Speaker 1: like a oatmeal date. I remember we got them for
Speaker 1: us to share, and I just ate them both. Well,
Speaker 1: you ate the half of one at least left me
Speaker 1: half of the second one and I got to eat
Speaker 1: that the next day. Um, and I was really depressed.
Speaker 1: I didn't get the full thing. Yeah, I know I
Speaker 1: was too selfish, I mean the other one. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you're like, you're mad that you didn't get to right now, Okay,
Speaker 1: I want more right now. I know, hey do you
Speaker 1: air drop or drop ship? I mean, because you're all
Speaker 1: of your bakeries. Um, but I guess you know. And
Speaker 1: driving back towards the park, we have our beautiful um
Speaker 1: stay at Mesa Verdi r B Park. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: so good, what a treat it was like, could not
Speaker 1: be more convenient. It was practically right across the street
Speaker 1: from the main entrance and fommendations were so clean and
Speaker 1: perfect and they had a swimming pool which was a
Speaker 1: little too chilly for me. The staff was very friendly
Speaker 1: in all kinds of ways. I mean, even when we
Speaker 1: went and parked and like our r V and trailer
Speaker 1: was a little too long for the space, they didn't
Speaker 1: give us an attitude. The gentleman he was just so
Speaker 1: kind and he was like, you know what, let's just
Speaker 1: try to move you, even though like people can still
Speaker 1: get around you. Let's just move you to a better space.
Speaker 1: So they moved us to that better space. And you know,
Speaker 1: they just were extremely hospital aspaspitable. Yes, they were they
Speaker 1: really were. It was great and then also gave us
Speaker 1: an excuse to get smaller stuff even though we didn't
Speaker 1: wind up. They have a community kind of fire pit
Speaker 1: area and we didn't use that. We just wanted to
Speaker 1: make them in the r V, which is fine. I
Speaker 1: was in the mood for smore so it's like, let's
Speaker 1: just make this happen. But I mean he guilted me
Speaker 1: into making smores in the r V, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I I went along with it. But I love that
Speaker 1: they had not only the jacuzi that was next to
Speaker 1: the pool, but they also had their an adult only
Speaker 1: jacuzi area, which is conveniently located close to it, but
Speaker 1: it's a separated from the rest. So that way parents
Speaker 1: can maybe still sit and watch their children, but they're
Speaker 1: not like next to them, and they can have their
Speaker 1: own time, or people who don't aren't. You can just
Speaker 1: go into the dark only and it's like a separate area.
Speaker 1: Um So, the way that they laid out their r
Speaker 1: V park, it's a one point one miles away from
Speaker 1: the visitor center, so it's like so close, I mean,
Speaker 1: walk there, except it's a highway, so you shouldn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't don't risk life and limb for that. Just drive
Speaker 1: over there. My favorite. All right, it's time for one
Speaker 1: of our favorite segments of the podcast, where we asked
Speaker 1: each other our favorite things about the national park. So, Brad,
Speaker 1: what was your favorite thing at Masa Verity National Park?
Speaker 1: My favorite thing about Mesa Verde National Park had to
Speaker 1: be the soul. I mean you just felt it in
Speaker 1: every moment, on every hike, on every um tour, on
Speaker 1: even in the drive and the around the top. I
Speaker 1: mean it was just I just felt so much spirit
Speaker 1: there that that was my favorite thing. Um a out
Speaker 1: Mason Verda National Park. If I could bring three things
Speaker 1: though that doesn't that's not really involved with that is
Speaker 1: I would definitely love to go rock climbing here. Um
Speaker 1: I would love to get transported back and get some
Speaker 1: hunting equipment so that way I can hunt just like
Speaker 1: the Bola and people have done throughout their history. And
Speaker 1: then a motorcycle, three things that pretty much Matt hates.
Speaker 1: Um I would bring. Yeah, that doesn't sound fun for me. Actually,
Speaker 1: none of that literally, Like there's three things. I'm like,
Speaker 1: let's go rock climbing, Nope, I want a motorcycle. Nope,
Speaker 1: let's go hunting. No hunt, Yeah, but does that lead
Speaker 1: into one of your favorite things? My my favorite thing
Speaker 1: here was the Balcony House tour. Specifically, I just liked
Speaker 1: how kind of intense it was, but not in uh
Speaker 1: like horrifying way. It was just scary enough where it
Speaker 1: got your blood pumping and you got to just do
Speaker 1: things that I would never normally do, like climb ladders,
Speaker 1: long cliffs and then squeeze through these near a little
Speaker 1: rooms and also learn more about the cubas and watch
Speaker 1: people drop their sunglasses into the valley. It was just
Speaker 1: all so fun, so great, um and endlessly fascinating and illuminating. Um.
Speaker 1: So the three things that I would bring to ma
Speaker 1: severy day, UM, I would say definitely bring an appetite,
Speaker 1: slash money to go to Absolute bakery and cafe. That's
Speaker 1: essential and I missed that place already. UM. I would
Speaker 1: also bring good kind of firm hiking shoes, ones that
Speaker 1: have a good grip because some of the trails we did,
Speaker 1: or most of the trails we did or um require
Speaker 1: some scrambling and some hands on activities, so you don't
Speaker 1: want to be slipping and like crashing into the rocks
Speaker 1: or anything like that no, I don't know. And then
Speaker 1: the other thing I would bring would be whether it's
Speaker 1: for glasses or some glasses, to bring a strap of
Speaker 1: some sort so that you don't want to be losing
Speaker 1: that stuff off like the cliff Edge as we saw. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: so definitely be careful with that. And actually mine was
Speaker 1: too truth and a lie. Two of those I would
Speaker 1: love to do and one I'm absolutely not about that life.
Speaker 1: So if you want to go ahead and message us
Speaker 1: on Twitter with your answer at Parklandia podcast, we would
Speaker 1: love to tell you in their next future episode. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's good. I'm I was worried that you wanted to
Speaker 1: do all three of those things, although still I don't
Speaker 1: approve of any of them. You've been listening to Parklandia.
Speaker 1: The show was created by us Matt and Brad Carollac
Speaker 1: along with Christopher Hesiotis. Our executive producer is Christopher hesiotis
Speaker 1: produced and edited by Mike Jones. If you're not already subscribed,
Speaker 1: you can make sure you never miss an episode by
Speaker 1: subscribing to the show on Apple podcast, the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. We take
Speaker 1: a lot of pictures in the road. Follow us at
Speaker 1: park landia podcast dot com and on Facebook and Instagram
Speaker 1: at park Landia Podcast. Special thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal
Speaker 1: Waters and the rest of the park Landia crew, but
Speaker 1: we always want to thank you for listening.