Mesa Verde National Park, September 13, 2009
I figure she was just thinking about seeing the cliff dwellings up close and personal.
It was obvious, though, to us, that she’s not a regular on trails.
The shoulder bag is a dead giveaway.
Generally, the only places we ever see women with purses on trails are relatively short trails that go to gotta-see sights.
Cliff Palace is certainly a gotta-see, but really….
And the footwear.
Granted, we did see a lot of people wearing sandals and flip-flops, but, again, I doubt that many of them are out on trails of any kind on a regular basis — I think her flip-flops were to show off her pretty red toe-nails.
But the real question was the skirt.
I doubt that she was thinking about the climb up out of the canyon — or maybe didn’t know, until it was too late.
The way out was very steep — and included near-vertical ladders.
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The image on the right was taken from across the canyon. I processed it on my computer to lighten it so that the dark crack in the rocks where the exit climb was could be seen.
Click on any of the images to view a larger version.
Commentary and images from the road
image and information from September 13, 2009
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Oh Mike you are so right… We see people (mostly women) who look like they never hiked at all. Even when we do short trails we have boots or at least sneakers on. Great phots!
Have Fun & Travel Safe
Donna
.-= Donna´s last blog ..…How about that moon… =-.
So did you maneuver to get right behind her on the trip up the ladder?
=))
.-= Diana´s last blog ..Two Great Hikes =-.
Donna – we always wear sneakers at a minimum, but if we’re going to be somewhere rocky or a climb, we wear something with a good tread, generally hiking shoes/boots.
Diana – She was long gone before I got to the ladder. She was one of those who was in a hurry to move on to the next thing. When the guided part of the hike was over, she was off with her group headed back to the parking lot. We stayed behind for photos, to look inside the tower, and to talk to the ranger.
I actually didn’t even consider being behind her, let alone trying to get there, until I was writing this post when I almost included a disclaimer about staying behind to talk to the ranger. I dropped it, figuring that it didn’t add anything to the story.