Well, the desert was HOT and the Anasazi ruins were awesome, but I'm glad to be back home!
According to my professor and researchers at the park, from as early as 1500 BC to about 1300 AD, the Anasazi lived in the area which now makes up Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.
In the late 1200s they abandoned their homes and sort of faded away. At the same time, a 23-year drought hit that area. Scientists believe that this drought caused the people to either move away in small groups to the south and east, as larger groups are harder to feed; or to fight amongst themselves or neighboring groups over water and food, causing eventual exodus.
Another theory is that the drought caused a "strange people from the north," according to Hopi legend, to move down into Anasazi territory and massacre everyone they came into contact with. In Utah, evidence of warfare has been found, but in NM, where we visited, no evidence has been found other than parts of many of the buildings being burned.
The architecture was incredible - the older the buildings, the better they were built. It's like something was lost over the thousand or so years of Anasazi civilization.
I took lots of pics, I could post some if anyone's interested, but I haven't looked into the rules of this message board yet.
Anyway, sorry for such a long post to those of you who have no interest in North American prehistory.
I'll be logging in to WoD sometime this week. See you then!