By Gabrielle Weiss
It all started when I got extremely bored and exasperated with my job and decided to quit. Tom also wanted to go “on spiritual retreat” so to speak and here we are: looking forward to exciting new adventures. We are going in our car: shiny green Chevrolet Aveo which is fully paid off. So we go.
Groveland
We drove through the familiar portion of California until we hit the mountains that separate central Valley from the Eastern part. We spent our first night in the town of Groveland in a neat old hotel where it happened to be some sort of theatre rehearsal going on: people dressed in costumes, wearing funny wigs, cowboy suits and nun’s attire and speaking loudly certain phrases. The room itself was tiny but it had the best shower we had during the whole trip. In the morning we had breakfast: the usual buffet American style: cereal, pancakes and coffee. We checked another hotel and the rooms looked pretty much the same: the houses are small, from the old days and they do make a nice place to stay for the nigh although each of them only houses like 10 guests. Our hotel had internet in the lobby, and a bookshelves full of books. No TV and no other entertainment to speak of.
Next we drove through the fabled Yosemite National Park: it was beautiful in the autumn but they did some road work at the time so the traffic was stopped and we had to wait. Yosemite is usually very crowded but it had lots of space so it’s really no problem. We never took any serious hikes there but it seems like a good place to spend a day or a week. They have campgrounds. There is also a beautiful lake or a pond in the eastern part: we stopped there for a few minutes to enjoy the view.
Bishop
The second night came and we stayed in Bishop: the fabled town of California, gateway to Nevada, Death Valley and whatever you want it to be. The truth: little working town with one major street with all the hotels, overpriced as usual. That’s where we found out that the info you found on internet has nothing to do with reality, especially when it comes to motel rates. We stayed in one that is absolutely unremarkable in every way. The only memorable thing from it was a nice glass made of real glass and not plastic, you know the kind that you always find in motels: it was even wrapped sealed in paper. We still have it as a souvenir for that trip. You never know where you find a good thing!
The farther into the country the hazier my memories are becoming: due to an unfortunate accident that will be described in greater detail later (now I’ve got your interest: you DO want to know what happened, right?) I have no access to my notes so I am writing all this based on what I still remember. Anyway, next day we hit for Nevada.
Nevada (Beatty and Las Vegas)
Nevada. We drove through some picturesque country before leaving California. We planned the trip loosely and looking at the map decided to go around the Death Valley rather than through it and went through Bristlecone Pine Forest which is a unique place because it’s the only plant where this ancient tree grows. Bristlecone pines are believed to be oldest trees ever found and are used for dendrochronology method of historic dating. The forest itself is very quiet and beautiful: reminds me of a desert park like Joshua Tree.
There were hardly any cars on highways in that part of the state: near the border and through the mountainous regions. We passed a few “villages” that were marked on the map but in reality were no more than 4 houses. I suppose they are remnants of the old farms and I am not sure how people there survive. They are not towns in proper sense.
Once we hit a major highway the traffic increased. Our first stop was Beatty: we have been there before. Beatty is a town in proper sense of the word: there are a couple of decent motels there and a casino with a café. There is also a candy store where we tasted the ice cream: pretty good. There were also lots of toy cars for sale besides all kinds of candy.
The casino was small and rather cozy. The food was not cheap anymore but rather comparable with California. Their idea to bait customers with cheap hotels and food does not seem to work anymore. The casino machines operate on cards, rather like in FedExKinko’s store or credit cards: there are no more one-armed bandits and that, in my opinion, takes lots of fun out. It is obvious to anyone but a complete fool that those machines are really fixed: in mechanical devices you had a small chance, not much but at least the odds were somehow could be calculated, here they are not. And another thing I don’t like about them is that they allow smoking there: the odour is quite unpleasant.
Actually I was disappointed in the casinos. I expected more… entertainment, I think. But all you see, literally is a bunch of people with glassy eyes sitting at those stupid machines and hoping to win. We went to the pyramid just for the experience and took it like a museum tour: just looked lat things and there were mainly shops and boutiques there, restaurants and gaming machines, of course. We have not seen the rooms. On the outside they look glamorous: all the glitter, light and splendour does create an wonton atmosphere of unsatisfied desires.
One peculiarity about casinos: they are no windows and clocks inside because they don’t want you to keep track of time. It is amazing to see how many stupid people are around but there they are: spending their hard-earned money on foolishness. Or maybe not hard-earned? Then it would partly explain this phenomenon sociologique. The customers at these places are usually seniors, quite ugly in appearance too.
After Beatty we headed straight for Las Vegas. What can I say? After San Diego and especially Los Angeles Las Vegas cannot impress much. It is festive at night when all the weird shaped casinos and hotels are all lit up and it looks glamorous but this glamour is very shallow: scratch behind the surface and it’s all just money, not even proper entertainment. The oddest thing about Las Vegas is that it is risen in the middle of the desert and the desert is constantly encroaching, waiting. Oh, sure, they are fighting it with all the might by building new housed and shopping center and even transplanting tree and instant grass but the desert is patient: it is waiting to engulf and one day it will unless, of course, some other catastrophe happen before.
In Nevada you start seeing Indian crafts for sale. We visited one Indian shop and saw some beautiful jewelry for sale but it was rather expensive so we did not by any. But they had some fine exhibits. The finest jewelry and crafts, perhaps, were in the gift shop of Monument Valley in Utah but you have to pay just to get there.
All in all, Nevada looks pretty much like Southern California: same kind of houses, shopping centers, streets, traffic, freeways—all the same. There are no individuality to it at all. It is tryly McDonaldization of society. Though no, wait a minutes, there is one difference: a whole lot more dirt there, landscape between the towns are just that: dirt, dry plains and hills, it looks very desolate. Of course there are places like that in California, but California is a lot more crowded and distances between the cities are usually shorter (unless you decide to driver Interstate 5 between Sacramento and Los Angeles, of course, but you would not, would you?)
We spent a night in Las Vegas and headed for the Hoover Dam, the tallest but strangely enough not the biggest dam in the country. The biggest one is… I don’t remember but the second largest one is reportedly y Shasta Dam in Redding, CA.
The Hoover Dam is a typical tourist trap: they charge money just for parking only and if you want to see the dam from the inside and the museum, you have to pay even more. There are clocks on the dam showing the time for Arizona and Nevada (the dam is right on the border of these two states). By the way the Shasta Dam tours are free!
If you go to the Hoover Dam, make a stop at the lake Mead: there is a little wonderful museum there free of charge and it has some neat exhibits.
After sightseeing we headed north on I-15 and just cut the corner of the state of Arizona without stopping there. There is nothing remarkable on that stretch of freeway. It the evening we arrived to our destination for the day: St. George, Utah.
St. George
St. George, Utah is a nice little town, it looks rather small. We took a stroll in the evening on the street and saw some parts of the town. It has a few museums related to Mormon history (for those of you who do not know, Utah is a residence of Mormons: a sect within a Christian faith). We haven’t visited them. However, we could not miss the dinosaur museum: a fairly small place but they dug out some dinosaur bones right there (or so they claim). There are no bones there: just fossilized imprints. Yes, it’s a rip-off but it’s cheap and it’s worth the price.
In all the other aspects Utah looks just as a average small American town: you cannot tell it apart from all the rest.
Utah might be full of Mormons but there are some wonderful things in this state that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. For starters, Utah has marvelous national and state parks. These parks are huge but so is the state. We decided to stop at the most famous of them: Zion national Park.
Zion
Zion! This park is actually not the largest of them but it is quite impressive. They charge you just to pass through as it is the only way to continue on the small highway. We have a pass so it did not affect us. The admirable thing in Zion is how they handle tourists: you arrive in Springdale (gateway to Zion) , park your car there (any place you like or find) and then take a shuttle bus to the park itself. The bus makes several stops: you can take off at any of them and then take a hike, just look around, you get the idea. We walked on one of the trails, on the last stop where all the other people went), then we started on another trail, saw a movie in the museum. We even saw some deer and even a bobcat on the parking lot ( I am not kidding)..
We wanted to visit Bryce Canyon but it was out of the way and we decided to continue on the road we were. So we spent the next night in Kanab.
Kanab
Kanab, Utah. Now that is the village you want to visit again. We stopped at some privately owned motel which was slightly below average but they served breakfast in the morning and pretty good one too! White bread that you toast yourself with strawberry jam from a big jar (none of these flimsy plastic IHOP jam boxes) and tasty strong coffee. We met some German bikers there: they were old, spoke German loudly and ate a lot). Anyway, you can have good breakfast in Kanab if you stay in one of their motels. Which one, you asked? You’ll have to find this one out for yourself.
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
We drove through another fabulous park: Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Now this is not like any other national park you’ve seen. In fact it looks pretty much like the usual highway scenery but you are, in fact, driving through the national Park. It is huge, from the highway you just see the beautiful mountains with red sides: a very unusual sight. There are several dirt roads that are trail that you can go hiking. Actually, this area is not for hiking but rather for camping: and you have to be a real sturdy outgoing camper/adventurer. There is a very nice museum there : it has flyers about dinosaurs, planetary continental shifts and even some short videos that you can watch on a small panel by pushing the button. It is one of the best museums I’ve been to, not only considering its size (fairly small) but for the typical museum at the National park.
We made a brief stop at Glen Canyon Dam, near Page, Arizona and there the security is as strict as to enter the National Security Government building: you have to remove all the metal thing, walk through the door, etc. We did not stay for their tour though, not worth it in my opinion.
There is a big Wal-Mart in Page, the kind that are known as Superstore where they carry food in addition to other “stuff”. We bought some food and two cameras there to document our adventure.
That twist to Arizona is due to the twisting of the highway: it is interesting to see through how many states you can pass at certain period of time. We happen to read about and see some pictures of Natural bridges and Arches and wanted to see these two parks. They are both in Utah. Arches were pretty far out of the way but Natural Bridges were fairly close so we decided to go there. So we headed north to Utah again.
I forgot to mention that in Escalante visitor center we met a woman who was very helpful with maps and information. We talked a little and found out that she was a volunteer and lived in a trailer! She traveled around and the trailer was her home. Isn’t that neat not to have a permanent address? That’s where we saw pictures of the Arches and the Bridges. We also asked hew how to get to the Valley of the Gods and she pointed that out on the map.
We drove through the town called Mexican Hat, named so after a rock that reminds you of the hat. The motels there were too expensive and junky looking: one looked like a cage with glass doors—very unnerving. We drove on and stopped for a night in a motel. It was run by a creepy old woman who would be a perfect prototype of a proverbial witch: ugly, cripples (a hand missing fingers). She was suspicious of travelers: strange considering her type of business and she did not want to work on week-ends, when most people travel. She was not exactly overjoyed to see us but her daughter was a better sport and we got a room. It was in a wood cabin split into two: more renting space this way. The floor space was totally full. The gas stove was hard to light and I was afraid that it might start fire so we did not light it for a night and as a result spent a very cold night. We had our own snack. We lighted the stove in the morning: this and a cup of hot coffee and warmed us up a bit so we could continue on our way.
Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods
After that, I think we stopped at Monument Valley. Now Monument Valley is not a National or even a State Park, it is Navajo tribal park, run and maintained by Navajo Indians. It is good but the pictures look more impressive that when you are actually there. Partly, it was due to weather: cold and cloudy, partly you have to have really nice camera with optical zoom to show the mountains in all their magnitude. We did have a chance to drive a great dirt road and see the mountains (which are known as monuments with colourful names like Camel, Three Sisters, etc) close. They show signs of erosion. There are also Indian houses right there in the Valley.
About Valley of the Gods. don’t let the name fool you: it’s the only romantic thing about the place. What it amount to is a long, like 7 miles if I remember right, drive on a bumpy dirt road among the lumps of mountains. We just started, decided it was too much(we’ve already been through the same ordeal in Monument Valley) and drove straight through to Natural Bridges.
Natural Bridges
Natural Bridges is an excellent park. After a very pleasant drive there we got there and were pleasantly surprised to find it almost empty: no crowd at all. It’s not a big tourist hit. There is a loop road and 3 Natural Bridges: a stone formations made by water erosion that do indeed look like bridges but unfortunately you cannot walk over them! You can hike under them, which we did with two of the bridge and it was an interesting and strenuous hike: you have to climb some surfaces with the help of railing and also climb up and down some stairs that are installed there. It was fun. There are other trails to walk there and the park offers camping facilities if you want to extent your stay for a few fays more. I though they maintained it better than some National parks in California. It is definitely worth a visit!
Hovenweep
Hovenweep is a relatively new National Park, quite desolate and remote, located on the border between Colorado and Utah (I wonder what state manages it?) “Hovenweep “ is a Paiute or Ute word which means “Deserted Valley”. The park is not too big but very nice: it has a loop trail going through several ditches and rough hillside along which one can see ancient ruins—what left of the old Indian monuments. Now, I don’t know which tribe was responsible for building those: the style is quite unique. They do have the Indian pattern of layered stones. The striking part about those houses is that they seem awfully small to be for residential purposes: some of them look like narrow round buttresses or towers, others have more of a rectangular shape. All of them seem to be cut into several “rooms”, more like cells with tiny windows. It would be interesting to discover the purpose of these constructions: they look anything but residences to me. I don’t give a lot of credit to traditional archaeologists who still insist that Egyptian pyramids were “tombs. Tomb, right. So it is quite a mystery.
I saw a print there that looked very much like a dinosaur’s’ paw print that we became familiar in St. George. But I can’t be sure. It was not noted on their brochure.
We walked that nice trail in Hovenweep: by the time we got there it was dusk and the museum closed 5 minutes after we arrived. The park itself was still open. There are plenty of native plants there: Mormon tea, Juniper tree, etc. We had a good time in Hovenweep.
Cortez
After Hovenweep we drove to Cortez. Cortez! To my amazement Cortez turned out to be quite a nice little town: clean and small. We were able to find a motel immediately and it was very nice: big clean room, heater, cool bathroom and soft bed. The last night we spent at some horrible dinky cold backwater hole so that was quite a pleasant change. Cortez is gateway to mesa verde, another national park but unlike Hovenweep, this one is quite popular. So we stopped at Safeway in Cortez and it was good: we bought some bread and tomatoes there. There is also Wal-Mart in Cortez, we bought some candy there. In Cortez you also start seeing “hunters welcome” signs: we are in the deer hunting territory now.
Mesa Verde
Next day we went to Mesa Verde: it is a huge park: takes half an hour just to get there from the gate to the greeting center, where all the excitement is. We got on a tour there and saw some cliff dwellings, I think it was Balcony House: to see these you have to buy a ticket and go with a ranger along with a crowd of people. Now, these cliff dwellings were interesting: very organized with houses for dwelling (?), storage places and of course kivas—the ceremonial round chambers usually dug in the ground but sometimes above the ground where men of the tribe used to perform religious ceremonies. Or at least that’s what they say. These kivas vary in size: from relatively small housing 10 people to very big ones that can hold 100 persons or more. The interesting thing about cliff dwellings was that there was also kind of a terrace around them but that could be due to restoration.
Second night in Cortez. We stayed in a different motel because we wanted to have our laundry done, the first one did not have a laundry room. We got clean clothes and the room though not as nice as the other one was bigger and everything worked. They even brought us a new light bulb. Lots of motels in Cortez seem to be small business operation, which is nice to see. Overall , I think Cortez is a very nice town and I’d like to visit it again some day.
Farmington, New Mexico
Now we started to see some Indian territories and I don’t mean parks like Monument Valley, it’s more like reservation. Actually there are just regular towns, once in a while you see trailer courts with lots of junk cars in the yard—one of the peculiar features of Indian settlements. The towns look rather poor: cheap looking houses yet the usual chain stores like RiteAid and Safeway and junk food places: there is no escape from those. The landscape is desert with occasional greenery. In Farmongton we visited Oil Mueum: the best building in town and also their pride and glory: it is full of fancy machines showing how they work the oil mines. We also took a ride into the mine, well not really, just a simulation but it was a great fun. Definitely a thing to visit in Farmington.
Aztec Ruins
This park was on the way so we decided to stop by. Aztec is a nice small town, in lots of ways like Cortez. There is a visitor’s center there and they have a few tourists to see the famous so-called Aztec ruins. The name is misleading, there were no azrecs there of course but for some reason the name stuck. They are Ancient Indian Ruins, I forgot what tribe, probably Anasazi that are nowadays called Ancestral Puebloans. That park is rather small but very nice: there are lots of “restored” ruins with characteristic stone work and interesting room structure. Aztec Ruins can also boast one of the biggest kivas: they restored it following Indian methods of construction. It is an impressive building where a volunteer gave a lecture.
The peculiar thing about construction of these kivas is that Indians could not drop a log designed for the construction. I don’t know why but if they dropped it they did not use for building. There was also some amazing facts about logistics: how many Indians it took to build these kivas in a certain period of time hauling logs from a long distance. There were also some rituals drawings on the floor and two huge platforms that the rangers were not sure what they were for. Modern Indians give several versions which mmeans they don’t know for sure either.
The park is definitely worth a visit.
Chama
We came to Chama after a long ride. We saw some cows on the highways as ther are lots of opens ranches there and the signs warning you about cattle wandering. Still, it was quite a surprise to see them and not just one but several: a mother and a few calves, I think.
When we came to Chama it was dark, all the motels except one were full. We though to try our luck in Tierra Amarilla (Yellow Land), the next little town about 20 miles south but it turned out to be a ghost town: literally nothing there. We saw lights in some of the buildings but no people and no motels. The lights were in a police station. Strange, as the town did not look that bad and could definitely be no worse than Chama as the habitat looked pretty much the same.
So we went back and rented a room in a motel that still had them. We found out later the reson that they were all full was because of the deer season and all the hunters came there as it seemed to be a great place for hunting and fishing. There is a small river running through the town and it is surrounded by forest. The motels we stayed in also offered some cabins for rent and it looked like a great place to spend a weekend or even a whole week.
Tierra Amarilla is a ghost town. You don’t see many of those anymore, not along the major highways anyway. Another good example would be Trona in California: a spooky place that would make an excellent shooting location for some horror film. You won’t need any additional settings.
Taos
Taos is rather famous place for its New Age community atmosphere and it still lingers there. We checked motel “The Laughing Horse” and it turned out to be run by “new” hippies. You know the type: well-dresses but at the same time casual, not too shaggy but 5 day scrub. Probably in the money. The motel itself was a big joke: the rooms are tiny with low ceilings, some of them with double deck beds, stuffy but with a touch of new Age like a stature of Buddha. They have community room there with tapes and books. Anyway, they seemed to be glad to have us there but we decided to stay someplace else. The little lopsided rooms were too much for us.
The other motel we checked had some kind of architectural Maya theme like arches and pictures, a little too fancy. The chains did not look good either. Finally we found a cheap motel and checked in for 3 days. It was a chain too but the room was spacious and even had a kitchenette—a big advantage since we like to cook our meals.
We went around Taos to see the gift shops. Most of them specialize in Indian stuff. (what else is there?) The plaza looked like thousand others. McDonalds building was in Spanish colonial style but inside the usual McDonald’s though it was clean and pretty nice. There are lots of little malls there but there is also Wal-Mart and some other big chains stores. We bought some incense from Mexican shop that sell Mexican pottery, jewelry and other decorations.
We burnt the incense in our motel room and found out it had a pleasant smell: all wood flavours like juniper, pine. We had baked potatoes for dinner since there was a microwave in the room.
To go sightseeing in Taos you’ll probably go to Pueblo: a huge tourist trap. They charge lots of money so they probably won’t get many return tourists. The village consists of many poor Indian houses with picturesque ladders now and then. The houses serve as shops and the salespeople are all Indian. Mainly jewelry but some sell bread, others pottery and just cheap junk.
We talked to one of the Indian women and she told us some interesting things. For example Indians still use adobe to maintain their houses and the church. Another curious thing she mentioned is that she could easily live they way her ancestors lived: no plumbing, running water: she would not miss them.
The church in the center of Pueblo was executed in Spanish style and they still run services there. I think those Indians were Catholics.
Pueblo gives some excellent photo opportunities but you have to pay to take pictures. We actually took some nice ones. I wanted to buy something there too but I really could not find anything that slightly appealed to me. The jewelry was plastic, not my favourite kind.
I got a haircut in Taos. The shop was run by an Indian woman. We had a good chat.
Another place of interest in Taos is St. Francis Church. It is an impressive looking building made of adobe. Building of adobe require yearly maintenance as mud dries out and peels off so people put fresh layer of mud every year and it bakes in the sun. The church has a little patio with a stature of the patron.
Near the church there is a building where you can see a weird painting. It depicts Christ. But the strange thing is that when you look at the same painting in the dark Christ is wearing a cross which he is not when you look at it in the light. They say it was done before they discovered phosphorescent paint but the artist could have found about it and did not tell anyone or it could even be an accident though it is unlikely: the shape is too clean to be an accidental smear. Another thing about this painting is that Christ’s toes seem to be directed toward observer.
We also visited Taos Ski Valley, a famous ski lift but it was not a ski weather yet.
Chimayo
Chimayo is still relatively undiscovered gem that is definitely worth a visit. It is a church in the town of the same name. When we came there they were having a mass right there. The church is rather big, not huge and there is a parking lot nearby as it slowly gains popularity. The most significant creature there was a dog that was running around and welcoming people. It also liked to be petted which we did with pleasure.
Right next to the parking lot there were several shrines in Mexican style with photographs, beads, rosaries, toys, etc. There were also stone arches that looked charming. We hid a few toys there which we had from the old days hoping that some kid would find them as a gift from the angels.
You probably don’t know about Chimayo so I’ll tell you about it. It is a place of pilgrimage. Chimayo is famous for magic dirt: around 1810 a priest saw the light emanating from a hillside. He started digging and found a crucifix, which was called El Senor de Esquipulas. A local priest brought the crucifix to Santa Cruz but three times it disappeared and was later found back in the hole. So people finally realized that the crucifix belonged in Chimayo and so they built a small chapel on that very site. Then the miraculous healings began. In fact the Chimayo miracles became so famous that the chapel was replaced by the larger shrine (el santuario) built as an adobe mission in 1816. This earth or dirt was reported to cure illnesses and people from around brought little tokens of gratitude to show that they indeed became cures, things like crutches for lame, pictures of babies for infertile and so on. It is the tradition of pilgrimage and in fact some pilgrims would come to a place with the purpose to get cured and later leave the token and give thanks to the power that cured them.
El Santuarion de Chimayo is probably the most visited church in New mexico.The original crucifix is still there on the chapel altar. It was supposed to have curative powers as well but they were overshadowed by El Posito, “the sacred sand pit” from which it sprang. Nowadays of course there is no “original“ dirt left but there is still a pit with dirt from which you can get a scoop or two, the shovel is conveniently provided. The neat thing is that there is a chapel attached to the main church and a little room where the dirt pit is so it is not necessary to go through the church if there is a service or for some other reason. All the rooms are connected. The chapel is full of tokens that were brought by people who got helped. We got some dirt and threw a pinch on the dog because it looked lame. Funny thing is that it did not look lame after that but we could not be absolutely sure.
So it’s fun place to visit. Right next to the church is a café where you can buy excellent tamales. They will even ship them but then the cost of the shipping is far more than the price of tamales.
Santa Fe
Santa Fe is one of the old towns, historically going back to the time when this part of the country was occupied by Mexicans, as you can tell from the name. Indeed, it has an old historic downtown area that would be quite charming if it were not for so many people. The central area was jammed with tourists and locals, they also had some kind of a celebration for whicj the mayor of Santa Fe appeared in person and delivered a speech. Just the day before we saw his picture in a welcoming magazine and the next day, lo! behold the man himself. I have a picture of myself with the mayor of Santa Fe.
The parking places are sparse and vastly overpriced buut we’ve been lucky and did not have to pay.
We visited the famous cathedral situated in the plaza and it was splendid inside. It is very big with festive lights. They had some service like wedding or baptism just finished but the cathedral was open to the public and it is still in great shape.
Bandelier NM
Bandelier National Monument is not as famous as Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon but it deserves a special visit. It is another one of “ancient puebloans” historic settlements turned into national park. The nice thing about it is that it is not so sterile like some of them, it has quite a bit of wild life preserved and you can take long hike into the woods. Even the parking places were in the foresty area, right under the trees. When we came, the parking lot was full, so we drove to look for parking in the woods and found one. By the time we left, there were lots of empty spaces.
In Bandelier we hiked towards the place that used to be an Indian village. There were some kind of cliff dwellers as well, like the ones in mesa Verde. The place had lots of small niches for unknown purpose and an underground kiva to which you could descend, we did. There were also numerous ladders that you have to climb in order to get to the place so these hikes are for physically fit people. I personally think it’s great to do something different, especially if it involves a fun exercise like climbing the ladder. The niches remains a mystery: they are big enough to fit one person in but far too small for any habitation. As far as I know, the Indians did not make statures. A good puzzle for anthropologists.
Albuquerque
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state and when we came there they were getting ready for the Balloon festival which we did not see, but the prices for motel went up. We visited an old antique shop that had silver dollars embedded at the entrance marble floor. There was all kinds of Indian stuff inside: jewelry, pottery, rugs. It was one of the best gift antiques store we saw (the other good one was in Monument Valley, almost museum quality). Very nice craftsmanship, too. For example you could study different pottery on display from different tribes and notice the differences and peculiarities of each tribe. There were also Zuni fetishes: a very small figures of animals, probably totem animals. I did not care much for those. Among the jewelry you can’t miss the famous “squash blossom” necklaces: there are nothing like them anywhere else. The Indian rugs have one peculiarity: they have one deliberately unfinished detail, like a weave pattern , the design, etc. Very interesting. Kachina dolls are pretty decoration and there was a good selection of those. Lots of those things were pawned and there were signs offering to check on the dead pawn.
Coronado State Park
Coronado was the only state park we visited, all the others were national parks. Coronado is the place where they found the one and only painted kiva. Unfortunately it was closed for restoration work but we saw the pictures how they looked and the restored version. It depicted “typical” Indian art: loaded with symbolism that was quite vague to me. It could be a special ceremonial kiva though kivas are all ceremonial, so that was probably not it.
Petroglyph NM
We saw on the map that Petrogliph park was not too far from Albuquerque and decided to stop. It is a fairly new national park. It was a hot day in a desert country full of tourists. The petroglyphs did look Indian but the sumbols looked more like a modern day graffiti than some ritual art. There was no structure in the rock carvings so it could be ancient graffiti. Would not that be amazing?
Anyway I find the Indian symbolism very vague and it does not appeal to me. It is interesting to see but it is not the most impressive thing among the Indian remains.
From Albaquerque we took highway 40 to the west and from that point we were heading home to California.
Grants
Just a stop on the road, lots of in this town. Nothing remarkable, as far as we could see. It is just a regular American town. We spent a night in Motel 6 which is MacDonald’s of motels. Very standard, very ordinary, same bedcovers in every room, thin towels, often “needle’ showers. The cheapest and standard quality which is what it is all about. We don’t particularly like it but you know exactly what you’ll get and it can get worse: once we spent a night in some Pakistani run motel with no running hot water! Some of them are just plain crummy. But it can also be better.
Grants is the closest town to Chaco Canyon which was our next destination.
Chaco Canyon
Chaco Canyon is not a place to go for the faint of heart. Only the real archaeology buffs would even attempt such a journey. You have to travel 10 miles on a rough dirt road and our car was not a jeep.
Anyway, it was worth it. It was one of the most mysterious places we visited. The ruins are spectacular: they have so many unexplained features that just grab your imagination. For example there are numerous chambers there with no doors! These ruins are the largest ones discovered. The dirt road keeps many tourists away and by the time we arrived it was already dusk so it was practically empty. We saw as much as we could but there is of course more for the next visit.
In Chaco Canyon they provide a very nice booklets describing the architectural structure: the style of placing the stones, its time in history, peculiar features but there were lots of unexplained things there too. This is a real treat for archaeology amateurs, the thing is as baffling as the Egyptian pyramids. The remoteness of the place only adds to the mystery.
Gallup
Gallup is two one way streets town going the opposite ways. There are usual numerous gift shops selling jewelry and Indian “antiques”, pawn shops, restaurants, etc. Not many people in the streets.
Canyon de Chelly NM
Canyon de Chelly NM is a basically a big hole in the ground but the rock is of red color so it does look dramatic. The sad part is that it is located on the Navajo Indian territory in spite of being a national Park, all the rangers and workers there are Indians. In this park you can see the famous Spider Woman Rock: a tall structure on the bottom of a canyon. You can see a small brook and even people there. While we were looking at some ruins on one of the outlooks some Navajos stole my bags: the duffel bag with all my clothes and my hand bag with money and wallet. Pesky savages! Dealing with the police in Chinle was quite an experience too. After dragging us with them for about 3 hours asking the usual questions they did not catch thieves though we suspected they knew who they were but they are all friends and relatives and were covering them. We have no proof of course. Just be warned: they rob tourists in Canyon de Chelly and it is not a pleasant experience.
On the day before we have been robbed we wanted to spend a night in a hospitality school in Many Farms, a little town 10 miles distance from Chinle. Well, when we arrived there we found out that the school did not exist anymore, they never bothered to update the information on internet, of course. Therefore if you are serious about planning your trip find out from dependable sources whether the accommodation you are looking for are even there.
On thing we got from that robbery though: a free night in Holiday Inn. Of course the money I had in my wallet would more than enough have covered the expenses. An old man at the police station felt pity and somehow arranges this free stay for us. We were worried whether the thieves would steal our car since they’ve got the key and that offer could be somehow connected with the planned theft. But fortunately nothing of the kind has happened. We also tried to get the police report but those bastards wanted money after the thieves already got more than enough! I had a pretty good idea how to catch the rascals, after all it’s a simple sting but one needs a few accomplices for that.
So we had our dose full of Chinle and Navajo “culture”. The next day we left it for better places.
Petrified Forest NP
Somehow upset about the event of last night we changed our route and decided to avoid the Hopi villages which we initially planned to visit. So we stuck to freeway.. By the way a very large part of Arizona is Indian reservations where a white man is not welcome yet they can freely go to white men cities. Navajos don’t run casinos but they practice direct theft.
Petrified Forest is not a forest, in case you picture in your mind grand trees. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: it’s a plain desert. One part of the park is called the painted desert, thus names after reddish color of clay. There are a few hills there but hardly any vegetation.
We also saw an old road that is the remnants of the famous old Route 66, in fact we even saw mugs and other souvenirs with Route 66 signature on them. Well, it used to run through the area which is now Petrified Forest.
It is a large parks, so large that you have to drive through it. On the way there are several stops. Petrified forest proper are the remnants of the ancient trees that somehow became carbonized and turned into stone. Some of them preserved or turned into very beautiful colours like green or pale purple. In fact the pieces of petrified trees can be used in jewelry, some of them look just like real gems. So some areas were of these picturesque logs scattered around the country. It is an interesting place to visit.
Flagstaff, AZ
Flagstaff is the capital of Arizona but surprisingly it was not as crowded as Santa Fe. It seemed much newer town than the latter. It had all the usual chains including Wal-Mart and Motel 6 where we spent a couple of nights. While there we visited Leek Observatory where we looked at the Moon through the telescope and attended a lecture on the night starry sky. There was a line to look through the telescope.
Walnut Canyon NM
This is a regular forest with some cliff dwellings that are hardly noticeable unless you really look for them. We did. We even had the binoculars and we saw quite a few of them. Some of them were also on the loop trails that we walked. The Walnut Canyon cliff dwellings are probably the most “habitable” as they had room enough for a comfortable residence. There was no water nearby, not that I remember. The park is rich plant species, so if you are interested in botany this is a good place to see. The trail itself is very nice too. The park had lots of trees, is very close to Flagstaff so it is an excellent recreation spot for the people of the area.
Williams and Grand Canyon
So at last we are on our way to grand Canyon, that famous place, one of the biggest canyons on the planet if not the biggest.
We arrived in Williams (this little town is quite charming and full of motels) early and reserved a room for the night and then immediately drove to the Canyon. By gosh, that place is popular. It was crowded by tourists from all over the world. The funny part is that the park is just a very small area, the canyon itself is huge, look at the map to see how it compares to cities: it is a geological formation. The place that we saw was not actually that wide but it was very impressive and some vistas are quite dramatic. Unfortunately you need a good digital camera with optical zoom to capture the majesty of this canyon, all we had was a one use camera which worked well enough for us. Anyway, it well deserved the name Grand Canyon.
There are all kinds of activities in the area. First of all, thee are a few hotels so you can spend a night or two right there in the canyon. Then you can also take a tour to the bottom of the canyon on a mule accompanied by a guide just like in the old days. You can also hike there and spend a night in a tent (you provide the tent). There are even report of some few brave individuals who crossed the canyon from one rim to another. Now that is the real adventure for you if you like an extreme stuff! People who are not ready for hard-core adventure may take a bus ride and see the canyon from different points and take numerous hikes. And of course there are dozens of gift shops there with the Indian stuff. That stuff was actually of pretty good quality. I wanted to see a bracelet that caught my attention and the salesman said we had a good taste. It turned out that the bracelet was made by one of the best Indian craftsmen and cost $2000. It made me feel pretty good. Though I didn’t then and don’t have now the money to buy this stuff I can see recognize quality where I see it. Since I wanted to buy something I got myself a little pendant for $10 made of sterling silver and Paua shell that looks like blue semi transparent gem. It is quite beautiful.
Las Vegas and California again
So that adventure came to the end. We came to Las Vegas again but I don’t remember much. This city is fun to watch at night when all the lights dazzle you. Then we took that boring drive to Beatty across the desert. We spent a night in Bishop, in a better motel this time. The next day we made it home to Petaluma.
Thus ends this adventure but we have many others in stock for us. Some of them will be reported in their time.
October 2007