These amazing three weeks have now ended and what a trip it has been.
What was the best? The best is so hard to define.
Was it the blue sky and red rocks with the green cottonwood trees growing out of the streams?
Was it the bare slick rocks curving up a hillside, with moss in the cracks, then brilliant orange flowers standing high, with courageous pine trees trying to find room for roots in the tiny cracks?
Was it walking in the sandy dessert and discovering a sharp thorny cactus with bright pink flowers?
OR the Black Dark clouds moving across the sky with a narrow bright stripe of light gray, with silhouettes of monument valley?
Maybe the crackling earth, patterned with marks after a heavy rain?
But then there was the hundreds of sharp pointed red and orange pinnacles in Bryce, making a cathedral around us?
Or was it standing in the ruins from pueblos, built into the cliffs?
Was it admiring the hundreds of petroglyphs at newspaper wall?
And throughout all of this enjoying excellent company and good meals with Kathi and Sasha!
And having friends to share the micro worlds and the outstanding breathtaking views?
Or was it laughing and talking at the end of the day, remembering all the good experiences?
Munching on good lunch packs served by Sasha with green goodies cheese salami and crackers?
It was all so good. It worked so well. Thanks Kathi, for your invitation to be my guide. Let's do it again!
Barbara Lees
2016/05/23
2016/05/22
Our last Day
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154305042029427&id=579914426Vores sidste dag. Our last Day.
2016/05/20
2016/05/15
May 14 Canyon de Chelly, sunset, sunrise, top and bottom
We left Farmington and headed to Fruitdale, Hatches Trading Post. Maybe the only real trading post left. They did trade, the locals came in with weavings, carvings, baskets, and pawned these bags of stuff for money. After 60 days the Trading Post could sell the pawned goods, but these people at Hatches still have bags of goods that they feel belongs to the families, even after 40 years, There is a huge vault with pawned goods, and the gentle salesperson (a retired policeman, no, law enforcement man) said that these goods would go back to the families, sometime. His dad, is now 97, and has loved the trading post. A family tradition, they ran many posts around the area.
We looked at earrings, bracelets and rugs, and ended up a little bit richer.
We looked at earrings, bracelets and rugs, and ended up a little bit richer.
We arrived hungry and tired at Canyon de Chelly, a canyon many say is second to the Grand Canyon
https://www.nps.gov/cach/index.htm we booked into the Holiday Inn (with pool) and two rooms. We had driven through Navajo country for several hours, and I wonder why I started feeling depressed. Passing run down trailer homes and junky sprawling areas. Does it have to look like this? Where is the beauty of the culture that once was? I was so sad that it felt wrong to take pictures.
A dinner at the Navajo Thunderbird Lodge, cafeteria style, fascinating to sit among Indian families and eat Navajo tacos and burgers. http://www.thunderbirdlodge.com/restaurant-and-historic-trading-post/ I would not recommend the food, but the experience was interesting.
Out to a sundown drive along the southern rim of the park. Overlooks, looking down the steep 700 meter steep cliffs. Beautiful canyons, cliffs, cliff dwellings from the Anasazi peoples times (1-1300 years A.D)..
Threatening clouds and glimpses of the sun and blue skies refreshed us, and as the sun closed the day behind the clouds, we marveled in awe of the landscape, the history, creation, colours, textures, flowers, shapes that surrounded us. A Navajo woman told her teenage girls the legend of the Spider Woman. http://www.canyondechelly.net/story_teller.html
The darkness crept up on us and we found home.
Travelling with one day stops now, unpacking, planning, finding healthy meals, choosing the BEST of the many experiences, can be tiring. So last night was Holiday Inn, today is a Navajo TIPI village, looking out on a BMW cabriolet parked right beside a beautiful TIPI. Staying in a beautiful octagon house, looking out on the monuments of monument valley.
Up this morning at 5:15 to hike with Sasha down 600 feet to White House ruins. A beautiful hike, stones with lines, fallen rocks, cliffs rising from the bottom of the valley. And 600 feet up again. Yes, I can feel my knees! We were the first ones down on the trail! And I felt quite proud when I got my body up again!
Fresh at 9 am for a guided tour of the canyons with Davisen, in a jeep, through the little river from spring melting in the mountains. A Navajo man, not the best guide in the world. Too many questions that he could not answer (or not willing to answer), but it was beautiful to see the canyons from below. So many colours of green. So many amazing rock formations. The cottonwood trees so green, with the black trunks shining through, against the red rocks.
 |
| White house ruins |
We then drove to Monument Valley – a very special place with monuments rising out of the flat and rolling ground – only 100 km. away from the huge canyon. So many contrasts.
Strong young Sasha took off on an evening hike to Teardrop Arch, while we oldies relaxed in our octagon at Tipi Village
What a day - tired and hungry we ate an excellent beef mignon at Gouldings
2016/05/13
May 13 "4 wheels on a gravel road"
(thanks for the title, Lucinda Williams)
Yep, that was us, turning off the highway to Chaco. Then the gravel becomes a “maintained” dirt road and then degrades further to an “unmaintained” dirt road, accented by washboard sections, deep ruts and crossing washes with signs that say “don’t cross if there is water.” For 12 miles! But what’s at the end of the road makes you forget the bone-shaking experience of getting there. And, the bad road is probably what keeps the crowds out of Chaco, which is a relief.
https://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm
https://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm
First stop:Pueblo Bonito – the largest of the ruins.
The sun was relentless, so finding shade along the way became part of the tour experience.
We also took a tour in the heat of the day to Pueblo del Arroyo, one of the few ruins not against the canyon wall. (more to come . . . .)
2016/05/12
May 11, 12 Mesa Verda Ruins, views, and late welcome to Sasha!
We headed east again from Moab, to Mesa Verda.
Getting back in the area where we started what seems like long ago. We stayed at Far View Lodge in Mes Verda Park
Mesa Verda is a beautiful high plateau – over 8500 feet.
Many first nations people lived here in the period 800 ad. – 1300 ad. There are over 4800 archaeological ruins in this national park. Driving with views of mountains and the plains, we saw many!
https://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm
There were pit houses (800 AD), pueblo houses (900 – 1000 AD). There were multistoryed pueblo houses (1000-1100 AD). And then some of the people moved into cliff dwellings. They are not sure why. But ca. 1200 AD., these cliff dwellings were built, into the cliffs. Was it the drought, that made it more attractive to live in the cliffs, where the water seeped down through the sandstone, and then flowed horizontally when it made shale, that was too hrd to seep through? Was there hostility between the tribes, that motivated some to live in the cliffs, where it was very difficult to approach them without being seen? Nobody knows. But only 100 years after these amazing cliff dwellings were built, they were abandoned. Why? We may never know.
The next morning, Barb went on a guided tour of the Balcony House, (very good – for only 4 dollars!?) while Kathi finished the expensive and not very good breakfast at the FAR VIEW LODGE (excellent rooms, bad service, ugly food and coffee that resembled dishwater more than coffee). Our lesson must be “Stay at the parks – but don’t eat there!”.
We drove to the informative Mesa Verda museum, peeked at the Spruce House (it is closed for visitors, the cliffs are very instable and maybe it will never open again). We drove around to the various sites on the Mesa Verda Top Loop. Pit houses, Pueblo villages, the four storey Tower House nested in the cliffs and the Far View Site. Quite amazing to think of the building techniques, and the none existing scaffolding, little water supply, tools that were not bought at the local hardware store.
While we drove from ruin to ruin, the mountains that were dressed in white snow stood up from the flat orange and a green plains to the clear blue sky.
The sun was strong and shade was welcome. The trees that had once been tall and strong were now naked black skeletons. Two thirds of the forest has been destroyed in fires caused by lightening.
We drove towards Durango and stopped at the good but very closed bakery cafe in Mancos and ended up in the Millers Inn for a BLT sandwich. Tired, we faced Durango, traffic, supermarket. We realized how much more we felt at home in the nature than in the big city. A bit frazzled, we drove down to Farmington, our new B+B Silver Adobe Inn. Nice place on the San Juan River, that flows with 50 % of the ground coverage from the mountains in the area. It joins with the Colorado River, and used to flow into the Cortez Sea, by Baja California. But now, because of the resource use, the Colorado River dribbles into the sand 80 km. from its earlier delta. The other river, “Rio Grande” takes the other half of the drainage, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.moabdreaminn.com/
We had really looked forward to Sasha joining us. But Air Canada changed the flight time from 7:45 to 6:00 am., from Kamloops to Calgary – the first of three legs of Sashas trip. We were supposed to meet her this afternoon in Durango, and now Sasha will land 11:45 pm.! Stupid Air Canada for not letting their passengers know. So plans changed, and we look forward to seeing Sasha tonight about 00:30 am!
Kathi made a great pasta dish, all ready for a salad for tomorrow, when CHACO – a cultural Legacy will be taken in. We crashed and Sasha arrived at 1 PM after a long and frustrating travel day. WELCOME TO SASHA!
Getting back in the area where we started what seems like long ago. We stayed at Far View Lodge in Mes Verda Park
Mesa Verda is a beautiful high plateau – over 8500 feet.
Many first nations people lived here in the period 800 ad. – 1300 ad. There are over 4800 archaeological ruins in this national park. Driving with views of mountains and the plains, we saw many!
https://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm
There were pit houses (800 AD), pueblo houses (900 – 1000 AD). There were multistoryed pueblo houses (1000-1100 AD). And then some of the people moved into cliff dwellings. They are not sure why. But ca. 1200 AD., these cliff dwellings were built, into the cliffs. Was it the drought, that made it more attractive to live in the cliffs, where the water seeped down through the sandstone, and then flowed horizontally when it made shale, that was too hrd to seep through? Was there hostility between the tribes, that motivated some to live in the cliffs, where it was very difficult to approach them without being seen? Nobody knows. But only 100 years after these amazing cliff dwellings were built, they were abandoned. Why? We may never know.
The next morning, Barb went on a guided tour of the Balcony House, (very good – for only 4 dollars!?) while Kathi finished the expensive and not very good breakfast at the FAR VIEW LODGE (excellent rooms, bad service, ugly food and coffee that resembled dishwater more than coffee). Our lesson must be “Stay at the parks – but don’t eat there!”.
We drove to the informative Mesa Verda museum, peeked at the Spruce House (it is closed for visitors, the cliffs are very instable and maybe it will never open again). We drove around to the various sites on the Mesa Verda Top Loop. Pit houses, Pueblo villages, the four storey Tower House nested in the cliffs and the Far View Site. Quite amazing to think of the building techniques, and the none existing scaffolding, little water supply, tools that were not bought at the local hardware store.
While we drove from ruin to ruin, the mountains that were dressed in white snow stood up from the flat orange and a green plains to the clear blue sky.
The sun was strong and shade was welcome. The trees that had once been tall and strong were now naked black skeletons. Two thirds of the forest has been destroyed in fires caused by lightening.
We drove towards Durango and stopped at the good but very closed bakery cafe in Mancos and ended up in the Millers Inn for a BLT sandwich. Tired, we faced Durango, traffic, supermarket. We realized how much more we felt at home in the nature than in the big city. A bit frazzled, we drove down to Farmington, our new B+B Silver Adobe Inn. Nice place on the San Juan River, that flows with 50 % of the ground coverage from the mountains in the area. It joins with the Colorado River, and used to flow into the Cortez Sea, by Baja California. But now, because of the resource use, the Colorado River dribbles into the sand 80 km. from its earlier delta. The other river, “Rio Grande” takes the other half of the drainage, and flows to the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.moabdreaminn.com/
We had really looked forward to Sasha joining us. But Air Canada changed the flight time from 7:45 to 6:00 am., from Kamloops to Calgary – the first of three legs of Sashas trip. We were supposed to meet her this afternoon in Durango, and now Sasha will land 11:45 pm.! Stupid Air Canada for not letting their passengers know. So plans changed, and we look forward to seeing Sasha tonight about 00:30 am!
Kathi made a great pasta dish, all ready for a salad for tomorrow, when CHACO – a cultural Legacy will be taken in. We crashed and Sasha arrived at 1 PM after a long and frustrating travel day. WELCOME TO SASHA!
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