Southwest 2003 Week 2

Tinkerown exterior walls	Tinkertown wood carvings	Chapel in Golden	Along the Turquoise trail
Great Housing in Madrid	Main Street Madrid	Church in Cerillos	Gondola at Sandia Peak
When Gondola's meet	Cliffs on the way up to Sandia Peak	View from the Gondola	Colorful Boots in Old Town

Day 10 - Wednesday, October 15, 2003, Albuquerque, NM,  204  miles driven 

Today we spent the first two hours in Albuquerque visiting some thrift stores for mugs and tins we are acquiring for our friends in Charlotte. After three of these stores within a short distance of each other we had some success and then went about finding a woolen yarn shop for mom. Mom spent about a half hour in a store called Wooly Things and I thinking she had been kidnapped had to go in and rescue her. My attempts were rebuffed and she came out when she was good and ready. Under her arm was a shopping bag.

We had checked out of our motel in Albuquerque thinking that we would head north towards Durango but decided to head west first to visit the Acoma Pueblo which is open to visitors and tours. The pueblo is about 60 miles west of Albuquerque and then 12 miles off the interstate. At the first scenic pull out there were the requisite sellers of Indian jewelry and pottery and a sign that stated that there were to be no photographs taken without a permit which was available at the visitors center. The Indians at the Acoma Pueblo - Sky City have organized tours that take you on a guided tour of the mesa top village. The visitor center is non - existent at the moment as it is under construction. We were directed to a small shack where we signed up for the 2:00 pm tour and paid our $10.00 camera fee. No video cameras are allowed and I was afraid that they would ban my digital as it can make very small video's. I did not mention it and they let it pass. I never use this feature anyhow. We had an hour to kill so we walked around the parking lot and looked at the wares of the vendors parked along the edge. We did buy some pottery items here. Shortly before our departure a tour bus pulled in and our tour of 20 was now supplemented by 30 more. They used two busses to take us up to the top and for this large group we had one guide.

At the top we started on a walking tour of the pueblo. The guide explained that the pueblo is the oldest continually inhabited pueblo in the United States. At the present time about 12 families occupy the pueblo on a full time basis and that others come up to their "houses" on weekends or longer intermittent stays. There is no running water or electricity and most lighting is supplied by kerosene lamps or propane lamps. We did see propane tanks outside of  some of the houses and there were numerous porta-johns throughout the village. The guide mentioned that some houses do use generators and on Monday nights they can be heard for the football games. I did see some small TV antennas on one place. All potable water is brought up and there are some cistern to collect what little rain there is. So far this year there have been 4 days of rain at Acoma Pueblo.

The guide took us into the mission church, construction of which started in 1625 and was finished 40 years later. The structure has a tall interior with thick walls of stone on the bottom topped off by adobe brick. The interior of the church is 60 feet tall covered by a relatively flat timber roof. The logs 18 inches in diameter for the original roof were gathered from a mountain 40 miles away. With no trucks and the height of the mesa it must have been quite a feat. The logs were raised in a peculiar fashion. They were rolled back and forth on the top layer of the walls as the walls were being erected. The   altar of the church is still original with the painting and a statue going back to the 1600's. The church is named after St. Stephen and there is a wooden statue on the altar wall that dates back to this time also.

Much of the guides talk dealt with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. On August 10, 1680 most of the Pueblos revolted against the harsh Spanish rule. The revolt came on a Holy Feast Sunday when the Indians knew the Spaniards would be in church and un-armed. About 400 - 500 Spanish including over 20 priests were killed in the first few days of the revolt. The Spanish retreated to El Paso and did not return to New Mexico in numbers until 12 years later. The guide stated that at Acoma in 1599 some Spanish soldiers had come to demand some food and that in the resulting disturbance 4 Spanish soldiers had been killed. The Spanish then sent an expedition to Acoma and that all males in excess of 25 years old had had one foot cut off and been forced into hard labor. This was just one example. One of the mission bells at Acoma had been acquired only after the Pueblo had turned over 8 children to be sent to Mexico for servitude. None of these 8 had ever returned. The Spanish also forbade all practices of the native religions and treated the practice of the native religions as heresy. Anyone caught practicing could be condemned to death. The priests of Acoma had been driven out but the mission was not destroyed because it had occupied a public space. One of the families had saved the stature from destruction and had returned it to the church after the Spanish returned. The descendants of this family have been charged with the care of the mission church at Acoma. The Spanish eventually returned to New Mexico but not under the same rules as before. The Indians had won their right to practice either their own religious beliefs or Catholicism. I will have to get some books on the Pueblo Revolt. I don't remember it being taught in US history and then I have to remember that US history in the west starts with the Louisiana Purchase.

There were no photographs allowed in the church or the cemetery. One of the cemetery walls had a hole in it which the guide explained was to enable the souls of anyone who had been forcibly taken from the pueblo to return. At most of the occupied houses there were tables set up with pottery for sale. We had not had any lunch so we settled for some fry bread, fried apple pie and pumpkin cookies sold out of the houses. They were good. We really enjoyed the tour and were glad we took the time and trouble to get to this remote site. It is in a beautiful setting, part of a 440,000 acre setting. We returned to Albuquerque for the night as trying to get to Durango after this tour was not practical. Tomorrow is another day.

Laguna, NM from I-40	Balcony on Priests Quarters at Acoma Pueblo Mission	Mission at Acoma Pueblo	High Rise in Progress at Acoma Pueblo	Acoma Pueblo
Wooden ladders in front of Kiva's at Acoma Pueblo	View from top of mesa at Acoma Pueblo	Communal bake oven at Acoma Pueblo	View from top of Acoma Pueblo	Acoma Pueblo
Adobe brick wall at Acoma Pueblo	The road to/from Acoma Pueblo	Acoma Pueblo from the road	Stone monoliths along route up to Acoma Pueblo	Acoma Pueblo from a distance.

Day 11 - Thursday, October 16, 2003, Albuquerque, NM to Durango, CO 237  miles driven   
 

The van crossed the 3000 mile mark from the last oil change on Tuesday so the day started off with a visit to Jiffy Lube. By 9:30 am we were on the road towards Durango, Colorado where we intend to take the Durango to Silverton RR on Friday. Our first unplanned stop was at the Coronado Monument in Bernalillo. Coronado had passed thru here on his journey looking for the seven cities of gold. While the park was named Coronado Monument in reality we couldn't find any monument to Coronado, which was fitting, as his journey was classified a failure and he inflicted much suffering on the native Pueblo peoples. The park was the site of the now collapsed Pueblo Kuaua.  Approximately 1200 of the pueblo rooms had been excavated in the 1930's and filled back. In the 1940's simulated pueblo room foundations had been erected to show the extent of the pueblo,

As we were traveling north and climbing up to over 7000 feet, the scenery changed from a flat mesa land to a mountainous scene. At Jemez the scene was of a red sandstone bluff running up the mountain. It was beautiful but at 70 mph not photographed. After crossing the continental divide the scenery shifted to a white sandstone mesa. All of this land was reservation land and in many places you could see oil rigs pumping away. Another common scene between Albuquerque and Durango were the Indian Casinos. It seems that each tribal clan has their own casino and there must be plenty of tribal clans. We were primarily in Zuni lands but did also cross an Apache reservation.

Our  first planned stop was at the Aztec Ruins National monument in Aztec, NM. We first rode thru Bloomfield and then Aztec and noted that the style of the homes did not show any Spanish influence whatsoever. Around Albuquerque, a large percentage of the homes were in the adobe style. We later learned that while the Spanish did pass thru the northwest corner of New Mexico they did not establish large settlements such as they did in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The Aztec Ruins Monument consists of the excavations of the Anasazi peoples pueblo at Aztec. The pueblo had no connections to the Aztecs of Mexico.

The pueblo was built in the 1100's and abandoned by the 1300's. The Chaco Canyon Pueblo is abaout 40 miles to the southwest  and the Mesa Verde Pueblo in Colorado is about 50 miles to the northwest. The Aztec pueblo had two major occupations. For the first 100 years the artifacts found at Aztec show a close relationship to Chaco Canyon and from 1200 and up, the artifacts resemble those found at Mesa Verde.

The pueblo is amazingly accessible as it is not built on a cliff. The park service provides a booklet with explanations for the 22 some viewing stations. The trail leads you thru many of the rooms and basically ends with walk thru the great kiva (ceremonial hall) which was excavated in 1920-30 and then re-constructed. This building is the only restored building on the site. All of the other structures are original to the site. The park service is stabilizing some of the rooms by backfilling to prevent collapse and other stabilizations have somewhat altered the site but for the most part it is dating back to 1100 and up. It was a very interesting site. 

We arrived in Durango to pick up our train tickets for the morning. I had tried to get parlor car seats in my original reservation but was advised that these had been sold out. I inquired if there were any cancellations and was advised that there were two first class seats available for the ride back. So we will have the best of two worlds - we will ride up like peasants and come back as royalty. Not bad but I had to pay for the parlor car price for both ways. You only go around once.

On our walk around town we spotted the train backing into the station getting ready for the morning run.

Coronado Monument	Aztec Ruins Pueblo - across plaza	Aztec Ruins - the circular rooms were ceremonial	Aztec Ruins - The line is build in for design
Aztec Ruins - A dozen burials were discovered in this basement room	Aztec Ruins - All the passages were about 4.5 feet high	Aztec Ruins - restored Great Kiva	Aztec Ruins - Back wall 1100 AD, front wall 1200 AD
Aztec Ruins	Aztec Ruins - Mom inside Great Kiva	Red boots in Durango	Durango - Old Engine 486

Day 12 - Friday, October 17, 2003,  Durango, CO   0  miles driven   

Today we took our scheduled Durango to Silverton narrow gauge railroad trip. We had coach seats on the way up and rode in first class on the parlor car on the way back. When I inquired in the morning if there were cancelled parlor car seats for the way up they said no but advised that the train had been split and we could ride in the first class car on the second train. This car was not a parlor car and the clerk stated that there would be a change in the departure time from Silverton if I made the switch so I just stayed with the plan. I guess the clerk didn't realize that my assigned seat was on the split train and I would have to switch departure times anyhow to get on the parlor car.  As it was the car we had was not full and I was able to move around from side to side to get the different views. Had the car been full, the seating in the coach would have made for an uncomfortable ride.

I will not try to describe the scenery in words other than spectacular. For the peasants like us on the ride to Silverton there was a concession car but I was glued to the window and mom was too in between talking to a nice couple from West Virginia. After a brief safety introduction by the conductor we got a very short history of the rail line. The line was built in the early 1880's to transport silver ore out of Silverton. All went well for a few years until the silver crash of 1893 when the US went on to the gold standard. Then, Mary from the concession stand, with a voice that could break glass, tried to sell some videos. dvd's and info booklets about the train. There were no takers.

On the curves you could get views of the engine and the steam pistons chugging along. On the uphill grades you could feel that the engine was laboring. On the way up, the train made an unscheduled stop to drop off two elk hunters in the middle of nowhere. We heard the conductor explaining the rules for the proper way to flag down the train. With arms hanging down the side, the arms are to be crossed back and forth above the knees. Waving the arms across the head would result in a hello and goodbye wave from the conductor. In addition, any kill would have to be properly packed and completely de-boned in order for the train to transport it back to Durango.  We arrived in Silverton on time at 12:00 PM after making two stops for water. We had planned to take lunch at the Shady Lady a former bordello but found out that it was closed for the season. We found that some of the other businesses had also closed out till next year. We picked a restaurant and dove in just before the rest of the train showed up. After doing some shopping on the main street we returned to the train and our comfortable parlor car ride home. The seats were individual  cushion seat chairs (not easy chairs) and the soft drinks were free. The other plus was that you could go out on the back platform and take unobstructed view pictures. All in all a wise decision. We struck up a conversation with a couple from Arizona and got some information on places to see around Sedona. The RR magazine mentioned that some high school boys had taken to the practice of "mooning" the train as it pulled back into Durango. Sure enough there they were showing their goods. If I would have been on the back platform I would have had the evidence.  

We both enjoyed the ride very much. The changing of the colors in the Aspen trees was visible all through the trip and made the views spectacular. We would repeat this trip but only if it could be done in the change of colors season. We arrived back at the motel at 6:00 pm both very tired but in a good way.

Mom on the Durango Silverton	Durango to Silvertton along the Animus River	Front of Durango Silverton train	The rest of the Silverton Durango train	Old mining operation before Silverton
Along the Animus River	Durango Silverton RR taking on water	Needle Mountains on way to Silverton	Getting closer to Silverton	The hunters get the heave ho
Silverton Scene	Old railroad bridge	Along the way	Abandoned water tower	Old equipment along the way

Day 13 - Saturday, October 18, 2003,  Durango, CO  to Cortez, CO, 121  miles driven 

Today our first item on the agenda was to visit Laundryland. We were on the road northwest to the Mesa Verde National Park by 10:17 AM hoping to be able to get to the park in time to be able to take a guided tour of the Cliff Palace. We arrived at the museum, 20 miles within the park at around 11:30 AM to find out that all the tickets for today's tours were sold out much earlier. I don't think Laundryland had anything to do with it. The weather was beautiful, the park was crowded and the park ranger explained that they were down to 9 rangers working the museum/visitors center and the interpretative functions. There had been a big cut back after Labor Day and another at the end of September. Our first thought was to stay in the lodgings in  the park and take the first tour on Sunday but that would have probably created a frantic trip to make the Grand Canyon South Rim before dark. We wanted to cruise through Monument Valley not fly thru it. We decided to follow the park map and take the self guided driving tour and go to all the overlooks. In the final analysis I think this was a good decision as we spent about 5 hours going thru all the areas at a leisurely pace.

Mesa Verde was populated with cliff dwellings at around 1100: The Anasazi or "The Old Ones" had first lived in the area of Mesa Verde  in Pithouses and then in Pueblo Villages. This initial stage had started around 550 AD and lasted for about 600 years. The communities then moved to cliff dwellings. By 1300 the cliff dwellings were abandoned and the people moved away. They left plenty of evidence about their lifestyle but their wanderings after leaving the cliffs is undocumented. As we learned at Aztec Ruins, the years after 1200 at Aztec show a strong influence of Mesa Verde artifacts but even here, the Aztec location was abandoned by 1300.

Mese Verde is an awesome place to visit. After flashing my Golden Eagle Pass for a free access to the park, we drove up a series of switchbacks to get you up to the 7600+ average altitude. The highest point in the park is at the fire watch tower where the elevation is 8452 feet. We started the self guided tour at the Spruce Tree House which is accessible by trail right behind the museum. Mom came down about a quarter of the way and then looking at the steepness of the climb up decided against it. The Spruce Tree House does not give guided tours but allows you to walk right up to it and even enter one of the underground rooms. Since these rooms were crowded with school kids on tour, I skipped this part of the visit and just viewed the cliff side dwelling itself. There was a Park Ranger there to insure that the spectators didn't carry parts of it away. She advised that about 95% of what is visible at Spruce Tree is original to the site. Some of the walls and floors have been re-stabilized and if the floor was concrete, you could walk on it.

From the Spruce Tree House our next stop was the Cliff Palace Overlook. This is also the spot where the guided tours begin and the metal steps down to the dwelling level look like a trip in themselves. The view down on the Cliff Palace is spectacular. It is hard to imagine that such a labor of elaborate construction could be abandoned after only a hundred years or so. We also visited the overlooks for Sunset House, House of Many Windows, Square Tower House, Oak Tree House, New Fire House as well as the pithouse and pueblo ruins. It is hard to imagine climbing up handholds and toeholds to get to the top of the mesa for crop maintenance and then going down into the canyon for water supplies.

On the way out of the park we  stopped to see the Far View Ruins and also drove up to the Fire Watch tower for the spectacular views. We ran into a park ranger who was up there on his own, not on duty. Today had been his last day on the job as he had just been caught in the budget crunch and laid off. He was going to stay in the area and try his hand at guiding hunting tours or some other outdoor activity. He said he really liked working for the park service but with the cutbacks he still had to take care of his family. Kind of a sad way to end a really spectacular day.

Mesa Verde NP - Spruce Tree House	Mesa Verde NP - Spruce Tree House	Mesa Verde NP - Spruce Tree House	Mesa Verde NP - Cliff Palace from Overlook	Us at Mesa Verde NP
Mesa Verde NP - House of Many Windows - look halfway down	Mesa Verde NP - Canyon	Mesa Verde NP - Square House	Mesa Verde NP - Cliff Dwelling	Mesa Verde NP - View from Fire Tower at Park Point

Day 14 - Sunday, October 19, 2003, Cortez, CO  - to the Grand Canyon, AZ, 350 miles driven 

From Cortez we left for the Grand Canyon at around 9:00 AM. We planned to take the back roads to Bluff, Utah and then follow the road thru Mexican Hat and Monument Valley to US 64 to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The back road took us right past the entrance of the Howenweep National Monument and my car has the habit of turning into all National Monuments. Howenweep is the site of the tower building Anasazi. The site is in a small canyon and the structures are built on the edge and within the canyon. No conclusive evidence exists for the tower structures but some of them contained astronomical indicators so it is thought that in some instances the towers were used to indicate the sun solstices and other natural phenomena.

After Howenweep we were misled by the road signs to Bluff, UT and found that after 15 miles the road turned to dirt. The road would go thru to Bluff but the last 20 miles would be washboard. Along the way here we were surprised by sheep very close to the side of the road and on the other side a dog watching some goats. I guess he was trying to separate the sheep from the goats. After the 30 mile roundtrip detour we got on the guaranteed paved road only to be surprised by a llama crossing the road in front of us. Talk about weird things on the open range. Coming into Montezuma Creek which is on an Indian reservation, we noted numerous oil wells nodding away like bobble head dolls. Most were marked with the Exxon/Mobil logo. While most were powered by electricity, we did see others with propane tanks next to the pump. We also noted that Bud Light must be the beer of choice in Indian country. On at least 5 occasions during the drive we saw Bud Light 12 packs on the shoulder with the empty bottles laying next to them. If they had been thrown the bottles would have been broken and scattered but here they were all together. Strange places to have a party. Throughout the day we noted that there were bottles all over the sides of the road.

 At Bluff we stopped at the historical site of Fort Bluff. Fort Bluff was built in 1880 by the Mormons coming into the area and developing a town. Now the LDS church and the community are restoring the site back to the 1880 period. The original meeting hall has been restored to the 1880's look and they are in the process of rebuilding the whole site. Bluff is aptly named as the town lies beneath a series of red sandstone bluffs. On the road towards Mexican Hat we saw a sign for the Valley of the Gods which I had read about. We turned into a dirt road and drove for 4 miles into a landscape of beautiful and strangely shaped red sandstone rock formations. We could have driven further in but I really don't like washboard roads.

After Mexican Hat, so named for the rock formation  north of the town which resembles a sombrero sitting on a rock, we headed into Monument Valley. The rock formations were striking and beautiful. We could have taken the Navajo tour of the valley but it was getting late and the Grand Canyon awaited. This detour would have taken at least two hours we didn't have today. Instead of this my car would not pass up the Navajo National Monument which was about 45 miles northeast of Tuba City. The monument here was another pueblo site within a canyon. We stayed to watch a video which described the tortuous hike down into the ruins of another Anasazi pueblo. The film explained that like all the other Anasazi sites it was abandoned by about 1300. The one difference here is that it is known where these people went. The descendants of these pueblo people became the Hopi Indians based upon the petroglyph symbols on the walls of the Navajo Monument pueblo. 

At Tuba City also within a Navajo reservation we ran into a terrific traffic jam. It was fueled by a huge flea market that covered a very large area with tents and tables. I was very lucky here as I took  my eye off the road to look at what appeared to be a carnival and rodeo on the reservation and had mom not shouted for me to stop I would have rear ended the car ahead of me making the initial stop for the traffic jam. From 50 to 0 in no time. I came within 4 feet of ruining my whole trip.

We arrived at the South Rim entrance to the Grand Canyon around 6:00 pm. My Golden Eagle pass saved me $20.00. The park employee in the booth handing out the literature was somewhat surly. I asked her which way to the Thunderbird Lodge and her answer was to read the map. She could have easily said to follow the signs to Canyon Village. After some anticipation we arrived at the parking lot for the Rim Lodges and were able to locate the lodge. We have a nice room with two double beds, and cable TV. At dinner the bus girl was from Estonia. She is over here on a three month student exchange program and will leave back to Tallin, Estonia at the end of October. She said she is homesick for her country. On the way back from dinner we encountered a herd of about 6 mule deer. One of them had a huge rack and we had to wait for them to clear the sidewalk before we could continue into our lodge. When it is dark, the canyon is invisible. There should be lights like at Niagara Falls.

So ends a super second week.

Howenweep NM - Tower Structures, Round Rock is also a domicile.	Howenweep NM - Howenweep Castle	Bluff, UT - Thats why they call it Bluff	Bluff, UT - wagon at Bluff Fort
Valley of the Gods	Valley of the Gods	Mexican Hat is classier than Sombrero City	On the road to Monument Valley
Monument Valley - Mom is hiding in the car	Monument Valley	Monument Valley	Grand Canyon - We have arrived

 

 

 

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