Wupatki Pueblo, Arizona

Weather cooled a bit near Flagstaff after a rain storm that we later heard had dropped 5 inches on Phoenix in 3 hours.  Cars were floating away, etc.  And we thought that the lightening gave us a good show!  

Another gargantuan leap all over the spectrum of time, in only three days; this time from the pre-historic Petrified Forest to the 13th Century volcanic cones and the Pueblo.   A peaceful time was spent wandering through the ruins of the 900 year old Wupatki Pueblo; and with no crowds! 

Wupatki Ruins and Cinder Cones

Diorama of Possible Village Life

Straight Plumb Lines

Use of Existing Rock

Still Standing (the walls, that is)

No Crowds Here

Taos, New Mexico

From Santa Fe we took an outing up the high road to Taos (just hitting 8000ft altitude), and through many interesting artist villages.  One stop was at the chapel in Chimayo, where the sacred soil is supposed to have healing qualities, so with a little earth in my hand I rubbed it on my back, hopefully to never have back pains again.  Maybe this only works if you believe; I'll let you know if it works though.

Traffic through Taos itself was chaotic and in the ski season I can imagine it being much worse.  We went beyond to the Taos Pueblo, an original village documented to be well over 1000 years old.  The Spanish word pueblo, meaning “town”, referred to the apartment style masonry compounds the ancestal Puebloans excelled in building.  The structures are made entirely of Adobe, which are bricks made of straw, local mud and water and the roof is made with heavy logs, having smaller timbers laid across at right angles, and finished with layers of sod on top.  The whole building is covered with stucco and the walls are several feet thick, which keeps it cool in summer,  warm in winter and is impervious to rain.  The sole entry centuries ago was via a ladder through an opening in the roof, which enabled them to pull up the ladder when intruders arrived.  The doors were an 18th Century addition.  Most of the buildings are without water or electricity and about 8 families still live there, hauling their water from the creek that runs through the pueblo.  

The Pueblo is open to the public except for official days when there are important religious ceremonies, exclusively for the members of the pueblo.  We could take photos of the buildings now but not of the members.  Upon our arrival at the Pueblo church the skies opened and heavy rain just poured down - the first rain we’ve seen in over two weeks. Although it only rained for 15 minutes this helped to bring down the high temperatures to a more comfortable level.

One of the fellows I spoke to explained they are the Red Willow tribe of the Taos Pueblo, and he had lived in the pueblo for about 8 years, until he married and moved nearby.  At the end of September the whole tribe will take a three day hike up the mountain to the source of their creek, to give thanks for their blessings of such pure life-giving water.  When you think about the fact that the people of this tribe have opened their village to the public so we can understand their way of life better, and you realized that this is not a ‘Disney’ creation, it made you aware that you are experiencing a part of living history.

Sanctuario de Chimayo

Note the Straw in the Walls

Waiting in the Rain

Taos Pueblo

Drying Racks in front for Game

Close-up of Condo-Like Homes

Smaller Home, in the Rain

Corn Necklaces for Sale

An Outdoor Horno, A Bread Making Oven

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Native Americans?  First Nations?  Indians?  No matter what you call them it is very obvious they were here before the white man.  When you travel across southern Utah, Arizona, SW Colorado, and New Mexico, you are aware of the reservations & pueblos and their lands encompass a very large area.  It took us a whole day’s drive just to get through the Navaho reservation, which is the largest.  Ute, Navaho, Zuni, Hopi, Apache, Jicarilla, Zia, Jemez, Santo Domingo, & Taos Pueblo are some of the reservations/pueblos we passed through.  

Santa Fe was our destination for 2 nights but we ended up here 5 nights as it was so interesting; what a lovely city.  We were fortunate we could leave the van at the campground and take the city bus in for the grand total of $1 a day, in and out.  The “Old Town” was only 20 minutes away so we were there every day.  Around the central Plaza the stores are all independent, with no chain stores allowed.  Many selling native designed jewellery, leather goods, locally made rugs, pottery representing each tribe, art work and south-west style clothing (looks good here but at home under a Gore-tex jacket would look foolish), as well as many excellent restaurants.  Temperature had dropped 10* so it was more comfortable in the mid 30’s C now.

One of the reasons we extended our stay was the fact that the Fiesta was coming up on the weekend.  While at the town Plaza we saw the ‘Spanish’ character actors in full dress practising for the ceremony so decided to stay for at least part of it.  This is a 300 year old, quasi religious ceremony to celebrate when the Spanish reconquered the “natives” in 1610; in a supposedly ‘bloodless takeover’  (aside from the 19 native leaders they hung).  “Whatever', the natives said, as long as there was no more killing, and then they carried on with their own ways.  They continued in peace, even after the Americans took over from the Spanish.  

On Friday the town plaza was encircled with carnival-style food booths, as well as many arts and craft venders.  We saw the official opening ceremony of the 1610 ‘entry’ of the Spanish delegation to the town; the promise that there would be no more killing; and a ceremonial baptizing of the native children.  It was interesting to see the natives, and their children, in their traditional dress.  On Saturday there will be many activities including a parade that takes 2 hours to pass by; a ball on Saturday night; culminating in a religious walk on Sunday from the plaza to the Basilica.  As much as we’d have liked to stay for it all, we knew we had to move on.

No Starbucks here

Oldest Public building in the US

Pueblo Style Building

Shops

Angel, A Santo Domingo Native

Local Ladies

Central Plaza

Spanish Friar Praying for the Natives 

Don Diego de Vargas laying down his armour to prove he comes in peace 

Don Diego promising to look after the Native children 

Representing the Queen of Spain

Fancy Footwear

More Native Footwear 

Arches National Park; Moab, Utah

Arches National Park contains the world’s largest concentration of natural stone arches.  This park is a red, arid desert, punctuated with oddly eroded sandstone forms such as fins, pinnacles, spires, balanced rocks and arches.  The 73,000 acre region has over 2000 of these ‘miracles of nature’.

Continuing on for more punishment, we went hiking again but this time started at 6 AM when it was a little cooler.  It was a good thing because when we were heading back to the campground around noon we could see that the parking lots near the closer arches were completely packed with people double parked and even parked on the shoulder for half a mile along the internal road, making it difficult for other cars to get by.  The distant cluster of arches had 15 mile hikes associated with them to get to the arches so I imagine that in this heat there were fewer people out there (mid 40* C again).  

At Double Arch

(If you want to see a larger version of the pictures just clik on the image.  Look carefully as five of the images have people in them.  Sorry if the photos aren't in a balanced order; a learning problem!)

How Arches are Formed

Pinnacles

Balanced Rock

An Arch Being Formed

Delicate Arch

Hoodoos

Turret Arch 

Double Arch

The Three Gossips

Canyonlands; Moab, Utah

Canyonlands National Park

The last time we were in Moab was 22 years ago with Robin and this was a funky little town; now it is 10 times the size with tourists from all over the world. Young people come for the outdoor adventures - Slik Rock cycling, river rafting, rock climbing, ATVing, hiking, zip lining, etc, etc; while older ones and families come to see the great natural sites among the rich, red rock at Canyonlands and Arches.  After spending 6 hours at the first park and 5 hours the next day at the latter, both with hiking in the blazing heat, we decided to move on in hopes for cooler temperatures.  46*C was just too much!  Although close, both parks are so different.  At Canyonlands you are on the top of a 6000 ft mesa and you look down 2000 ft into the canyons that the Colorado and Green Rivers have carved out over millions of years.  In Arches you are at the 5000 ft altitude with all the arches above you and they have been carved out by wind and rain.  

46 C

Mike overlooking the canyons

Colorado River, a 2000 ft drop

A 4x4 on the Shafer Trail, 1000 ft below

The road up the Shafer Trail

Mesa Arch

When I was here years ago a German tourist was unsuccessfully trying to get his girlfriend to stand on the top of the Mesa Arch so he could take a photo but she insisted on crawling on her hand and knees.  When I offered to take a photo of both of them up there, he climbed up and immediately got down on his knees as well.  It turned out the arch is less than 10 ft wide but there is a drop of 1000 ft on the far side!

The Great Salt Lake, Utah

25 miles north of Salt Lake City there is an 8 mile causeway that goes out to Antelope Island, a 25 mile long island with a 1500 ft mountain peak, situated in the Great Salt Lake.  Four rivers flow into the lake but since there is no outlet, as the water evaporates the lake becomes saltier.  

We went out to see the lake and found that we could get a camp spot overlooking the water. The temperature was in the high 30’s C during the day so we waited until 6 pm to walk to the shore, which took 20 minutes as the water level was so low.  Gorgeous sand on the way but billions of teeny brine shrimp along the edge, with a million sand flies eating them.  They didn’t bother us as the mass was only 4" high but flew forward in waves with each step you took.  Some people had gone swimming but the most we did was put our feet and hands in the water and immediately they were coated with salt.  The water here at the island is 25% salt while at the north end of the lake it’s 45%.  Since there are no showers (or fresh water) at this campground we chose not to submerse ourselves, even though it would have been fun to float on top of the water.  

Moved on to Moab, Utah, which will be my next entry.

Distant Campsite

Our spot from the shore

View from our spot

Tumbleweed

Our silhouettes

Sunset over the lake