2016 May 13-22
Nota: publicado en Inglés: vamos a editar e incluir versión en
español pronto.
We had for some time been contemplating a
visit to the “Four Corners” area, and a business trip to the USA made this
possible (a lengthy story: this started out as a trip to Texas, however mutated
into one to California). Our trip to the USA was marked by an emergency landing
in Panamá City when the aircraft decompressed, and we ended up arriving very
late into IAH, resulting in arrival in SNA a day later than planned. We then
spent a week in Los Angeles, enjoying The Markets at The Grove and The Broad, The
Getty Centre, the Arts District, Veneice Beach in the evening, and time with
Edgar, our Musician friend from Colombia. Following this we spent some time in
San Clemente, focussed on the business element of the trip. Then at the end of
this first week we flew to Albuquerque to start our exploration of the “Four
Corners”.
This area of the USA has a long colonial
history, dating back to 1610 (Santa Fe),
and 1706 (Albuquerque). Both of these lie along the Camino Real de Adentro from San Juan Pueblo (now and previously Ohkay
Owingeh) to Mexico City. Taos Pueblo of course is much older, dating back
perhaps a thousand years.
We started in Albuquerque, visiting the
original colonial plaza, with a combination of a few stores with high quality artesanía, and a lot more with tourist
souvenirs. It was good to see that the plaza retained a sense of history, and
on a sunnny day it was a pleasant wander around.
We then headed for Santa Fe, which has
the excellent New Mexico Museum of Art, and also has retained its colonial
plaza, with a much greater range of arts and crafts stores operating. The
quality of weaving and other crafts was generally high, as were the prices,
although it has to be said that the quality and work involved justifies the
prices.
We continued to Taos, staying at the “Historic Taos Inn” and wandering around
the town in the evening. The following day took us to the Wild Rivers
Recreation Area, through which runs the Rio Grande, cutting into the
countryside in an attractive canyon. We enjoyed a walk down to the river and
back, and also the fact that the area was quiet, with only a few other
visitors. We then returned towards
Taos, and stopped at the original Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
From here we headed west to Cortéz, passing
Mesa Verde National Park on the way; this a very interesting area of Anasazi
canyon dwellings, which aroused Marce’s interest, however Alan pointed out that
it was not going to be possible to visit this time, in terms of the overall
time available. We stopped for dinner in Cortéz prior to heading north to Moab.
This stage of the journey revealed both that the planning had been complete,
and that Alan’s memory has more gaps then we had thought. We had learned that
it was necessary to eat at early in the evening, since restaurants close early,
in Latin American terms, and that arriving at a day’s destination after 2100h
and expecting to find a place to eat was optimistic to say the least. So, we
stopped to eat at a “classic” diner,
which proved to be “classic” in appearance, however did not offer food to match
the appearance. Our goal was to get to Moab that evening, which was a long run,
and since we would be arriving late a short while after leaving Cortéz we
called ahead to confirm arrival, during which call we learned that our booking
was for the following night... So, given that the laptop’s battery was now
flat, and that this was where the trip plan was to be found, we headed back to
Cortéz to look for a hotel, since Alan could not recall the plan, although he
was convinced that a booking had been made for every evening. We found a
Holiday Inn, where the friendly guy at reception was happy to tell us that he
had a room available,and that we could indeed plug in the laptop to see whether
we had in fact a reservation somewhere. We did so, and once we had enough
power, checked the plan to find that we did indeed have a booking for that
evening, at…
… Mesa Verde, right inside the Park (!).
So we headed back to the Park entrance and to the Far View Lodge.
The following day we spent the day in the
park, visiting the Cliff dwellings and the Wetherill Loop, which gave an
excellent insight into the archaeological value of the site.
We then headed off
again to Moab, through a variety of weather, including occasional "big sky" storms.
On the way to Moab we took a minor road east of the highway through the
Lisbon Valley, which was a beautiful eroded rock landscape, with no other
traffic at all.
We looped back to the
highway, stopped (early enough to find food) at Spanish Valley, and arrived in
Moab, where we spent the night.
Moab is the “Gateway to the Arches National Park”: we entered the park the
following morning and spent an excellent day there. The eroded sandstone “fins”
result in natural Stone arches (over 2000 in the park itself).
We followed the
main tourist route as far as this goes, to the Devil’s Garden Trailhead, and
walked to the well-known Landscape Arch. Most visitors turn around and go back
to the car park at this point, although a fair number add in the climb up to
the Partition Arch and Navajo Arch, which we did. We then decided to continue
on to the Double “O” Arch, which involves hiking
along the tops of some of the “fins” and which is a beautiful walk. This day
was an outstanding opportunity to see this singular scenery, and we had a great
time. At the end of the day, having done some investigating into alternative
exit routes from the park, we took the Willow Flats Trail west to the main
highway, which was an excellent way to breathe freely, away from the main
tourist trail.
The latter was a continuous stream of traffic, once on the
Willow Flats Trail we were alone, and enjoyed both the calm environment, and
the challenge of the trail itself, which was not particularly difficult,
although we did have to build up the trail at one point to match the limited
clearance of the Pathfinder, which actually did a good job overall, depsite
having less ground clearance and entry/departure angles than one would hope for
in a 4x4.
We then left Arches N.P., with a
resolve to return and explore further, as well as to explore Canyonlands N.P.,
which appears to offer a great deal as well.
We headed south, past the ugly town of Monticello, and on to Monument
Valley. We stopped for another early dinner at Mexican Hat, and arrived at
Monument Valley late in the evening.
We stayed in a cabin overlooking the
Valley, giving us an outstanding view in the morning. After breakfast we drove
down into the Valley, driving around the main loop, and stopping frequently for
photographs, including the mandatory “man on a horse” photo at the “John Ford Overlook”, although with a
slight difference from the usual approach to this photo.
To be updated....
We went to Oljato, on the north side of
the highway, to do some laundry and find some lunch, which turned out to be
surprisingly tasty, at Goulding’s. In
the afternoon we then explored the area to the north of the highway, which was
tourist-free, and proved to be an enjoyable circuit around the mesa to the
north-east of Oljato. At the end of the afternoon we went horse riding for a
couple of hours, from a corral at the north end of the area, giving different
views of the Valley, and an opportunity to appreciate the scenery and ambience
in a different way.
The following morning we completed our
acquisition of a Navajo rug; an excellent example “Two Grey Hills” weaving, then headed west again, initially to the
Navajo National Monument, and the non the Antelope Canyon. There are two
options to visit this photogenic canyon: the North Canyon, which is accessible
via 4x4 pick ups, which make a round trip to the North Canyon entrance, from
where tour groups walk through the canyon and back. It was worth doing, however
it has to be said that it was somewhat of a crowd and that we felt under time
pressure, never a good option to appreciate nature. There are photographic
tours available, although we had missed the last one into the North Canyon. We
then went to the South Antelope Canyon; this proved to be a good experience:
our guide, Sitting Buffalo (Tutungka), who was of Navajo/Sioux heritage, was excellent, with a
good sense of humour, and gave us an unrished experience, with an opportunity
to appreciate the canyon which was a lot more relaxed than we had experienced
in the North Canyon.
We then continued south to Marble
Canyon, taking the time to visit the Navajo Bridge on our way to the Grand
Canyon. As can be imagined, this was very different from any of the places we
had visited since Albuquerque. The Grand Canyon receives 5 million visitors per
year, and as one would expect has significant infrastructure, both in the Park
and immediately outside. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site
and has been a National Park since 1919. Bookings need to be made very early
for the accommodation in the park itself, and we stayed in a modern hotel in
Tusayan. On arriving in the park that evening, we noticed a few people who had
set up cameras at overlooks on the east entrance road, and stopped to have a
look. The view of the canyon in the clear moonlit night was impressive.
The following day we went initially to
the Visitors’ Centre, then along the South Rim Trail to the Village. We chose
to walk down into the Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail, and made our way down
to the “2 mile corner” and back.
Later in the day we went to Mojave Point on
the rumour that Californian Condors could be seen nesting from this overlook.
We were able to see some Turkey Vultures nesting and soaring, however no sign
of the Condors.
We then left the Grand Canyon for Sedona, arriving just in time
(with some persuasion) to eat at “Mariposa”, which was very different from
any of our dining spots during the previous week.
In Sedona we were able to find a
replacement spare camera battery and in the same store there was a good range
of Zapotec textiles. We then headed south to Phoenix, to meet Alan’s second
cousin Mary, her husband Cliff, and some of her family. We were made very
welcome and much enjoyed their hospitality. Alan and Mary had not seen each
other for well over fifty years, however had been in touch, principally through
mutual interest in genealogy (it has to be said that Mary’s (and Cliff’s)
knowledge of the family tree and its branches is encyclopædic).
1) A
footnote re this post is that we looked for an inclusive term to describe the
original peoples in this área, and found that this is not easy. If this were
Canada then the term “First Nations” seems to be acceptable, however it’s not
used in the USA.
So,
we have used the names which are commonly found for the peoples, and hope that
this will not give rise to offence. The Navajo call themselves Diné as well
(interestingly similar to the term “Dene” in Canada, with apparently the same
linguistic roots.
2)
Footnote re “grand” canyons:
· Grand Canyon depth -
1857m
· Chicamocha Cañon depth
(Colombia) - 2000m
· Colca Cañon depth (Perú)
- 3270m (see
http://suramericacontraelreloj.blogspot.com.co/2010/08/rumbo-juliaca.html)
Photos
may be used for non-commercial purposes with credit to alanymarce@gmail.com
