So I lied. I said this would be the last installment of the Great Road Trip of 2004. Then I looked at my pile of digital pictures, and realized I couldn't fit it all into one installment. So the last driven miles of the trip--over 300 of them--get their own post.
The night after our tour of Canyon de Chelly, we took a drive up and down the south rim of the canyon before retiring in our motel. Stopping at one of the many viewpoints, we witnessed a beautiful sight, not properly captured in this picture:
Some evenings, Navajo who live in the canyon, and other Navajo just down for a visit, start campfires and gather with friends and family on the canyon floor. We watched quietly from the rim 800 feet above, wishing we were below with firemakers.
On our way back, the Navajo metropolis of Chinle appeared as sparkling lights along the vast desert floor:
And so we slipped back into our comfortable beds at the Thunderbird Lodge, reluctant to leave this unexpected place.
The next morning we headed south and stopped at Hubbel Trading Post National Historic Park, a working trading post and general store in the heart of Navajoland. Our expectations were high after the high quality of rugs and other items at Teec Nos Pos Trading Post (see part 8), but we were a tad disappointed. Hubbel may have history behind it (it is a revered institution around these parts), but the rug selection didn't seem as carefully chosen as Teec Nos Pos, and the non-rug items were seriously lacking. My mother had found the pickings at Thunderbird lodge to be significantly better, and that is where she had already picked up a beautiful small Navajo rug emblazoned with the "tree of life" design. Seeing nothing for myself at Hubbel, I visited with some resident cats while mother peeked at the horses.
Then we drove on for an hour or so to meet our first interstate freeway in over a thousand miles: I-40. Just a few miles west on the freeway we turned off into Petrified Forest / Painted Desert National Park and went on a hunt for really, really, really old things. Older than Mesa Verde. Older than the canyon of the Rio Grande. Waaaaaay older than the Rockies. We're talking 125 million year old pine logs. Petrified like hell:
This place was wild. The desert sand and formations were colored like one of those layered sand souveniers you can buy at the beach. And at various places throughout the park, enormous, perfectly preserved tree logs lay by the thousands scattered all over the place.
Despite the extreme heat in the summer (I really, really don't recommend this park past May), there are plenty of permanent residents, including this fellow, who introduced himself to us as Chuck the Collared Lizard:
Chuck was a little too busy courting the ladies to talk to us, so we trotted on. There were plenty of prickly pear flowers out:
And more than a few extra-fat enormous ravens shamelessly begging the tourists:
We turned back north at the south end of the park, and headed pack through the Painted Desert, with its palette of multicolored teepees:
We got back on I-40 and headed for Gallup, New Mexico. Gallup is famous for its trading posts and is a center for several Native American tribes in the area. But if you drive into Gallup from the west, you'll know it for the astoundingly tacky Indian-themed trading posts that line the freeway. If there were only three or four of these establishments by the side of the road, you might find them offensive or a little bit embarrassing. But there are dozens of them, including stucco teepee monstrosities that push the limits of ridiculous in a land whose native inhabitants favor square Pueblo or octagonal Navajo lines. There is so much of this tackiness, it has created a culture all its own. Unfortunately, I was driving and couldn't take pictures. But it's better that way. You have to go and see for yourself. It's sublime.
We stayed in the Ramada in Gallup, which is generic but very nice. The next morning we stopped briefly in Richardson's Trading Post, another very well-known trading establishment. I was looking for a Hopi Kachina, and hoped to find one there. Unfortunately, though Richardsons had an enormous selection of just about everything--by far the biggest selection we saw, and probably one of the biggest in the state--the prices were high, and the staff were a bit snobbish. After oohing and aaahing at some $25,000 antique rugs and gazing at cases of $1000 Kachinas, we got back on the road..
We got off the interstate and took the slow road to Albuquerque by detouring through Zuni and Highway 53. About half an hour south of Gallup, we encountered this odd fellow:
He seemed to be telling me something. I stopped the car and got out, and I could hear him. He said, "Suuuuuuuuusan. Come into my shop and I will take your money."
Curious, I entered the shop, and was immediately assaulted by this affordably priced authentic Zuni Cow Kachina:
It wrestled my wallet out of my pocket, plunked down the money, and threatened to drag me off to the underworld if I didn't take it home. Of course I had absolutely no choice but to buy it.
We drove perhaps half an hour further and turned right into the Pueblo of Zuni, one of the oldest towns in the United States (there seems to be disagreement between the Acoma and the Zuni over who has the official title). Zuni is also the biggest of the pueblos. Its dusty streets show far more bare poverty than the Navajo reservation, but then again, these people are and always have been city dwellers, a much messier proposition. The pueblo looks ancient, with buildings that look like a flatland version of Mesa Verde, except these are actually occupied. There were numerous people walking around, preventing me from taking pictures (it's a well-understood rule that one should not take pictures of local Indian people without asking permission first).
We found good shopping here, too. The Pueblo of Zuni Arts and Crafts center is the only Zuni-owned trading post in town, and has a massive selection of Zuni fetishes, the craft for which the Zuni are best known. Fetishes represent animal spirits, and are carried for luck. They are all hand-carved by Zuni artists. I picked up a couple for my coworkers and my mother found several to her liking. This is the mole I got for one colleague:
Note the little turquoise eyes and the etchings. The more expensive fetishes have more complicated patterns, including a symbol for a heart. There's a lot of thought behind the markings, but too much to go into here.
After leaving Zuni we got onto highway 53 and headed east to El Morro National Monument. El Morro is one of those places you don't realize you have heard about until you get there. I first learned about it in elementary school. El Morro is a the single most astounding collection of graffitti you will ever see. Starting in prehistory, Anasazi, then Spaniards, then Americans all left extensive graffiti on this massive sandstone escarpement. The surrounding valley is quite beautiful, but it's the graffiti that is the main attraction these days.
Early on, El Morro's draw was based on something quite different--water. It has the only permanent water source between Zuni and Albuquerque, in this lush green nearly hidden pool.
Some explorers had excellent penmenship:
Some were just happy to be anywhere except dead in 1706:
And many American soldiers left their mark after America took possession of the land.
We met this Bull Snake on the trail. He was five feet long, and has been living there for at least six years, according to the ranger. He wouldn't give us the time of day.
The rocks themselves are quite impressive:
After leaving El Morro, one of America's older parks, we soon arrived in El Malpais, one of the newest additions to the National Parks system. El Malpais certainly isn't as interesting as even most state parks in California, but there it is, and as a recent addition, some of the park's attractions are owned by private concessionaires who got grandfathered in. We visited the Ice Caves:
That's pretty much it, what you're looking at there. I thought it was worth the stop, being a cave fanatic; you might not. The pioneers used it to store their beer.'Nuff said.
The Ice Caves can be combined with a short walk to the volcanic crater. It's a great example of a recent eruption (recent being around 10,000 years), and you can see the lava pouring out of the crater, frozen in time. The sign makes it seem more dangerous:
It was a nice stop, and the Ponderosa Pine forest is lovely.
And that brings us, a few hours later, back to Albuquerque and back to civilization as we know it, our trip nearly over, yet still feeling a million miles away from California.
Next installment: all the pics that didn't fit in the previous installments, as well as our wrap-up of the whole trip
Table of Contents for A Great Southwest Road Trip:Part 1: Albuquerque and Carlsbad
Part 2: Santa Fe
Part 3: Taos
Part 4: Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Part 5: San Juan Skyway, Colorado
Part 6: Mesa Verde
Part 7: Durango & Silverton Railroad
Part 8: Navajoland and Canyon de Chelly
Part 9: Zuni Pueblo, El Morro & El Malpais
Part 10: Wrap Up of the Great Southwest
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