From Santa
Fe we headed down the road to Albuquerque and we went into the historic downtown
which was busy with tourists, however as it was a very hot day we just visited Mission
San Felipe which is situated on the plaza. A gentleman at the church recommended
a restaurant behind the church for lunch after which we walked along the little
shops around the plaza and went back to the cool of RV. We parked at the Hard
Rock Casino RV Park and ate and gambled all 3 nights we were there; we came out
pretty even, won well the first night then lost all we won the next two nights.
Adele likes
to read books relative to our travels and at the moment is listening to “A
Voyage Long and Strange” by Tony Horwitz, which is the Spanish History of
America; their quest for gold and the conversion of the Indians to
Christianity. He brings to life the journeys of the Conquistadors - De Soto,
Coronado, Don Diego de Vargas, General Santa Anna and others. We Irish believe
that St Brendan the navigator reached America in the late 5th or
early 6th century so we’re delighted that Horwitz wonders why the
history of the US starts with the Anglo version of Plymouth Rock and fills in
the gaps telling of how so many places are named after Spanish explorers who
sailed up the east and west coasts and explored two thirds of the interior of the
landmass of the US.
From
Albuquerque we traveled west along Route 66 to Gallup a town almost on the
Arizona border and surrounded by Indian Territory; having once again packed our
bags we set off in “BlueBug” for Cortez, Colorado to visit nearby Mesa Verde.
We made good time on the road and managed to obtain tickets for the 4pm tour of
the Mesa Verde Cliff Palace. Having 3 hours to fill before taking the tour we
adjourned to the café in the visitor center where both of us had Navajo Tacos they
were delicious, from there we went to the museum and watched a 20 minute video
of how archeologists imagine Mesa Verde came to be, the peoples story, the
building methods and some thoughts on why it was abandoned, then we took a
quick look around the museum. The Spruce Tree Ruins are right beside the
Visitors center, but down a steep incline so as we were up at over 8000ft we
decided to “save our breath” for the Cliff Palace tour. For our tour we had a
ranger with a keen sense of humor which made the tour very enjoyable and
informative; we had to descend steps, hike along the side of the cliff, ascend
more steps and climb 3 different sets of ladders to get back to the top of the cliff
- that effort took a lot of people's breath away! That night we stayed at the
Tomahawk Motel in Cortez a really nice budget motel run by a German couple. The
following morning we are up good and early which for us is 8.30 am, we had
breakfast at the Ute Cafe (called after the local mountains) where we could not
finish the “Senior” breakfast (it must have been for Senior truck drivers!) We next
drove SW to the Four Corners where the States of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and
New Mexico meet; there’s a plaque marking the spot which we stood on, with one
leg in each state, Adele even crawled on it. Photos to come! We enjoyed the
whole experience.
From Four
Corners we continued into Arizona to drive south to Canyon de Chelly - which is
a mini Grand Canyon (only 900ft deep) with beautiful colored walls, working
ranches on the Canyon floor all with wonderful views of great rock formations.
At the visitors center Adele got into a dialog with a gentleman called John - a
Navajo – who was building a traditional Hogan; which is a round house has one
door, a chimney and no windows. The Hogan is built wholly of cedar logs - no pegs,
dowels or nails - they had no metals. It is possible to take a guided horseback
ride down into the canyon; we reckoned that if we got up on a horse we might
not walk again for a few days; in fact we might not even be able to drive back
to the RV or not be capable of getting out of the car when we arrived back at
the RV, so we drove along the rim, getting out every so often to enjoy the
views.
We then
drove southeast to Window Rock which is one big hole in a rock! Window Rock is
the Capital of the Navajo Nation where they also have a lovely memorial tribute
to the WW 11 Navajo Code Talkers; as the Navajo language was not a written
language the Japanese could not break the code, places like Iwo Jima might
never have been captured except for the Code Talkers. It was not until a short
few years ago that their contribution to victory in 1945 was acknowledged; the
fear during the Cold War was that they might be needed again. In recent years
all Code Talkers were awarded the Congressional Silver Medal, sadly quite a number of
them were awarded posthumously.
What a great journey! Next day we just hung around and caught up with friends
and family.
For our
next trip we drove south from Gallup to the Pueblo of Zuni. Zuni is the Capital
of the Zuni tribe who have lived in the area over thousands of years. The pueblo
consists of adobe building only, not a trailer to be seen. Most natives walked to
wherever they were going as it was quicker, we understood why when having
turned off the main road we found ourselves going round in circles. There were
bee hive ovens outside every house and several had bread baking in them
sourdough or wheat are the choices. The visitor center had memorabilia from the
Spanish explorers both religious and armor. From Zuni we drove to El Morro (Spanish
for a bluff) which has a water hole which never runs dry; this was a stopping point
for the Native Peoples, Spanish Governors, Spanish and later Explorers many of
whom marked their passage with inscriptions on the wall of the bluff, the
earliest cannot be dated but many are from the late 1500’s. Our final stop was
at the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano "The Land of Fire
and Ice" situated on the Continental Divide. The ice cave is
made from a hollow lava tube and it was cold in there, the temperature never rises
above 31F (0C) - the floor of the cave is ice 20ft deep. The Indian tribes were
known to use it as an ice box. The road we drove to and fro on was an old
trading route as far as Arizona; however lack of water beyond New Mexico
prevented explorers from travelling to California
Once again
we were literally on Route 66 which is where our RV Park was located in Gallup.
The town is known for many things; it’s Murals which tell the story of the
development of the town - first as a railroad town (which it still is), then Route
66 coming through the town and the many movies made around Gallup. Right on
Route 66 there’s a wonderful old hotel called El Rancho Hotel the lobby of
which is furnished in south western style with chairs made from the horns of
steers, Indians rugs, Pottery and a big fire place. Another feature is a mural
telling the story of the Spanish explorers who passed through the area. The
piece de resistance has to be the portrait gallery of movie starts all along
the balcony including Ronald Reagan. We watched a great show of Indian dancing on
the patio outside the Hotel at 5pm. We really enjoyed our visit to Gallup and
are delighted we decided to travel this way.
Oh! By the way - us pale faces were very much in the minority in the
areas we visited; we were, after all right in the middle of Indian Territory.
