Life is a Highway

Back on the Air

Loyal readers,

Between working out my technical problems with Typepad and dealing with commitments back home, I haven't been able to post the rest of our wonderful trip to the Southwest. UNTIL NOW! (Drum roll, please.) I just posted the first part of our visit to Chaco Canyon, and will continue to post the rest of the trip over the next day or so. I've chosen to back date the posts to reflect the actual chronology of the trip, so please go back a few days to catch up. I appreciate your patience, support and comments, and promise that your patience will be rewarded with some amazing sights at Chaco.

Take care,

John

Fun Stuff from Our Trip

We had a lot of fun and adventure in the Southwest, but certain sights and experiences added spice to the trip.

We asked each of our grandkids to give us something personal to take on the trip. We promised to take photos everywhere we went so they could keep track of us on our travels. Here are a few photos of Dialga, our grandson's Pokemon card, and Freaky Eyes, our granddaughter's kitty.

On each of our hikes, we enjoyed the lizards scurrying for cover across the slickrock. The most colorful - and entertaining - was this collared lizard that posed on a rock cairn at Chaco. He never budged as we paused to take the picture, then walked right by "his" cairn.

And what visit to the Southwest would be complete without an Ancestral Puebloan downspout? This was Marie's personal favorite.

My favorite was a road sign that time seemed to have left behind. Perhaps this refers to a Chacoan road?

Santa Fe

After sleeping in yesterday to regenerate after Chaco, we moseyed up to Santa Fe around 1:00 to check it out. We'd heard mixed reviews from friends - some enjoyed it, others felt it was touristy, overpriced, snooty. Put us firmly in the "enjoyed" category. Our first feelings of love surfaced a few miles outside of Santa Fe when we looked at the thermometer in the Hummer. We'd left Albuquerque in the mid-80's, and it was 68 degrees here. After frying at Chaco, this was a welcome relief. Altitude is a wonderful thing.

After briefly getting lost - the route into Santa Fe is kinda strange - we parked in the gallery section of town and started browsing. I say browsing because most everything was beautiful/fascinating but extremely pricey. I was very interested in a couple of galleries with Native American antiquities, and they had amazing pieces at breathtaking prices. $24,000 beaded cradleboards. $65,000 transitional Navajo blankets and rugs. $3,000 Hopi coiled baskets. The owner of the Michael Smith Gallery - home of the above Navajo blanket - greeted us and gave us a history of Navajo weaving including designs, hand-spun vs. commercial wools, and the evolution from vegetal to commercial dyes. Among the amazing facts we learned was that, before commercial dyes, the Navajo had to grind a particular type of beetle - the cochineal - to add red into their designs. After showing us around, he invited us to see his garden in the back - an oasis of green and color.

Leaving Canyon Road, we headed "downtown" into the heart of old Santa Fe. The Spanish influence is strong here, with the Palace of the Governors fronting a public square, with shops arrayed around the green.

 

We really enjoyed the "vibe" of this area - lots of friendly people, including Native American vendors, horses, and beautiful architecture. If you look closely at the second photo, you'll see the vendors sitting in front of the Palace of the Governors. Every year, a "jury" selects the vendors who will be allowed to sell in this coveted location. Many of the shops around the green also sell Native American crafts, as well. We enjoyed our short visit to Santa Fe so much that we decided to come back the next day as well.

Our second day began with a visit to the Santa Fe flea market. (I know what you're thinking - a flea market?) We'd heard good things about it, and weren't disappointed. Obviously, here were folks that simply didn't want to/couldn't afford to open shops in downtown Santa Fe. There were beautiful new and antique Native American jewelry, pottery, weavings, etc. Yes, there were stands we simply passed by with African and Mexican crafts, but we had a nice time and bought a few items, including a beautiful antique pair of turquoise, red coral and spiny oyster shell jaclas (see below). After a couple of hours we headed back downtown and spent a leisurely afternoon browsing and enjoying the weather, people and history of this beautiful town.

 

Tomorrow we pack up and leave our Corrales casita for a hotel near the Albuquerque airport - our flight home is Tuesday at 7:15 am.

Sorry for the Break

Hey there. Sorry for not posting for several days - the combination of being in remote Chaco Canyon for two days and having problems with my blog hosting company conspired to keep me off the air. One thing I've learned from this trip is that blogging from a smartphone is a PITA. This realization was delayed when I unexpectedly had computer access in Cortez and Bluff, but not here in Corrales. Lesson learned! Chaco was an amazing experience on many fronts, and is too much to take in on one visit. We'll be back. Yesterday we slept in a bit, then drove up to Santa Fe for the afternoon. Enjoyed it so much we went back today. Monday is a transition day from Corrales to a hotel near the Albuquerque airport, then we fly home early Tuesday morning. Due to my posting problems here, I'm going to wait to post Chaco pictures until I get home. Thanks for your patience.

Day 2 at Chaco

We got started early on our second day in Chaco Canyon in an attempt to beat the heat. We decided to visit Pueblo Alto, another Great House situated on the mesa behind Pueblo Bonito. The trailhead sign pointed at the face of the cliff, but we couldn't see any trail. Can you spot it?

Turns out it was through that opening in the middle of the photo. The trail started as a steep scramble over boulders through a narrow opening in the cliff face...

... but we emerged unscathed.

Fortunately, the rest of the hike was fairly level over slickrock. After a couple of miles, we arrived at the Pueblo Alto complex. Although much of this ruin is unexcavated, it was easy to appreciate the immense size of this Great House. Since Pueblo Alto was the northernmost Great House in Chaco, we wanted to see if we could spot any relic of the Great North Road, the 30 foot wide connector between Chaco and other Ancestral Puebloan Great Houses and pueblos to the north. (As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Chaco was the hub of the Anasazi "world" for over two centuries, and over 400 miles of roads have been identified radiating out from Chaco.) We got our compass out and looked to the north, and there in the distance appeared the path of a road. Goosebump time. 

We followed the trail back down to the canyon floor - somehow the scramble back down the boulder pile seemed easier than the climb up. Then we turned our attention to Pueblo del Arroyo, a Great House built later in Chaco's reign. As with all of the Chaco Great Houses, it had its own unique layout, architecture and beauty.

At this point, the heat was eating us alive and we decided to leave the rest of Chaco for another visit. This magical place certainly qualifies as one of the highlights of our trip.