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This Week on the Road - April 6th - 13th

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This Week on the Road - April 6th - 13th

Hello Everyone! Greetings from Arizona, where I have been since the weekend. So far, Arizona has had its challenges and after a fairly smooth 6 weeks in New Mexico it’s caught me a little off-guard. Arizona is also one of the states in which I have spent a lot of time in the past, probably a year of my life collectively if not more, so I wasn’t expecting to have any problems here whatsoever. Gas is up at around $4.59/gallon on average, meaning it costs over $100 to fill my tank which is hard when you’re on a budget and need to fill up every 2-3 days. I can’t let it stop me, but it’s painful. I don’t see states dropping their fuel taxes to help mitigate it either, once again turning towards and pointing at the federal government. It’s been very windy since I’ve been here which the locals tell me is common for this time of year. I guess I haven’t spent much time here in the spring before and have visited mainly in summer, fall and winter. When I say “wind”, I’m talking about sustained 30-40 mile per hour winds with gusts up to 60. When it’s at your back, it certainly pushes you right along, but when it’s coming from any other direction it makes driving a real chore. Hiking in it is also less than pleasant, as really is any outdoor activity. Beyond the wind, I haven’t had a phone signal since I got to the state except for a few hours in Holbrook. There is a signal, but not one I can get on either my Sprint or AT&T phones. It’s their state and if they are happy with their coverage then so be it, but it’s frustrating as I haven’t encountered this elsewhere to this degree. This also means that I need to use WiFi and depending on where I am, it’s very particular about what I can access – and I’m talking about mainstream things like Twitter, Netflix and AT&T Prepaid, not anything remotely scandalous. I’ve found campgrounds to be prohibitively expensive and even the state parks are at a price point where I will have to be very selective as to which ones I pay to see (their annual pass of $75 is also pretty high in my comparative mind). I can tell just from the week that I’ve been here that vanlife is far more prevalent here than anywhere I’ve been thus far and communities are pushing back, making where I stay more of an issue than it has been. All of that being said, I’ve seen some beautiful places in the 5 days that I’ve been here and I hope to find more of a rhythm in the next week or so. Despite the amount of time I have spent in Arizona, there is still a lot I want to see, and I hope the logistics of my time here aren’t as overwhelming as they have been so far.

When I left you last week, I was headed north from Gallup to check out the Bisti Wilderness. Unfortunately, I had tried and failed to get a map of the area and the digital ones available online were less than adequate. When I got there, I took to the high ground to be able to navigate better, but really I should have just headed straight into the canyons. I think the warnings I read about getting lost were quite exaggerated and I spent half of my time unnecessarily high above what I went to see. When I finally dropped into the canyon, it was a beautiful place, full of hoodoos and petrified wood. Hoodoos occur when sandstone or other softer rock is covered with a layer of harder rock. The hard cap layer works like a hat and the sandstone layer erodes from the outside in instead of from the top down. Petrified wood comes about when old trees are subjected to extreme heat and pressure in very specific conditions and harden to a stone-like texture. Both the hoodoos and the petrified wood out there were really cool, but it was fiercely windy out and tough to concentrate on much besides staying upright. It was a cool area, though, and one I would definitely return to on a quieter day with a better understanding of the landscape. I left in the late afternoon and got into Farmington with enough time to shower, dress and head out to see the incredible Ballet Folklorica de Mexico at the Civic Center. I even ended up with a free ticket as the lady in the ticket office said someone had left a few to be given away. It seemed as though the performance told the story of Mexican history, from the Aztecs through to modern times. The music and dancing were wonderful, but the costumes really stole the show in my opinion. After the first hour or so, the many children who were in the audience around me started to get pretty fidgety and I wish there had been an intermission in this two hour show for them to get up and move around a little. The girl sitting two seats down from me was literally bouncing in her seat as high as she could get and her parents just let her bounce. Despite all of that, it was a very enjoyable evening and a sharp contrast from my day in the windy wilderness.

Thursday I headed off to Aztec Ruins National Monument in the morning, which was located in the cute little town of Aztec about 30 minutes up the road. Aztec was a Great House of the Ancestral Puebloans built in the 1300s in the Chaco style. It had enclosed passageways inside the ruins which were open to explore and fascinating to see. The centerpiece of Aztec Ruins was a reconstructed Grand Kiva which was a project of the lead archaeologist who excavated the site. Most reconstructed kivas are interesting and give you some idea of their purpose (as the center of Puebloan community and religious life – think of a church in early America), but they are rough and unfinished. This was a beautiful, massive kiva with plastered and painted walls (as the originals would have been in their time) and felt very peaceful and well-done. I asked the ranger if the Puebloan people who visited ever shared their thoughts on this kiva as their communities are still centered around kivas today. She told that she hadn’t heard anything so I guess it wasn’t too egregious of an example. I thought it was wonderful. I also thought it was interesting that the Animas River, a pretty big river by southwestern U.S. standards, flowed right next to the old Pueblo. Of course building your town near water has always been essential, but my questions came with why this site was abandoned. A massive regional drought is always cited as the main cause of this out-migration, but I would find it hard to believe that this river ran dry even in the driest of years. I enjoyed discussing this and several other questions with the ranger there as they are always happy to engage in discussions beyond where the bathroom is.

I returned to Farmington in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day at the library which was big, clean and beautiful but sadly had no internet. I still got plenty of work done, though, and set myself up well for the next day. That evening I went for a nice steak dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. I usually avoid chain restaurants, but my dad and his girlfriend had given me a gift certificate for Texas Roadhouse and I was happy to use it. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by my meal and left very satisfied.

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Snapshots: Tucumcari - Getting My Kicks on Route 66

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Snapshots: Tucumcari - Getting My Kicks on Route 66

The area that is now Tucumcari was once home to dinosaurs who walked the shores of an inland sea. When the water receded, the sediment formed into sandstone and one of the formations it left is now called Tucumcari Mountain (although it’s really more of a mesa). Prehistoric people tracked mammoths and mastodons in the area and later developed farming techniques and built villages. In the 18th century, the Apache and Comanche moved through the area, hunting bison and pronghorn. The name, Tucumcari, comes from an Apache word “tukanukaru,” meaning “to lie in wait for something to approach”. In the early 20th century, the Chicago, Rock Island and Union Pacific Railroad was making its way across the country and a tent city sprung up called Ragtown and, later, Six Shooter Siding. As the camp grew into a town, they changed the name to Tucumcari and it stuck. Route 66 came through in 1926 and the town became an overnight stop for people headed west. Signs for miles declared “Tucumcari Tonight” and people pushed through for the promise of a hot meal and a comfortable bed. Tucumcari today still capitalizes on nostalgia for the “Mother Road”, but also has a wonderful museum downtown which has a place for everything and everything has been lovingly put into place. I had a great stop in Tucumcari and definitely got my kicks on Route 66. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Tucumcari, New Mexico.

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In Focus: Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

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In Focus: Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Native Americans have been passing through the area we now call the Salinas Valley for thousands of years. As agricultural techniques developed, hunter-gatherer societies began to settle down, plant crops and build permanent communities. The communities which grew in the Salinas Valley combined the traditions of the people we call Mogollon with those of the Ancestral Puebloans. They traded with other Puebloan groups to the west and with the Plains Indians to their east.

When the Spanish arrived in 1540, Coronado was searching for the 7 Lost Cities of Gold. He never found gold, but found abundant salt deposits in these mountains which is where they get their name (“salinas” means “salt” in Spanish). While the treasure seekers were met with disappointment, the Franciscan priests who accompanied them found whole towns of souls they believed needed saving. They took up residence in these remote pueblos and oversaw the construction of massive churches. They brought with them items which changed these societies for the better like wheat, fruit, cattle, goats and sheep. They also brought disease and demands for the Native people to give up their rituals and traditions. Some of these pueblos contain kivas, the underground centers of Pueblo communities and religion which point to some level of compromise, since later missions had kivas filled in and destroyed. Spanish priests and governors were often in disagreement over how to treat the Puebloan people, and cultural conflicts would often erupt…

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This Week on the Road - March 17th-23rd

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This Week on the Road - March 17th-23rd

Hello Everyone! First and foremost this week, I want to say how much my heart goes out to those affected by the tornadoes yesterday in New Orleans and across Texas. The Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans suffered enough for a lifetime with Hurricane Katrina and I’m heartbroken by the images coming from there today. I wish them well with their recovery. As for me, I’ve spent most of this week traveling across the Llano Estacado or the “Staked Plains” of northeastern New Mexico. This is not an area that sees a lot of tourism, but there is actually quite a bit to see out here and I’ve been enjoying it. The winds, however, have been blowing hard at me all week, which makes it hard to drive and since no matter which way you turn it never seems to be at your back, it doesn’t help with my gas mileage. When I pulled into Clayton an hour ago though, gas was at $3.70/gallon, the cheapest I’ve seen in over a month! It would have seemed expensive 3 months ago, but for today it brought a smile to my face. I’ve spent a lot of the week dodging suicidal tumbleweeds which wait until the last second and then make a beeline for my undercarriage. The beautiful pronghorns I’ve seen out in the grasslands have made up for it, though. I’ve actually been feeling really good this week and have been enjoying seeing this region of the state. Even though towns are few and far between and the wind makes me feel like I’m captaining a boat instead of driving a van, it’s been a really good week out here.

When I left you last week, I was on my way out to take some photos around Santa Fe, but clouds had moved in and it was a bit gloomy. I tucked into a little bar and met the most cantankerous person I’ve met thus far in New Mexico. Since he was the bartender and owner, it seemed like a good sign to call it an early night and get a good jump on my Thursday.

I hit the gym first thing Thursday morning and came out to find it snowing pretty heavily out. Since I couldn’t take my camera out in the snow, I went for an early lunch at a spot called Horseman’s Haven which my friend Estilla had recommended. When I got there, I double checked my phone to make sure I was in the right place because it was a little plain-looking spot tucked into the corner of a gas station parking lot. I’m sure glad I didn’t judge the book by its cover, because it turned out to be a really great restaurant. I had some chicken adovado, a New Mexican dish of chicken marinated and cooked in red chili, and I also got a side of their famous green chili which was as good as I had been promised (Anthony Bourdain apparently said it would “melt your face off”). It may be the best restaurant I’ve been to thus far in the state.

From there I headed back downtown and went to see the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of Governors. The museum was pretty good and set out to tell the history of the state from the earliest Paleo-Indians to the modern day. I must admit my ignorance on a lot of the details of this region. Even though the names were all familiar from guiding tours here for many years, I didn’t have a good chronological understanding in my head and this museum really helped with that. I also enjoyed their in-depth look at the Harvey Hotels, an early chain of hotels and restaurants that grew up with the railroad, of which Santa Fe’s own La Fonda was one. I’ve been to La Fonda many times, and El Tovar and the Bright Angel Lodge at Grand Canyon, but I’ve always been interested in the brand, which was also one of the first big tourism operations in the Southwest. After early run-ins with locally hired employees, Fred Harvey decided to hire mostly young, single women - lovingly remembered as the Harvey Girls. In doing so, the Harvey brand may have had more responsibility for populating the region than they intended by bringing single, adventurous women to the Southwest. The Palace of Governors, which is attached to the museum, has been on the plaza in Santa Fe since 1600. It’s been occupied by the Spanish, the Pueblo Indians, Mexico, the United States and even, briefly, the Confederacy. The building has been altered, expanded, contracted, and was even given Victorian flourishes at one point. When you learn all of this, it’s amazing that this adobe building has survived for 400 years. Sadly, there isn’t much to it on the inside except a bunch of whitewashed walls and I wish they would furnish it from its many different periods. It was still interesting to see and I’m glad I went.

It being St. Patrick’s Day, my next stop was Boxcar – a very un-Irish bar, but seemingly the only game in town for the big day. To be fair, they did try and they all worked very hard to make it enjoyable. There was corned beef, Guinness and green beer…

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In Focus: Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

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In Focus: Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

The homes we now refer to as the Gila Cliff Dwellings were built beginning around 1276. The rivers in the area provided a constant source of water, a necessity in the desert and probably the reason the people who built these dwellings chose this location. While they were contemporaries of the people we now call the Ancestral Puebloans, differences in their construction styles, pottery and art have caused archaeologists to give them a different name and we refer to them as the Mogollon. The time that the Mogollon spent in these dwellings, approximately 25 years, coincides with prolonged drought in the area which caused many groups to move in search of water. It seems that the Mogollon moved into these alcoves near the beginning of the drought, and left as it was ending. When looking at history, it’s easy to think of 25 years as the blink of an eye, but it’s a whole generation of children growing to adulthood and having their own babies and adults moving into the roles of elders as elders pass on. There was love and loss and laughter as this group passed the time farming, hunting, building, creating and growing.

The Mogollon seem to have moved on around 1300 as the drought was coming to its end and these isolated dwellings likely remained empty for quite some time. The Chiricahua Apache migrated to the region in the 1500s and the great leader Geronimo was born near the headwaters of the Gila River around 1820. Spanish settlers came to the area in 1598, but there is no evidence they penetrated the wilderness anywhere near to the dwellings. Prospector H.B. Ailman documented the cliff dwellings in 1878 and by the time archaeologist Adolph Bandelier arrived in 1884, looters had ransacked the alcoves and made off with whatever artifacts were to be found. Homesteaders, miners, prospectors and ranchers arrived over the next few decades and President Theodore Roosevelt protected the area as Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in 1907. Not too long after he did, Aldo Leopold came to the region as a forester and lobbied the Forest Service to establish the GIla Wilderness, the first designated wilderness area in the country and an inspiration for the 1964 Wilderness Act.

Today, the Gila Wilderness is a quiet and magical place. It’s a two hour drive from Silver City, the nearest town of any real size, to the Cliff Dwellings. The road that brings you in is the aptly named Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway and it is a truly beautiful drive. During my visit, I toured the cliff dwellings, scouted out some beautiful pictographs, hiked the fabulous Little Bear Creek Canyon trail to the Middle Fork of the Gila River and soaked in wonderful hot springs. I loved my time in the Gila Wilderness and hope you enjoy these photos from my visit.

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This Week on the Road March 10th-16th

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This Week on the Road March 10th-16th

Hello Everyone! Well I’m finally starting to feel more adjusted to the dryness of the desert and the altitude here in Northern New Mexico. It definitely takes a few days to get used to in my sinuses and with just walking around. On the other hand, Shadow Catcher has gotten better gas mileage this week than at any time since I’ve had her, and it is definitely the right time for that. Daylight Savings is back and I’m absolutely enjoying the later sunset – it stretches my day out a bit and I feel a little less hurried. I spent a good chunk of this week in Albuquerque, a city I had only visited in passing before. At first it seemed a little bit seedy, but it really grew on me and I enjoyed it quite a bit and look forward to returning. Beyond that, the weather has been near perfect all week and I’ve continued to really enjoy my time in New Mexico. It’s growing nearer and dearer to my heart every day. I guess they don’t call it The Land of Enchantment for nothing.

So when I left you last week, I was in the small town of Truth or Consequences which turned out to be a neat little town and one of the most photogenic I’ve been through so far. I headed out to Elephant Butte Lake State Park to take some photos and grab a quick shower, but the lake out there is really low after years of drought. I returned downtown in the evening and enjoyed wandering around and taking photos until the sun went down. Then I stopped in for a couple of beers at the great little Truth or Consequences Brewery and enjoyed speaking with the lady who worked there who had moved to T & C from El Paso and never looked back.

I was up and off on Thursday with big plans that I couldn’t quite fit into a day. My first stop was at old Fort Craig, an army fort built in 1854 - soon after the New Mexico Territory became a part of the United States as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The fort was established to provide protection from Indians for settlers moving west into the newly acquired territory. It was staffed mostly by recent immigrants, one of whom described Fort Craig as “some lonesome sort of hole on the edge of the hot and dusty desert”. It would become the unlikely site of a fairly important battle (for the Western Theatre) of the Civil War as the Confederacy had its eyes on Colorado and California gold and a Pacific port which would be free from a Union blockade. To get to either, they had to cross New Mexico first, no small feat in the 1860s. Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley, who led the charge, planned on providing for his troops by “living off the land”. I don’t think he was quite prepared for the desolate and sparsely populated desert environment he found. Fort Craig, at the time, had tremendous storehouses and provided food and supplies to the entire region, so Sibley set his sights on the small desert fort. The armies met on the Valverde Battlefield, not far away, and the Confederates managed to send the Union troops retreating back to the fort. Sibley then demanded the fort’s surrender, which was probably met by laughter but was definitely refused by Commanding Officer Colonel Edward Canby who saw no reason to surrender his secure and well-armed fort. Sibley didn’t have the ammunition or the firepower to attack the fort, so he was forced to move on in search of provisions for his men further north. Canby left in pursuit, leaving Kit Carson in command in his absence. A defeat near Santa Fe sent the Confederates high-tailing it back to Texas. The fort would go back to serving its original purpose of fighting off the Apache, but was abandoned by the 1890s. Today it is just a collection of ruins overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, but it’s an interesting place. The caretaker told me they average just 8 visitors a day, but sometimes get as many as 20.

After a few hours at the fort, I headed on to the beautiful Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge just up the road. These natural wetlands are an essential stopover for migrating birds, and seeing it helps to show the importance of the Wildlife Refuge System…

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In Focus - White Sands National Park

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In Focus - White Sands National Park

Magnificent White Sands National Park in central New Mexico preserves the largest gypsum dune field of its kind in the world. This dune field in the heart of the Tularosa Basin covers 145,762 acres and includes 4.5 billion tons of gypsum sand. This gypsum was left in the area after the Permean Sea retreated several million years ago, and water and wind shape the dunes we find there today. The dunes are ever changing, though, so you will never see the same landscapes on any two visits to the park.

People have been coming through the area for at least 11,000 years and we believe that a group we call the Jornada Mogollon were the first to farm the area (see my photos of their nearby petroglyph site here). Groups of Apache made their way into the area in the 1600s and European-Americans arrived in the 1800s. White Sands National Monument was created by Herbert Hoover in 1933 and it was made a National Park in 2019.

I arrived for my visit to the park just after dawn. The mountains to the east block the sunrise, but the skies were blue and full of amazing white clouds. I headed straight out to the heart of the dunes and hiked the wonderful 5 mile Alkali Flats Trail. The sun reflected brightly off the white sand making photography difficult, but I was grateful that there was no wind. In the late afternoon I set out to capture some of the beautiful plant life in the park, mainly different kinds of yucca, which contrast nicely with the white sand. I stayed to watch the sunset and found real peace and solitude out in the middle of the park. It was a wonderful day in White Sands National Park. You can find some of these photos for sale in my store , but please contact me if the one you want isn’t there and I’ll be happy to add it. I hope you enjoy these photos from my time in White Sands National Park.

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Snapshots: Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

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Snapshots: Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

The Three Rivers Petroglyph site offers an amazing look into the ancient rock carvings of the Jornada Mogollon people. These rock carvings, created between 900 and 1400 AD, are scattered across a boulder field in the Chihuahuan Desert between the San Andres and Sacramento Mountains. There are over 20,000 recorded petroglyphs in this area, making it one of the most prolific petroglyph sites in the country. While nobody knows the exact meaning of these chiseled carvings, some of the more recognizable animals and birds offer a glimpse into what these ancient people found important. Located 17 miles north of Tularosa and 28 miles south of Carrizozo, this site, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, makes an excellent detour. There is a $5 admission fee to the site, but it is federal land so all National Park passes are also accepted. You could make the one mile out-and-back hike in under an hour, but the longer you stay, the more you will see. I hope you enjoy these photos of a tiny fraction of the carvings at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site.

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Snapshots: Lincoln - The Baddest Town in New Mexico

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Snapshots: Lincoln - The Baddest Town in New Mexico

The area in southeast New Mexico that now includes the town of Lincoln was originally inhabited by Mogollon people and later by the Piros and Mescalero Apache. When a group of settlers arrived from the Rio Grande Valley, they named their new town La Placita del Rio Bonito, or “the place by the beautiful river”. The town was renamed soon after the Civil War in honor of President Lincoln and was made the county seat of the massive Lincoln County. In 1873, Irishman L.G. Murphy opened a general store and won the contract to supply beef to nearby Fort Stanton. When Englishman John Tunstall set up a rival store down the street and challenged Murphy’s monopoly on the beef contract, the Lincoln County War broke out with each man hiring his own army of gunslingers. One of Tunstall’s men, who the world remembers as Billy the Kid, has gone down in history as one of the most notorious figures from Old West lore. The Kid was arrested and tried for his role in the murder of the county’s sheriff and was held in the county courthouse, which had once been Murphy’s store, to await his hanging. He outsmarted and overpowered the two deputies who were watching him and escaped, only to be cornered and killed by the new sheriff, Pat Garrett, just a few months later at Fort Sumner. The volatility in Lincoln led President Rutherford B. Hayes to call the town’s main street "the most dangerous street in America". Today there are quite a few remnants from its wild past and much of the town is an historic site. I found the whole place fascinating and learned a lot while I was there. I wish I had had more time to explore it, but I hope you enjoy these photos from my brief stay in tiny Lincoln, New Mexico, once one of the Old West’s baddest towns.

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Snapshots: Roswell - Alien City

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Snapshots: Roswell - Alien City

Roswell is a town of about 48,000 people, making it the fifth largest city in New Mexico. The area was originally settled in 1869 when Van C. Smith and Aaron Wilburn built a small store, inn and post office. They named their settlement Roswell, which was Smith’s father’s first name. Roswell was the home of Walker Air Force Base from 1941-1967 and housed a POW camp during World War II, holding mostly German prisoners. In 1947, a UFO purportedly crashed in the area and the military seized the aircraft and its alien operators. This alleged incident has brought interest and controversy ever since, and you can read all about it and decide for yourself at the International UFO Museum and Research Center. Roswell has embraced the tourism opportunity from their UFO encounter and there are no shortage of T-shirts and bumper stickers to be had. Beyond that, I found Roswell to be a pleasant place full of kind and welcoming people and I’m definitely glad I stopped in for a while. I hope you enjoy these photos from fun and beautiful Roswell, New Mexico.

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Snapshots: An Autumn Day in Red Wing, Minnesota

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Snapshots: An Autumn Day in Red Wing, Minnesota

Red Wing was definitely one of the nicest towns I visited during my entire stay in Minnesota. It’s a beautiful historic city of about 16.000 right on the Mississippi River and the Great River Road. Before European settlement, this was Dakota territory and the town takes its name from Mdewakanton Dakota leader Tatankamani, whom Europeans referred to as “Red Wing”. As settlers came west, the Mississippi River was a major transportation corridor, and many people disembarked at Red Wing to begin their new lives on the frontier. A town sprang up and early industries included mills and tanneries. In 1905, Charles Beckman began crafting leather work shoes for the miners, loggers and farmers in the region, and Red Wing Shoes was born. Red Wing Shoes is still headquartered in the town and many of their brands are still produced there, contributing heavily to the local economy. Red Wing has some beautiful, historic architecture and many wonderful art displays around town. While I was there on an overcast, fall day I still found the city to be charming and extremely photogenic. It’s definitely a town I will return to in the future. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Red Wing, Minnesota, an historic town on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River.

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Snapshots: New Ulm - Minnesota's Most German Town

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Snapshots: New Ulm - Minnesota's Most German Town

New Ulm is a mid-sized city which sits at the confluence of the Minnesota and Cottonwood Rivers in southern Minnesota. Founded by German-Americans, the town gets its name from the German city of Ulm in Bavaria. While not as over-the-top as Frankenmuth in Michigan, New Ulm has many German features to it and the longer you stick around the more you will see. I really enjoyed the Glockenspiel and the Hermann Monument and found several of the churches in town to be truly spectacular. The Historic Society Museum is housed in the eye-catching old post office, and even the fire hydrants brought a smile to my face. On the outskirts of town is the old A. Schell Brewery, which is definitely worth a stop. Founded in 1860, it’s Minnesota’s oldest brewery and one of the oldest in the country. Unlike most of the town, it was spared during the Dakota War of 1862 which devastated New Ulm. I had a wonderful German meal at the Ulmer Cafe and talked to some welcoming locals while I was in town. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful New Ulm, Minnesota’s Most German City.

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