On the Way to Great Sand Dunes National Park, July 16-July 28, 2009

From Mesa Verde we went to Durango, Colorado with the goal of riding the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. We had dinner that night at the Steamworks Brewery which was delicious. I had lobster ravioli in cream sauce with a raspberry coulis and Johnny had four cheese macaroni. Yum!

3rd Street in Historic District of Durango, Colorado

For several years friends had been telling us about the gorgeous scenery along the railroad's route, and it did not disappoint. At the suggestion of our campground hosts we chose to ride in one of the enclosed cars so we wouldn't suffer from raccoon syndrome. If you look at the picture of the train you can see the black smoke pouing out of the smokestack. Even at that our clothes were rather gritty feeling if we ran our hands down our pants legs.We were amazed, too, at the number of people who stopped along the nearby roads and at the crossings to get out of their cars or RVs to wave and take pictures of the train. There were also a lot of locals who stopped what they were doing in their yards or in apartment parking lots to smile and wave. I think pictures will do a better job describing the sights and scenery we saw along the route.

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad - Our Train

Inside Our Train Car

The Animas River Along the Route

The Animas River Going into the Ponderosa Pines

Grove of Aspens Along the Route

More Animas River - It is Gorgeous!

Approaching Silverton in the Distance - Some Snow Still in the Mountains

Silverton reminds you of an old mining town that still has not joined the 21st century. One of the main streets is still unpaved. There are restaurants, shopping and B&B’s if you want to spend the night and take the train back the next day. After signing up to take the train both ways, we discovered you can take the train one way and ride a bus back to Durango. This saves time, but we liked the different perspective of seeing the sights going and coming. We also had time to walk around old Durango and do a little shopping. Shopping is not one of the travelers in this party of 2’s favorite pastimes (I shan’t mention which one), so it was kept to a minimum.

According to Gauge Avalance Probability Appears to be Low

Stagecoach on Blair Street, Silverton, Colorado

On the way out of Durango, we drove to Chimney Rock Archeological Area, another recommendation from one of the rangers at Mesa Verde. This site is significant because of the alignment of many of the structures with the opening between Chimney Rock and Companion Rock to solar and lunar events. The Major Lunar Standstill occurs every 18.6 years,and the most recent one lasted from 2005-2007 with the next one in 2022. During this time period, as viewed from the fire tower, the moon rises between Chimney Rock and Companion Rock. We have it on our calendar for 2022.

Chimney Rock, on Right, and Companion Rock

Panorama from Top of the Mountain

We continued down the road and stopped at Ghost Ranch at Abiquiu, New Mexico for the night. Ghost Ranch is the beloved location where Georgia O’Keefe lived for over fifty years and painted some of her more famous works. While she never owned the ranch itself, the owners allowed her to purchase a house and 7 acres of land located on the ranch. She said God told her if she painted Pedernal , a mountain visible from the ranch, enough, he would give it to her. When she died her ashes were spread on Pedernal. We can fully understand why O’Keefe fell in love with this place. The beautiful colors, pinks, golds, and purples of the mountains, are outstanding, the pristine sky that serves as a backdrop, and the sense of peace and tranquility when you step onto the land - it is truly a very special place on our planet.

Georgia O'Keefe's Beloved Pedernal, Flat-Topped Mountain

Dining Hall at Ghost Ranch

We are taking the roundabout way to Great Sand Dunes, because we had to go by way of Las Cruces to get the tonneau cover for the truck installed. That done we head north toward Colorado, but by the time we get close to Albuquerque we notice the tires on the trailer are wearing very unevenly. A quick stop in Albuquerque to get an alignment and new tires on the trailer turned into 5 days, and we wound up leaving with our old tires back on the trailer. It seems there are no tires in New Mexico that will fit our trailer. We figure we might have better luck in Colorado. While waiting for tires in Albuquerque, we had a few good meals, including Jean-Pierre Creperie, which was really good. We visited the Botanical Gardens and Aquarium and drove to Santa Fe to visit Mission San Miguel and some of the art galleries along Canyon Road. We also took a day trip to Acoma Pueblo, which was on a holy day like when we visited the Taos Pueblo. This means no cameras or cell phones are allowed in the pueblo. While we were touring Acoma, some of the residents were involved in performing a rain dance. As we drove away from the parking lot, it began pouring down rain. A coincidence?

Acoma Pueblo on Top of Mesa

The next day, after waiting and waiting for the trailer, we departed Albuquerque fairly late in the afternoon. We only got to Santa Fe (again) where we spent the night before heading out for Great Sand Dunes National Park.

9) Mesa Verde National Park, July 12, - July 16, 2009

Now we are on the last leg of our journey to Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde is identified as one of the cultural parks within the park system. There are over 6000 archeological sites inside the park, ranging from pit houses to pueblos to cliff dwellings, and they are continually finding more: they found over 200 previously undiscovered sites after one of the fires in the last decade. We set up camp at the Morefield Campground in the park and headed for the visitor center. [By the way, if you are an RV camper headed that way, disregard the commercial literature and the park’s own literature that says no reservations are taken. The full hookup sites were all reserved when we got there.] At the visitor center, we browsed the museum exhibits then signed up to do four ranger-guided tours: Cliff Palace, Long House, Balcony House, and an evening tour of Cliff Palace. All of these are cliff dwellings, off-limits to unescorted park visitors.

Cliff Palace from the Mesa Top Loop Drive

The next day we spent exploring Wetherill Mesa, one of the two mesas in the park. This mesa is named for the ranch owners who “discovered” and did the first excavations of the ruins. Our first adventure was to take the self-guided Step House tour. The trail head is near the kiosk where we were to meet the tram for our second adventure, the Long House Tour, and we had gotten there early enough to do Step House before we had to meet the tram. This tour is self-guided, but a ranger is stationed at the ruins to not only protect them, but also to serve as a great source of information and archeological theories. The ranger was very engaging, and we spent more time talking to her than we should have, so we had to “hoof it” back to the kiosk for the tram, but ended up making it in plenty of time. The Step House site is especially interesting, because it had examples of dwellings from multiple time periods, including pit houses and cliff dwellings.

Step House

At the kiosk, we got an orientation briefing from the ranger before boarding the tram that took us to the trail head for the tour of the Long House ruins. This is the park’s most in-depth tour and encompasses the second largest cliff dwelling in the park. This one includes climbing two 15-foot ladders within the site, our first serious ladder climbing, but not the last or most serious. We were also able to climb in and around some of the dwelling spaces and kivas (sacred spaces) while learning from the ranger. After the tour, we re-boarded the tram, which continues a loop drive before it arrives back at the kiosk. Along the loop, there are multiple tram stops where one can get off to explore and get back on another tram as it comes by. We decided to get off at the Badger House Community Trail and the Nordenskiold Trail. The first one, as the name implies, is a stroll through a mesa-top community of excavated pit houses. The second, named for Gustaf Nordenskiold who did the first “professional” excavations with intricate note taking, took us along the rim of a small canyon allowing views of two of cliff dwellings, which he had explored. As we made our way back to the tram loop, we could see the tram coming to the trail head, but we were about 1/10th of a mile away, and it didn’t see us. The next one wasn’t due for another half hour, so we decided to hike the approximately ½ mile back to the kiosk. Hot! On our drive back to the campground, we stopped at Park Point, where a short trail leads up to the highest point in the park and an active fire lookout station. What a great view of the valleys below.

Long House on Wetherill Mesa

That evening, we headed back out of the campground, but this time went to Chapin Mesa for the Cliff Palace Twilight Tour. This tour is unusual, because it is lead by a ranger who is in character. Our ranger portrayed the first park superintendant, Jesse Nussbaum. It was very interesting to “visit” the park in its early days and learn about the issues of that time period. Some are still issues today. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in the park and has five ladders, including three 10-12 foot ladders that you must climb to leave the site. And to think we were going to have to do it again the next morning. As the sun went down, Cliff Palace takes on different looks as the shadows move and lengthen.

Ranger Portraying Jesse Nussbaum, First Superintendant of Mesa Verde NP

The next day was our “Chapin Mesa Day”. The first stop was the Chapin Mesa Museum, which has extensive exhibits of Native American culture and art. It turns out that Nordenskiold did a great job documenting his discoveries, but he also “made off” with thousands of artifacts that are still in a museum in Stockholm. He was briefly arrested, but it turned out that there was no law against the collection and transport of artifacts at that time. We didn’t finish seeing the museum, because we had an appointment for the Cliff Palace tour (having fun sure is a lot of hard work), but we would be back. Besides being the largest dwelling, Cliff Palace is the most popular, so the tour was full. This tour has a distinctly different character than the twilight tour and provides more information about the dwelling and its people.

Cliff Palace on Chapin Mesa

The Spruce Tree House was next, and it is the best-preserved cliff dwelling in the park. During this self-guided tour, we found two rangers at the site, one explaining the dwelling’s features and answering questions, while the other supervised the line of people waiting to enter the renovated kiva that is the only kiva in the park that visitors are allowed to enter. JEK was able to enter the kiva at the Alcove House back at Bandelier, but BYK was very interested to get this experience of a very important part of the ancients’ lives.

Leaving Kiva at Spruce Tree House

The Balcony House ranger-led tour is another very popular tour and entails climbing a 32-foot ladder, crawling through a 12-foot long tunnel, and climbing up a 60-foot open cliff face with stone steps and two 10-foot ladders to exit the site. The 32-foot ladder was bad enough, but the stone steps on the open cliff face just added insult to injury. This site is one of the ones that they are pretty sure was selected for protection because of the difficulties in accessing it. If they pulled up the 32-foot ladder, the only way in was through the VERY narrow tunnel, which must be done on hands and knees. This would obviously make the intruders very vulnerable. They aren’t exactly sure what the purpose of the balcony was, but think it was probably a means to access the second floor rooms.

Leaving Balcony House, First Through Tunnel

Then up the 32-Foot Ladder

We drove the Mesa Top Loop Road that takes you past sites covering almost 700 years of Mesa Verde history. On this road are 12 stops that take you to short pathways that make their way to pithouses, views of some of the cliff dwellings, and the Sun Temple. The exact purpose of Sun Temple is not known, but based on its features and lack of household artifacts found, it is believed to have had a ceremonial purpose.

Mesa Verde Canyon from Mesa Top Loop Drive

We went back and finished looking at the exhibits in the Chapin Mesa Museum and then drove to the Cedar Tree Tower and Kiva. An interesting feature of this site is the tunnel that connects the tower to the kiva. The passageway, it is believed, allowed dramatic entrances to the kiva during certain ceremonies.

Cedar Tree Kiva and Tower

The next day we went to the Anazasi Heritage Center outside of Dolores, CO about 15 miles from the park. The Center is another jewel of our trip and a must see for anybody visiting this area. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and located on the Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway. The Center traces the history and culture of the ancient people and stores 3.5 millions artifacts from sites in southwest Colorado. The exhibits are well done, including the complete reconstruction of a pithouse. From the center we went to Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, hiking to Lowry House, and Handprint Ruins; to Hovenweep National Monument, hiking part of the Rim Trail Loop (heat); and back to Mesa Verde.

Boulder House at Hovenweep

That night dinner in the Metate Room at the park lodge was delicious and the deer foraging for its dinner outside the window completed the picture as the sun set over the mesa rim. The next morning was laundry duty (what fun) and on to our next adventure.

On the way to Mesa Verde National Park, July 11 – July 12, 2009

Our next stop was at Monument Valley, and it is another WOW! experience. The valley is located on the Navajo Reservation in northeast Arizona, and there is major construction taking place. A new beautiful lodge with outstanding views of the valley has just opened and work is being completed on a new visitor center. There was a lot of chaos, but when it is all completed, it should be very nice. The temporary visitor center was supposed to be in the gift shop, but no one there seemed to know anything about it. Strange? We had a delightful lunch in the new restaurant and then decided to start trying to figure out the drill, since no one who worked there seemed to be very helpful. After talking with one of the tour guides who was just out in the parking lot we decided to take the 2 ½ hour tour which included a few extras, such as visiting a hogan. We were the only Americans on our tour, with a family of 7 or 8 Japanese, one or two of whom spoke english. One interesting bit of trivia that came out during the course of the tour is the fact there are several words in Japanese that are the same in the Navajo language, with the same meaning. In addition to being able to go into a hogan, the other highlight of our tour was being serenaded by our tour guide. We stopped at a large rock formation named the Big Hogan. He had us sit down on the ground and lean back against the rock, while he played a drum and sang three or four Navajo songs. There was an opening above us and a gentle rain began. The whole experience was magical. Instead of a lot of descriptive prose we are going to let our pictures speak for themselves.

Monument Valley - East and West Mitten with Merrick Butte

Horseback Rider at John Ford Point

Filming at Giant Ear

Face at Big Hogan

Guide with Cradleboard inside Hogan

Outside Hogan

From Monument Valley we went to Bluff, UT to spend the night. The campground owner’s mother (long story) told us about the goosenecks of the San Juan River so we had to go have a look that evening. At this point, the river, which is cut into a deep canyon, makes three sharp hairpin turns (often referred to as horseshoe bends) in a short distance. Standing on the canyon rim, the view is impressive.

Gooseneck - First Hairpin

Gooseneck - Second Hairpin

Gooseneck - Third Hairpin

The next morning we got up and headed for Four Corners. It too is on Navajo land and is extremely commercial. People were milling all around, and you have to get in line for your chance to stand in four states at once and in a separate line to take photos from a platform. There was a cooperative effort; because we couldn’t one be in line taking pictures, and both be in the photo, we found others with the same problem, and we took each other’s pictures. Also, we had heard the rumor (in fact the mom at the Bluff Utah campground “confirmed” it and said that she had KNOWN it for years) that the monument is not correctly located. So, I brought my portable GPS, and checked it out. I was getting particularly good satellite signals and had only a +/- 15-foot error circle. The GPS confirmed that the actual location and the monument location were well within this error circle. The rumor indicates that they’re much farther apart than that. Time for more photos.

Four Corners

Barbara and Johnny on Four Corners

Four Corners Monument

8) Petrified Forest National Park, July 8, 2009

At Homolovi, we were less than 50 miles from the south entrance of Petrified Forest National Park, so the drive was short to say the least. We went to the visitor center at the Rainbow Forest Museum, watched a video about the creation of the petrified wood, and talked to the ranger about the must-see and -do activities at the park. We hiked the 0.4 mile loop Giant Logs Trail by the visitor center and saw some gorgeous examples of petrified wood, including the park’s largest log known as “Old Faithful.” The various colors found within the wood depend on the minerals present, mainly iron and manganese in differing amounts. Iron produces the mustard, red, orange, ochre, and black, while manganese will produce blue, purple, brown, and black. Other minerals, such as carbon, cobalt, and chromium are present in smaller amounts and have an effect on the color, as well as crystals, found in the wood.

Colorful Petrified Wood

We decided to travel the 28-mile long park road to see the sites and hike a few of the trails. The temperature was approaching 100°, so hiking would be kept to the shorter trails. Our first stop along the road was Crystal Forest . The only crystals left are those embedded in logs, due to earlier souvenir taking (definitely against the law) by visitors. We went to Jasper Forest and then to Agate Bridge where one of the petrified logs lies across a small ravine creating a way to cross the rift. In the past, a support structure was built under the log to keep it from falling into the ravine. Current park philosophy would not allow this structure to be built today. The thought now is to let nature take its course. Blue Mesa is a three-mile loop road that crosses some badlands and takes the visitor past more pertrified logs with some in interesting formations. The Teepees, as the name implies, are cone shaped formations with layers in shades of blue, gray, and purple, based on the mineral content. They are impressive and quite large. Newspaper Rock is a small area of over 650 petroglyphs and Puerco Pueblo is the ruins of a large community that is thought to have been the home of approximately 1200 residents around 1250. We stopped at the Route 66 roadside exhibit and then drove on to the Lacey Point overlook of the Painted Desert, and the view did not disappoint. There are several overlooks along this stretch of the road that give the visitor varying views of the desert. We went into the Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark now a museum to its history. Our next stop was the Painted Desert Visitor Center where we had Navajo tacos for lunch. They are made on Navajo frybread with regular taco filling plus a Navajo chili, and they are yummy. We have mentioned the frybread earlier, especially the blue corn frybread, and it is very tasty.

Agate Bridge

The Teepees

Newspaper Rock - Can You See the Petroglyphs?

Old Route 66 Defined by Telephone Poles - I40 in Distance

Painted Desert Vista

We left the Petrified Forest and headed toward Canyon de Chelly National Monument on the Navajo Reservation in the northeast corner of Arizona. The canyon is still the summer home to several Navajo families who farm on the canyon floor. There are actually two main canyons, Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly and three smaller, side canyons. These are contained within the canyon walls, which rise 1000 feet in some areas and are a beautiful terra cotta color with lush, green cottonwood trees below and a stunning cerulean sky above. We opted to take the all-day, Navajo-guided tour in a Korean-era troop-transport truck that was open to the sun, leading to an apt nickname “the shake and bake tour”. Four-wheel drive is an absolute necessity to drive in the canyon, and one must have a Navajo guide either in your own vehicle or theirs. The all-day option takes you much further into the canyon than any other choice, and we got close-up views of many cliff dwellings, ground-level pueblos, petroglyphs, and pictographs, besides the amazing rock formations and current summer homes and farms. The next day, we took the north rim and the south rim drives for a completely different view of the canyon, rather like flying over it. And while staying at the campground, we attended two very good evening Ranger Programs presented by rangers who are Navajo and life-long residents of the area. It was very interesting to hear and compare their oral traditions with the Puebloan peoples’. There are many similarities.

Entrance to Canyon de Chelly

Mummy Cave Ruins with Our Chariot in Foreground

Taking a Lunch Break with Our Korean War Deuce and a Half Troop Carrier

800-Foot Spider Rock

White House Ruins

View of Canyon Floor from Rim Drive

Antelope House Ruins from Rim with Corn Fields on Right

On the way to Petrified Forrest, July 2 - July 8, 2009

We’ll spare you all the details of purchasing a new truck 1500 miles from home and getting it ready for the road and towing a trailer. We had to go back through Silver City one last time to pick up the trailer and head for Phoenix and Taliesin West; Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter studio and school. We camped at a KOA campground outside of Phoenix at Apache Junction. We have been pleasantly surprised at the quality and consistency of features offered at the KOA campgrounds and look for them when state or national parks are not available. Our goal, as stated earlier was Taliesin, and it did not disappoint. The structures Wright designed were earthy, natural and blended so well with the desert. Low slung and with ample glass they offered views of the desert as if you are in the open instead of enclosed. We took the Insight Tour because it allowed access the living areas of the house. We got to sit in the Wright designed chairs in his 56 foot long living room that served as the center of entertaining at Taliesin. While we did not learn much new about Wright, we were able to see another example of his work and marvel at his genius. We have been students of Wright’s work for many years and Taliesin West confirmed many of the principles he used in his “organic architecture”, using native materials, blending into the landscape and his belief that form and function are one.

Taliesin Front Entry

Petroglyph Rock in Front of Frank Lloyd Wright's Office

Totally rejuvenated from being at Taliesin (there is a magic to many of Wright’s sights), we headed to a delightful lunch at Bistro Italia, another example of serendipity while exploring. We were looking for another restaurant, which turned out to be closed for the summer (guess they didn’t need the business), and happened upon the bistro. Their food was fresh; think marinara with fresh tomatoes and garlic-YUMMM- and made you want to lick the plate.

Our next stop was Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Two interesting features of this Monument are the location in the middle of the flat Gila River Valley and the hundreds of miles of canals that crisscross the valley floor. The ruins of this farming community are centered around a four story structure that had been named Casa Grande by early Spanish explorers. The four walls are aligned with the four cardinal compass points, and the openings in the walls that align with certain times in the solar and lunar calendars, perhaps aided in the farming cycle.

Casa Grande Ruins

Montezuma’s Castle was next, and its setting, about 60 feet above the canyon floor in a typical cliff-dwelling recess, made it a little more accessible than some of the cliff dwellings we earlier visited. It is known as one of the best preserved dwellings to exist today, but since the early fifties they have removed the access ladders and now do not allow people to tour the structure. We will let our picture be worth a thousand words of description.

Montezuma's Castle

If you ever want a jaw-dropping, take your breath away, heart stopping moment, travel highway 179 into Sedona, Arizona. As you round a curve just outside of town, out of the landscape pops the red rock buttes of Sedona set against a vivid azure sky and lush green summer foliage. WOW! Sedona is encircled by and has grown among these magnificent rocks, buttes, and cliffs. All we can say is what a setting and what gorgeous views are in a 360° panorama. Sedona is known for its vistas, art community and vortexes, and we got to include all in our visit. We visited the most accessible vortex, Airport Mesa. It is an upflow vortex and is supposed to connect one with the planet’s spiritual nature in an uplifting, inspiring manner with positive energy. Perhaps not being true believers affected our experience, but the views from the top of the mesa were so phenomenal we almost forgot about the vortex. We visited many galleries and saw some really beautiful artwork. That for us is such a relaxing, peaceful activity, to be able to see the results of someone’s God-given talents. And there is a lot of that talent in Sedona. While we didn’t buy anything, prices where we were looking were a little in the stratosphere, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We drove the Oak Creek Canyon and Overlook Drive. It is in some ways reminiscent of some of the drives in the Smokies that follow a roaring mountain stream that is bordered by lush foliage. The main difference is that you are winding your way to the top of the canyon. When you get to the top the view of the canyon is wonderful with the canyon walls thickly covered by Ponderosa pines. At one stop on the way to the top, people could be seen swimming from a sandbar in the middle of the creek. Just wondered how cool the water was in this mountain stream. We also drove the Red Rock Loop Drive that turned into an interesting adventure on another dirt road with beautiful vistas. They both (beautiful vistas and dirt roads) seem to be abundant in the southwest. Pictures will give you a good idea of the beauty of Sedona, but like the Grand Canyon, they can’t quite do it justice.

Sedona Vista

More Sedona Rock

Another adventure that we had during our stay in the Sedona area was a trip to Tuzigoot National Monument--more ancient ruins. When we got into Sedona we set up camp at Lolomai Campground and headed to Tuzigoot the next morning after a few chores. Tuzigoot was hot, and the trail to and around the ruins was paved but very steep in several places. However, we were provided with an intimate look at the interesting community setting, and could enjoy the same beautiful view of the Verde Valley that the ancient Sinagua people had; especially from the roof of the upper-most dwelling. Again we gained a little more insight into the history of America that was not provided during our education (and may still be lacking).

Tuzigoot Ruins

Still heading for Petrified Forrest National Park and Painted Desert, we decide to stop in at Meteor Crater. On the way to this private, commercial attraction, we were reading about other Arizona features and decided that Walnut Canyon National Monument deserved a diversion. This was another pleasant surprise addition. In hiking the Island Trail, we came across a lot of cliff dwellings, many of which we were allowed to enter. One amazing aspect of this community (it is indeed a community, even though the clusters of cliff dwellings are separated by several hundred yards and a deep canyon) is that almost all of the dwellings are located about mid-way down the cliff faces. This means that they are about 185 feet below the mesa top and about 220 feet from the canyon floor and their source of water. So, daily (in fact, probably several times a day), women and children (because the men had important meditating and stuff) had to climb treacherous paths, which are mostly vertical using small hand and foot holes chipped into the stone, down to the river to fetch water and return carrying their precious load. Man! The other trail that we took at Walnut Canyon is the Rim Trail. This, as you might expect, follows the canyon rim for excellent views, but then it circles back over the mesa past several mesa-top ruins and un-excavated sites. Very interesting.

Canyons at Walnut Canyon

At least one of us was a little skeptical about the commercial Meteor Crater attraction. However, it turned out to be really well done. The museum provides a coherent and interesting explanation of the crater formation and some of the history of its exploration and theories of its formation. Early theories included the idea that it was formed by a volcano, and it does have that appearance to an untrained eye. We took a guided tour of part of the rim and got some more history and a close-up view of an early mining shack (one early owner was sure that the meteor had left valuable minerals below the crater floor) that was later used as a visitor center, now in ruins. We also took the self-guided “tour”, which takes one out to two large viewing platforms that provide good views of the crater and include free, pre-focused sets of binoculars for viewing specific details. Meteor Crater was well worth the short side-trip and cost.

Meteor Crater

Since it was getting on into the afternoon, we found a State Park to camp in for the night; Homolovi Ruins State Park, AZ. At the risk of sounding repetitive, this was another surprise find. There are acres of mostly unexplored ruins with pottery shards just laying around. We only had a short time to explore before sunset, and we headed out early the next morning, headed for the Petrified Forrest. This leaves us yet another place to come back to. (I think we’ll need another lifetime to do all of this.)

Homolovi Ruins (unexcavated)