Southern Utah or bust...

Well fellow travelers, I have been taking much too much time to get us to one of the most amazing places on earth - Southern Utah. I will be taking us to 6 National Parks and a couple of National Monuments that stretch from Mesa Verde in Colorado to the Western border of Utah to Zion National Park. What a spectacular end to a magnificent trip. But I am getting too far ahead of myself. Let's head to Moab, UT and begin to see some of the most amazing scenery imaginable.

But first, I go in search of a bracelet. However, there is a slight internal problem. For dinner last night at the rodeo I had red beans and rice. I have been meat free for over four years now. I went meatless in hopes of losing weight and making myself healthier. I am sure I am the later, but the former is still a major struggle. The problem with the prior night's dinner was that it came with some sausage that I threw out but it also included some other meat that I could not see due to the gravy of the red beans. I think it is the fat from the meat that makes me sick to my stomach. My system is just not used to having all that fat all at once. We will just leave it at an upset stomach.

I still headed to downtown Gallup to visit the trading posts in hopes of finding a Zuni Indian bracelet with small pieces of turquoise in a setting called needlepoint. Most turquoise bracelets have various sizes of stone set in silver. Turquoise stones run the gamut from dark blue to dark green with a mixture of black mineral as well. Depending on where the turquoise is mined will determine the mixture of other minerals included in the stones.

On the other hand, needlepoint are thin pieces of of pure blue turquoise set in silver usually no more than 1/2 inch long set in rows. Finding needlepoint bracelets is fairly easy the hard part is finding one that is no wider than about an inch that will fit my wrist. Unfortunately needlepoint bracelets that fit my wrist are normally much larger than one inch wide.

I went to two different trading posts in Gallup with no luck finding such a bracelet. There were some beautiful bracelets with turquoise stones that on most other occasions I would have purchased, but my ace in the hole was that the Zuni Reservation is less than an hour south of Gallup. I thought for sure I would be able to go to the res and find a bracelet. Wrong. I went to a couple of trading posts on the reservation but literally just did not have the stomach for driving to individual artists homes/studios to look. On top of that, Moab is a couple of hours East and North of Gallup so my bracelet hunting adventure was taking me in the wrong direction as well as making my upset stomach feel just great. :)

The hunt for a delicate needlepoint bracelet that fits my big wrist will continue another day. It just gives me a good reason to go back some day to visit the artists in their studios and find one who will work with me to make a bracelet. Off to Moab.

The trip to Moab took me back to Gallup and then back to Canyon de Chelly and Four Corners and up into Utah. It was fun to see the different rock formations along the way to Moab. I have included one that just stuck up out of the desert. The other fun part of the drive was to see the mesas off on either side of me and then to make a sweeping turn or change direction by changing highways and realize that I had been driving on top of a mesa and the change in direction gave me a sweeping view of the valley below. Just amazing.

The formations started to change color and texture and then - the first arch. About 30 minutes south of Moab is Wilson Arch. Just a tease of what will come tomorrow in Arches National Park but being just off the highway and being all by itself - and being the first one - make it more than spectacular. And it is a huge arch as well as you can tell by the size of the family that climbed up to take some pictures from inside the arch itself.

As I arrived at my campsite it was inhabited by a couple of rabbits. I think their front door was under the bush in my campsite as they were coming going each morning and evening. They were panting from heat which I should have taken more notice of at the time.

If not for my silliness of eating the red beans and rice, I would have stopped to take some pictures of the rock formations and the Zuni Reservation but alas, it was difficult enough driving that far this day with out stopping. Thankfully the stomach issues only lasted the one day and so I will be back on my over zealous schedule tomorrow.

Thanks for traveling along and off to Arches and Canyonland National Parks.

Michael

Indian lands...

I have wanted to visit the Four Corners area for a long time. It's almost too good to be true and it is the place of my biggest mistake of the entire trip.

The Four Corners is the only place in the USA where you can have 1 foot and 1 hand in an entirely different state of the Union - the place where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona come together to meet. Strangely enough it is called Four Corners and weirder still it was in the wrong place for the last millennia. But more on that later.

My first stop of the day was at Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay). This is the land of the Navajo and the site of my biggest mistake of the trip. Many of the cliff dwellings are no longer inhabited but there are some that have been continuously inhabited for thousands of years.

I have wanted to visit Canyon de Chelly for years. You can only visit the floor of the Canyon on a tour provided by one of the many Native American Tour Companies. They have 2 tours a day - 9 and 1. I had gotten a late start and misjudged the timing of the travel from Gallup to the Canyon so I did not arrive until after 10. Actually, as usual I made some unplanned stops and did not make it by 9.

What I should have done is gone ahead to Monument Valley and come back to the Canyon for the 1 PM tours, but I did not. I just drove the North Rim to view some of the cliff dwellings from above. But on the positive side, I will just have to visit again some time soon so I can see the Canyon floor.

The first stop on the North Rim was massacre cave. So called because of an Indian Massacre by the Spanish in 1805. This is not a dwelling but just a cave used for defense and now a just sacred site. No real structures were built, but there are what look like sheets of rock that would have been used for protection - unfortunately, just not enough protection.

Near Massacre Cave is Mummy Cave. This dwelling was occupied by people who migrated from Mesa Verde and was occupied until the late 1200's up to about 1300 - pretty much the same as the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings that I will visit in a couple of days from now. This is one of the largest dwellings in the Canyon. If you take the tour of the Canyon, you get to see these locations from the canyon floor; but, you also get to see the dwellings that are still occupied.

There is also a picture of the current dwelling located on the floor of the Canyon near the Mummy Cave site. The circular building to the left is a Hogan. This is the traditional sacred house for the Navajo. Some live in the Hogan but most people have a traditional home and use the Hogan for ceremonies.

The last stop on the North Rim was to view the Antelope House. This location is known for its unusual circular plaza built in the 1300's and for its petroglyphs. By now it is almost noon and the sun has moved such that it was difficult to see the walls near the Antelope House ruins. There was a sign board at the top of the canyon that talked about the petroglyphs and where they were positioned. Well, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good - and this time luck paid off. I guessed where they were located and the picture came out great. Should've bought a lottery ticket!

After viewing some great ruins, shear walls and formations from above at Canyon de Chelly, apinon nut and a little creation of my own, it was off to Four Corners to take one of the most unique pictures you can have and I had what I thought was a unique way of taking that picture.

While on the way out of the Canyon, proof of the open range concept for horses was clearly visible.

I am off to Monument Valley. These rock formations are familiar to me from the Saturday afternoon movies at the Uptown Theater in Indy and from the many Westerns that were TV in the 60's and early 70's. I swear that I could point out several from those shows. I just loved driving by and stopping and looking at these formations. Pulling off to the side of the road I could see the stage coach being chased by the band of robbers and being chased by the pissed-off Indians. In a movie history tome, I read a story about when the American Indians spoke in their native language on camera some were actually making fun of the movie makers. Not sure if it is true, but it makes watching the old westerns more fun. :)

Now to visit 4 states at once!

To get to 4 Corners from the East you take 1 State Highway across the Navajo Reservation and turn to take another for 6 miles to get to the epicenter. Not until I got to the gates did I find out that it was closed! Closed? WHAT?!! The scuttlebut at the gate was that the location of the monument and where all the pictures that have ever been taken at 4 Corners was in the wrong place. All the former pictures of people standing with foot in each of 2 states and 1 hand in each of 2 states - was not that at all. They had it in the wrong place! Couldn't they have told me that 6 miles ago? They told people coming from the West 18 miles ago that it was closed. I doubt that I would have not gone to see for myself anyway. Drat! Double DRAT!!

How can it be in the wrong place? And if it is, how would anyone know?? Since all the land around for miles is the Navajo Reservation, there is no chance that someone else can come along and claim the 4 Corners is actually on their property. What difference does it make if the site that all the previous pictures have been taken at are actually in New Mexico and not the 4 Corners - who would know? Well, all you with pictures at 4 Corners have to go back again because your picture is not in the right place. Good luck with that!

Back to Gallup. What a disappointment. :(

After driving back to Gallup I decided to attend the Jr. High School National Rodeo Finals. These are 6th , 7th and 8th graders from 48 states (No Alaska nor New York of all states) and 2 other countries (Canada and Australia). These kids participate in singles and pairs in typical rodeo events. The young crazies, er I mean men, even ride BULLS - WOW! They were all having fun and as you might imagine the largest contingent of participants were from the traditional rodeo states - Texas, Oklahoma, etc. Fun to watch!

Thanks for traveling along with me today. Tomorrow is the Zuni reservation in search of a bracelet.

Michael