Agathla Peak

Agathla Peak, or El Capitan as it is also known, is a
very large volcanic plug that rises 1500 feet above
the valley floor, north of Kayenta Arizona. There are
dozens of these in the Four Corners area, the most
famous of which is Shiprock, in northwest New Mexico.
Agathla was originally a large volcano on the Colorado
Plateau but when it became dormant millions of years
ago, erosion took it's toll and all but the core
weathered away. It's visible for miles around and is
a major landmark in the Kayenta Valley.

Monument Valley

If there is one place that is iconic and
stereotypical of all things "Wild West", it
would have to be Monument Valley. Even more
than the canyon, it's buttes and vistas are
recognizable to most around the world. From
TV commercials for cars, to magazine ads for
toothpaste, it's pretty much seen it all.


We spent the night at Goulding's Lodge.
http://www.gouldings.com/english/index.htm
It's the only lodging in the valley and provides
great service and friendly staff. We stayed
here about 10 years ago and have been by
several times on our way through for lunch.
Each room has it's own view and since it was
nearly a full moon, we got a view both night
and day. It was originally a trading post
opened in the 1920's by Harry Goulding and
his wife "Mike". Lifelong friends of the
Navajo, Harry brought famous Hollywood director
John Ford out for a visit and the rest was
history. Ford made several famous movies
in Monument Valley with John Wayne, including
"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Stagecoach".


Other movies have been made in the Valley,
including "The Eiger Sanction" with Clint
Eastwood and Back to the Future 3. In other
words...some good, some bad! Nonetheless,
one of the famous views often used is from
a location called John Ford's Point. We
took the dirt road in our own vehicle, but
if we were with a Navajo-led tour, a person
on a horse would go out to the point to pose
for the tourists. Kind of hokey, but nonetheless
a famous photograph. I have one of these photos
from several years ago, but it's buried somewhere
in our storage unit...oh well.


As I stated, you can either take a tour or make
the loop drive through the valley on your own.
It's 17 miles round trip and gives you some
flexibility. We've been here before, but if
it's your first time, and you have a spare 40
bucks or so, it's definitely worth it to take
the tour. I took the Goulding's tour back in
1991 and it was really informative. With the
tour you also get to see some views you wouldn't
see, some Ancient Puebloan (Anasazi) petroglyphs
and get to visit the hogan of a local Navajo
family.


There are a handful of Navajo families that
still live in Monument Valley in all states
of modernization. Tourists are asked not to
intrude on their lives and I would like to
think that most people don't. We met a few
at overlooks and viewpoints throughout the
valley including one young woman with her
baby that was outgoing and somewhat chatty.
Many Navajo are fairly reserved and quiet.
Some might confuse this as rudeness but it
is just their way. The Navajo are a good
people and are just trying to lead a nice
life like most tourists that come to see them.


After leaving the valley, we drove about 15
miles into Utah for the famous highway photo
that has been seen everywhere from "Forrest
Gump" to the newest cover of Lonely Planet's
"Southwest USA" guidebook. I never seem to
be there when the sun is just right and don't
have the professional cameras that some use,
but it's a fun place to be. Not too many
places around that one can sit in the middle
of the road and even if you can see a car
coming, it's ten miles away on the horizon.
While we were there, a couple of people
rode their heavily laden bikes past us,
looking like they were on a very long trip.
We took their pictures and left them a note
farther down the road letting them know that
we would send them the pix if they emailed us.
No word from them yet, but maybe someday.

Grand Canyon at Night

Since we stayed on the South Rim and were lucky enough
to be there on the night of a full moon, we took a stroll
to the rim to see what we could see. Granted, there isn't
much to see in the dark...a big hole and a big dark hole
at that, but I was pretty amazed how quiet it was and
how much we could see. We even saw a meteor from the
Leonid Meteor Shower over the canyon. Pretty special
stuff. Because I haven't seen a lot of pictures of the
Canyon at night on the web, I thought I would post one.

The Grand Canyon

We got back on the road again (can't seem to stay too
long in one place) and headed to the Grand Canyon and
Northern Arizona. I'll be writing about some of the
things we saw over the next few days. Even though this
was my sixth trip to the Canyon over the last 15 years,
it never fails to amaze. People have asked me what it
is like. I tell them that it is so big that it looks
fake...like a movie set. One almost expects to see some
prop people moving the screen aside on the soundstage to
prepare for the next scene. The last few times we've
visited, it has been in the late fall season and every
year it seems to get more and more crowded. Fairly soon,
I believe that late December through January will be the
only time of the year that will not be crowded and only
then because of the threat of winter snowstorms. We had
great weather. It was in the 50's during the day and got
down into the low 20's overnight. Since we stayed at the
Maswik Lodge (kind of a park-owned motel) on the South Rim,
we were able to get an early start both of the days we
were there. Nothing fancy about the Maswik. Motel-type
rooms with outdoor entrances, but they were clean, and
since it's the off-season, reasonably priced. We had
dinner at the Maskwik cafeteria and it wasn't
reasonable, but the food was ok.


One of our favorite stops at the Canyon is Hermit's Rest.
It's a little cabin/giftstore that is at the far end of
the west drive. I remember the "good old days" when you
could drive all the way to Hermit's Rest in your own
vehicle, but now you can only do it for most of the year
in a park-owned bus. It works out ok but it still doesn't
beat the flexibility of having your own vehicle. Inside
Hermit's Rest is a huge fireplace that would humble any
yule log. Overall, the location is really quiet and peaceful
and a long way from all the activity at the other South Rim
locations. While we were in the village we took advantage
of parking our car at one central location and using the
"Blue Route" bus that takes you to all of the major locations
on the South Rim. Although I found the Red "West Rim/Hermit's
Rest" bus to be kind of a pain, the Blue Route bus worked out
really well. Besides acting as kind of a guided tour to all
of the locations, it goes almost everywhere, giving both
tourists and employees a good transit system.



Probably my favorite place at the Canyon is Desert View.
Besides having interesting architecture by Mary Colter,
http://www.kaibab.org/gc/images/mjcolter.htm
it's got great views of the Colorado River and the Painted
Desert. Recently they implemented a new parking scheme at
Desert View that isn't very popular with many of the visitors.
They built a large parking lot 1/4 mile from the rim that a
lot of elderly and disabled people are having problems with.
I spoke with a woman who worked at the bookstore at Desert
View and she told me that many people were very upset and that
the Park was going to explore using a shuttle system in the
future. I didn't find it to be a huge problem, but I could
definitely see that it would be for some.

Home Delivery

I've been receiving (or not receiving occasionally)
the Santa Fe New Mexican (the local newspaper)
for about a month now. Ok...boring stuff you say.
Yes, I am still one of the dwindling few that
enjoys reading a newspaper every day. I grew up
in a family that religiously read the paper every
day as well. At one time in my life, I would
read four different papers every Sunday, and if I
could subscribe to the Chicago Tribune on a daily
basis here in New Mexico I would. Ok, I will now
go out to get a life and maybe some therapy. For
the present though, I am having delivery problems
with the Santa Fe New Mexican. For the first ten
days of my subscription, I did not receive a paper.
Hmmm...what could be going wrong here? (Maybe I
should have accepted it as an omen) I called the
local office and in various forms of kindness,
disgust, anger and hopefullness, I spoke to
several people and eventually began receiving
my paper. We live on a secluded street (a dirt
road actually) only minutes from the Plaza, but
as is the case with many homes in this area,
they couldn't find our address. We live at an
address that begins with 229 1/2. The address
gods of Santa Fe didn't put 229 1/2 next to 229.
Why? I don't know. To confuse newspaper people
apparently. So, who got my paper for almost two
weeks? 229. To make matters worse there's also
a 229A, 229B and 229C. The New Mexican said they
were delivering it. Yes, they were...but if it
went to the wrong address...they weren't delivering
it to ME! So several weeks go by and I'm getting
my paper every day...Yahoo! Wait...there's more.
I get a phone call from my delivery person, wanting
to know how to find our house. Apparently they
have a program in place that if the delivery person
doesn't deliver your paper, their supervisor does
it for them. I've been getting it delivered by the
supervisor for the last two weeks! He explained to
me that everytime I called to complain, he had $1.50
removed from his salary...B-O-O-H-O-O. So I explain
to him where we are located and I think all is well.

This morning I received three newspapers...SIGH.

Tia Sophia's

Went to Tia Sophia's today for lunch. It's been
voted the best place in Santa Fe for breakfast
burritos, but has great lunches too. Always
a good mix of tourists and locals, it's not
uncommon to hear Spanish, English and just
about any other language floating about the
place. Today there was even a singing
customer/waiter combo that seemed a little
odd, but overall, added to the ambience.
The combo plate and enchildas we had were
great as usual and the sopapillas are some
of the best around. Get "Christmas" as
I've found both green and red equally good.
Next time you might be on San Francisco
Street, drop in.

Mesa Verde

The next day, we left Farmington New Mexico for the
90 mile drive to Mesa Verde National Park
http://www.nps.gov/meve
Farmington is a great little town that has one of
the best public libraries I've ever visited. It's
shaped somewhat like a hogan and is very open and new.
http://www.infoway.org
Once we left Farmington, we drove through Cortez,
Colorado and visited the Visitor's Center at
Mesa Verde. Much of the park is closed because
of the impending winter season, but much is still
open and we found that although there were still
quite a few people there, it was fairly quiet.
We had time to visit one ruin thoroughly, so we
chose Spruce Tree House. We had been here ten
years ago and little had changed. It is the best
preserved of all of the ruins and is only a small
walk into a forested canyon.


Much of Mesa Verde was re-discovered by accident
over 100 years ago by local ranchers, looking for
wayward cows. 2006 marks the 100th anniversary of
Mesa Verde being a National Park.


One nice aspect of Spruce Tree House is a restored
kiva that can be entered from above. It's very dark
inside, but once your eyes adjust it's fairly bright.
Not a place for the claustrophobic, some choose not
to enter, but it's a very peaceful place and only the
fact that others are waiting their turn to enter causes
one to feel the need to leave.


The most famous dwelling at Mesa Verde is Cliff Palace.
Although it was still open for a few more days this
season, we opted not to visit up close, but chose the
upper views instead. It's a huge place with hundreds
of rooms and many kivas. I had read only days earlier
that it may have served as an "administrative center"
for the area, not actually as living quarters. We will
probably never know. What I do know, is that there is
no better time of the year to visit national parks such
as Mesa Verde. The weather is near perfect and the
crowds are very small.

Chaco

The travel bug was biting us again so we took
off on a small trip for a few days. Our first
stop was Chaco Culture National Historic Park
http://www.nps.gov/chcu
To get to Chaco you really have to be wanting
to go there. You know where the middle of
nowhere is? This is past that, and at the end
of a 20 mile dirt road as well. Chaco is
probably the best example of Anasazi architecture
in the Southwest and is the closest thing to a
city they had.


Most anthropologists believe that it was a
cultural center for the Anasazi and they
used it as a central meeting place once a
year. As the area is very dry, and was
even pretty dry during the time they lived
here, there wasn't enough arable land around
to feed everyone if they had lived here on
a permanent basis. There have been a large
number of roads found leading to and from
Chaco and it was also a center of early
astronomy.


Many of the building interiors are in great
shape. Some have been reconstructed as well.
Most of the rooms are very small and dimly
lit, but all seem to interconnect in one way
or another.


While exploring one of the more isolated ruins,
I came upon some pot shards. As it is the rule,
I left them where they were, but it was really
really tempting to take them with me. Hopefully
others who may stumble upon them will do the same.

Salinas Pueblo Missions

About an hour south of Albuquerque are the Salinas Pueblo Missions
http://www.nps.gov/sapu
The Tiwa and Tompiro Puebloan Indians had lived in the area for
hundreds of years, until the 16th century, when Spanish missionaries
came to the area and changed it forever. Building large mission churches
in the area, they coexisted with the Puebloans and "converted" many.


By the 1670's, both the Puebloans and the Spanish had left, leaving
nature to take over and the missions fell into ruins.


Nature took over until the mid-twentieth century, when the State of
New Mexico, and then the National Park Service, took over the three
sites of Abo, Quarai and Gran Quivira and made them a National
Monument.


Signs are present to let us know that we're not the only ones checking
out the ruins!

That's Good Eatin'!

In the mood for "comfort food", we headed to Frontier Restaurant in
Albuquerque. http://www.frontierrestaurant.com
They've been around Albuquerque since 1971 and have been serving
the community and the University of New Mexico area ever since.
Coming back from a day-trip, we had a taste for a steak but finances
for a sandwich, so driving down Central Avenue we were spying out
locations when all of a sudden, there we were. I had read about Frontier
back in May on the blog, Dukecityfix http://www.dukecityfix.com
They gave it good reviews, and I have to agree with them. Their menu
is huge, and it has a Dennys-esque feel to it, but much better food
and a much cooler feel.


Once you walk in the door, you realize how big the place is. It's got
about 5 big dining areas, including one called the Duke Room that
has a monstrous painting of John Wayne on one wall. The green
chile was recently voted best in Albuquerque and we'll try that next
time. What was most interesting was the diversity of the people
eating there. Couples, families, old, young, students, etc. Next
time on Central Avenue, give it a try.

Bandelier National Monument

Today we re-visited Bandelier National Monument
http://www.nps.gov/band
We felt a small hike was in order and Bandelier is an easy jaunt
not too far from Santa Fe, only about 45 minutes away. I was
really surprised how busy it was on a weekday. We were last
here in 1999 and had the place pretty much to ourselves. Don't
get me wrong, it wasn't anything like queing up at the South Rim
of the Grand Canyon or at Old Faithful in Yellowstone on a mid-July
day, but for a little-visited park, it seemed crowded...especially in
late October. Anyway, Bandelier is a great site for seeing a little bit
of everything about the Ancient Puebloan (Anasazi) people. There
is a fairly large traditional dwelling (pictured above) named Tyuonyi
on the canyon floor as well as Talus dwellings on the canyon walls,
although occupied at the same time, at least to me, seem almost
more reminiscent of the Mogollon culture as opposed to that of the
Anasazi.



There are several places along the walls of Frijoles Canyon where
Petroglyphs are very visible to the naked eye. It really helps to have
morning light hitting the walls to make them as visible as possible.
Luckily they are high enough on the walls to make them less
susceptible to vandalism.


The most popular features of Bandelier are the remains of the Talus
cliff dwellings that are scattered along the northeast walls of Frijoles
Canyon. Most of them weren't occupied as just caves, but had small
dwellings (now long gone) attached to the front. The talus was formed
by the volcanic ash of several huge eruptions over a million years ago.
To this day, the talus is very soft and easy to work with.
Bandelier is a great place to spend at least a half day (more if possible)
and it's a nice escape from day to day urban life.

Model Train Show

Last weekend we attended the 8th annual
Santa Fe Model Train Show. It was cheap
entertainment and we ended up having a
good time.



Of course there were lots of families there, but
there was also a good cross section of the
community there as well.



These folks take their trains very seriously and have
quite a bit of money wrapped up in their hobby. I
was most impressed by the amount of effort they put
into the miniature scenes, complete with realistic
buildings and landscaping.

Donde Viven Alpacas

While driving through northern New Mexico, we came
upon a large alpaca ranch named Victory Ranch.
http://www.victoryranch.com near the small town of
Mora. They own, breed, sell and board many hundreds
of alpacas. While you're there, you can feed them, pet
them and generally spend as much time around them as
you'd like.


We also saw a baby alpaca that was born just days before
we visited. Victory Ranch has a 3000 square foot
retail store that sells anything and everything alpaca,
including clothing, yarn, weaving looms, etc.


Generally, it's a great place for families, tourists and
anyone that enjoys animals. We had a really nice
time and it's only a 2 hour drive from Santa Fe or
3 hours from Albuquerque. The alpacas would love
to see you!

The End of the World

The end of the world is coming (maybe) to a
television screen near you. Well, not the
Armageddon type fire and brimstone scene
where small children duck and cover under
desks...but pretty darn close. I am a Cubs Fan.
I'm not ashamed of it. In fact I'm very proud of
it. At least 4 generations of my family have been
Cubs fans (except for one rebellious aunt...rest her
soul). What is the reason for my anxiety you may
ask? There is a real possibility of the white sox
making it to the World Series. Not only that...
the st. louis cardinals may be joining them there.
I know...you're saying...What's the big deal?
It's only baseball. But to a Cubs fan, it's the worst
possible thing that could happen. Three of the
four teams Cubs fans dislike most are still in the
playoffs. We also dislike houston, but not as much
as st. louis. How does one cheer for roger clemens
or that smirky craig biggio. However, if it comes to
houston vs the white sox in the World Series...I
will be the biggest astros fan in the world. Stay
tuned...blood curdling screams of angst may be
imminent.

No Surprise

I found this headline in the Santa Fe New Mexican
on Saturday. Anyone who's ever looked at real
estate in Santa Fe knows that it's outrageously
expensive and newspaper articles don't need to
spell it out. "Californians remain an important
part of the Santa Fe real-estate market".
Hmmmm...not surprising considering that's
been happening throughout the West for years.

Books Books Books

Shortly after arriving in town, we got our library
cards for the Santa Fe Public Library.
http://www.santafelibrary.org/ Today was
our first official visit with our new cards.
The Santa Fe Public Library is in a beautiful
old building that used to house City Hall.
The people are friendly, it is easy to find
things and the hours are great. However...
I would like to see the State of New Mexico
to spend a bit more on their public libraries.
Santa Fe is building a nice new branch library
on the south side of town and it looks like it will
be a great place to visit. But some sections of
the Main library are lacking a bit in areas that
are important to me ... such as travel books. Many
of the books are very dated and that can make a
big difference if you're using these books to plan a
trip. My wife enjoys knitting books and found
exactly two! There are dozens of books on
weaving and beading (I know these are important
crafts in the area) but it would be nice to have
books for other peoples' interests also. I guess
I'm just spoiled. I have lived in places where the
state governments valued libraries, including
several cities where their libraries ended up on
the HAPLR Index:
http://www.haplr-index.com/HAPLR100.htm
So ... Come on State of New Mexico legislators...
Give libraries like Santa Fe's more money to
make a good thing even better!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday!
She is something something years old today.
This picture is of her and her cousin Greg,
sometime during the early 40's getting ready
to go fishing on my Grandma and Grandpa's
farm in Northwest Indiana.

Valles Caldera

While taking a long drive, we came upon an
impressive place called Valles Caldera.
http://www.vallescaldera.gov/
It's the site of a collapsed volcanic crater
that erupted about a million years ago and
was 500 times more powerful than the
Mount St. Helens eruption. It's only 7 miles
west of Los Alamos and easy to get to.


It's hard to get a feeling in photographs
exactly how big this place is. Kind of like
the Grand Canyon, pictures don't do it
justice. It's 89,000 acres big and was a
privately owned ranch until 2000, when
the federal government purchased it and
saved it from development. Right now,
it's considered a Preserve, but is loosely
affiliated with Bandelier National Monument.
Fauna include huge herds of Elk, numbering
in the hundreds or thousands. They look
like tiny dots on the horizon.


While enjoying the view, we met some
interesting folks from Long Island who were
traveling throughout Arizona and New
Mexico. It turns out, a friend of theirs
was someone who also works at McMurdo.
A small world indeed. We plan to go back
in a few weeks to hike inside the valley and
soak up more of the emptiness and nature.
Maybe during the elk rut.

Balloon Fiesta

On Friday evening, we attended the Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta.
http://www.balloonfiesta.com/
It's a yearly event attended by thousands of
people from around the world. We wanted to
see the "Special Shapes" balloons and Friday
night they had something called a "Glowdeo".
This is when they wait until dark, and fire up
the gas flames inside the balloons, illuminating
the entire balloon.


It took a while to get started. Since Wells Fargo
sponsors the Glowdeo, they get to inflate their
balloons first. They took a little longer than
expected, but when everyone else was allowed
to inflate, suddenly there were 50 - 75 different
balloons of all shapes across a huge field.


One really nice thing about the Fiesta is that
everyone was able to go right out into the field,
talk to the balloon crews and get a good idea
of what it's like to be a balloonist. We spoke to
one person who told us that without the basket,
their balloon alone weighed 800 pounds!
After the Glowdeo, they had a great fireworks
show...one of the best I've seen. Overall, it was
a really good time for everyone, especially families.
The people at the Fiesta, both organizers and
attendees were really friendly and outgoing and
we'll go back again.

Settling In

We've pretty much settled into our little casita
in Santa Fe and are happy with everything.
It's a cozy and comfortable place, only 5 blocks
from the plaza on top of a high spot called
Banana Hill. It's not big, so we can't have
a lot of people over at once, but it definitely
works for our needs. We've been quite busy
the past couple of days, arranging Phone service,
DSL (YAY!), Cable TV, buying grocercies, etc.
It all makes one feel very domestic. I know
that this is rather dull and routine to most

people, but when you don't do any of this for
4 years, it's very new to us. One thing I've
discovered I like doing is going to the
supermarket to look at all of the new products
that have come out while we've been gone.
Ok, this is odd, but again, it's all brand new
to us. What is scary though is that I haven't
lost my enjoyment of actually shopping for
groceries. I could spend hours at the store
and there is a huge Albertson's nearby that
fulfills that need. What's really scary is that
we were predicting how much our total was
going to be at the checkout. I was off by only
3 cents. I need to get out more!