it's a wrap

Sunday November 15

Arrived in San Francisco almost a week ago. Been doing set up stuff and getting in touch with friends and family. (After several days of radio silence finally heard back from Busby's foster mom and will be visiting him on Thursday.)

It's a little weird being here as a resident. There's that underlayer of logistics you never deal with when visiting: Can you turn on red? (yes) Does EZ Pass work here? (no) How do you take a 1 minute shower and still wash your hair? (no idea!) but I'm getting there.

So I think this blog is done! There's a (slim) chance I'll post more pictures from the trip someplace, but it won't be here...

Thanks for reading, and bye for now!

Denise

California, mon amour

Weekend of November 7 & 8

Took it easy both days and just hung out with my aunt and cousin Emily. They and uncle Hyman are all binge-watching Game of Thrones out of synch with one another and it's funny how they refer to the characters (Dragon Lady, Fire Woman, Stupid Mother).

Saturday in the late afternoon Emily, auntie Julia and I went to the beach but it was "cold" so we just hung out for an hour and then got bobba tea. We went to a Hawaiian-themed restaurant for dinner where the two gluten-free items on the menu turned out to be the best things we ordered. Afterwards Julia and I went to a screening of her friend's movie at the AFI (American Film Institute) festival.

Sunday again uncle Hyman and Julian had to work, so Julia, Emily, Charlie and I walked around the Venice canals. The water was super low, but there was one guy in a rubber raft pushing himself around with the oars. Julia says the houses are all new, that it used to all be single room hippie shacks. One house had a box of free art postcards so I took one and sent it to Glenn.

jackasses and Joshua Tree

Friday November 6

Donkeys imminent!

Determined not to make the same mistake twice stuffed myself with sausage, eggs and oatmeal at breakfast before heading out. Historic Route 66 winds up the hills to Oatman curvy and oozing pre-interstate charm. Even at that hour I passed a couple other travelers (in Mustangs).

I wasn’t sure of the feral donkey schedule, but when I rounded the corner on the town there were three just standing there like statues. 

Southern Democrat party of Oatman?

Donkey performance art?

One immediately came over to inquire about food, and luckily I had that huge bag of inedibly unsalted tortilla chips! Donkey didn’t seem to mind so I fed him several handfuls through the window.

Who's photobombing who?

Oatman waking

After Oatman I headed to Joshua Tree and passed the ghost town of Amboy and its weird black crater on the way. Joshua Tree is not a pretty park. Approaching from the North it looks like several piles of rocks. I did the short Split Rock loop, which was windy with cool looking boulders.

The abandoned Roy Motel and Cafe is across from the working postoffice
(and next to a gas station selling regular unleaded for $4.99)

If Chi Ho hadn't told me it was a crater I'd have just thought it was a weird dumpy mesa

Face Rock

Towards the end of the trail a bramble caught the camera strap and I dropped it on the gravel trail, scratching the lens protector, ending the high res photography portion of the trip.

An unhappy turn toward the abstract :(

I decided to wrap up the park visit and head to Palm Springs.  I passed a wind farm on the way and because I was in the safety of my car I took off the scratched lens protector and took this one last shot.

Like a crowd waving to me as I drove by

Palm Springs is like a mirage: a 1950s dream of a desert city, palm-lined and full of cute businesses. I had a delicious GF grilled cheese and tomato with a house salad and an awesome cilantro-cucumber juice. Just what I needed after over a week of Mexican food. Then on the way to Santa Monica I hit rush hour and got on the wrong road so I got in after 7pm, pretty tired.

if I was the Grand Canyon

Thursday November 5

Got up early and went to Safeway to stock up on hiking snacks for my two-park day. Skipped breakfast in favor of getting an early start on the Petrified Forest. First I passed a sign that contradicted Google, saying that the park wouldn’t open until 8am (It was 6:30). I figured I could wait and watch the sunrise. As I drove further East a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar appeared to fade the colors of the vegetation, then thickened gradually so that by the time I'd arrived at the entrance I knew there would be nothing to see. I took some pictures of the funny dinosaur statues covered in snow anyway, then I turned and headed to the Grand Canyon.

Pie in the face dinos

High desert winter wonderland

First glimpse of the Rockies!

A record-breaking 12 inch snowfall had fallen on Flagstaff the previous night and it felt like a Rocky Mountains ski town. By the time I got out of the car in the visitor center parking lot it felt like winter had caught up with me.

View from the South Rim

Part of the South Kaibab trail

I took the South Kaibab trail into the canyon, which was frozen up at the top where it was hidden in the South rim’s shadow, but cleared further down. The aptly named Ooh Aah Point was beautiful, and from Skeleton point you can see Phantom Ranch.

Mule train returning from Phantom ranch

Obligatory tourist photo from Ooh Aah Point

If you look in the bottom right corner of that sandtrap you can see Phantom Ranch

I had felt fine up to that point but the minute I turned around to go back my legs told me it wasn’t going to be easy. That breakfast I skipped had caught up with me too, but I made it back out in the end. 

Long shadows fall on the canyon walls and crevices

day of adventure!

Wednesday November 4 

When I woke up it was full on raining and blowing. It never fully passed but when it died down to a drizzle I packed the wet tent up and went out to the soggy park. Luckily, most of the sites are accessible from the road without too long of a muddy trek.

Hard to capture the beautiful wet desert fall coloration

Even the lichen come in cool color combos

Section of a wall

The masonry is crazy precise: mortar-free walls thicker than my arm is long, made up of long flat slabs along with smaller slivers for filling in the gaps, leaving nothing wider than an eighth of an inch. There was one free standing piece of wall in the first site that was so solidly built that everything around it had crumbled but it still stood perfectly straight, intact. Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl were large, complex and multi-level spaces, all done to the same amazing standard. It all reminded me of walking through my dad’s construction sites, through spaces not yet finished, trying to guess what the function of each space would be when finished. 

You can imagine people going about their business in Pueblo Bonito

Their kiva looks almost intact even after all this time

Leaving was the adventure: those dirt roads from the night before had turned into mud in all the low points. Only because there hadn’t been a lot of traffic since, there was a semblance of tracks that I could drive across to keep traction in my poor low clearance 2x4. 

Then, just as I’d cleared the mud it started to snow! Visibility dropped but it wasn’t like I was going anywhere fast. Then, as soon as I had gotten back on pavement, the snow stopped.

I considered skipping Bisti but decided to push my luck. There was plenty of sandy mud and skid marks from other vehicles that had gone before me but what was scarier was that the trailhead was nothing but a small empty lot and a sign in book which had last been used two days prior. As a compromise I decided I’d go in for an hour, and after going over a couple of hills and walking along the riverbed for a  while it started drizzling again so I went back.

Badlands selfie

Snowy butte

On my way to Gallup it started snowing hard, and red buttes were dusted in snow and rain. Then, just as I came onto a plain, the snow and rain lifted and the sun began to peek through the clouds.

Navajo country after the rain

In Gallup I drove on maybe a mile of Route 66 past motels and shops to find a greasy spoon diner where I got lunch. It was OK but at that point I was starving so whatevs. On the way to Holbrook I couldn’t resist trying to squeeze Window Rock in since the snow had stopped, but it was getting dark when I got there so it wasn’t super awesome. Oh welz.

Gallup

In Holbrook the Wigwam motel reception area reminded me of a taxidermy shop and each teepee had a real period car parked outside and a bona fide vintage cabin interior. Very cool.

My conical time capsule

My teepee ran out of TP

The next morning, before sunrise

Bandelier and the dirt roads of the Navajo nation

Tuesday November 3 

After the failed wood fire of the previous night (how do you keep a fire going when there is no oxygen?) I decided to use the solid fuel pellet camp stove to make breakfast. Put in four pellets, which was way too much and scorched the sides of the pot but boiled enough water in under two minutes for freeze dried eggs (which was disgusting and got tossed immediately - real food my ass) and a giant bowl of oatmeal.

Tasted fine but felt like eating out of a cat bowl

Went on the main trail past the big kiva, the long house and up to the alcolve house. The ruins are in way better shape than at Tsankawi, with the footprints of buildings and half of their walls all still in place. The walk through a wooded stream bed is also very pleasant.

Tyuonyi did way better than Tsankawi over the centuries

The trail to Alcolve House

River birches?

But the park’s signature feature is the 140 foot stair and ladder climb up to Alcolve House, a large cliff inset with a kiva and an amazing view. I squeezed into one of the alcolves and took a picture of some French people.

If you look closely those specks are people climbing a ladder

French occupation of the Alcolve House

Had amazing carnitas tacos at a hole in the wall-ish Mexican place in one of Los Alamos' gazillion identical strip malls. I took some time to update the blog, knowing I'd be out of wifi range at Chaco Canyon and Bisti, but that delayed my departure and it was once again getting dark by the time I got to Chaco. 

I thought the car might break apart before I ever made it to the park, driving over washboard-hard dirt roads for what felt like an eternity. Seriously, it might have taken over an hour to travel 16 miles to the park entrance where the pavement resumed. I found the campground and was really glad to have the 60-second setup tent. It was windy but for the first time I wasn't too tired to stare at the milky way so I put a blanket on the picnic table and wrapped myself up into a duvet cocoon and wondered how it could be that I couldn't even find the North star in a night sky without light pollution. Such a city slicker!

day of Lisa's recommendations

Monday November 2

Taos Pueblo was closed until noon for “traditional activities”. They turned out to be one of the most important days in their yearly calendar, when they’re allowed to visit the graves of their ancestors, and I felt a little bit honored to be there on that day. Our guide, Jaro, was informative and also emotionally connected to life in and around the Pueblo. I was out of cash but wanted to leave him gratuiti, and then found out that Citizens’ bank considers the Pueblo nation a foreign country and refused to allow me to withdraw cash from an ATM on the reservation. So I wrote a check. Thanks, Citizens.

 

North big house and sacred Taos mountain

I stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge on (one of) Lisa’s (many) recommendation(s), which was scary! It’s the highest bridge in the US, I think, and honestly, if it’s not, I’m not sure I want to stand on the one that’s higher than it. There was a herd of goats or sheep on one side of the gorge who seemed totally nonplussed by the height. Good for them.

 

I cannot express how high up and scary this bridge is

Just a Monday to them

Further along the road I popped into Ojo Caliente for what may have been the fastest spa visit ever (my mom would have been very disappointed that I didn’t get my “money’s worth”). It took a couple of tries to find the hottest pool (the one that’s higher than the others, which gets the water directly from the spring!), and after sitting under the spout to sooth my cricky neck for a while I was off to the mud treatment area.

It looked like I was slathering on chocolate milk rather than mud, but when you sit out it does dry into a thin clay film, which felt pretty cleansing. Then again, it might have been the subsequent steam room time that really cleansed me. It’s hard to say. They also had great hot showers (I mean, they kind of have to).

By the time I made it to Tsankawi the sun had just gone down and it could arguably be said to be dusk, which is when the park closes. Stupidly, I decided to go in anyway, thinking, oh a 1 ½ mile loop can’t possibly take more than an hour. The first half of the loop is kind of sad, as it is a bunch of paths and ruins (piles of bricks/stones). The second half included some carved out rooms in the side of the rock and was really cool, but at that point it was getting dark and I managed the cliffwalk back to the car pretty much in the dark. Pretty foolish, but at least I have good night vision...

Bad judgement but cool spaces

world o' gypsum

Sunday November 1

Got up early (but not early enough to beat the sunrise...) and headed to White Sands. Driving on the gypsum was a familiar feeling… it was exactly like hard pack snow! They even plow the road and leave the familiar crunchy-looking banks along the sides. Climbing the dunes was also weird: it’s a cross between snow and sand texture. Totally weird.

And I thought I was done with shoveling...

Dune graffiti

Space pod picnic tables

After a heavy Mexican lunch on my way to Taos I had to pull over into a shady empty lot in Carrizozo and climb in the back for a nap like a real vagrant. Whatevs.

After what felt like an eternity (especially the stretch going through Santa Fe, where the left lane is the slow lane!) I made it to Taos. My Airbnb host Lisa was great! Super cool and full of local knowledge. I really lucked out!

leaving Texas

Saturday October 31

Ghost/art town of Marfa

Woke up cold in Marfa and got going to Balmorhea hoping that the day would warm up. 

I needn’t have worried. It was plenty warm when I got there (high 60s, low 70s) and “cold” water in Texas is super balmy. What unnerved me slightly was the irregular rocky bottom of the pool, and the fact that it was so slippery everywhere.

Spring-fed awesomeness

While doing laps I saw a turtle taking a breath at the surface then scurrying down to the bottom and tucking himself into the algae at the bottom. He’s definitely way better at this than I am. After my swim I sat with my feet in the water and let the guppies give me a pedicure before resuming the road.

Balmorhea pedicure 

Got to Carlsbad around 3:15pm only to find that the natural entrance had closed at 2pm! NOOOO! So I went down the elevator (which did make my ears pop) and visited the Big Room. 

Felt like I was going into someone's secret lair

Everything that was lacking at Mammoth was here in spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. It was almost too much, like a rich man’s tomb crammed full of his loot. In fact there were a bunch of smaller stalagmites that reminded me of statues, like all the stuff he had plundered in his life. 

 

Everything you wanted in a cave and then some more and more and more and more

What was awesome was the sunset bat flight. Hundreds of thousands of them, circling and flying out in huge ungainly clouds. There was a flock of cave sparrows shouting in anger at not being able to go home to their nests due to the congestion, and also a red tailed hawk, gorging on the bat buffet. A total A+ experience. No pictures allowed tho.

great Texas

Friday October 30

I met a nice couple from New Hampshire, Janet and Allan, on the Window trail. We walked the rest of the way together and I was thoroughly surprised by the drama of the Window view from the actual Window.

Feelin' good

The cliff is so high and windy, and there’s another cliff of similar height a hundred yards beyond, taunting you. Beyond is the desert floor, endless and so far away. Like a make-believe land. 

In the afternoon I took the scenic Ross Maxwell drive out there. Pictures ensued:

Reverse Window view into the basin 

Supernatural sunset