May 10, 2015 by Rae

A Very Full Afternoon in Santa Fe

This afternoon, I drove to downtown Santa Fe to see what was what. John gave me a few street names about a mile from downtown as possible free parking spots. On the way, my ‘you need gas’ light came on and then came a nearly hour-long search for fuel. I am throwing my GPS into the Santa Fe River! It kept directing me to gas stations that haven’t existed in years or to turn the wrong way down one ways, all the while directing me through super narrow European-style streets. Not the introduction to Santa Fe I wanted. 🙁 I finally found fuel and put in 17 gallons. HOLY MOLY. The tank holds 19.5 and I’ve never put in more than 16 gallons or so. I was running on fumes! But I’m glad I found gas early in the day because my afternoon was going to take on an unexpected twist.

But first, I parked where John told me to park and hoofed it down the Old Santa Fe Trail, a busy thoroughfare that takes you to downtown. I passed the visitors’ centre and popped in for a walking map.

Courtyard of the visitors’ centre.

Front of the visitors’ centre.

Since it was getting late in the day, I decided to go straight to the history museum. But I still passed some interesting stuff on the way.

The oldest church structure in the United States (early 17th century).

Another beautiful church.

Loretto Chapel, home of the miraculous staircase.

Remember that miraculous staircase…

Yet another gorgeous church, and very ornate inside.

The history museum.

As it turned out, my pass for the New Mexico History Museum was good not only for that museum, but also for the Palace of the Governors! I’ve already gotten more than my money’s worth out of the CulturePass!

The history museum was smaller than I expected, but that’s just a statement of fact, not a valuation. It was really good and had a lot of interesting exhibits. The main exhibit is the history of New Mexico from prehistory to now. It’s a part of North American history I’m not familiar with, but it’s really no different from the history in my part of Quebec, only with different actors.

I enjoyed an exhibit about a top secret facility related to the Manhattan project, one about the Civil War, and one about what was probably the first chain of dining and hotel establishments in the west, Harvey House. I was going through this exhibit when I got a text from John asking me to call when I could, and another saying that there was no emergency. We are on the same wavelength! 😀

I called when I could and as it turned out, he had some free time and was wondering if he could join me. We had made tentative plans to hang out on Tuesday, but he wasn’t going to be free and the weather is promising to be miserable. I told him where I was and he said he’d text when he was closer.

I then went upstairs to the temporary exhibits and saw one on camera obscuras and pinprick photography, as well as one about the Virgin Mary.

Then, I went into the courtyard to check out the printing presses and go across to the Palace of the Governors.

Courtyard between the history museum and the Palace of the Governors.

Nothing says May more to me than lilacs. I will be planting a lilac tree at Haven!

This building was originally constructed in the early 17th century to be Spain’s seat of government, and then was adapted and remodeled to suit other needs as the years went by. There was an interesting exhibit that showed different stages of development on plexiglass that you could layer to see the changing floor plan.

This was an expansive building taking up a full block and full of white plaster walls and dark ceiling beams. I’m really digging that decorating scheme. 🙂

There were lots of interesting exhibits about settlement and governance in New Mexico, religion, and, my favourite, hide paintings, that is scenes of New Mexico life painted on animal skins.

John still hadn’t arrived when I was through at the Palace of the Governors, so I headed out to explore the immediate area.

Across from the Palace of the Governors.

The area really reminded me of Plazuela Machado, only much more touristy (which will make my Maz friends laugh). John says that Santa Fe used to have a ‘real’ downtown, but now, it’s all for the tourists and full of expensive shops and restaurants.

Plaza.

Front of the Palace of the Governors.

John texted me just as I finished my tour of the plaza to let me know he was at the entrance to the history museum. We met up and headed across the street to the Museum of Art, which was once the ‘fine arts’ museum. We just did a quick tour since it was getting very late and I’ll actually be able to go back if I want.

The art museum.

Egyptian obelisk in the courtyard of the art museum.

I really liked what I saw on our dash through it. The museums in Santa Fe are all very small, but they pack in a lot! There was a photograph exhibit that we both liked that featured the subject at a young age, then as an adult.

When we came out, John asked if I was thinking about food, which I was. I hadn’t had lunch and planned on having linner after doing the museums. He suggested we go to a burger joint owned by friends of his called Santa Fe Bite. The restaurant used to be a 10-seater located outside the city limits, but now it’s a proper downtown restaurant. I wouldn’t have thought to go in since I figured it was just a basic diner attached to a hotel. It pays to play tourist with a local guide!

I ordered just a basic burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions. It was really good! The meat was lightly seasoned and juicy while the homemade bun was buttery and chewy. I had the whole bun, but I left most of the delicious kettle chips. John had a spicy-looking chili with cornbread. Best of all, his friend was working and they were able to have a quick catchup. Serendipity!

From the diner, it was decided that we would walk to John’s car and that he would take me back to my truck.

We stopped at the Loretto Chapel on the way and since it was past closing, we were allowed to very quickly go into the chapel and get a picture of the miraculous staircase without paying the museum admission fee.

The miraculous staircase. Can you see why?

I love spiral staircases and knew about this one, but didn’t realise it was in Santa Fe. It is an engineering marvel! Can you see why?

The chapel is lovely, too.

Another beautiful chapel.

We went into another church, the third one I saw on the way to downtown, and then made it to his car. Before going to my truck, we drove to Fort Marcy Park. It’s a sinuous uphill walk to a viewing platform on the site of an old fort, with plaques all the way up detailing the history of New Mexico.

A place I wouldn’t have found on my own.

Breathtaking views of Santa Fe.

Quite a climb, but worth the effort.

Breathtaking views of Santa Fe.

We then got back to my truck and I followed him most of the way home, where he detoured to show me the site of an old pueblo that was excavated in the 1970s. It felt like a place of immense power. What amazed me the most was all the potsherds just lying around on the ground. I had to take a picture of an incredible find, but, of course, left it behind!

Black on white potsherd. What a find!

The day didn’t start off too well, but definitely improved! It was a wonderful afternoon and I was once again grateful for a local guide.

Now, I have TONS of work to do in the next couple of days, so I will probably hunker down at home for a bit. But John’s not ready to kick me out (I think…), so I may extend my stay a bit to go on a field field trips in the environs.

April 28, 2015 by Rae

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

The Gila (hee-la) Cliff Dwellings were used as shelter by humans for thousands of years. In the late 1200s, they were used by the Mogollon peoples, who built homes with property masonry within the natural cave walls.

Think on that for a second.

As many of you know, I majored in medieval history, with a focus on the Scottish Wars of Independence, the ‘Braveheart’ era of the late 1200s. While all of that was going on across the pond, the Native American peoples of the American Southwest were building structures that exist to this day. Like Casa Grande, the Gila Cliff Dwellings have shattered my view of world history.

One of the main reasons I was so eager to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings is that unlike Montezuma Castle, you can actually go inside the dwellings!

I made it! What a drive!

When you arrive at the end of highway 15, you have to turn left for the dwellings. Silly me, I went straight to check out the visitors centre, where I was told I should end with them and their little museum rather than start. Okay, back to my truck I went.

It was a bit more of a drive to get to the trailhead for the dwellings. There, a park ranger gave me the spiel about only bringing water and not touching the walls, as well as giving me a map and info about the trail.

The access fee is $3 (exact change only), that you put in an envelope that you slide into a box, or you can put your info and parks pass number on a card and put that into the box.

It’s about a mile round trip to the dwellings and there is quite a bit of ascent and descent over rough terrain. You need to be moderately fit and nimble to get up there.

The walk takes you through a narrow canyon to a view point where…

Bridge at the trailhead.

Over a river that was the lifeblood of the region.

Starting to climb.

The cliffs in the area all look like they were carved by people.

Another of several bridges.

More stairs.

… you turn around and, boom, there are the dwellings!

First glimpse of the dwellings!

Yet more stairs.

Still more stairs.

Lots o’ stairs.

Oh!

The caves were naturally carved out of the cliff faces.

Signs of human inhabitants.

This would have been a kitchen.

Incredible. Medieval-era ruins in North America of comparable construction!

Incredible. Medieval-era ruins in North America and of comparable construction!

The walls didn’t go to the top to let the smoke out.

Prickly stuff. 🙂

Corn was grown up here.

Coming to the cave where you can actually go in.

More stairs!

Climbing up into a massive room.

The room was so large it didn’t feel claustrophobic at all.

Looking down into a room.

Signs of construction everywhere.

The soot stained ceiling dates back thousands of years, to well before the Mogollon people.

They used stones, mortar, and wood for construction.

More stairs!

Coming into another room from the last staircase.

This is the staircase you have to go down to leave the dwelling.

You can climb this ladder to look over a wall.

There were several rooms within the cave.

The quality of construction is amazing.

There was a guide at the end of the dwelling who had tons of information. She pointed out glyphs, hand prints, and other bits of interest. One thing that was really interesting is a huge slab of stone that predates the Mogollons that fell from the ceiling. The Mogollons built around it, but you know the stone fell before their time because the underside of it is black with soot and it sits above a grinding stone that you can just barely see underneath it.

Can you see the little glyph painted in red? There were lots of those all around the cave.

This corn is SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OLD.

To leave the dwelling, you can either go back to the entrance and take the stairs, or you can go down a ladder.

This is the ladder you can take to exit, just like the cliff dwellers would have done.

I did the ladder. It wasn’t scary since it was well secured to the cliff face. But the rungs were far apart and slippery, so I took my time.

What a vista.

More construction.

Spiny lizard posing for me.

Looking back at the ladder.

Steep climb down!

After I was reunited with my keys and had a small picnic, I went back to the visitors’ centre to view some artifacts and watch a movie. I learned a lot about the history of the region, but there’s a lot of conjecture since looters and raiders didn’t leave a lot behind to tell us the story of this place.

One compelling bit of info is that there are no burial grounds or trash piles around the dwellings. This speaks to them being places of transition and temporary housing, more than being a permanent settlement.

Another interesting fact is that there was no war around this time, or at least no evidence of it. People died young of infection. They ground the corn with stone, stone got in their food and wore down their teeth, their teeth got abscesses and the infections spread. Something like only two out every eighteen people lived to age twenty.

Essentially a medieval artifact…

Visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings takes effort because of the long and difficult drive there, but they are very much worth the detour. I am so glad I was able to visit them!

April 28, 2015 by Rae

Silver City, NM, to Truth or Consequences, NM

The day was rather full, so I am going to give the Gila cliff dwellings their own post.

I left the motel around 10:00 this morning and my truck was really not happy about having been left out in the cold all night! She was making a whining sound that was very easy to anthropomorphize as her reprimanding me for taking her away from the heat! It only took about a half a mile for the engine to warm up and the noise to go away. I wasn’t worried. 🙂

I headed a ways out of town to meet up with reader Ed! Ed has been a long-time commenter and route planning helper. How wonderful to end up in the same place like this! He was staying at a nice little RV park tucked away at the end of a gravel road and I got lots of attention and cuddles from his beautiful and sweet dog. Ed and I had a nice chat and then it was time for me to go since I had about five hours of driving to do today, on top of visiting the cliff dwellings.

By the time I’d filled up and hit highway 15, it was just past 11:30. My ETA for the cliff dwellings was 1:30 and I planned to be back on the road by 3:00 to get to T or C by about 6:00.

It’s only about 75KM/45Mi to the cliff dwellings, but the road is very sinuous. Larger RVs are told to avoid the section between Silver City and the junction with highway 35 and instead take 35, then continue on 15. This is good advice. All of highway 15 would be a nightmare in an RV, but the first section was exceptionally challenging!

I was sure the two hours travel time the signs indicated was exaggerated, but it really wasn’t! It was a fun drive with a standard, but I would have hated it if I was driving something large as the drive is one hair pin turn after another. The road takes you through ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forest before taking you high up into the mountains to see sweeping vistas.

You then descend into the valley where the cliff dwellings are located. My new brakes got a workout even though I engine braked as much as I could!

I allotted exactly the right amount of time to visit the cliff dwellings and the visitors’ centre. The next post will have all the details!

I do have to share a bonehead move that almost spoiled my visit. I was coming out of the caves when I had a weird niggle about my truck keys. I emptied out my purse and had to admit that I didn’t have them. Never mind getting a locksmith all the way out there, just think of how much stuff I had in the truck!

I suspected that I had left them at the counter where you have to pay or fill out your pass information. That was more likely than the keys having fallen out along my walk. So I swiftly made my way back down to the entrance and there they were, stuck on an information post and being minded by a ranger! Oy!

I went to grab them and he said, “Woah, how do I know those are yours?” I actually thought he was serious and went to pull out my truck registration and he burst out laughing. A lady he was talking to said, “I don’t think anyone but the owners of those keys would be so glad to see them!”

There was a similar incident on the way down in the fall and after it happened, I thought that I really should get a chain or lanyard and wear them around my neck when I’m traveling like this. Lesson learned and I will buy a lanyard!

But all was well that ended well and I was able to get back on the road by 3:00, with my ETA being just shy of 6:00. No, I wasn’t rushed, I just demonstrated commendable time management skills and was lucky that nothing happened to delay me! 🙂

It was slooow going to T or C. I only had about 175KM/109Mi to go, but it took three hours! It was just more of the same twistiness and up and down all the way to I-25. There was a really long downhill stretch with steep curves where I just stuck the truck in first gear and slow poked my way down, pulling over for the speedy Gonzalezes less worried about burning out their brakes.

Can you see how one side of the payment is pink and the other is grey?

The entire hillside was ravaged by forest fire.

Approaching I-25. That’s the kind of camper I want, one with off-road capability!

I was surprise that the highway doesn’t go through T or C.

It was a short drive off I-25 to my apartment in T or C, which I found without any problems. I’d been told that a key would be left for me in a certain spot and it was there.

The apartment is advertised as ‘quirky’ and it certainly is. I’ll post pictures tomorrow. It has a large bedroom, a combination kitchen/living/dining room, and a wet room with a toilet and shower. The kitchen has a really cute gas stove and is pretty well equipped, but there’s no toaster, microwave, or sharp knives! The neighbourhood feels a little desolate and there’s a surprising amount of traffic, but I think that will go down as it gets later. So far, I like it. We’ll see how I feel after a few days! It’s going to be cool tonight and I’m going to see how useful the heater is.

There is barely any cell service here and I can’t get data to work. 🙁 BUT there’s wifi! Happy surprise!!!

I was beat when I got in, so the first priority was food. There’s a grocery store across the street (!), so I went in to get something with which to make dinner and breakfast. I’ll do a better shop tomorrow when I’m not so exhausted and can think up a menu. I came in and made up hash browns, Polish sausage, and a red pepper, a pretty decent meal, although I should have bought some oil to keep the food from sticking to the pan. I used water to steam the meal instead, more healthy, but not as tasty. I have tons of leftovers, so I’m try the meal again with a little cheese . 🙂

I treated myself to not only English muffins but a jar of peanut butter for my breakfasts this week. And when I say a jar of peanut butter, I mean the kind with sugar and oil in it, not the all natural kind I normal eat, like Jiffy or Squirrel brand. I haven’t had that in ages and ages. But I did have all natural peanut butter a few times this winter, courtesy of the peanut vendor by the police station on Isla. (For those of you who are paying attention, I’ll toast the English muffins in the pan!)

The last few nights of little sleep are catching up with me. I’m going to do the dwellings post, then call it a night. I have heaps of work to do by Friday night, so I doubt I’ll get out to see much of T or C until the weekend.

October 30, 2014 by Rae

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

In 1998, I was fascinated (okay, obsessed) with Scottish medieval history and took a month to backpack around Scotland. In my world, the oldest ruins I could visit dated from the early 17th century. In Glasgow, I stepped into a cathedral that dated back to the 12th century. Weeks later, I walked through Cawdor Castle, built in the 14th century, and continually inhabited since.

I had absolutely no idea until today that sometime between the building of these structures, the ancient peoples of North America’s Sonoran desert were constructing equally impressive structures that would endure through the centuries. One of the most impressive remains of this civilization are the Casa Grande structure and surrounding village site, preserved as the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.

In one of the harshest environments in the world, these ancient people built the kind of civilization that existed all over the world at this time. Why am I so surprised to find such evidence in North America? The well-constructed buildings, impressive system of irrigation ditches, and beautiful artwork, in the form of jewellery, pottery, and weaving, point to a civilization that had evolve well beyond basic subsistence levels.

It is not known exactly what the Casa Grande structure was used for, perhaps as an administrative centre or food storage facility. It is so well constructed that no repairs or maintenance have needed to be done on the structure since it was deemed a protected site in the late 19th century!

This morning’s excursion to the Casa Grande ruins was a revelation. I’m thrilled that I took the detour!

: The metal roof was built in the 1930s to protect Casa Grande.

: Lots of graffiti from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

: This hole tracked the sun.

: This square opening tracked the phases of the moon.

: Casa Grande was part of a much larger complex likened to a neighbourhood in a large community. The population might have been as high as 2,000.

October 29, 2014 by Rae

Montezuma Castle National Monument

On the way to Phoenix tonight from Sedona, I stopped at the Montezuma Castle National Monument. Name for the Aztec ruler, even though there is no connection, this is an apartment-type complex carved out of the hills. It was built 1,000 years ago by people now called the Sinagua (for the Sierra Sin Agua mountains), who farmed the valley below, and eventually abandoned the site. To put this place into an historical context, it was built sometime in the middle to the end of Europe’s Middle Ages.

Until the 1950s, you could actually climb up and explore the ruins, but today you have to stand below and gaze up in awe while walking a short loop. Admission is $5 unless you have an interagency pass. 🙂

Of all the information panels, the one that struck me the most said that while the structure was made solidly and there were obvious signs of maintenance and repair, it was ultimately designed to be returned to the Earth when it was no longer needed. How many more of these structures existed, but have left no trace?

There was a nice diorama showing a cross-section of the complex. It really is built like a castle, complete with a fortified keep.

This site was amazing and I wish I had more time to write about it, but the Starbucks is about to close. I invite you to follow the link at the beginning of the post to get more information.

: “We are not building this country of ours for a day… it is to last through the ages.” T. Roosevelt, who established and preserved a great many number of national parks, monuments, and other nationally-managed sites.