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| Full moon rises over red rocks, southwest Colorado |
August 28, 2015
Today was a day with a little of this and a little of that.
But first, I want to catch up with something I forgot yesterday! When we were
in the Painted Desert, we stopped at an overlook to see Newspaper Rock, a large
rock face which is covered with pictographs. They date back centuries. There
was a scope to view the details of the pictographs, but my camera has an
awesome zoom lens, and I captured photos which I think are as good as the ones
in the park brochures! Here are a couple. I can’t believe I left them out of
yesterday’s blog, so here they are.
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| Newspaper Rock |
OK, so today…. We woke up pretty early this morning. I could
have used more sleep—I was up until midnight last night catching up with the
blog! But anyway we did wake up, so we had some breakfast, showered, and went
back into “downtown” Holbrook to deal with the leaky tire. It took a little
while just to get the tire off the RV, but once we did, the mechanic determined
that the problem was not the tire at all, but the tire tube extender used to
fill the tire with air. For only about $42, we not only got a new part, but Joe
picked up a new tire pressure gauge, which was also something he had wanted to
pick up at some point.
So it was only just past 10:00 Arizona time (which is 11:00
Mountain Daylight Time) when we left Holbrook. I had spent some time with the
maps while the tire was being dealt with, and had decided to take a route
through northeastern Arizona to the Four Corners Monument, even though it would
be longer than going via I-40 back to Gallup, NM, and heading due north from
there. My rationale was 1) we could stop at the Hubbell Trading Post, 2) some
of the route was dotted (meaning it was a scenic route), and 3) we’d much
prefer to avoid the interstate if possible. As it turned out, we were pretty
much ooohing and aaaaahing over scenery all day.
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| Roadside scenery |
Our route (US 191) took us through Indian territory—I think
mostly Navajo (it is hard to tell from the maps.) It took a little over an hour,
driving on a pretty road with some great scenery—more “painted desert”
landscapes—but almost no other traffic
and no intersecting roads, to get to the Hubbell Trading Post Historic Site. We
drove over a one-lane bridge and noticed a small mud-brick visitors center to
our right and a long building ahead of us, with a parking area in front of it.
We parked at the far end, near a stable (two horses) and corral. We walked to
the other end—there seemed to be only the one door facing the parking lot, so
that’s where we walked in. The floor was
creaky and not quite level, and as our eyes got used to the darkness inside, we
realized we’d walked into a “store”, at least that’s what it seemed to be. What
it actually was was the original Hubbell Trading Post, which still operates the
way it always has—it is the oldest continuously operating trading post in the
Navajo territory.
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| Original Hubbell Trading Post |
What this means, we found out, is that this “store” is
actually a source of supplies for the people who live in the surrounding area,
and many of them continue to trade their goods for store credit. Besides
grocery staples of all kinds, there were two more rooms, which contained
jewelry, rugs, and handmade items of various types (musical instruments,
children’s toys, etc.) These goods are traded for store credit, and then the
Hubbell Trading Post sells them to tourists. Although we looked at all the
items, many of them are quite expensive and we weren’t actually planning on
shopping. We did, however, pick up several kinds of food items, including a box
of traditional Navajo tea made from a shrub called greenthread (I will be
tasting it while I type this) and a few other things that looked yummy.
Turned out, we were hungry! No wonder everything looked so
yummy. So we went back to the Samantha (the RV) and had some lunch before going
to the visitors center, where we probably should have started. It was only
after reading the history of the site and learning how it functioned that we
truly appreciated the store we had just been in. We read about the family of
J.L. Hubbell, who ran the Trading Post for three generations before selling it
to the government in 1965, with the stipulation that it continue to be run in
the traditional way. Members of several
tribes, including Hopi, Navajo, and Pueblo, operate the Trading Post now. Most
(if not all) other Trading Posts have become convenience stores.
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| Joe checks out the bread oven |
Also on the property was the original home of the Hubbell
family (but it was closed—they give tours but we weren’t there at the right
time), a “guest Hogan” which is currently occupied, most likely by a park
ranger, a vine-covered pagoda, an old brick bread oven, and a chicken coop.
There is also a large corral with a small herd of churro sheep. One of the
mainstays of the Navajo economy is weaving, and the sheep are integral to that
occupation. There is a weaving room in the visitors center, and we saw looms
and read about the sheep, how the yarn is woven, and the background of the colors
traditionally used (it turns out, the deep Navajo red color was a specific
preference of Hubbell, and his customers purposely used it in order to make
their goods more attractive to him.) We strolled around for a little bit,
looking at the buildings and animals (besides the two horses we’d seen earlier,
the chickens, a turkey which kept gobbling at us, and the sheep, there was a
llama in with the sheep).
We left the Trading Post and continued on Route 191 to the
town of Chinle. This is the location of Canyon de Chelly National Monument. I
have heard that it is extremely beautiful—but we arrived at 4pm, and my guidebooks
all said that each of the rim drives took about 2 hours. Joe and I went into
the Visitor Center and talked to the ranger there, but after thinking about it,
we decided we would have to skip seeing the canyon on this trip—we wanted to
continue to Colorado. However, we did need some groceries, and Chinle is the
largest town in the area. Sure enough, there was a supermarket as we headed out
of town, so we stopped there to pick up a few things.
It seemed that everyone in the entire area had the same idea—the
parking lot was hopping and the store was very busy. There was a line of folks
waiting outside a check-cashing window, and we decided that everyone got paid
today (Friday) and that accounting for the bustle both inside and out.
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| Navajo Supermarket in Chinle |
We always like to go into grocery stores in different parts
of the country and see what they have that we might not see at home. Sure
enough, the first thing we encountered were HUGE bags of flour. Then I noticed
bags of corn husks—Joe says they are used to wrap lots of foods with. He had
purchased a cookbook of Native American recipes while we were in the Canyon de
Chelly Visitor Center, and the subject of lamb jumped out at him. We both went “Mmmmm”,
so when we saw a butcher counter with lamb, he bought some (it was sold by the
pound, not pre-packaged, so they cut it into chops for him while we waited.)
The thing that tickled me the most was the fact that all the departments had the
names not only in English, but in Navajo! I surreptitiously took a few photos
while we were in the store.
By that time, it was almost 5pm, and we hit the road in
earnest. It didn’t take long to remember reason number 2 for taking this road—suddenly
we started seeing fabulous formations of red rocks, and we entered a magical
land of eroded sandstone castles. They were some of the reddest rocks I have
ever seen anywhere, and they were magnificent. We oohed and aaahed for the next
two hours, even as the landscape changed a bit and became greener as we
approached Four Corners Monument.
It was getting late and the Monument was closed when we got
there, so we didn’t get the opportunity to spend $5 to stand in four states—Arizona,
Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico—simultaneously. Not long after, however, we DID
have to stop. Once again, we encountered red rocks in the distance, but this
time the full moon was rising over them, and it was the most exquisite thing we’d
ever seen! I was taking pictures like a crazed person, and when a pull-out
appeared, I made Joey stop the RV. We stood there for about 15 minutes,
watching the shadows move over the rocks as the sun went down, and the moon
grew brighter. Even after we finally continued on our way, I was taking more
photos—the moon was amazing! The rocks were gorgeous! Definitely what we came
out west to see, but the moon was just an added bonus.
By this time it was 8pm, and we really needed to stop for
the night. I’d been kind of hoping we might get to Mesa Verde National Park
earlier, so we could camp there. But by this time it was truly dark, and I
remembered from our trip in 2007 that the park would be a little way past
Cortez (our goal for tonight) and then going in and finding a site would not be
easy, despite the light of the full moon. So I found an RV park in downtown
Cortez—it is not beautiful but it was certainly convenient, being right on the
main street in town. We pulled in at about 8:10, and that is where we are now.
The town’s visitor center is right across the street, and tomorrow morning we
will go over there and see what we want to do next.
PS: Note on the taste of the greenthread tea: It is a pleasant, grassy taste.
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