Painted Landscapes

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Sunday, January 7

After a leisurely morning and time-out to catch up with the New England Patriots, we headed into author, Tony Hillerman’s story lands and went to Window Rock and then Canyon de Chelly. The photos absolutely do no justice to the magnificence of the vistas, rocks, and canyonlands. It is, without a doubt, breathtakingly beautiful. There was not a cloud in the sky as we headed east toward the canyon and we only wish we’d had a bit more daylight to capture it's beauty. Another time...

Monday, January 8, 2007

Today we headed west and south to our final destination of Tucson. We stopped just outside of Gallup to visit the Painted Desert Museum and the Petrified Forest. Once again, we were struck by the sheer magnitude of the expanses and the frustration that the camera cannot capture the extraordinary beauty of the area. After we left the national park, we were once again faced with long, straight stretches of highway, only to be surprised by a gradual change in altitude as we entered a forested area and then ascended the Salt River Canyon via the “rim road.” All of a sudden we were on S-curves and switchbacks carved into the vast canyon walls. We tried to capture this wild and crazy road system so you could appreciate its depth and breadth and were thankful that there were no major construction delays or road blocks due to rock slides! This canyon is in an area called the White Mountains of Arizona! After another hour or so we were still in what seemed like an evergreen forest, but the green was coming from the giant Saguaro cactus and other scrub cacti and tumbleweeds. Clearly we were in the high desert. We started the day at about 6500 feet (30°) and ended at Tucson at 2400 (70°).

Having arrived safely at this point of our adventure, we are surrounded by boxes again, but thrilled to be in a wonderful, cozy home in the central downtown area. Two coffee shops just down the street were spotted immediately upon arrival. More investigating tomorrow. Then off on our trip to Hawaii on Wednesday.

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Photos

WINDOW ROCK
Fans of Tony Hillerman's books about the Navaho Tribal Police will recognize this city as the center of their administration

HORSE ON THE PLAIN
near sunset on the way to Canyon De Chelly (pronounced de Shay). The flatlands are home to herds of horses

CANYON DE CHELLY
sunset at the canyon - spectacular and deep -- the drop off is a mere 600'. Once a lush and fertile valley home to the Navajos

EL RANCHO
one in a series of signs in the neon city of Gallup, NM

AMONG THE STARS
atmospheric and comfortable, this hotel has been home to many movie stars while here filming

PAINTED DESERT - THE REDS
high country desert and one section of the enormous and magnificent "palette"

PAINTED DESERT - THE PURPLES
another section of the enormous and magnificent "palette"

PAINTED DESERT - LAND OF THE DINOSAURS
doesn't the rock formation resemble a dinosaur?

NEWSPAPER ROCKS
with petroglyphs

PETRIFIED
simply amazing to see so many stone logs and bizarre to drive out of the park and see the huge "farm" of stumps for sale. just where did those come from? makes one want to boycott the purchase of anything petrified because the "forest" itself has been raped...and continues to be now at the incredible rate of one ton per month by tourists!

STONE FACED
at least this area is patrolled by cameras! but the temptation is great to pick up just one little souvenir...

MAP
at first glance on Google, this road looked like a straight shot. With a closer zoom, the switchbacks and s-curves are nicely revealed, but driving it is beyond words

WHITE MOUNTAINS
a palm tree? not the White Mountains of New England by any stretch of the imagination - you can barely make out the road we just traversed

RIM ROAD
it was really difficult to watch the road and photograph the immenseness of this canyon - suffice to say it was not the flat roads we'd been on for the last 5 days, and we were grateful that we did not have to drive this at night! You can just make out the road behind us on the right, carved into the side of the mountain.

NOT IN MAINE ANYMORE
descending from the White Mountains and approaching Tucson

Comments

[anonymous]

Loving the updates!!
I've really enjoyed "traveling along" with you guys!! I'm so happy your arrived safely. Talk with you soon :)