Advertisement
Published: April 18th 2006
Matilda in Snow
After a snowfall in Durango, Colo., we slept inside Matilda's "snow blanket."
Cortez, Colo. - Leavenworth, Kan.
Mile 5,375
1,541 Miles this Leg We are now balanced at the easternmost edge of Kansas, more than halfway across the continent from the coast we started on (see
Route Map). Since leaving Port Townsend on Feb. 9, we have traveled more than 5,000 miles in nine weeks. Yet we have used up just a quarter of the time allotted for this road trip, and—one might hope—just a quarter of the adventures!
This blog entry recounts our time in the Four Corners region of the Southwest, as well as our arrival in America’s Midwest. Which brings us to the unseasonable seasons…
In our recent travels through northern New Mexico, spring was properly in force (albeit with less-than-usual rainfall), but we got a good dose of “winter” snow in southwestern Colorado, and “summer” arrived early in Oklahoma and Kansas, with the heat breaking records set in the 1930s. We weren’t expecting 95 degrees Farenheit in mid-April and neither were the heartlanders!
On April 2, we skipped the opportunity to be photographed with a hand and foot in each of four states, and simply drove close by the Four
Chaco Doors
Jeff ducks through the last of a line-up of stone doorways inside a roofless Great House at Chaco Canyon. Corners Monument, where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet. We were transiting from the first state to the last, and Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colo., was our destination.
Mesa Verde is the Spanish place name for a series of mesas and canyons where the Ancestral Puebloans (a.k.a. Anasazi) built some of their best-preserved cliff dwellings. We’d recently visited Canyon de Chelly in Arizona and marveled at similar dwellings from behind chain link fences, but at Mesa Verde we were able to approach Spruce Tree House (see photo) and even descend a ladder into a recreated kiva (circular underground living and ceremonial space, very cool in the desert). The highlight, however, was getting the Cliff Palace overlook all to ourselves. The park officially opened the next weekend, and some roads were still closed to car traffic although they were perfectly clear of snow. So we rode our bikes out to see the largest cliff dwelling in the park: more than 200 rooms, constructed around 1200 A.D. (see photo). We hung out on the mesa top till sunset and were joined by a herd of mule deer grazing on their evening meal (see photo). I think we were
Chaco Sunburst
The Great Houses at Chaco Canyon deserve to be called "America's Pyramids," we decided. the last visitors to drive out of the park.
Our elevation was maintained as we headed to Durango, Colo., which is at 6,500 feet above sea level. We were fortunate enough to spend four nights in this progressive town that maintains a historic downtown similar to Port Townsend’s. Our hosts, Ryan and Marcie, are about our age and recently moved from the Seattle area, where we met Marcie when she was starting her master’s thesis (for landscape architecture at the University of Washington) on public perceptions of shoreline resources and chose Port Townsend as her case study. She and her husband had recently purchased a one-of-a-kind straw bale house about 15 miles out of town (see photo), and we enjoyed two “rest days” there, catching up on correspondence, baking brownies, watching movies, and just watching the snow fall. (See photo of Matilda in her “snow blanket” - yes, we slept underneath that!)
While in Durango we also caught the beginning of the annual
Bluegrass Meltdown festival and attended our first contra dance since going on the road. We had brought our dancing shoes along, but this was the first opportunity we’d found to use them. It was great fun,
Chaco Observatory
The dark night sky is a designated resource at Chaco Canyon, and the observatory and telescopes were open for an evening program while we were there. the Celtic band from Denver was super, and the only thing we found odd was the extremely skewed ratio of men to women: ergo, the dance organizers provided a stack of looped neckties at the door so all the women dancing the “men’s part” could be easily identified. Jeff was in high demand, with his women “neighbors” all the way down the line asking excitedly, “Where did
you come from?” and snagging him for the next dance before that one was over. He wasn’t allowed to sit out any dances and cool off; fortunately, he’d brought several changes of shirts, and he used them all! (See "sweaty guy" - and gal - photo!)
We also spent half a day with a planner for a rather unique residential/commercial development just now going through the approval stages in the City of Durango. Marcie introduced us to Keith, who is working on the “Three Springs” project and graciously took his time to explain how it is following the precepts of Traditional Neighborhood Development and incorporating many green/sustainable elements, such as “plumbing” the houses for owner-installed solar panels and heating the LEED-certified commercial buildings with geothermal heat pumps. Marcie’s firm is working on
Chaco Kiva
One of the stone-lined kivas in a Chaco Great House -- a circular room dug into the earth for insulation against desert temperature swings. improving existing wetlands on the property to absorb stormwater run-off. Additionally interesting, the land owner and developer is the Southern Ute tribe, which is one of the richest per-capita tribes because the worthless-looking land they were herded onto last century just south of Durango happened to be full of gas and mineral deposits. The tribe is looking to make a social statement with this development, and it’s impressive.
And one more newsworthy item about Durango: during our stay, the state-wide environmental advocacy organization that Ryan directs,
Colorado Wild, was vindicated in its accusations that the U.S. Forest Service was acting “in collusion” with an “Aspen-sized” developer in a sensitive area (approving the project in a possibly illegal manner). The clincher came when a retiring USFS staffer held a press conference on his way out the door and blew the whistle on the whole sordid operation. Go Colorado Wild!
Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico was our next stop, and we decided the pueblo ruins here are worthy to be considered “America’s pyramids.” Once you access Chaco Culture National Historical Park on 16 miles of washboarded dirt road, you gain even more access to the 1,000-year-old dwellings than anywhere else.
Pueblo Bonito - Chaco
Pueblo Bonito is the largest Great House in Chaco Canyon and one that retains the most evidence of its carefully planned layout. Another Great House can be seen beyond. Several Great Houses are open to public wandering, even ducking through doorways and into rooms. A park ranger explained that’s because these ruins have been excavated and plundered already “and there’s nothing left for visitors to take.” And I thought it was a safety issue…but then again, if a stone wall has stood for a millennium, why would it fall on my head today?
We really can’t say enough about Chaco. We had been reverently steered to it as a sacred place, which it obviously still is for the modern-day ancestors of the Pueblo peoples. Field trips for all modern-day American schoolchildren should be required, as where else in the continental U.S. can you gaze on such stupendous reminders of the skill, knowledge, and ultimately, hubris, of a past civilization? From the visitor center gift shop we purchased a recent book that explores the collapse of Ancestral Puebloan society and compares it to the societal breakdowns (widening gap between rich and poor, environmental destruction, etc.) in the U.S. in the past 100 years. It’s humbling to think the builders of the Great Houses were in power for only 300 years before their system of inequities came crashing down.
Cycling in Chaco
We biked the park roads for some exercise in both Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. Note: check out the photo of the Chaco’s observatory and freestanding telescope. They were part of the archaeo-astronomy/”night sky” program we were privileged to participate in. We saw Saturn and its rings through the biggest scope!
Our next population center was Santa Fe and a memorable stay with the parents of my former co-worker’s boyfriend (we love these tenuous connections!). Through Fletcher and Ruth we met six more folks with whom they live communally, and around the biggest dining room table we’ve encountered yet, we all shared a hearty meal of buffalo roast. The chocolate cake I baked with spelt flour turned out deliciously, lucky for Jeff. The next night we dined with their daughter and son-in-law, Maria and Moises, and debated whether New Mexico’s governor, Bill Richardson, was really a viable Democratic presidential candidate. (
They’d vote for him.) So the adobe buildings and chilis rellenos were nice, but it was the people who really made Santa Fe special. And they included two folks at the
Santa Fe Community Housing Trust who gave Jeff two hours of their time to explain their procedures and policies (recall, he’s involved with a fledgling community land trust in our home territory).
With an Easter dinner
Cliff Palace - Mesa Verde
The Cliff Palace is the largest such dwelling in Mesa Verde. invitation driving the schedule, we endured two long days of travel that brought us to central Kansas. In those days we detoured through Taos; checked out a nearby development called
Earthship that consists of dozens of earth houses that are all off the grid (sorry we missed the daily tour of that place!); crossed the Rio Grande where it cuts a gorge across the New Mexico plateau; camped along the Red River in Kit Carson National Forest; successfully crossed a 9,820-foot mountain pass (our highest yet); did a walking tour of the wild west town of Cimarron; and spent an hour traversing the Oklahoma panhandle (see photo of pronghorn antelope we spotted on that state’s plains).
Also very touching: by a gas station’s pumps, we got to talking with a Kansas family (five children in a minivan) that was headed to visit relatives in New Mexico for Easter, but when they heard about our trip, they said they wished they were headed home, because they would seriously invite us to stay on their farm!
As it was, we had a delightful homestay lined up in Moundridge, not far north of Wichita, Kan. Miner and Valetta are old friends
Spruce Tree House - Mesa Verde
Spruce Tree House at Mesa Verde was the only cliff dwelling open for close-up inspection. The pole ladders lead to underground kivas. of my uncle Ralph, whom they hadn’t seen in years and years, so we got to be ambassadors for their friendship. We’ll be visiting Ralph and his family in Vermont later in the summer and then we can pass along all of Miner and Valetta’s news!
Wind. That’s what I’ll remember about Kansas. It was hot, sure - remember the record-breaking heat? - but coupled with the strong, urgent press of wind, I felt like I was inside a clothes dryer. In fact, the load of laundry I securely pinned to the clothesline was perfectly dry in 30 minutes.
We felt right at home with Miner and Valetta, and they shared with us fresh produce from their garden and laying hens, views of the buffalo that pasture on their “prairie” - a former wheat field they sowed three years ago with native grasses - and their outdoor shower. Valetta was born into the Mennonite culture, and through them we met a young woman who urged us to make a visit to her parents in Lancaster Co., Penn. - her father is the national director of the
Mennonite Central Committee. If we can, that would be very interesting.
Miner is
Mule Deer at Mesa Verde
We witnessed a spectacular sunset from the mesa top at Mesa Verde -- and a herd of mule deer grazing. definitely the jokester of the pair, and he took us out on Saturday night to a bar in Newton where we could listen to two young folk/blues musicians perform. But he brought along a gallon of apple cider that he had pressed because he knew the bar had recently changed ownership and his favorite drink - named after their orchard, in fact - was no longer on the drink list. However, he cornered an off-duty bartender who remembered the recipe and without too much cajoling we soon had glasses of hot cider, rum, and other good things. Miner is also a concert promoter and owns/runs his own venue, the
Old Settlers Inn, in Moundridge. Check it out if you’re ever passing through Kansas!
Which brings us to our current stop: Leavenworth, Kan., where my mom’s cousin Jamie lives with his wife, Jan. We were joined for a lovely Easter dinner by Jamie’s uncle Jack and aunt Casey, who are visiting from Las Cruces, N.M., and whom we would have visited had we taken the time to explore southern New Mexico. So the coincidental collision of our two visits couldn’t have been better. And it meant that we got to dine with
Marcie & Ryan
Our hosts in Durango, Colo., were Marcie and Ryan and their springer spaniel Sidney. With extra copies of Rise Up Singing songbooks, everyone can join in! two retired U.S. Army colonels - Jamie and Jack - whose war stories tend toward the comical, not the tragic.
Today we went “on post” to Fort Leavenworth, where Jamie is still employed as a civilian who runs the directorate that writes U.S. Army field manuals (“Sound advice agreed upon in advance”). And the directorate’s unofficial motto applies to many aspects of life as well as this trip: “Speed, quantity, quality. Pick two.”
Next: St. Louis, Memphis, and down the Mississippi to New Orleans!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.301s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 22; qc: 81; dbt: 0.1712s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Bill and Ann
non-member comment
Nice Update
As usual, we loved the newsy update and the great pictures. There must be a travel across America in Matilda book in the making here. The Indian ruins were especially interesting for us as we have yet to explore these areas. The people you are meeting along the way have to be one of the highlights of the journey. What fun. Oh, remember Bruce and Helen Glick as you enter Ohio and their association with the Mennoite Central Committee. They have been with them for most of their lives. Keep up the great fun. Love, Dad and Mom.