Long, Empty, Glorious Southwest

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Today was another really long day in the driver’s seat, hundreds and hundreds of miles.

It starkly illustrated why some people hate convertibles, as the temperature started cool, got too hot, and then got close to my cold limit.

I put up with this because the views are well worth the lack of comfort.





I started driving out of Holbrook heading southeast.

This road crosses flat empty desert.

It’s one of those drives where measuring progress is nearly impossible because the scenery never changes.

Locals react as one should expect, by driving as fast as their skills allow (and sometimes faster).

Prepare to either join them or pull over on occasion.

Petrified Forest National Park

The scenery abruptly changes when a sign for Petrified Forest National Park appears.

The side road immediately passes between two gift shops that are classics of 1950s kitsch.

Both of them have concrete dinosaur statues next to the highway, tipis out back (remember that local Native Americans stayed in pueblos) and yards absolutely filled with big pieces of petrified wood.

This part of Arizona sits on the largest collection of petrified wood in the world.





The national park protects the most dramatic portion of this incredible deposit.

An exhibit in the visitor’s center describes how it formed.

During the Triassic Period this part of Arizona was a flat plain crossed by slow moving rivers.

It had a lush tropical environment.

The rivers deposited a thick layer of mud.

Trees fell into the mud, while others washed down the rivers.

All fossilized in the oxygen poor soil.

The mud later compressed into mudstone, a geologic layer called the Chinle Formation.

It covers most of northeastern Arizona.

As the rock erodes, the petrified logs reappear.

They lay on the ground, unlike the petrified trees of Yellowstone which fossilized standing up (see Welcome to Wonderland).

Although this park is the most famous, petrified wood appears all over the US; the center has a map.





Two trails from the visitor’s center go through an absolutely incredible landscape of petrified wood.

Ironically, the current landscape has no trees at all, so the hike is hot and sun exposed.

The Crystal Forest trail passes through chunks of rock packed so tightly there appears to be no space for anything else.

Big fossilized logs appear stacked on other fossilized logs, looking very much like the fallen redwood trees in Humboldt Redwood State Park (see Forest from Another Time).

The similarity is no coincidence; these logs were redwoods once.

The ends of the logs show incredible mineral patterns with visible tree rings.

The Long Logs trail passes really long logs on a hillside.

Most have broken into multiple pieces.

The logs were impressive at first glance, but ultimately felt like a chaotic lumber yard.

Crystal Forest has many more logs overall.





Petrified Forest has an unbelievable theft problem.

Visitors really want a petrified wood souvenir for some reason, and it feels inconsequential compared to the rocks all around.

It helps to know that the park was established in 1906 to prevent exactly that behavior, which had caused the loss of hundreds of tons of petrified wood every year.

The trails have multiple signs warning of jail terms (!) if people walk off with wood in their pockets, and the rangers hand out forms for visitors to report violators.





The drive back to the interstate is just as dull as the other direction, with one exception.

A group of snow covered peaks appears in the far distance, looking like a mirage.

The peaks remain in view all the way across northern Arizona to Flagstaff.

The mountains often have clouds at their summits, so both the Navaho and Hopi believed they were the source of life giving rain.

They are now called the San Francisco Peaks.

Sunset Crater and Wupatki Pueblo

The peaks are old volcanoes.

The same rift also created other volcanoes in the area.

The last one, Sunset Crater, erupted in 1065, after ancient Pueblo Indians had arrived.

Ancestors of the Hopi migrated to the area to farm the rich soil.

The volcano and their settlements form a historic site.





The best view of the volcano itself appears on the road in, a black miniature version of Mt. Saint Helens, including the missing piece at the top.

The roadway then passes an old lava flow, all aa cinders like those seen at Craters of the Moon (see Hell’s Acre).

It then climbs the lower part of the volcano and passes huge hillsides of black ash.

Pine trees grow in places, creating a surreal sight of green trees on black soil.





Past the volcano, the road has views over a string of other volcanoes.

All of them are black cones.

These are earlier volcanoes from the same rift that produced Sunset Crater.

The road then reaches a viewpoint with a vast view of a flat desert.

Unlike those further west, this desert has multiple layers of soil, each of which has a different mineral content and a different color.

Early explorers called it the Painted Desert after the colors, and it stuck.

The desert covers most of northeastern Arizona.





The ancestral puebloan groups who moved to the area after Sunset Crater erupted, the Sinagua, set up their settlements in a valley to the north.

They are some of the ancestors of the modern Hopi.

Petroglyphs near the settlement contain Hopi clan symbols, and Hopi oral history references the area.

It’s now called Wupatki, Hopi for “it was cut long”.





The visitor’s center at the main pueblo describes the story of the settlement through two perspectives, Hopi myth and modern archeology.

Archeologists believe the wanderings were driven by resources; people settled where they were plentiful, and moved on when they became depleted.

The Hopi believe they wandered the Southwest as a moral and spiritual journey.

The gods lead them to a fertile area to settle.

As they became successful people forgot moral teachings and became corrupt, so the gods forced them to move again as punishment.





One myth describes a small group that saw a light on a distant mountain spreading toward them.

They warned their fellow villagers, who were so absorbed in gambling that they ignored the sign.

A giant black cloud then exploded from the mountain and destroyed the village.

Many anthropologists believe this myth refers to a volcano near Sunset Crater.





The exhibit has a detailed discussion of how pueblo residents managed their food supply, which beats everything Mesa Verde has to offer (see Ancient Civilization).

Ancestral puebloans were incredibly skilled at dry farming.

They raised corn and beans using every drop of water available.

Residents had intimate knowledge of the land and weather patterns.

No wonder religion centered on prayers for rainfall.

They also quickly learned that good harvests would alternate with terrible ones, so people had to store significant food from bountiful years to not starve the next.





The visitor’s center also has two artifacts which are worth the price of admission by themselves.

Their rarity cannot be overstated.

Like Mesa Verde, when residents moved on from the pueblo, they planned to return someday.

They buried pots containing seeds and other supplies.

A forest ranger found two of these pots in 2009, and called archeologists.

Unbelievably, the pots were still intact.

Ancient pottery is found throughout the southwest, but always in hundreds of pieces.

The two intact pots are now in the museum, some of the only ones on public display anywhere.





A short trail behind the museum leads to the main pueblo.

At first glance it looks like other pueblos I’ve seen before.

Closer observation shows that that architecture is less sophisticated and the blocks are rougher compared to Aztec (see Rocky Mountain Highs).

Like others pueblos, it has rooms next to an outdoor plaza.

Next to the plaza sits a round open area, which archeologists believe was a kiva.





Beyond the kiva sits a unique oval structure that shows a fascinating cross cultural link.

The structure exactly matches the ceremonial ball courts used by the Aztecs in Mexico.

The game resembled hand ball; and the losers were often sacrificed to the sun god.

Other links with Mexican cultures have been found at sites like Chaco Canyon, but this is the only ball court ever found this far north.

Modern Hopi and Pueblo groups, it’s worth noting, do not play the game.





The road passes by other pueblos.

They are much smaller than Wupatki.

It then shows a huge view of a string of volcanoes.

The San Francisco Peaks, already snow covered at this time of year, fill the south side.

The northern volcanoes end at a striking perfectly symmetrical cone that is nearly all black.

It has an unusual name that is a chance to test just how through a guidebook author wants to be.

The name on a topographic map is ‘SP’.

This volcano was named by early ranchers (WARNING: May be offensive), who noted the remarkable similar look to something they saw daily in their jobs, near cattle.

The government surveyor who did the first map decided that name was less than proper for polite society, and used the initials instead.

Lake Powell

Past the volcanoes, I drove north through the Painted Desert.

Most of the drive was flat and unremarkable.

I finally reached a long wall off exposed sandstone, the Echo Cliffs.

The road then forks and the right branch climbs the cliff.

The top gives a view of a canyon below with mountains beyond, Marble Canyon on the Colorado River.

The road then crosses an open sandstone plateau.





My guidebook warned that the next vista is the most surreal in the southwest, and it was mostly correct.

The road reaches the edge of the plateau revealing a vast vista of tan colored sandstone desert.

A big blue lake sits in the middle surrounded by buttes, looking utterly out of place.

Two enormous smokestacks appear on the right, and a little town sits between them and the lake.





I have reached Page Arizona, symbol of not one, but TWO of the southwest’s largest environmental disasters.

It all began with a plan in the 1950s to build two dams on the Colorado above the Grand Canyon.

The official reason was to control silt buildup in Lake Mead further downstream, but the need for irrigation water and electricity also played a huge role.

One of those dams would drown Glen Canyon, a beautiful canyon that relatively few people had ever seen.





Environmentalists fought against both dams, but only succeeded in getting a compromise to cancel one of them.

Glen Canyon was far less visited than Marble Canyon downstream, so that dam went ahead.

It was completed in 1965 and the result is that blue lake.

Glen Canyon now only exists as old photographs, found in books sold in area National Parks.

They are well worth buying.

The dam also caused long term havoc downstream by changing the flow of the river.

Riparian plants that would not survive the previous floods have taken over the lower levels of the Grand Canyon, and are slowly crowding out native fauna.





The power company still wanted its megawatts, so they got permission to build a huge coal burning power plant, those smokestacks.

It ranks among the top ten sources of pollution in the United States, and generates enough smog to ruin views in Grand Canyon for days at a time.

The coal comes from Black Mesa on the Hopi Reservation, a strip mine so large it appears in satellite photos.





I drove to this lovely landscape because it sits near one of the southwest’s most compelling sights.

Every guidebook to this area contains at least one picture of a striking narrow red canyon with incredible swirling patterns on the walls.

The rocks seem to flow into each other, a symphony of ridges and shadow.

The view practically defines the compelling beauty of a slot canyon (see It Can Never Happen Here…And Already Has).

When people see those photos, nearly everyone then wants to see the canyon in real life.

Antelope Canyon

The canyon is Upper Antelope Canyon near Page, which has an unparalleled combination of beauty and accessibility.

That creates some painful negatives to go with the astounding sights.

The canyon is on Navaho land, and the Navaho know the value of this prize.

Visiting requires tribal permits, and they are not cheap.

The canyon also attracts tourists by the hundreds, so it often feels more like a crowded corridor in the desert, not a wilderness site.





I dealt with both of these issues by taking a Navaho tour from Page, Slot Canyon Tours by Chief Tsosie.

The cost is higher than the permits alone, but includes a guide to describe the Navaho perspective on the place.

This alone makes the tour worthwhile.

They also run tours late in the day when most of the tourists have gone home, leading to a much better experience.

Try to get on the first or last one of the day if at all possible.





The tour started with a drive up a bumpy wash through rounded sandstone hills.

Nothing grows out here and the hills are bare rock.

It ended at a sandstone cliff.

The wash spreads out from an obvious crack.

Walking in, we found ourselves in another world, a narrow corridor of rock with swirling red and yellow walls.

The canyon creates a mesmerizing interplay of light and shadow that is a dream to photograph.

The canyon twists as it goes, the source of its other name of “Corkscrew Canyon”.

Many guidebook authors call this place a queue thanks to the crowds, but for us it felt like a cathedral.

We had it to ourselves.





Our guide talked about the natural and tribal history of the place.

Antelope Creek only flows after thunderstorms.

During these storms, water fills the canyon to the rim.

The stream carries stones that scour the walls and create the patterns.

Smaller storms also drop the sand that covers the floor.

He didn’t know what caused Antelope Creek to carve through this sandstone ridge in the first place instead of flowing around it.





In the late 1800s, the Navaho had a brief war with the US army, which wanted to move the tribe to a reservation in New Mexico (the army ultimately won in 1864).

People hid in the canyon to escape the troops.

After the tribe returned, members briefly used the canyon as a sheep pen.

These days, they see it as a place to enter and connect with the earth.

Our guide then played traditional Navaho flute music in the canyon, showcasing the ethereal acoustics.





The drive out of Page crosses a bridge just below Glen Canyon Dam.

Unlike the bridge below Hoover Dam (see A Dam Large Attraction), this one shows the dam in full.

It’s basically Hoover Dam without the art deco, a long high featureless concrete wall across the canyon.

To me, it felt like a monument to sacrilege.

Zion National Park Under a Full Moon

The next part of the drive was a long haul across a seemingly featureless desert.

Night fell and the moon came out, so it felt even more featureless than normal.

The only interruption was a cluster of lit buildings around a highway intersection, Kanab, one of the more isolated towns in Utah.

I finally found myself in a wide valley between rounded ridges, heading west.





While driving this valley, I passed something unusual.

I needed a few moments to realize what it was.

I saw a pine tree near the road, with branches clearly visible and a sharp shadow.

What made this unusual is that the whole scene was black and white, in the middle of the night!

Southern Utah has little light pollution, low enough that under a full moon and cloudless sky, the scenery is as bright as a cloudy day.

It’s all black and white because the light is not high enough to activate the eye’s color receptors.

Not everyone has enough sensitivity to see this view either.

Anyone who does see it should prepare for something truly special.





The valley narrows into a pine filled ravine, Pine Creek.

Soon afterward the highway reaches the entrance to Zion National Park.

Beyond it, the ravine explodes into a fantasyland of white sandstone.

Steep slopes, narrow canyons, and rounded hills with little vegetation stretch into the distance.

The sandstone reflects the moonlight perfectly, turning the entire landscape into a living Ansel Adams picture.







As the road drops, a huge mesa appears with crossing cracks.

It’s one of Zion’s most famous sights, Checkerboard Mesa.

Of the thousands who see it every year, very few see it like this!

Past it, the road twists by sandstone hills and across steep slopes, all perfectly visible in the bright moonlight.

The rocks cast shadows as sharp as daylight, perhaps even sharper in black and white.





A sign warning of a tight tunnel appears.

Another warns of the long list of vehicles that need special arrangements to get through, including most RVs.

Past a parking lot, the road plunges into a dark cliff.

At night the tunnel appears as a long series of concrete arches whizzing by.

They are low, but don’t look particularly special.

Two long windows appear in the wall, overlooks of a huge canyon.





At the far end, the road exits the tunnel into another world.

The road is now halfway up a huge canyon of dark rock, clear and sharp in the moonlight.

The road drops through switchbacks to the bottom.

On the stretches heading up canyon, a large recess appears on the far end, called a blind arch.

Once on the bottom the canyon continues a short way and then merges into another one.

Shadows from the wall cover the floor of this canyon, so the show is over.

I’ve never seen anything like it.





I spent the night in Springdale, a town just outside the main entrance to Zion National Park.

Zion is always popular, so finding a room is tough even this time of year.

Rates are rather high.

I ultimately picked the Zion Park Motel based on internet reviews.

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Photos

Petrified logs
Long petrified wood logs along the Long Logs trail

Petrified hillsides
Hills covered in petrifed wood along the Crystal Forest Trail.

Petrified tree rings
Closeup of a petrifed log showing the tree rings

Roadside gift shop
A private gift shop near Petrified Forest National Park, a classic of roadside kitsch

San Francisco Peaks
The San Francisco Peaks from the highway to Sunset Crater

Sunset Crater pines
Pine trees growing on a volcano of black cinders near Sunset Crater

Painted Desert
The Painted Desert as seen from the lower flanks of Sunset Crater

Pueblo Farming
Exhibit on dry farming at Wupatki

Exceptionally rare pots
Intact pots used to bury supplies when Wupatki's inhabitannts left. Their rarity can not be overstated

Wupatki pueblo
The left portion of Wupatki pueblo

Wupatki ball court
The restored ball court at Wupatki, the furthest north one ever found

SP
SP, one of the most striking, and oddly named, volcanoes in Arizona

Echo Cliffs
The Echo Cliffs, close to Marble Canyon

Lake Powell
The surreal sight of Lake Powell outside Page Arizona

Upper Antelope Canyon
The singular beauty of Upper Antelope Canyon

Red rock symphony
More of the compelling beauty of Upper Antelope Canyon

Desert Cathedral
Deep in the heart of Upper Antelope Canyon, without most of the crowds.