One goes up & the other goes down (way down!)

Hi faithful readers. I have to apologize to you because I spent 4 nights in Mesa Verde National Park and have not even come close to finishing my blog. We were busy just about every minute we were there and basically had no time to write. It wasn’t that there were many other things to do (well, there were but we didn’t have time to do them either). We had no cell phone or modem service in the park so in order to contact the outside world we had to drive down off the mountain and into Cortez, AZ a feat we accomplished each and every day. For some reason, the fact that we couldn’t get service did not stop our phone from letting us know we had voicemails but we couldn’t get them. The computer was a foregone conclusion.

I am working on the Mesa Verde piece but we did so much and had no time to write that there is little to report at this time so I will skip this section and proceed on. Eventually, you will get the Mesa Verde section but for now, I need to fill you in on the stuff that comes after.


We got up early and proceeded to break camp. We rolled down off the mountain around 9:30 am and headed southeast toward 4 Corners. Cortez seemed to be a nice place. They had quite a few stores including a Walmart (kind of a funny store. It was a Supercenter but did not have a lot in the departments we deal with (photo and grocery)). They had a nice fairgrounds with a dirt speedway and a rodeo grounds. The rodeo grounds were nice and they were busy. The locals used it for practice in their rodeo events. The night we stopped was steer roping night. The parking lot was full of horse trailers and there were about 20 riders there. Not all of them were working on steer wrestling; some seemed just to be there to have a night on their horses.

They had a steer chute set up and had about a dozen steers. They would load one into the chute. When they released them, 2 cowboys would ride out from either side of the chute. The first would rope the steers head and the second would rope one of the steer’s rear legs. Their horses would then back up holding the steer from moving. They would then release the steer and it would run to the end of the rodeo arena and into a holding gate where the cowboy would go and retrieve his rope releasing the steer to the holding pen at the end. While we were watching a woman rode over to us (we were the only people there watching) and chatted. Upon our asking how she was, she replied that any day she was on her horse was a good day. It seems that she and her family (husband and kids) had come out to the Cortez area from Pennsylvania for a vacation and never left (heard that one pretty much wherever we have gone).

She explained that area people used the rodeo grounds to practice several days a week. Each of the days was scheduled for different events and a fair crowd of people would show up. The day before we left, we saw a sign at the fairgrounds that there was a Junior Rodeo on the day we were leaving. As we were leaving, we saw lots of horse trailers headed for Cortez and the fairgrounds. It’s too bad we weren’t going to be here another day so that we could take in the rodeo. So far, we haven’t been near a rodeo except near Arches where we wouldn’t have been back to camp until 1:00 am.

Eventually, we rolled into 4 corners. This is the spot where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all meet in a single spot. The area is on an Indian reservation and the Indians run the show. They charge $3.00 a person to come onto the site. Then they barrage you with booths selling Indian crafts, t-shirts and Fry bread. There is a site in the middle that has the official spot where the 4 states meet. You can take pictures there…come to think of it, that is about all you can do. It is fun to watch the antics that people make when they are posing for pictures. Some stand with a foot crossing the lines to cover four states and others put one foot or one hand into each of the states…kind of like a convoluted twister game with no spinner.

We checked out each of the booths around the circle and then got a fry bread and discussed what we wanted to buy. After the fry bread, yum, we did our shopping, learned our lessons and headed down the road. Several horse haulers were in the parking lot headed for the rodeo. The major lesson we learned was that just because a display board of earrings was in the middle of 5 or 6 that were all marked $5 a pair, that didn’t mean that all of them were $5. We bought 2 off the unmarked board surrounded by $5 earrings and found that the unmarked board was $20 each. At the other booths, we asked what the unmarked items cost and bought accordingly. In this booth, almost everything was marked and the ones not marked were all expensive. The woman there was friendly and talked to you about her crafts and the things she was working on. She was confined to a wheelchair. When she had customers, other people came into the booth and you no longer dealt with her. If you tried to talk to her, the others would jump in and not let her speak. Once you paid for your stuff, they all went out the back door and the woman in the wheel chair was the one you dealt with. ALWAYS ASK!

We sailed down the road through more miles of desert and open range. We saw lots of horses and cattle and a bunch of rocks shaped like animals or people or whatever. We turned up a side road and headed up towards Monument Valley. Monument Valley is also on Indian land. It is listed as a tribal park. We had reservations at Goulding’s Campground and RV Park. It, like everything else, is run by Indians. They seem great and friendly and soon we were headed for our campsite. They gave us a couple of places we could leave the trailer and after looking them over, we offloaded the car and stuffed the trailer into the only space that looked like it would hold the car. Then we circled the park until we were headed in the right direction to get into our site. The campground is located in a canyon with red rock cliffs all around. We just pulled into our space and stared at all the red rock.

We set up and go out the chairs and just sat and looked at the rock walls. Then I started a fire and got charcoal loaded into the fire, mixed drinks for Cheryl and me and waited for the fire to be ready. I got out one of the Coleman’s and mixed up some rice to serve with the Game Hen. I cut the Game Hen in half and loaded it into the basket. We ate and headed down to the store to ask some questions about the tours that they offer here. They have 3: the first is the Monument Valley tour; the second is the Mystery Valley tour and the last is the all-day tour that combines both of the other tours. They hadn’t told us anything about the tour so we asked whether we had to bring our own lunch and were told that they provided lunch and water. Sounds pretty good to me, so we signed up.

Then we took off in the car and took some pictures of the monuments with the clouds and setting sun. We then drove up to the lodge for the movie. Each night, they show a John Wayne movie that was filmed here in Monument Valley. The movie for our first night here was “Stagecoach”. We headed over and caught the movie. It was an old John Ford, John Wayne western. The outside scenes were filmed here in Monument Valley. It had been a long time since I had seen it but it was as good as I remembered. By the time it was over, it was well past time for bed. The other movies in rotation are “The Searchers” and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”. We may just watch them all.

We were up early. We sat out for our morning coffee. The sun was hot but the camper next door gave us shade from the sun which made our patio comfortable. After breakfast we headed down to the store for tour. Don was our driver and he showed up right on schedule. We talked to him for a minute and he recommended that we get our hiking boots rather than the sneakers we were wearing. He said we would be climbing some rocks and taking some hikes. We changed up and headed out. The first stop was Goulding’s Lodge. We picked up another couple and a family of 4. This left us with plenty of room in the tour vehicle. They had a nice collection of sandals and flip flops and Don recommended that they put on some more rugged footwear. They all begged off and said they were ok so we gathered up our food for lunch and headed out.

We passed by our campground again and immediately ran out of pavement. The road turned to a loose gravel and then very soft sand. The tour vehicles were large sized 4 wheel drive trucks with 20 or 24 seats on the top. There is a roof over the top to provide shade, a large Plexiglas windscreen on the front and rolled up sides that we certainly didn’t need. We drove through a part of the desert and crossed the main road and disappeared into the back country. The first part of the tour took us into “Mystery Valley”. It was known as MV because the Anasazi lived there and much like the Anasazi inhabitants of Mesa Verde, they all left in the 1300s and never returned, a situation shrouded in mystery.

Don started out showing us rock formations that were in the shapes of people, animals and things. He pointed out several of the Monument Valley formations that were visible in the distance. The roads started out bad and went downhill fast. The tires on the bus were low on air to make them go better in the sand. That meant that we had to be careful and slow on the roads so that the tires wouldn’t come off the rims. We slipped and slid around the soft sand roads of the desert and drove deeper and deeper. Soon we stopped and all disembarked. Don took us around to the other side of a rock and showed us a spring welling up from the red rock. The Anasazi that had lived there had chipped out a bowl shaped area for the water to collect in. Then we walked around another rock and there in the side of the cliff was an alcove with a cliff dwelling in it. It was small by Mesa Verde standards but had multiple rooms. Don took us directly opposite the dwelling and directed us up a steep rock face. It had some lines to climb along but they ended and a steep rock face was next. We started to lose several of the sandal clad people. Once at the top of that pitch, we curled around to the side and climbed another large rock before crossing over to a high rock that looked directly into the dwelling.

We stopped at several more cliff dwellings and saw several more storage buildings that held crops for safety. We were allowed to actually go into the dwelling at one site we stopped at. It was really a thrill to sit in that cliff dwelling that had been vacant for 700 years and try to imagine what it would have been like to live there. There were some carvings in the stone. We saw several arches and several sites of ruins. Along the way, we passed many present day Navajo dwellings. Don explained that the Navajo do not live in villages or groupings but live scattered by family all over the Tribal Park or reservation. Most have no water or electricity (they do have generators) and live miles from any road other than these soft sand roads.

At one stop, we visited a Hogan, a traditional Navajo dwelling. They are built in a dome shape by fitting logs together to make the round shape and then covering it with a stucco like cement made from the desert clays and sands (and a little cement to hold it together). They are really quite roomy and cozy but have a dirt floor. We met an elderly Navajo woman who appeared not to speak English. Don had a spiel that explained what she was doing and facts about her and her life. She was carding some wool when we arrived. She then pulled and stretched it out and spun it on a Navajo spinning stick. Then we were told about a Navajo’s hair. Navajo never cut their hair. They believe that any cut to a Navajo’s hair shortens their life so they never cut it. The women put their hair up in a Navajo bun which folds it and ties it in a specific way. We had a woman in our group that had long blond (curly) hair. The woman brushed her hair out using a buffalo grass cluster and prepared her hair in the Navajo way.

The woman was using the wool that she was spinning to weave a blanket. It was a wall hanging sized blanket in white gray and red. Don said she had been working on it for 3 or 4 months. It was about 80% done and was beautiful. She had several of her blankets hanging around the Hogan. I am not sure she lived there. I did not see any signs of daily life but there were 2 other hogans behind it. One was the same size as the one we were in and the other was quite a bit smaller and was not round but wedge shaped.

We rolled into a canyon at the back of Mystery area and had lunch. Don dropped us off to see an arch with a lot of petroglyphs. That gave Don a chance to go to the lunch area and get the fire going. By the time we got there, he had hamburgers (half pound I think) on the fire. He asked if anyone liked theirs rare and before the speech vibrations had settled down, I had a roll and was headed for the fire. He provided nice large slices of onion, tomato, lettuce and cheese. They we were given the box portion of our lunch. This had a cleaning wipe, napkin, mustard, ketchup, relish and mayo along with an orange and a cookie. They we had a choice of coke or diet coke. It was a really great meal after a morning of scrambling up and down rocks and sand dunes.

This was when we got to know our fellow tourists. The couple was named Jefferson Davis and his wife Chris. He has written a couple of books: Papa Bear (no not about Hogan’s Heroes but about George Halas the coach of the Chicago Bears during their early heyday) and another about Pete Rozelle (head of the NFL). The family consisted of a young husband and wife and their 3 (yes I realize I previously said a family of 4) kids, 2 boys and a girl. They were from England, a small town near Stonehenge.

After lunch, we took a drive back to civilization and off to the visitor’s center. It took 35 minutes driving across the desert. We saw lots of horses grazing on the open range. There were some wild horses there but we were never told if these were wild or just loose on the range. We soon arrived at the visitor’s center/gift shop/restaurant only to find that the visitor’s center was under renovation leaving us with the gift shop/restaurant which was a snack bar at best (and us just having eaten).

There was an outside patio with a view that just wouldn’t quit. It showed several of the most famous stone edifices of Monument Valley. The road to tour the valley started in the parking lot and wound down the hill into the valley. We headed down (guess what? More dirt roads). These were a lot more solid that the previous roads but they allowed private cars into the area. You could watch them weave all over the road avoiding rocks and ledge and potholes. We drove among the monuments and (guess what) found several private roads off the back. Don took us off the grid and showed us several more arches and Anasazi ruins. We hiked up into some arches and ruins and saw a lot more petroglyphs. Soon we were so tired from our out of bus excursions that we hardly moved when we got to the later sites.

We saw the site where the fort in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” was built and several of the roads that were used in “Stagecoach”. After seeing the movie the night before, we noticed that the monuments showed up several times putting the movement of the stagecoach did not match the placement of the monuments themselves (film maker’s license).

We ran down to the local grocery store and bought some steak and additional salad stuff. We made a large salad and cooked steak on the grill on the Coleman stove and ate it with the salad. We sat out for a while and then came in and watched some TV. This is the first time we have had any cable channels (and we only have a few). We headed for bed fairly early. The temperature had not come down far enough so we slept with the bedroom a/c running.

We slept pretty late for us. We then proceeded to take care of some stuff that needed doing. Eventually, we headed for the laundry room. We were pretty much running out of everything. We also had some whites (socks mostly) that had this red dirt in it and we didn’t want that to spread. We did the laundry and used the computer in the laundry room to check our email. We haven’t been able to get any connection for 2 weeks so we were really behind.

Cheryl was working on some cards and I headed for the post office. On our tour, we noticed that there was one up the road from our campground. I had a couple of things to mail but most importantly I needed to process a temporary change of address card to try to rescue my medication from its cross country trip. The post office closed at 1 PM (after opening at 10 am). I guess that makes our post office look good. I felt that I really needed to get the change of address form in process to give them enough time to forward the medicine to somewhere we will be. I headed down the road. On the main road, I knew how far Kayenta was so I turned the other way. In about a hundred yards, I saw a sign that said Mexican Hat (next town to the north) was 22 miles so I did a U-turn. I knew that Kayenta was about the same distance and was a fairly big town (as those places go here) and was about the same distance. The post office was still open so I got my form, filled it out and mailed it and mailed some personal mail as well.

On the way back through town, I thought about what Don had said about the Navajo living individually and not wanting to live in towns. Kayenta was a town on the Navajo reservation. It was a large town with several housing developments making me wonder how this type of living fit into Don’s idea of the Navajo life (no answers were forthcoming, I only had questions).

The next morning we broke camp, loaded the car onto the trailer and headed west. We did stop (again) in Kayenta and filled up the gas in the camper and the car ($3.85) and made the turn towards the “big ditch”. We were back into the desert. We saw several herds of sheep and noticed that the train tracks running alongside the road had the overhead wiring system indicating that the trains here were electric rather than diesel. We drove most of the day through the Navajo Reservation. It is rather large. Just as we got to the Grand Canyon, we passed out of the reservation and into the Kaibab National Forest passing eventually into the Grand Canyon National Park.

We stopped at the East Gate to flash our National Park Card and pick up maps and other information. The young man at the gate was personable and we talked for several minutes. He said we should stop at the Desert View Area so we did. This was our first view of the canyon. We parked in the RV lot and headed toward the rim. I was feeling a little low blood sugar problem so we stopped at the cafeteria and got a bite to eat. This was when we realized that we had passed back into Mountain “Standard” Time giving us back an hour. We thought it was 12 and it was only 11. We wandered down to the rim of the canyon and were dumbfounded. You can see pictures of the canyon until the cows come home but they don’t prepare you for seeing it in real life. We have even seen it from the air but that doesn’t match standing there and looking at the mile deep and several mile wide masterpiece. It simply takes your breath away. You stare up and down and across noticing first the red rock and then the whites, greys, blacks and yellows. Deep down, you get a glimpse of the Colorado River. The river looks like a creek from the rim but it really is more than 300 feet across.

You stand there saying nothing, unable to comprehend the enormity. I took some pictures but know from the outset that they won’t begin to show the wonder of the Canyon. You begin to realize why they call it the “Grand” Canyon. After a suitable period of wonder, we begin to get worried about finding a campsite since this is the 3 days that we have no reservations. The gatekeeper said we might find room in the 10X campground outside the park but we didn’t stand a chance within the park. When I asked if they had electricity, water and sewer, he told us he didn’t know but that the sites were $10 a night (that lets out the water, electricity and sewer for sure). We were too big for most of the campgrounds and the only one we would fit into was definitely full. We spent the next 45 minutes driving along the rim toward the southerly route out of the park. The Tusayan RV Park was on the same road so we checked it out on the way through.

It was ok (not great but ok). We would spend most of our time in the park so we took a site there. The town of Tusayan is a kind of touristy town with hotels, restaurants, gift shops, tour offices and 3 chain restaurants (Pizza Hut, McDonalds and Wendy’s). We pulled in and drove around. They said we could take any empty sites and suggested several that would allow us to keep the trailer on. Most of the ones they suggested were already taken. We tried one but hung the camper up in a tree. We found another and set up. Then we headed into the park to find the post office as we had a package of mail from my mother and 3 packages of medicine to retrieve. Surprise, everything was there except the package of insulin that Medco had “Guaranteed” would be there when we arrived. We had lunch at the cafeteria in the Grand Canyon Village.

We returned to camp and finished setting up. When we got back to camp, we had a new neighbor. They made us look little by comparison. They had the biggest bus I have ever seen with a rather large enclosed trailer. They hung beyond us in both directions. It was two tones of green plus gold red and some other colors. I figured the paint job on that camper cost as much as our camper. They had a jeep wrangler that rode in the trailer along with some other things (I suspect a motorcycle and at least one bicycle). They came back around dusk and turned on their generator which they ran all night long keeping us awake (the rules say no generators during quiet hours (10 to 7) but apparently the rules did not apply to these people and there was no one in the office that late at night).

This all makes me wonder. All of the offices at the campgrounds we have stayed at on this trip have closed between 4 (afternoon) and 9 at night. If you have a complaint about noise during quiet hour, where do you go? This is the first time we have had a problem but the question is interesting. Inquiring minds want to know.

We were up bright and early the next morning (we were actually awake a lot during the night with the generator next door running all night). Bright and early, the (generator) people started beating and banging in preparation for leaving. They dropped (not lowered) the door/ramp of the trailer and loaded the jeep. The woman at one point came charging out of the camper in her PJs with her robe flying in the breeze, a cigarette hanging from her mouth and her hair flying somewhat like Christopher Lloyd’s in his role as Doc Brown in “Back to the Future”. I don’t what her problem was but she said something to him and charged back to the camper. She pretty much had the look of Cruella DeVille in “101 Dalmations”(the animated version) except that she wasn’t that tall. This was about 6 am. Finally they started the diesel engine (which drowned out the sound of the generator) and thankfully left returning the campground to its much wanted quiet.

We tried to return to sleep but alas, it was all in vain. We arose and poured out some cold cereal. Before leaving, we bought a box of “Fruity Cheerios”. They were new and seemed interesting and since we like Cheerios, we bought them. They were awful. They were like Captain Crunch but made by Cheerios. We have eaten them just to get rid of them so we had a bottle of milk that was approaching the end of its useful life so we mated the two and had breakfast. Soon after, we headed off for, you guessed it, the Post Office to see if my wayward insulin had arrived. It was a nice drive except for the small space around the entrance gate. They have 2 lines for people who already have passes but one of them was not open and the other was about a dozen cars long. We worked our way through and once again headed off for the post office.

No insulin…again. We turned around and headed back to camp. The cell phone was dead so we had left it to charge. I called Medco and they were apologetic about the delay but told us it would be there that very day. They had sent it UPS for delivery to the Post Office. OK, not much we can do until we are sure the UPS truck has been there. We decided to go hike the Canyon Rim Trail on the west side and check the post office on the way back. We decided to take the park shuttle. It stops out in front of the stores here in Tusayan. Cheryl had some cards she wanted to mail so we had lunch (not the right time but it worked into our schedule) and caught the next shuttle into the park. We went to the bus transfer point and transferred to the blue line which takes us to the village and points west. I went into the store and bought a type of carabiner so Cheryl could attach her water bottle to her shorts and not have to use her hands to carry it. While in the store, I heard a person who worked there say they had seen the UPS truck over at the post office so I was optimistic.

We took the next shuttle and got off at Yavapai Point. We stopped at a couple of outlooks there and ran into a ranger that was preparing a dog & pony show about the geology of the canyon. We talked to her and were the start of what turned out to be a fairly substantial group. Ranger Jess was certainly an enthusiastic speaker and told about the creation of the park and why this park is here and no where else in the world. It was interesting and she could have a job as a motivational speaker.

After the talk, we continued down the rim and stopped every once in a while to just sit and gaze over the canyon. It really is inspirational. All I could think of was one of those hymns that Rev. Donna played during the Lenten Supper Series. Well, its 8:30 and we can hear the first round of helicopters returning from their tours of the canyon. They are pretty much a constant presence all day long. The interesting thing is that they are restricted to certain areas of the park so that people in the main part of the park don’t even know they are around. If you go near the areas they are allowed, you see and hear them pretty much like we hear and see them here in Tusayan (the airport is less than a half mile from our campsite).

At one point, we stopped and sat on the edge of the canyon with our feet dangling over the edge (there was a ledge right below us). We just sat there and looked. There is no limit to things you can see. From there, we could see the Bright Angel trail. This is one of the few trails that go to the bottom of the canyon. The famous mule trips use this trail and there are several hikes on this trial. Phantom Ranch lies at the end of this trail. We have planned to hike a part of this trail. They recommend a hike of a mile and a half down and back. This has 1,000 feet of elevation change. After seeing the trail carved into the side of the canyon, we are having second thoughts. The biggest problem with trails like this is that they are backwards. Usually, you hike up and then hike down to return. If you get into a jam or get really tired, you turn around and go down which is much easier. Here, you go down and have to hike up to get out. This is dangerous because up is so much harder that you can easily go down much further than you can return upwardly. Hmmmmm!

The shuttle system is good but can get to be a real hassle. We had one bus driver slam the door in our faces and yell to us that there was another bus right behind him (20 minutes). His bus was almost empty (I can understand why) and after waiting 20 minutes for the next one, it was jammed full and it got worse as it went along. I don’t know how but we put another 30 people in a bus that I would have sworn was full. When we got to the Village (and the post office), the door opened and 5 people were physically ejected into the plaza. While they were scrambling to get back onto the bus, Cheryl and I managed to sneak out.

We headed into the post office and were, once again, told that there was no package for us. They said that the UPS truck had been there but there was no insulin on it. We returned to the bus stop and waited for the next bus and returned to the Shuttle Transfer Point. The bus to Tusayan required us to wait another 20 minutes and deposited us near our campsite. I logged onto the computer and brought up the UPS tracking system. I put in the tracking number that Medco had given me and guess what it said? The package in question was delivered to the Grand Canyon Post Office at 12:24 and was signed for by Wagner. Hmmmm. Just where is my package?

We had a quick beans and hot dog supper and headed out to the Desert View Observation Point about 30 miles away. They have a Sunset Program that ends by viewing the sun setting over the canyon. On the way over, we saw an Elk by the side of the road. He had a huge rack and was collecting quite a crowd. It kind of reminded me of Yellowstone where any animal within view of the road collected a crowd of people and cars.

Ranger Brian regaled us with stories of the past history of the canyon. When he was finished, we all spread out along the canyon rim and quietly watched the sun set over the canyon. There was a haze along the other rim (10 miles away) and a small set of clouds just above the rim. As chance would have it, the sun passed through the clouds and set in the haze. Brian attributed the haze partly to the fires (local) and general air pollution from California and the coal fired power plants in the area. The haze provided a red glow along the horizon that was pretty spectacular. I tried to take pictures (more than tried, I took a lot) but had a real problem capturing the red glow. It seemed to be yellow in the pictures not red but we will see when I download the chip.

We met a couple there that had been on the road for 8 years. They have traveled across the country several times and had even spent some time in Wells. They have a home in Tahoe but only visit it once in a great while.

That pretty much brings us up to date (except of course the entire section about Mesa Verde). I will catch that up. Cheryl was groaning about not having time to write her journal. We have been so busy lately that we may never catch up. We need a couple of rainy days. We have had so little rain on this trip that our goal of taking 2 days off each and every week has kind of disappeared. There is so much to do in these places that even 5, 6 or 7 days will not cover it. We have lost pretty much 2 days because of the post office. We wanted to go to Zion from here but that requires an entire day (4 hours in each direction). Today is out because we have to go to the post office, tomorrow is moving day (into the national park campground) leaving us only 2 full days and there is more than enough stuff to do here so we may have to abandon Zion to another trip.

And that does not take into account any days off! We didn’t have any in Mesa Verde but did manage one in Monument Valley and so far none here and none in the future. Next, we move to Cornville, AZ down by Sedona. We have heard Sedona is a beautiful artistic type of town in a vortex area (some kind of force). We also have a friend who lives in Cornville that we want to visit.

So, I will close now and send this off. Mesa Verde will follow if not immediately then during our 5 days in Cornville. Peace!

C&C