Wild West Adventure - In Progress

Howdy from the Southwest! Coming to you live from Kayenta, Arizona in the Navajo Nation. Judith and I are nearly halfway done with our Great Wild West Adventure 2008, and after four nights of camping, we decided a night of hot showers and warm, soft, comfy beds containing no dirt was in order. I'm still basking in the glow of the Best Shower Ever, in my clean pj's getting free wireless.

So to update you on our progress:

We started out Friday mid-day from Judith's house at Gassville, AR. Before hitting Oklahoma, we whipped out the camera for a first vacation shot: Giant Turkey Statue in Springdale. At least I got one gobbler this season.

Then, on to Oklahoma, where we stopped our first night just west of OK City at Red Rock Canyon State Park. This is our lovely camp (post pics later). After 30 minutes of firewood gathering, and 10 minutes searching for a fire source (we had SAFETY matches with no box), we had a roaring blaze with which to warm our cold toes. For about 10 minutes. Still, it was a success at $8 bucks.

Westward ho!

On to Texas, where we spent some time messing around in the panhandle. If you've been through the panhandle, you'd think there isn't much messing around to do. Oh contraire...because just south of Amarillo is Palo Duro Canyon, which is second only to the Grand Canyon. After a heavy dose of sight-seeing-some-spectacular-scenic-scenery, we headed back to Amarillo and onward west.

Next stop - New Mexico. We messed around looking for the elusive red dot on the map labeled "Site of Coronado's Bridge", which apparently doesn't exist. Eventually we gave up...but we saw more good scenery. We camped the second night at Villanueva State park, which was labeled "quaint state park located on the banks of the Pecos River, near picturesque Spanish Villanueva Village." I'm assuming "quaint" means "people having a big party and playing thumping music" and "picturesque" means "looks like a crack house collection." Nah...it turned out ok and we got a good peaceful night's sleep. The big party was nothing more than a family reunion, which eventually quieted down ( at about 10:30 pm they moved from raucous Mexican and pop hits to Air Supply and Juice Newton) and in the broad daylight the village was pretty quaint after all.

Next - Pecos National Historic Park, where we saw partly prehistoric Pueblo ruins (Anasazi), and partly a rebuilt monastery from the 1600's.

Santa Fe was the next on the list, but since Judith and I have both been there, we didn't spend a lot of time. Plus, it's a city. Bah! This trip is for wide open spaces. However, I did purchase a couple of turquoise and something else necklaces from a Pueblo woman, guaranteed made by herself and her family. I'm not sure how "authentic" the materials are...possibly purchased at Hobby Lobby, but heck...she was nice, and I have two new neclaces, bringing my total jewelry collection up to four.

We made our next stop at Bandelier National Historic park, where we camped for two nights in the quietest and most comfortable campground so far. VERY IMPRESSIVE...we hiked all over looking at ruins where the Asasazi had hollowed out rooms in the highly erosive volcanic rock, then built the square rooms on in front. We also saw LOTS of petroglyphs scratched into the rock. I could look at those all day...that's by far been my favorite part of the trip. Since our comfy campground was sans showers, we had to go into Los Alamos to the Y and shower. I can skip a day here or there, but a day of hard hiking leaves a person pretty funky and dusty. Best $2 I ever spent.

As we headed toward Arizona, we stopped at two more Anasazi ruins, the Salmon Ruins (named for the folks who homesteaded there and protected the ruins from being messed with) and the Aztec ruins (really misnamed, like Toltec Mounds S.P. in Arkansas). Both were really cool.

Next stop - Monument Valley. Until next time...adios! (p.s. - more pics later...taking too long to download)