The original purpose of this trip was to join the West
Texas Trail Walkers Club in their annual Columbus Day weekend hikes which this
year were scheduled for Ruidoso, New Mexico, in the Lincoln National
Forest. Friends, Jo Ann and Lee, were
meeting us there on Thursday, October 9 and hikes started on Friday, October
10. We left Wednesday just two days
after a deer ran out in front of us and damaged the front end of our SUV. But the car was still drivable and our
insurance company said we could repair it when we returned home, so we opted to
drive our Toyota Highlander.
Wednesday we drove northwesterly through Fredericksburg, Mason,
Brady, Eden, San Angelo (lunch at Fuentes), Big Springs and Lamesa before arriving
in Brownfield where we spent the night.
There were many fields of sorghum and unpicked cotton around San Angelo
and lots of pumping oil wells with the persistent smell of gas in the air. I suspect fracking has increased the oil
production in this area. Brownfield has
little to recommend it for a destination and after a mediocre meal we hit the
bed early.
Thursday morning brought cooler weather (in the low 60s)
and we drove due west to Plains and the New Mexico border. Between Brownfield and the border were more
fields of cotton, sorghum, sunflowers and pumping oil wells. The first town in New Mexico was Tatum at
4100 feet altitude and the scenery switched to cattle and horse ranches with
occasional prong horn antelopes in the fields.
Several of the ranches advertised they were the home of some well-known
Kentucky Derby winner but I didn’t recognize the names.
We climbed hills to Roswell where we stopped at a
Starbucks for coffee and a break. We
drove around Roswell and saw the pretty campus of the New Mexico Military
Institute. We topped up the gas tank and
pressed on into the Hondo Valley with mountainous areas around us. We soon reached Ruidoso and had a good lunch
at the Sacred Grounds Coffee Shop. We
went to the Shadow Mountain Inn and checked into our room which was nice. We drove around to some of the trail heads
that we would hike the next day and then to the town of Capitan and the Smokey
Bear Historical State Park. We returned
to Ruidoso and met up with Jo Ann and Lee who had just checked into Shadow
Mountain Inn as well. We all went out
and enjoyed a good dinner at Michael J’s Italian Restaurant.
Friday we all had a good breakfast at Sacred Grounds then
dropped Rita off back at the Inn where she passed her time mostly reading. Lee, Jo Ann and I drove to the Argentina
Canyons trail head and starting hiking about 9 am. We hiked 12 kilometers or about 7.2 miles
with the first half all uphill for a nearly 1600 foot climb. We had sunshine at the start of the hike and
the scenery was delightful with aspen leaves changing color among the
evergreens. At the summit we had super
views over the valleys to the north of us.
We came down the Little Bonito trail on our return and met hunters on
horseback packing in to hunt elk. As we
started our descent clouds rolled in and we soon had a light sprinkle. The trail crossed a creek 7 or 8 times and at
the next to last crossing I slipped on a wet rock, hitting my left leg and
soaking it in the creek. I had a good
scratch on my left shin and my left knee ached but I could finish the
hike. We ended about 2 to 2:30 pm and
drove back to the inn. I showered and
doctored my knee as the rain really started to come down hard. We all went out to dinner at the Rancher’s
Steak House and Seafood restaurant. Good
steaks!
We didn’t have very far to drive Monday so we slept in
later and after breakfast at Sacred Grounds headed north through Alto to
Carrizozo where we took highway 54 north unaware of all the road construction
we would encounter. At the little town
of Duran we took back road 3 to highway 285 to Interstate 25 to Santa Fe. The sky was clear and sunny and the
temperature moved from the 30s only into the 50s for a cool day. We arrived at the hotel we booked for three
nights about 12:30 and checked into the nice Old Santa Fe Inn. We were a short distance from the old
historic plaza so we spent the afternoon walking around downtown Santa Fe for
some time. In the evening we walked back
into town again and had a nice dinner at the Blue Corn Café and Brewery where I
had one of their good craft beers with our New Mexican dinner.
Tuesday morning we discovered that our hotel puts on a
substantial breakfast buffet so we filled up before starting our day walking
around Santa Fe. First we walked past
the New Mexico Capital Building to the Tourist Information Center where we
picked up maps and good suggestions.
Next door we toured the old San Miguel Chapel, saw what is referred to
as the oldest house in the USA, and walked through the old Barrio de Analco. We continued on towards the center of town
and saw the Loretto Chapel and St. Francis Cathedral. We found the pretty, secluded Sena Plaza and
sat down a while to rest. We visited a
nice wine store on Sena Plaza then walked through the rustic La Fonda Inn which
has been located on the Main Plaza since the Old Spanish Trail went through
Santa Fe. The current hotel was built in
1922 on the site of the previous inns.
We had a good lunch at the French Pastry Shop which is in the
hotel. Next we went into the Georgia
O’Keeffe Museum which has a few of her works plus photos and floor plans of her
home and studio. By now we had walked
quite a bit so we returned to our hotel via the Sanctuary of Guadalupe for a
short rest. For dinner we walked back
into Santa Fe for a delicious meal at La Boca, a Spanish restaurant with
several different tapas. We shared
garlic mayonnaise finger potatoes, fried shrimp and a large bowl of local,
spicy green peppers that had just come into season. We had a nice Spanish red Rioja wine and
finished off the meal with a manchego cheese plate and sherry.
All that was left for Wednesday were a couple of museums
that interested us but Rita’s knees complained so we skipped the museums for a
car trip. And a good one it was
too. We drove north towards Taos through
several different Indian reservations all with their super-sized casinos and
hotels. At the town of Pojoaque we
turned right onto what is called the “High Road to Taos”. Tony Hillerman has a great description of the
towns along this road in his short story called “Las Trampas”. Near the town of Nambe we were confronted by
two cowboys on horseback and a couple on foot driving cattle across the
highway. I stopped the car and rolled
down the window to speak to the cowboy who looked to be in charge. He apologized and thanked us for stopping the
car. He was a friendly sort and I
suppose he is either called a cowboy Indian or an Indian cowboy – take your
pick.
The next stop was the Sanctuary of Chimayo in the town
with the same name. It was in a
beautiful setting and had a quaint old church with an alcove that had “holy
dirt”. Yes, that’s what I said. Photos were prohibited so you’ll either have
to go or use your imagination. A hole in
the floor about the size of a bushel basket was filled with fine dirt that
looked like it came from a dry river bed.
It supposedly had healing powers and as we were staring at it an Anglo
woman came into the room crying, scooped up two containers of dirt then filled
each of her shoes with about a tablespoon of dirt. She apologized and quickly left, leaving us
flabbergasted. Several crutches, canes,
and other prosthetics were hanging on the walls. It was very reminiscent of Lourdes or
Rocamadour but on a smaller scale.
We drove past Cordova to Trunchas where we stopped to see
their 18th century adobe church.
It was locked up and a couple of men were repairing the church. They came over and apologized that the church
was locked and soon their wives and children were surrounding us. We talked with them for a short while admiring
the views they had and asking them about their cold winters, living conditions,
etc. It was a friendly conversation with
the locals.
We pressed on to Las Trampas, the setting of the
Hillerman short story, and viewed their old adobe church but nobody came out to
talk to us. It, too, was locked. We continued through Penasco with beautiful
views of fall foliage among the pine trees.
We arrived in Taos and parked the car near the old historic Taos Plaza,
a Spanish settlement over 400 years ago. It was noon and we walked to the historic Taos
Inn where we had a great lunch at the Doc Martins Restaurant. I had an elk burger while Rita had
traditional New Mexico cuisine. It was
siesta time but we didn’t have a place to lay our heads so we walked around
Taos instead. We strolled down Bent
Street and pedestrian walkways that ended up at the Plaza. Rita, of course, found a couple of quilt
stores and I enjoyed sitting on a park bench enjoying the mild weather and
sunny skies. We drove to Taos Pueblo on
the outskirts of town – a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Native Americans
have lived for approximately 1000 years.
It is thought that Coronado may have visited here in 1540. I believe the tribe that governs and operates
this pueblo is Tiwa (Tigua in Spanish) and there are several rules on what you
can and cannot photograph, where you can go, and where you cannot go. Still it is a magnificent experience. Then we drove what is called the Enchanted
Circle, the roads that go through the ski villages of Angel Fire, Eagle Nest,
and Red River with outstanding scenery all the way. By the time we returned to Santa Fe it was
getting dark and we were hungry once more so we had a good dinner at the
Cowgirl BBQ, an eclectic restaurant that is becoming a Santa Fe favorite.
On Thursday we departed a little from our original plan
since we visited Taos yesterday. There
is so much to see in this area and the Tourist Information Center gave us some
new ideas. First we drove north on
highway 84 and stopped to see Camel Rock, a structure that really does look
like a rock – no, I mean a camel. We
turned west on highway 502 then dropped down to the town of White Rock to visit
the Bandelier National Monument in the Frijoles Canyon. Since a fire and flood had previously wiped
out its parking lot, we had to board a free shuttle bus for the 30 minute ride
to the park. Here Rita and I walked the
Main Loop Trail, about 1.25 miles long, first leading through the ruins of
Tyuoni, a pueblo village of nearly 100 people around 1300 to 1400 AD. The trail led to cliff dwellings called talus
houses and a long house. You could go
into some of the reconstructed cliff dwellings and view several
petroglyphs. We thought it was similar to
Mesa Verde but on a smaller, more accessible scale.
We took the shuttle bus back to our car and drove on to
Los Alamos, located in a pretty setting where the Manhattan Project created the
first atomic bomb during WWII. We walked
through some of the old historical buildings downtown like the Romero Cabin,
Bathtub Row, and Fuller Lodge. Leaving
Los Alamos we drove west heading for back road 4 but were surprised when we
came to a series of guard houses. The
guard asked us where we were going and when we told him he directed us straight
ahead but we were actually on Los Alamos National Laboratory grounds. Highway 4 was narrow and curvy with steep
drop offs but soon turned into a forest road skirting the Valles Caldera
National Preserve. This is a 14 mile
wide volcanic caldera, the remains of a super volcano that erupted about 1.5
million years ago. Rocks from this
volcano have been found in Kansas I was told.
The caldera sits in the Jemez Mountains and is the home to many elk but
we failed to see any. We continued
southward on highway 4 along the Jemez River and through the town of Jemez Hot
Springs to highway 550 and eventually Albuquerque where we spent the
night. This area is very beautiful and
has several parks and sites to see so that one could spend a week here easily.
Friday we headed west on Interstate 40, the old Route 66
highway. Close to Grants, New Mexico, we
detoured south on highway 117 to the scenic El Malpais National Monument. As this was completely unplanned we didn’t want
to spend a lot of time here but we found the scenery impressive. There was a huge lava flow on the west side
of the highway and strange rock cliffs and formations on the east side. This lava flow was created by eruptions about
2000 to 3000 years ago, so fairly recent in geologic terms. Past a scenic area called The Narrows, we
turned around and viewed the La Ventana Natural Arch before returning to
Interstate 40. In Gallup, New Mexico, we
exited onto Route 66 and stopped at the historic El Rancho Hotel, built in the
1930s and “home to the movie stars”. The
owner’s brother was a Hollywood producer and during the 40s, 50s, and 60s, many
famous movie stars stayed here while filming movies nearby. Their website has a long list of movie stars
that stayed in the hotel. We had a decent
lunch and enjoyed lingering in the lobby with photos of the movie stars of our
generation.
We headed north to the town of Ya-Ta-Hey then west on
highway 264 into Arizona and the town of Window Rock, the capital of the Navajo
Nation. Near the town of Ganado we
visited the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. John Hubbell bought and expanded this trading
post in the 1870s and had good relations with the Navajos for many years. We took highway 191 north in approaching rain
as we found our hotel in the town of Chinle on the edge of Canyon de Chelly
National Monument.
Saturday, October 18, we spent the day in Canyon de
Chelly – or I should say above the canyon.
I recommend, if you wish to visit, spend two days here, one for the rim
drives and another with a Navajo guide on the canyon floor. We drove the north rim first and hiked to all
three overlooks. The views of the canyon
were stunning and it’s difficult to imagine that many Navajos still live in the
canyon and herd sheep there. After a
visit to the information center we drove the south rim and hiked to all seven
overlooks. By the time we finished it
was getting late in the day. For dinner
that night Rita had Arizona Navajo/Mexican food while I had fresh trout
encrusted in blue cornmeal. We finished
by sharing a large chocolate cake and ice cream.
Sunday we checked out and drove west on highway 264
across the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations to Tuba City. I should mention that there is no alcohol
sold on the Navajo Nation Reservation but plenty of signs warning drivers to
not drink and drive. We had difficulty
keeping the time straight because Arizona does not go on Daylight Savings Time
but the Navajos do but then again the Hopi don’t. In Tuba City we headed south on highway 89
and took time to visit Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano
National Monument as both are on the same ring road. The Wupatki Pueblo ruins were the highlight
of this park and they were built and occupied in the 1100s. Rita and I had visited this park before but
it was about 45 years ago. Back on the
road we drove Route 66 through Flagstaff and took highway 89A down a steep,
curvy highway to the bottom of the Oak Creek Canyon. The canyon is beautiful but much more built
up since we last visited and, today being Sunday, there were hundreds of
leaf-peepers so traffic was hectic. We
checked into the nice Southwest Inn in Sedona and I walked next door for two
beers which we drank on our patio in mild weather. For dinner we ate at the upscale Dahl &
Di Luca Ristorante Italiano.
Monday we really discovered how much Sedona has grown
since we last were there in 1997. It’s a
beautiful town and great place to retire if you can afford it but we could
hardly find a place to photograph famous rock formations like coffee pot
rock. We headed southwest to Cottonwood
which has also grown by leaps and bounds.
We took the harrowing mountain road to Jerome in the Mingus Mountains
and on to Prescott where we took highway 69 back to Interstate 17 and headed
south towards Phoenix. We saw a
billboard sign of a pie shop at exit 242 at the little town of Rock Springs
which had little more than the café and gas station. We’re suckers for pies so we pulled over (it
was lunch time) and split a delicious sandwich before each having a slice of
pie. I had a large slice of chocolate
cream pie while Rita had a large slice of banana cream pie. We traded bites of course.
We drove to Surprise, Arizona, and checked into our
hotel. Then we went to visit with old
friends from Canberra, Fran and Richard Davey.
We had a great time talking for hours before going out to eat at Babbo
Italian Eatery. We said our good-byes to
Fran and Richard and drove back to our hotel.
We had an adventurous Tuesday on our way from Phoenix to
Tucson. It took about an hour on
uncrowded expressways to cross from Surprise, Arizona, on the west side to
Apache Junction on the far east side of Phoenix. However, Interstate 10 takes you right
through the center of Phoenix so you get to see the city center. Our adventure started in Apache Junction where
we took highway 88 northeast past Superstition Mountain and the Lost Dutchman’s
mine. The road soon became the historic
Apache Trail climbing up into the mountains with sheer drop-offs and curvy
road. Apache Trail is paved to the small
town of Tortilla Flat, population 6. We
stopped here at the Superstition Saloon, a western bar with real saddles for
bar stools and walls and ceilings papered with one dollar bills. Next door we treated ourselves to delicious
gelato and sat on the bench admiring the scenery. We continued on the Apache Trail and from here
it turned to dirt for 22 miles with no guard rails and perilous cliffs that
kept me alert constantly. At a narrow
one-way bridge we came across a group with what appeared to be souped up
off-road cars and a drone outfitted with several cameras. I stopped and talked to the young people who
said they wanted to photograph the cars for a commercial but they could not get
the satellite signals they needed.
We continued on hoping that our car would survive the
corduroy road to Roosevelt Dam and Lake.
Here we drove east on highway 188 to Claypool, highway 60 to Superior,
highway 177 to Winkelman and highway 77 to Oro Valley. Scenery was beautiful except where we came
across several large strip copper mines.
In Oro Valley we stayed with old friends, Gary and Stella Propernick,
who we knew in Saudi Arabia but last saw in Puerto Rico. They have two smart, friendly Scotties named
Moe and Curley. We went out to eat at
Giuseppe’s and had a great time and great conversations.
Wednesday Stella prepared us a big breakfast and we were
on our way about 10:30 am. We drove
south to Interstate 10 and then took Interstate 19 south towards the Mexico
border. At Gary’s suggestion we stopped
in the little town of Tubac, Arizona, where “art and history meet”. Tubac is a pretty little town with lots of
art galleries and gift shops. We ended
up buying a couple of ceramic horned lizards and a pound of Arbuckle’s’
coffee. Then we continued on to Nogales and
nearly got in line to go across the border by accident. As Gary told us, there is nothing much to see
in Nogales and we really could have skipped it.
We headed northeast on highway 82 and in Sonoita found a great little
restaurant called The Café for lunch. The
countryside here looks and feels very much like the area around Alpine, Marfa
and Marathon, Texas. We also discovered
that this area has wineries and pecan orchards.
We took highway 90 south through Fort Huachuca and from there a small
back road to Tombstone. We made it in
time to watch the last OK Corral shootout with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and
others. It was a bit hokey and Tombstone
is more like a movie set but it was fun walking around the town anyway. On the way out of town we stopped to see the
Boot Hill Cemetery which was more interesting to me. We headed north to Benson and then Interstate
10 east to Lordsburg, New Mexico arriving late at our hotel.
We didn’t have far to drive on Thursday so we slept in
late and took our time getting away although we didn’t see much of interest in
Lordsburg. We headed east on Interstate
10 through Deming to Las Cruses where we arrived about noon. We headed for the adjoining town of Mesilla
and the La Posta restaurant recommended by my brother, David. Mesilla is a quaint town with new adobe style
buildings around an old plaza where the Butterfield Stage used to stop. La Posta was a delightful restaurant with
lots of atmosphere and great food. We
had Mexican food then I finished off with flan while Rita had fried ice
cream. With the kind assistance of the
staff we found the Ristraman just a few blocks away and bought a couple of
ristras – one for us and one for our neighbor.
After walking around town we returned to the car and drove on to El Paso
which is not far away. Back to
Texas! We took the Trans Mountain Road
through Franklin Mountains State Park with beautiful vistas on all sides. We checked into our hotel and drove to the
Concordia Cemetery but we only had time to see the new Buffalo Soldiers section
before the cemetery closed at 5 pm.
It has been years since we had been to El Paso and we
were impressed by all the expressways around town and how much and how far the
city has expanded. But Friday morning we
went back to Concordia Cemetery which El Paso boasts as their boot hill. We saw the grave of notorious gun fighter
John Wesley Hardin and many others like Texas Rangers and the Chinese
section. It’s a huge cemetery. Next we drove to Ysleta Mission, the oldest
mission in Texas and the second oldest in the USA. However, unlike the oldest in San Augustine,
Florida, Ysleta Mission is still functioning and has mass and services
regularly. We took the big loop freeway
around El Paso through Ft. Bliss to the Wyler Aerial Tramway where we rode up
to the top of Ranger Peak with great views of El Paso and Juarez. We drove into downtown El Paso and viewed the
beautiful Tiffany glass dome in the bar of the Camino Real Hotel. While there we had a light lunch then walked
around the old historic downtown. We
felt as if we were in Juarez across the border.
We drove north on Mesa Street and took the pretty Scenic Drive which was
built years ago and where some of El Paso’s nicest houses look out over the
city. It was nearing the end of a long
day so we went back to the hotel and asked for suggestions on good El Paso
Mexican restaurants. The nice young lady
at reception suggested Los Bandidos de Carlos and Mickey which turned out
perfect. As suggested their margaritas
were great so while waiting for our table we sat in the bar watching the two
Latino men singers belt out Mexican songs while a group of about a dozen ladies
danced to a frenzy on the dance floor.
Everyone was having a great time and I noticed that Rita and I were part
of a handful of Anglos in the restaurant.
The food turned out to be excellent as well.
Saturday we left El Paso and took highway 62 east to
Hueco Tanks State Park which we found out limits entries to 200 people a
day. We were early so we got in and
after watching a mandatory video on the history and why we shouldn’t paint
graffiti on the rocks we were allowed to hike.
Hueco Tanks is a rock outcropping of four main hills that have large
hollowed out holes that collect rainwater.
Therefore the area in the desert was a Native American center for
hundreds of years and was also on the Butterfield Stage Route for watering
horses. There are pictographs and
petrographs dating back hundreds of years.
Today young rock climbers come to free climb certain areas the park has
set aside. We hiked to some of the more
famous pictographs (plus some graffiti from the 1800s) then headed out about
mid-morning.
We took highway 62 east again across the only Texas salt
flats with views of the Guadalupe Mountains to our north. We cut south on desolate, but scenic, highway
54 to Van Horn then highway 90 to Valentine where we saw the famous Prada art
work which looks like a Prada store in the middle of nowhere. I read that the artists say it is a piece of
art and the Texas Highway Department says it is a billboard sign that doesn’t
meet standards. It’s still being
argued. We drove through Marfa to Alpine
and checked into the historic Holland Hotel for the night. The hotel lobby is nicely restored but our
room was small with old furniture. Next
time I would stay at a modern hotel. We
walked to the Reata restaurant where we first sat in the bar and talked with
the nice bartender while having a local Big Bend Brewery gold lager each. Then we went into the restaurant for a nice
big tenderloin steak with a glass of red wine.
We returned to the hotel where sleep was occasionally interrupted by the
trains that ran next to our room.
Sunday, October 26 was our last day and I drove home in a
hypnotic trance at 85 mph through Fort Stockton, Ozona, Sonora and
Junction. In Fredericksburg we stopped
for a big late lunch (early dinner) at the Old German Bakery. We did a little grocery shopping at the HEB
and arrived home about 4 pm. All was
fine at home and we were happy to sleep in our own bed and use our own shower
the next morning. It was a great trip
where we got to see old friends, eat delicious food, and see some of the sights
and parks in New Mexico and Arizona that we had not seen before.
