Day 937: El Morro National Monument

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Ben

This morning we left the Walmart of Gallup and drive south and east to El Morro National Monument:

We hiked out to Inscription Rock, where travellers have been carving names and images since the 13th century:

Travellers came this way because of the rainwater catchment, which when filled to capacity by summer rainstorms holds 200,000 gallons:

Ancient petroglyphs:

E. Penn Long of the Rose-Baley Party, 1859:

Ramon Garcia Jurado, Mexican colonist, 1709:

Juan de Arechuleta and Diego Martin Barba. colonists in the Juan de Oñate expedition to settle New Mexico, 1636:

Juan de Oñate, 1604. This inscription predates the landing at Plymouth Rock by over a decade:

On the shaded side of Inscription Rock, we encountered a bit of snow:

Governor Don Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto, 1629:

Governor Eulate, 1620:

Behold!

In 1849, Army artists spent two days copying the inscriptions here, then left their own signature:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

We continued east and north to overnight at the Walmart of Grants, New Mexico. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 936: Canyon De Chelly NP

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Ben

This morning we visited the Canyon de Chelly National Monument visitor center:

We left the RV at the visitor center and drove out along the South Rim Drive, stopping first at the White House trailhead:

Across the canyon, the White House ruins are visible. Like the other cliff dwellings in the park, this site was built and occupied by the Anasazi between 1100 and 1300:

The White House ruins are along the canyon floor on the left side of this photo:

We started our hike down to the canyon floor. In places where the canyon wall is too steep for a trail, the trail was carved through the canyon wall:

Another man-made tunnel:

Down of the canyon floor:

White House ruins from ground level:

Heading back up:

Our next stop was a trail to an overlook of Spider Rock. The taller of the two spires is 750 feet tall:

We stopped at a number of other overlooks where cliff dwellings could be seen in the distance:

Navajo tribal members still farm and ranch the canyon floor today:

We returned to the visitor center and hitched up the RV. The kids handed in their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

We left the park by way of the North Rim Drive, stopping along the way to view the park’s northern canyon and the cliff dwellings therein:

The Mummy Cave complex is the largest cliff dwelling in the Park:

Our Canyon de Chelly parting shot:

We drove south. Since we left the Phoenix area, we’ve been above 6,000 feet, and this afternoon we passed this frozen lake at over 7,000 feet:

We continued on to overnight at the Walmart of Gallup, New Mexico, where we last slept on Day 383.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 935: Hubbell Trading Post NHS

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Ben

Shabbos in Concho was great. We went for a couple little walks and enjoyed the solitude.

Today we drove east and north to Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, which preserves the oldest continuously operating trading post in the West:

The trading post was founded in 1878 and continues to operate today:

Here on the Navajo Reservation, which is larger than ten US states, most tribal members shop at local convenience stores, but some do still shop at the trading post that has served this area for almost 150 years:

Native Americans bring their crafts here and sell them to the trading post for store credit or cash. The trading post then sells these items to the public:

We walked the grounds of the trading post:

The grounds include livestock pens:

Next we learned the history of this site in the adjacent visitor center:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

We continued north towards tomorrow’s goal, Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Since it’s unclear if the Navajo Nation allows dispersed camping, we decided to stay at the NPS campground in Canyon de Chelly. I hate to pay for camping, but since we haven’t used a public campground since January of 2015 (see Day 519), I don’t feel all that bad paying the fourteen dollars. At least the campground is mostly empty:

Trish continues to fill the RV will all manner of adorable crocheted creations:

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 874: Visiting Henderson

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Ben

We awoke to a chilly but sunny morning here in Boulder City, Nevada. We repositioned the RV so the sun came through the big windows:

We drove west for half an hour to my parents’ house in Henderson, Nevada. Waiting for us were a number of Junior Ranger badges. When we visited Fort McHenry, they didn’t give us the correct badges, so they mailed them here:

We picked up but did not complete the Underwater Explorer workbooks when we visited the Minnesota Science Museum, so we completed them on the trip and mailed them in:

We visited White Sands and Guadalupe Mountains on our 2011 trip, but didn’t complete the Junior Ranger workbooks at that time. We submitted them recently:

We passed through Agua Fria National Monument on Day 582. Agua Fria has no visitor center, so we submitted this book after our visit:

We visited Vermillion Cliffs National Monument in the spring of 2014, but at the time they did not have a Junior Ranger program, so we completed the newly-available workbook recently: