Day 7
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico – Hermosa, Colorado
We woke up early today to a damp, sunny morning. The sun was shining down the length of the canyon and everything was still wet from last night’s rain.
Andy at our canyon campsite inside the Santa Clara Pueblo.
Andy rinses off in the river that flows beside our campsite.
Our campsite in the canyon at Santa Clara Pueblo.
Last night may have been the first good night’s sleep I’ve had in the tent so far. Our tent was about five feet from a brook and the noise of the water helped drowned out the other mysterious sounds that otherwise would have kept me awake.
The sun really brought out the colors in the canyon walls and the tiny trees that lie on top of these walls. It really was the most spectacular thing I’ve seen on the trip so far. The sheer cliffs surrounding us are tinted red and yellow by the rising sun. We cooked Raman noodles for breakfast since we have not been able to cook for the last few nights due to the weather. Before long we were back out in the desert and heading for Santa Fe on US 84 south.
Santa Fe
Typical street scene in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Thi is the corner of San Francisco Street and the Old Santa Fe Trail.
It was a sunny day and very hot once we made it to Santa Fe. All the buildings were southwest-type fake adobe (this must be written in the zoning laws) and the city was filled with people, many were tourists. We parked the car and walked around. There were many shops and artsy places, mostly American Indian art and jewelry.
There is a plaza in the center of town with a nice park. Today some band was playing Spanish style music and there was quite a crowd watching. Doesn’t anybody work in this town or are we all tourists? There were many sidewalk tables in the shade under the overhanging roofs of the storefronts filled with American Indian jewelry and families patiently sitting beside their merchandise.
We got some food from this lady who owns one of those carts. It was some Spanish thing, I can’t remember the name of it. Then we sat in the grass in the plaza listening to the band. Picked up some of the local free papers one of which had a nice picture of a guy flippin’ the bird. All of them were full of astrology, spiritual healing, and psychic readings and just about all of them showed a picture of the typical older, gray-haired man (nice tan of course) wearing a long white caftan gently blowing in the breeze. What this means I don’t know, I just know there are a lot of them out here. Some of the local news: people are getting angry because the new Sprint communications tower freezes, then wind-carried chunks of ice bombard the towns around the tower; also, people are worried about the build-up of bomb making at Los Alamos. A bit late for these people.
San Miguel Mission
San Miguel Chapel, the oldest church in the US, was first built in 1626. That building was destroyed in strife, this building dates from 1710.
We continued to walk around town and decided to go to the oldest church in continuous use in the US. The San Miguel Mission was first built in 1626 but was destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion. The current church was built in 1710 and has the oldest altar in the state (1798) as well as a bell that they say was made in Spain in 1356.
This church and many of the other landmarks, like the Capulin Volcano and the Rabbit Ears, are on the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe Trail (Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe) opened in 1821 and was one of the most famous travel routes to the west, connecting Missouri traders with Mexican soldiers.
Since we’re never taught about the history of the Southwest, I feel I should mention the Pueblo Rebellion since we’ve bumped into it here on our trip. It was started by a militant medicine man named Pope from the pueblo of San Juan. He was against the suppression of the Indians’ right to practice their religion and the Spanish exploitation of all Indians of the area. He sent runners throughout the region to let his followers know of the upcoming revolt on August 11, 1680. Those who he did not trust, who worked with the Spanish and accepted Christianity, he sent runners with news of a revolt to take place on August 13. The attacks began in northern New Mexico along the Rio Grande River. Pope set up his headquarters in Taos and, with much success and gathering support, they moved on toward Santa Fe with an army of 500 men reaching the city on August 15. Santa Fe was guarded by 50 troops with brass cannons. Fighting went on for days, with the chapel being destroyed on the third day, but there were no decisive victories on either side. On August 19, Pope and his army abandoned their position north of Santa Fe and retreated. On August 21, the Spanish also left Santa Fe and headed south to El Paso. The result of the uprising: 400 Spanish killed, 2,500 Spanish settlers driven back to Mexico, and a colonial power driven out by a band of Indians. Within 12 years, Spain would again occupy the American Southwest unchallenged.
The dirt road
We did a little more walking around then left the city the same way we entered it. We knew it would be tight if we were going to try to make it to Chaco Canyon. We turned west on NM 4 off US 84. This road goes around Los Alamos and by many of the Los Alamos labs that require “proper clearance.” The road also goes through the Santa Fe National Forest and the Jemez Mountains. We were going through higher elevations and the road soon became very curvy. Unfortunately, we were stuck behind logging trucks and the ride was very slow. Then, the pavement ran out and the road turned to dirt. This was on the map but the dirt portion of the road did not look too long. Little did we know we had begun the ride from hell.
New Mexico route 4, a long dirt road we explored.
A pull off on a dirt road we took in New Mexico.
The dirt lasted forever and the road condition did not allow us to drive at normal speeds. There was one town on this road, Seven Springs. It looked as though there were more springs than people, the place was deserted. Andy thought it might be a skiing town since there only appeared to be residential A-frame dwellings (McDonalds hasn’t found this place yet and neither had Rand McNally), but there were a few people walking around.
Soon we were at the point where we no longer trusted the map and we were afraid we were on some road to nowhere. I thought a compass would have been handy at a time like this. At this time we came across a sign that said “End Public Land.” Did this mean the beginning of private property? Were we now on someone’s driveway or did this mean we were out of the national forest? Would we have to turn around and go all the way back? We ultimately decided to press on after a few minutes of deliberation. What’s the worst that could happen if it were private property? While it’s possible we could have been entering the Manson Ranch of New Mexico or some anti-government militia compound, what are the chances? Besides, these places usually have a lot of highly visible “No Trespassing” signs around and I did not see any unfriendly signs.
Turned out to be a good decision and we eventually made our way back to civilization. The scenery on the road was beautiful but we were glad when pavement returned since it looked like rain again. By the time we got to pavement though, it was much too late to get to Chaco in order to get a campsite, but we tried anyway.
We finally got to Cuba, New Mexico and turned northwest on NM 44 toward Bloomfield. This road was deserted and flat. Not much to see out here, but we were able to go over 30 miles per hour now. Passed Chaco, it’s 10 to 20 miles off the road and it’s all dirt. I was a little worried about going all the way in there to find out that the campground is full, then having to drive back out this 20 mile dirt road, especially after the dirt road experience earlier. If the campground was full we may have trouble getting a place to stay elsewhere so we decided to keep going. Civilization was not far, only about 40 miles to Bloomfield and Aztec, New Mexico.
Colorado
There were a wide variety of camping options east of these towns and we figured on staying at one of these tonight. We stopped in Aztec to get organized and continued on. The next thing I saw was a New Mexico Historical Marker sign (which are all over the place) that simply said “COLORADO.” I thought this was pointing out the river that the road was running beside but I began to think about the path of the Colorado River and concluded that we’re no where near the Colorado River, so we must be in the state. Apparently we took a wrong turn and we had gone north instead into Colorado on US 550 and the river was the Animas River, not the Colorado. Another instance where a compass would have come in handy.
This was somewhat of a disappointment since there were a lot of ruins we had planned to see in the Aztec area and we even considered going back down to Chaco tomorrow, but it was just too far now. Yes, 65 miles sure beats the 2,000 or so miles from Pennsylvania, but I guess we decided it was too much.
We were now in the Southern Ute Indian Reservation and things on the whole were much greener over the border, a lot more irrigation it seems. Now the next town will be Durango, Colorado. This was a nice town (Elevation 6,523 feet), a sizable city which is home to Fort Lewis College so there were good places to eat. We arrived around 8 p.m. and just wanted to find a place to stay. We ended up going to the Hermosa Meadows Campground which is in the San Juan National Forest. This was one of those “family” places which meant that kids could run around and be as annoying as they pleased. The type of place people bring television sets to. Not ideal but not too many choices either, and hey, they had showers.
We met this group of girls from New York as we were checking in. They stopped by later and we compared trips. They were envious of us because they were going to be home in a few days while we were just starting. They were more into partying and loved Las Vegas. They gambled a lot, then, as they were leaving, got pulled over for speeding. To pay the citation they went back to gamble. Interesting story, glad our trip isn’t like that. Eventually they left, they were going out to Denny’s to get the birthday special since it was one of the girls’ birthday. We cooked Spaghetti and went to bed.