During our trip through Arizona and New Mexico, I have been playing rock “road tunes” in my head. Lyrics such as :

I’ve been from Tuscon to Tucumcari – Little Feet, “Willin”

Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona – The Eagles, “Take it easy”

The reason for this is that we have driven through both of those towns in the last few days.

We left the North Rim of the Grand Canyon early Saturday morning. Our goal was to reach the KOA in Holbrook, AZ. We planned to stay there a couple of nights and see the Petrified Forest National Park, the Painted Desert and whatever else there was to see in the area.

Ann was looking at the map and saw that we would be going by a place called the Wupatki National Monument. We had no idea what the place was, so we decided to stop by and check it out.

It turns out that the monument is there to preserve the Wupatki Pueblo. In it’s heyday in the late 1100′s, the pueblo had over 100 rooms and probably had 85-100 inhabitants. As inhospitable as the area was, it was the largest settlement in the area and was within a days walk of over 2000 people. However, 150 years or so later this place was abandoned. No one really knows why.

The Wupatki Pueblo

The park’s trail guide does a very nice job of describing the issues involved in balancing  the need to investigate, preserve and protect sites of historic and archeological significance  while also respecting Native American religions and traditions. There are the attitudes of the turn of the 20th century, where everything possible was dug up or restored (the park’s first ranger restored a room in the pueblo and lived in it with his wife)  to the desires of the Native Americans to not touch anything.

The road to the pueblo continues on, through private land, to the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. The Sunset Crater Volcano was created rather recently, sometime between 1040 and 1100. There were a series of powerful explosions and lava flows. The land for over 800 square miles around the crater is black with the ash from the explosions.

There is a trail that winds around the base of the volcano. However, you can not climb it as you could in the past. Climbing was forbidden when trails in the cinders became 3-4 foot deep ruts, due to water and wind erosion. Thousands of pounds of dirt and ash were put back on the volcano in an attempt  to restore it. However, you can still see where several of the trails used to be.

Sunset Crater Volcano

The National Monument resides in the Coconino National Forest. There is a campground operated by the Forest Service (no hookups) across the street from the National Monument’s Visitor Center.

A week before we left the North Rim, a wildfire was accidentally started (an unattended campfire) in the Coconino National Forest. We could see the smoke from the fire from the Lodge at the North Rim. At one point, the highway you take from Flagstaff to get to Page, AZ and the North Rim was closed due to this fire. While the fire was mostly under control, we could see it burning off in the distance as we left the National Monument.

The Forest Fire in the Coconino National Forest

Then it’s on to Flagstaff, through the aforementioned Winslow, Arizona, to the KOA campground in Holbrook, Arizona. We are staying here because it is close to the Petrified Forest National Park. It’s a nice campground, even with the pool being a bit chilly. While we were preparing dinner, our roof air conditioner (an original Armstrong) starts making funny noises, then dies and trips the circuit breaker. While Ann & I can survive without A/C, we are concerned that our cats may have issues during the heat of the afternoon. So we put dinner on hold and head back to Winslow, which is where the nearest Walmart is and pick up an “inexpensive” window A/C  unit. Back at the campground, I rest a board on the opened window sill, the other end resting on top of the propane cylinder hold down clamp. We then seal the window with some reflective foil-like plastic that we use in our windows to keep heat out during the day and light out when dry camping in parking lots. The setup works like a champ!

The next day we head off to the Petrified Forest National Park. I am not sure what we expected to find there, but it sure wasn’t what we found there: pieces of petrified trees lying around, sometimes in piles, all around the desert.

Petrified Forest National Park

During the Late Triassic period, about 225 million years ago, this part of Arizona was located near the equator. It was a river delta in a tropical rain forest. trees would topple into the rivers and end up piled up here. They eventually sunk and were covered by mud, volcanic ash, silt and silica. Over the years, the silica slowly reacted with the organic material in the trees, turning them slowly into stone. The colors in the petrified wood came from various minerals that were present in the silt.

The park has a huge problem with people taking pieces of petrified wood home with them. However, you can buy petrified wood (from a small piece to a whole log) from various stores. There is privately owned land surrounding the park that also has petrified wood. They contract out the “wood rights” to companies that dig it up and sell it.

Petrified wood for sale

After we left the Petrified Forest, we drove to several vistas of  the Painted Desert (part of which is in the National Park). It is named the Painted Desert because of all the various colors (caused by different minerals) of soil, rock and sand.

The Painted Desert

The next day we head East towards New Mexico. The landscape is still high desert, scrubby growth that somehow manages to feed the occasional cow that we see. We are still above 5000 feet.

We really wanted to explore New Mexico, as there are a lot of places to see there: Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, lots of Native American sites and, of course, Roswell. However time constraints and the fact that Southern New Mexico is damn hot this time of year makes it necessary to postpone the sightseeing to a cooler time of year when we have more time.

I found a State Park that is a “bit” South of Albuquerque called Manzano Mountains State Park. It was farther away from Albuquerque than we thought it would be, but it turned out to be worth the drive. It is a small campground, with electric at the sites and water available at several different locations. It has restrooms, but no showers. The reserve-able sites are really nice. Many of them have shelters over the picnic tables.

Our campsite at Manzano Mountains State Park

The next day we head to Texas, via Tucumcari, New Mexico, (more songs in my head) to Amarillo. The landscape slowly changes from high desert scrub to dry pasture grasses as we gradually descend in altitude. Instead of seeing one or two cows, or the occasional horse, every 10 miles, we are seeing herds of cows (with lots of calves).

Tonight we are staying at another park I just picked off of the Internet: Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Like the park by Albuquerque, it turns out to be a pleasant surprise.

Texas claims that Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest in the USA. After living at THE largest canyon in the WORLD, it wasn’t that impressive, size wise. However, it is very pretty, and you actually drive down 800 feet from the rim into the bottom of the canyon (where else but Texas?). They have an open air amphitheater that has a musical they run every evening called “Texas!”, complete with people on horseback .

The campground was lovely. With lots of trees, vegetation and wildlife, the sites have water and electric, and there are shower houses. They also have several styles of cabins. Several on the rim and a half dozen or so down in the canyon that you can rent. We definitely plan on returning here to explore the Amarillo area (but we probably won’t be trying to eat a 72 oz steak in an hour).

Our campsite at Palo Duro State Park

From Amarillo we will be spending a few days outside of Fort Worth, then it’s on to Ann’s Mother’s house in Montgomery, TX.

Photos from this, and all of our other trips can be seen in our Photo Album.