Making It Up as We Go: Lee’s Ferry Lodge, AZ 6/23/08

This is Ned again, taking my occasional turn as blog scribe. The sun woke us up this morning at 6 a.m. and we got up at 6:30, eager to explore the canyon on our bikes before the sun warmed things up too much. After breakfast, we drove Winnie down to the visitor center, and started our bike tour of the Chaco ruins. We almost had the place to ourselves. Walking around the ruins, especially Pueblo Bonito, was really magical. Having first visited here about 15 years ago, I am still amazed with the intricacy of the stonework. We both marveled at being able to walk through some of the actual rooms in the pueblo, with their very low doorways (actually, almost perfect height for Debi), and try to imagine what it would have been like to live here about 1000 years ago. About 10:30, having logged 10 miles on our bikes, we were ready to attempt our exit from Chaco over the dreaded 16 miles of washboard road. Rather than repeat the disaster of the night before, we stowed the bikes inside the van. With Debi praying the whole way, and me driving like an old lady (35 mph on our way in and 15 mph on our exit), we mercifully made it to the paved road after a very long hour without losing any parts or bikes. We made several comments for the rest of the day regarding the amazing technological marvel of asphalt roads. We drove to Farmington, a very large city seemingly supported by an economy associated with the creation and maintenance of oil wells and natural gas fields. The upside of this was that we were quickly able to locate an auto parts store where I purchased some very long stainless hose clamps. I set up shop in front of a nearby motel that offered free Wi-Fi, so that Debi could upload her blog and support her political junkie habit. After about 30 minutes of futzing, and only one failed attempt, I was successful in getting the mysterious smog control canister reattached to the frame of the van, where I trust it will stay for the duration of the trip. After stopping for gas, and getting an impressive amount of black grease washed off of my hands, we headed down the road towards the Grand Canyon. We drove past lots of very wide open landscape, most of which is in the Navajo Nation in the northeast corner of Arizona. Our plans were rather vague at this point, and upon reaching the fork in the road of Highway 89 reading “Grand Canyon, South Rim / North Rim”, we chose North Rim! Neither of us has ever been there, it is considered “the road less traveled”, and it is closer to Zion, where we are planning to meet Polly and Eric on Thursday afternoon. We drove past dramatic multi-colored cliffs, under fluffy white clouds, until we arrived at the Navajo Bridge, which crosses the Colorado River right at the beginning of Marble Canyon, just upstream from the Grand Canyon. Having not had showers or electric power the night before, and uncertain of the prospect of a campsite with showers tonight, we pulled into a funky little Route-66 vintage cabin motor lodge, called Lee’s Ferry Lodge. We decided to have a picnic dinner in front of our room with our leftover wine, cheese, bread, apples, and brownies. (See photo of me dining, while watched adoringly by the very mellow, resident dog, “Took”.) It still feels a little like camping, with the pine paneled walls, lack of TV, and microscopic shower, but Debi was VERY pleased to have a shower tonight! We hope to view the Grand Canyon from the North Rim tomorrow morning.

A Few Bumps in the Road: Chaco Canyon National Park, NM 6/22/08

This morning we got up a lot earlier - partly because I was excited about exploring so many new things, and partly because we hadn’t adjusted to the time change (gaining an extra hour). We were up at 6:30 and left the campground by 8:00. Our first destination this morning was Tecolate Café. We had seen Guy review this restaurant on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It really impressed us and we didn’t want to miss it. I had the pine nut blue corn pancakes and Ned had a breakfast burrito with Christmas (red and green) chili sauce. This place knocked our socks off. One of the best breakfast places we have ever eaten. The staff was friendly, funny and amazingly attentive. The food spectacular! This is one of the few restaurants that actually live up to the hype. We got to the restaurant at about 8:30 and were seated right away. By the time we left, there were at least 25 people waiting to get in! Our next stop was exploring the neighborhoods of Santa Fe and the Old Governor’s Palace Museum. To tell the truth I was really disappointed in the museum. Ned and I have seen our fair share of museums this trip and this one was particularly mediocre, especially considering the $8 entry fee per person. It was two rooms of placards that really didn’t tell a cohesive story. I think back on the museum in Little Rock that was fantastic – it had history about Little Rock, all the governors, an amazing country music costume display, a women’s exhibit, and you also got to view the chambers of the senate and house of representatives. Heck, the Roger Miller Museum was even better. Sorry Santa Fe, you need work on this one…We then continued to stroll thru Santa Fe, checking out all the vendors that were set-up in the plaza for Sunday morning, and even strolled by the oldest house in the U.S. We decided we had enough of Santa Fe and headed for Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos. This is the cliff dwellings of the Ancient Pueblo ancestors (used to be called Anasazi, but that term has fallen into disfavor by the Pueblo people). We had a fantastic time exploring the kivas, climbing ladders into the caves (check out the photo of me poking my head out), and viewing the petroglyphs. Of course watching the 15 Chinese Buddhist women in straw hats and long gray smocks giggling, singing, and exploring the caves was highly entertaining too. We then decided to do the long trek (4 hours) to Chaco Canyon. It was a stunningly beautiful drive thru a plethora of scenery. We went by a huge caldera, over a mountain range passing some of the first legitimate looking pine trees we’ve seen in weeks, passed by several Indian pueblos, descended to 7000 feet and paralleled the Colorado plateau over the Continental divide. Whew! We finally reached the turn-off point for Chaco Canyon. It’s 16 miles of the worst washboard road I’ve ever been on!! It was so bad that we passed a new pick-up truck that had broken down on the bumpy road. We offered to help, but they were waiting for a tow truck (how it was getting there with no cell phone service was news to me). We ventured on and finally made it to the park entrance only to realize that we had lost one bike (mine), were dragging the other bike (Ned’s) and poor Winnie had something shaken loose from underneath. The campground radio broadcast stated that the campground was full and there was no way in hell I was going to drive that bumpy ride back out the same day. So, we took inventory of Ned’s bike, decided it was ride-able and I hopped on it in search of a campsite while Ned returned to locate my bike. Turns out there were plenty of campsites (the radio broadcast was old). In the meantime, Ned located my bent bike and spent some time trying to tie up something underneath the car. We finally reconvened at the campsite, Ned jacked up the car and managed to secure what we think is the smog canister. (We donated parts of our campfire “toaster” for this). He also worked on straightening out my bike’s wobbly back wheel. Meanwhile, I worked on getting dinner together (grilled swordfish in mango teriyaki sauce, spinach salad, fresh sourdough bread, corn on the cob and if you promise not to tell the ranger, a bottle of wine). So, here’s hoping that we can take the bikes for a spin thru the park tomorrow and visit the Chaco Canyon ruins and more importantly be able to drive OUT of the park without losing any parts). Stay tuned for part 2. On the plus side, we are in the middle of the high desert with no civilization close by, and the stars are so bright you can touch them!