"We walked off to look for America"

Simon and Garfunkel's song "America" tells the story of "young lovers hitchhiking their way across the United States, in search of 'America,' in both a literal and figurative sense," as the Wikipedia entry about the song so aptly puts it. They travel from Michigan through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, presumably en route to New York City, that mecca of fashion and culture and commerce. As much as I love the song, I've always felt that the young lovers were heading in the wrong direction. The road to America lies west, not east. Or at least it does for me.

My 40th birthday happened to coincide with another invitation to judge at a model horse show in Colorado. Five years had passed since last I had visited that state, and my need to see mountains and wide-open skies had been steadily growing ever since, so I jumped at the chance. Much to my delight, my sister and her boyfriend decided to make the trip as well, and we all met up in Denver for a mini adventure before the show.

For a while now, I've been doing my unsubtle best to convince them that they, too, should move to Colorado (as I hope to do eventually (although probably only after winning the lottery at this rate)).  So I created an itinerary that I hoped would maximize dramatic scenery and fun. I had thought some of going up to Rocky Mountain National Park and staying somewhere in the mountains, but as it was only April, Trail Ridge Road through RMNP was still buried in snow, and the forecast was a tad dicey elsewhere in that area. Rather than risk icy conditions, we headed south toward Colorado Springs to do the touristy thing where warmer weather was more likely.

On the road south

Our first stop was an overlook along the highway with a spectacular view of Pike's Peak and its neighbors.

Snow cap on Pike's Peak

Panorama of the Rampart Range

Our ultimate destination that afternoon was Garden of the Gods. My sister and I had seen it briefly on our trip in 2010, but this time around, we were determined to really explore the area. It was a warm, extremely windy day which felt amazing to me after a long, ugly winter in Chicago. We spent most of our time wandering through the central Cathedral Valley of the park taking pictures and watching a couple of climbers scale the hogbacks. About 250 million years ago, these massive tilted sedimentary rocks were part of the floor of an inland sea that lapped up to the front range of the Ancestral Rockies. Over the millennia, the Ancestral Rockies eroded away, and the climate dried, turning the area into a desert that stretched across much of the southwest. Around 65 million years ago, the uplift that formed the present day Rocky Mountains tilted these slabs on end, creating this amazing landscape.

Kissing Camels

White rocks

Orange rocks

Plaque commemorating gift of the park to Colorado Springs

The land on which Garden of the Gods sits was willed to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909 upon the death of its owner, Charles Perkins, with the stipulation that it be turned into a free public park. More than 100 years later, the park draws sight-seers, hikers, climbers, nature lovers, international tourists, and people utterly bored to death with city-scapes like me.

Tall rocks

Pointy rocks

Still more rocks

The view from the back side of the largest fins

One thing that always fascinates me about Colorado is the wealth of outdoor sculpture, often whimsical, that turns up in all sorts of out of the way places. These delightful life size metal saguaro cacti greet visitors to the Garden of the Gods trading post.

The security officer in the trading post was kind of intense

The trading post sells the usual mix of generic touristy, outdoorsy kitsch (which is fun, don't get me wrong), but I was most interested in the exquisite Navajo rugs and sandpaintings and the Puebloan pottery.

A unique and lovely sandpainting on a light shade!

Navajo rugs

Mind-blowing, intricately patterned pottery from Acoma pueblo

We made a last circuit of the park just before dusk, stopping at the geological wonder that is Balanced Rock. Millennia of erosion from wind and rain have worn away the rock around it, leaving it seemingly precariously balanced over the road.

Scale is hard to judge from photos, but this rock is a massive 35 feet high

Our hotel was just a few minutes away in Manitou Springs in the shadow of Pike's Peak. We drove through town and up the pass beyond a ways, but evening was coming on, and we were hungry, so we turned back. (Alas, none of my pictures from that drive turned out well enough to share.) We poked around the various interesting shops and restaurants in Manitou and ultimately opted to eat at The Loop, a Mexican restaurant. This proved to be an inspired choice because the food was absolutely amazing. I'm not normally a foodie, but their quesadillas were so good, I had to be that person and take a picture of my plate. 

Having stuffed ourselves mightily, and having brought home leftovers to boot, we returned to our hotel and promptly all fell into sleepy, contented food comas. Our plans for the next day depended on the weather, but would involve mountains one way or the other. Westward, ho, to look for more America!

Coyote is waiting

"The mountains were rough amethysts against a sky like a giant stage backdrop---layers of gauzy scarlet and gold and amber, lit from behind by mammoth spotlights. I sat there drinking and relaxing, enjoying the play of cool evening air on my face, and I knew I was caught. Heat and dust and sunburn be damned, I loved the place. I wouldn't want to give up the lush green spring of Ohio...but the desert was part of me too. I would have to come back to it, not just once but again and again."

--- Elizabeth Peters, Summer of the Dragon 

It's Minnesota in my case rather than Ohio, but the quote reflects my feelings perfectly otherwise. I went west knowing already that the mountains spoke to me, and that the wide open country made me feel alive like nowhere else I'd been. The desert though was a wholly new experience for me---it's a world of sun and parched earth, winding arroyos and dead volcanoes. It's empty and austere and yet unbelievably beautiful. I did not expect to fall in love, but I did.

When I woke up that morning in Cortez, my thoughts were focused on our upcoming sojourn to the Four Corners monument and the trading post in Teec Nos Pos. Having read a few of Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee mysteries,* I was also eager to see the Navajo Reservation and the landscape there that is as much a character in the books as the people.

Towns and gas stations are few and far between on the rez, so we filled up on the way out of Cortez. I somehow managed to lose my little silver snake ring while doing so, and given Navajo taboos about snakes, in retrospect, I suppose that was fitting. I was annoyed at the time, but I ended up with a pretty amazing replacement for it by the end of the day.

Heading south out of Cortez

 

 

Parched earth

 

Winding arroyos, the result of heavy summer rains and flash floods

 

We realized we would not have time to get to both Ship Rock (New Mexico) and Teec Nos Pos (Arizona) that day, so at the fork in the road, we opted for the latter. The allure of turquoise was too strong. Nonetheless, I managed to get some shots of the great cathedral spires rising up from the desert floor some eight or ten miles distant. Ship Rock is the molten core of a long dead volcano, the outer shell of which has eroded away over the millennia. It doesn't look particularly ship-like to me though. The Navajo call it Tsé Bitʼaʼí, the "rock with wings." It is a sacred place and central to several important stories in their mythology, chiefly how Monster Slayer, one of the Warrior Twins, earned his title.

More stunning scenery

 

As you can see, the terrain changes a bit with every hill and turn in the road. No photo can really convey the vastness of the sky overhead or the broad panorama of the mountains and low plains, but I tried. Because we were there in late May, the area was relatively green from spring melt water, but even the drier places were breathtakingly beautiful. Something about this landscape gets under your skin and into your soul, and like Elizabeth Peters wrote, it draws you back again and again. I had only a taste, a few short hours, but there's no cure, and I wouldn't want one anyway. 

When we reached Four Corners, we found this...

So we didn't get to take any silly photos of ourselves sprawled across 4 states, and I didn't get to add Utah to my list of States I Have Visited. Bummer. Still, the drive further south to Teec Nos Pos did provide more wild horse sightings.

Welcome to Dinetah!

 

The crossroads at Teec Nos Pos (pronounced "tease nahs pahs" (I've been saying it wrong, too)) consist of a trading post, a gas station, and a few scattered small buildings. The trading post, built in 1905, serves as both a general store and a gallery of Native American art, primarily Navajo rugs, jewelry, pottery, and baskets. There are similar trading posts dotted around the southwest, but this was the first one we visited. Talk about mind blowing! There were several long glass cases full of thousands of pieces of jewelry, and there was a whole room filled to bursting with rugs.

 

A few of the rugs I found particularly stunning

 

Despite many temptations, we held off on buying anything, knowing that the delights of Durango, Silverton, and Ouray still awaited us. We drove back north to Cortez, planning to continue on to Telluride, but made a last minute stop at the Notah Dineh Trading Company and Museum on the west side of town.There, we did succumb to the siren call of turquoise and silver, and we were so entranced that we never made it downstairs to the museum, so I will just have to go back there, too. Convenient, huh?

My loot, a Navajo needle point bracelet by Corbet Joe. (Needle point is traditionally a Zuni style, but many Navajo now work in that style as well.)

And an inlaid Zuni ring by unknown artists "DE-CM"

(This was the point in my life where I lost control in terms of Native jewelry. I'm sitting pretty, literally, at around 75 pieces now...)

As with most everywhere in the southwest, the countryside becomes greener as the elevation rises, and the road north out of Cortez is no different. We left the desert in just a few short miles, returning to the temperate forest that covers much of the Rockies. The first town we reached was Dolores, a former railroad town like so many in the area. A replica of the old Dolores depot houses a small museum there devoted to the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, and out in front sits one of the most unique vehicles to ride the rails, a Galloping Goose. The Geese were powered by combustion engines rather than steam engines, and they were therefore less expensive to operate, especially for light mail or passenger runs. Only seven were built, and of that number, six survive. All six are still operational. Number five is on display in Dolores.

 

The Navajo have a saying that "Coyote is always out there waiting, and Coyote is always hungry." He is a complex figure in Navajo mythology, both a trickster and trouble maker but also a character of perverse whimsy and unexpected beneficence. It is said that if a coyote crosses your path while on a journey, you should turn back or some terrible event will transpire. Near the small town of Rico, we came upon a coyote sitting by the side of the road, bold as brass, just watching the cars go by. He was content to let us pass, and no ill luck befell us. But he did serve as a reminder that Coyote is always waiting.

As we climbed higher in to the San Juans, we came to Lizard Head Pass (elevation 10,222 feet). The snowmelt stream in the meadow below is part of the headwaters of the Dolores River.

Lizard Head Peak (elevation 13,113 feet)

Trout Lake

 

The town of Telluride. (It was too upscale touristy for my taste.)

 

Telluride sits in a box canyon, so there is no way out from the back of the canyon other than up the winding switchback seen here behind the old Pandora Mine.

 

Bridal Veil Falls and the power plant that helps provide electricity to the town

 

More CO sculpture outside the gas station in Telluride, these of the whimsical variety.

 

 Back on the road---Sunshine Mountain. I will never tire of these mountain views.

Following the Dolores River back down toward Cortez

Old mining ruins

 

A marvelous rat tail Appaloosa spotted near Dolores

 

Our final destination for the day was Durango, and our hotel rooms looked out over the lovely Animas River. There's a pretty bike and pedestrian path all along the river front.

Next time---more steam engines, more jewelry, more incredible mountain scenery!

* At that time. I've read them all now and wish there were more.