First Road Trip in a Long Long Time (or Since February…. A REALLY Long Time to a Travel Junkie Like Myself!)

Ok – I realize I’ve kinda fallen off the face of the earth and haven’t been on here in 5 months…. Sorry…. My body has been fucking me over and, while not in a depression, I have been super-pre-occupied with the daily grind and all that goes with it.

Having said that, we are planning another trip and its coming up soon! At the beginning of the summer (thats in April down here in Southern New Mexico...) we decided that our first anniversary trip should be someplace awesome and our first thought was – Glacier National Park!

All the pictures we saw as we researched the trip were amazing, and we couldn’t wait to go! Glacier’s Instagram game is ON POINT! Check it out… 

So after conferring with a colleague who worked at Glacier, we knew exactly where to stay. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. They were completely booked! So Glacier is on the back burner for next fall and we’ll get reservations ASAP!

So after a short list of amazing places we want to go, we have chosen a road trip up the California Coast! The plan is not-at-all simple. Fly into San Francisco, bum around town a few days eating all the Indian food we can find and soaking up some city livin’, then rent a car and head north, zig-zagging along the coast, stopping in cool little towns and camping, until we hit Redwoods National Park, visit with friends and hike a few days, commune with the sea and the trees, then drive inland to Lassen Volcanic National Park, camp and hike a few days, commune with the sulfur-spewing and sulfur-bubbling pits, then down a gross interstate to see an old friend, more yummy food, then back to San Francisco and home to Carlsbad via El Paso! Whew! in 10 days…

This is what we’re hoping for…

Not my photo… comes from http://steveblank.com/category/california-coastal-commission/

 

This is where we’ll be…

again, not my photo… comes from http://www.compassionatecalifornia.org/

 

YES!!!

from http://www.reserveamerica.com/outdoors/california-camping.htm

 

Some of our transportation…

from http://www.lonelyplanet.com

 

Where we hope to be eating…

from http://theodysseyonline.com/lewis-clark/cultural-tourism-in-san-franciscos-chinatown/126065

 

 

I promise awesome photos and most likely several crazy stories when we get back 🙂

Vacationing in Northern New Mexico… part 3 – Campfires and Pecos history

ok… so we left off with camping and freezing, right?

We drove up into the mountains just outside million dollar homes overlooking Santa Fe, arriving at a gorgeous pine-scented forest service campground with the BEST campsites I’ve ever seen on public land. At 9,000 feet and with an afternoon storm blowing in (I’m completely convinced that it dumped snow somewhere nearby), it got cold pretty quickly. M went off in search of water (all the spigots were still shut off due to impending May snow), and I quickly put on layers… a long underwear layer, followed by a thermal layer, followed by a fleece skintight layer, followed by a fleece vest layer. To top off my ensemble, I pulled Lennox’s Mexican blanket out of the car and wrapped it around me baby-burrito style.

I’m clearly more of a ‘sun’ person.

When M came back and saw me, he simply laughed and announced that he was heading out into the woods for firewood…. To keep moving, and keep warm, I worked on putting up the tent.

My man and his fire, keeping my feet warm

Reheating his BBQ sandwich from earlier in the day

We spent several hours warming by the fire, reading and talking, while unknown birds made foreign noises above us. M was in charge of keeping the home fires burning while I was in charge of discovering how awesome burning pine cones look. 🙂 I had leftover cake for dinner – using the theory that Eskimos eat whale blubber and Iditarod dudes eat sticks of butter to keep warm. Denial…. or Genius…..?

Finally the sun went down and I had to add a final layer to my very bulky frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the fire was out and it was officially too cold, I headed to the bathroom one final time. In this super-awesome campground there was only one issue… the bathroom. Bathroom isn’t the term to be used. Latrine is more accurate. A pit-toilet in the freezing cold with spiders and beetles watching can only be described as a latrine. I had girl scout camp flashbacks…. (I should totally tell you guys about my experiences at camp. Another time.) I had taken the flashlight and the lantern with me into the outhouse, but was surprised when I opened the door and a motion-detected light came on. I was more surprised when the fucking light went out 70 seconds later, just as I had pulled my pants (all of my pants) down around my ankles and was hovering (NEVER sit…) over the hole! Before the spiders and beetles could attack, I calmly (re. totally freaked out) ran around, still pants around ankles, trying to find my lantern or flashlight that I had turned off in total confidence of the damn light. I kicked the flashlight into beetle territory and was not going to go fishing for it in the dark. I managed to get the lantern on after what felt like 5 hours. As I stood up, I triggered the motion-light and the room was bright once again.

Note To the Dumb-ass Latrine Designer Guys: Point the fucking motion detector at the toilet, not the corner by the door! OR change the timer for 5 minutes! Who pees, or worse, in 70 seconds from pants down to pants up?!

Anyway, after escaping death in the latrine I headed back to camp to tell M all about my experience. Humility is healthy….

M went right to sleep. I did not. I read until my fingers were frozen then burrowed deep into my 20 degree bag, still in all the layers and the coat, under the Mexican blanket. Throughout the night, as i got warmer and more claustrophobic, I pulled off the layers until I was down to just the one super-sexy electric purple long underwear.

The next morning – I really don’t remember the next morning. There was no coffee. I remember that. The plan was to drive back down to spring temperatures and find a breakfast spot with cheap food and tons of coffee.

Once appropriately fueled, we headed to Pecos National Historic Site. M had a friend to see there and I had a passport stamp to acquire.

Ever wonder the difference in quality between a really nice digital camera and an iPhone?  Here….

Top: M’s camera with a large battery… mine died. Bottom: my iPhone

Pecos was cool – and by that I mean cold, windy, and truly interesting.

An homage to geology?

I’m totally sure that goofing off for cameras is what the scary evil Conquistadors had in mind when they built this chapel and killed any natives who wouldn’t submit to the lord…. yep, totally accurate.

heathen!

not to be outdone by the Conquistadors, the natives had their own ceremonial chambers

heathen squirrel….

totally M’s camera, my iPhone wouldn’t get this awesome

After hanging with M’s friend and touring the grounds, we headed back onto the highway and crossed the most boring section of New Mexico ever created. They really should have tested bombs here, and not in the mountains near the Trinity Site. 5 hours and tons of Todd Snider later, we were back home.

The unpacking took days, but the showering off 5 days of grime took minutes. Nothing feels as good as a shower after a long camping trip!

Vacationing in Northern New Mexico…. part 1 – Bandelier (Ruins, Ponderosas, and Lazy Camping!)

M’s photo – one of the Ancestral Puebloan cave homes (caveates)

After a rough week, I was in need of a vacation so M and I road tripped up to northern New Mexico…. Bandelier National Monument, Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, and Pecos National Historic Site. It was to be a week of hiking and exploring – my two favorite things!

First things first – driving through east-central New Mexico is extremely boring.

4 hours of this…. ugh

But it got really good so it was worth the drive.

M and I spent 3 days camping and hiking among 1000-year old Ancestral Puebloan ruins among ponderosa pines and amazing rock formations, before stumbling upon a mountain stream above 9,000 feet and hiking among the hoodoos of the flat desert. Oh yeah, all the while learning about ancient peoples, discovering rock art, and hanging out with mother nature. In other words… a perfect vacation.

We had the campground almost completely to ourselves, leaving the crowds below the canyon rim. This was  perfect for so many reasons… no loud families next door, no creepy neighbors to smile at when you step out of the tent first thing in the morning, and completely empty bathrooms.

low-lighting and a cell phone camera = fuzzy M

camp food: fancy-pants homemade risotto with Fritos 🙂

Bandelier National Monument is a fantastic place to learn about some of the people who lived in the southwest deserts and canyons between 800 and 1300 A.D. Its also a fantastic place to climb around in the homes they left behind.

Along the main trail in Frijoles Canyon

M, ever a park ranger, takes a photo for the cool couple who took ours on the ladder

Checking out the inside of an Ancestral Puebloan home

original plastered wall with artwork – preserved for 1000 years…

Bandelier is full of ladder fun!

We found a lot of pottery shards at one ruin site

seriously, full of ladder fun

Ghostly footsteps of the ancient Ancestral Puebloans, carved forever in the soft rock

I’d love to look out onto this view from my yard!

There was also plenty of goofing off to be done…

Scary skull-rock face

Checking out the water levels from a flash flood in 2011

M trying to speed up geologic processes

Besides the great archaeology, Bandelier was a great place to commune with nature…

M’s photo – he loves his black and whites.

Watching a super-cute squirrel find his stash from last fall

Looking down into Frijoles Canyon

M watching the sunset and enjoying the afternoon silence

me watching the water fall through the canyon

M looking out into the canyon where the Frijoles Creek meets the Rio Grande

 

Inquisitive coyote on the side of the road. He was very responsible and waited until we passed to cross the street.

The one place you DON’T want to see wildlife….

Traveling Ancient Roads in New Mexico (or Our Urination Vacation) Part 3: Heading Home and Looking Back

One of the coolest things about Chaco Culture National Historic Site is that you can enter a few of the sites and walk around at your leisure. Many sites with ancient dwellings have rules that you can look but you can’t touch. At Chaco, a few of the sites have become the sacrificial sites that visitors can enter and touch and learn from.

Enter if you want… unless you see this sign

So later in the afternoon, once we’d had lunch and recovered from our 6-mile morning hike, we toured Pueblo Bonito. This one is huge and you can walk through all of it! I think we counted 27 kivas – Kivas are circular underground ceremonial meeting spaces. Most of them are small, holding 10 people or so. Chaco’s Great Houses boast the biggest kivas I’ve ever seen, big enough to hold 60+ people. Its like little league fields vs. NFL fields.

Large kiva at Chetro Ketl – those large circular holes in the ground held ponderosa pine trunks which held the roof up.

The National Park Service has worked pretty hard to maintain these Great Houses, sometimes rebuilding parts of them for our education, and sometimes keeping them unexcavated until future archaeological techniques are perfected. However, some of the maintenance we saw on the Great Houses were pretty funny…

a rain gutter?! Those Chacoans really were advanced!

support beams holding up an unprecedented 3-story 1,000 year old wall

Perspective…. the ancient Chacoans were shorter than my 5ft, 9in self but this was pretty short! It is possible that they kept doorways short to keep warmer air from escaping in the cold winter months. – M’s photo

M checking out the one room that remains dark to maintain original murals painted on the wall.

Personally, I love petroglyphs and pictographs – rock art to the layperson. More than just graffiti, rock art panels are the enduring words carved by our ancestors, by the caretakers of many of the places that are now part of the National Park Service. I am drawn to them like Homer Simpson to donuts and beer. I photograph every thing I see, catalogue what I can, and listen to what they tell me.

M’s photo: petroglyphs are pecked into rock, like this swirl above

We found rock art next to almost every single Great House we came across. Most of the art is well known to visitors of the site but I still got a thrill each time I came across some. Its like reading a book – the book has been read by others but you still read it and take away your own meaning.

The canyon itself, Chaco Canyon, had 10+ Great Houses within it’s 1,000 foot rock walls. Chaco Wash runs through the middle of it and this may have played a major role in why this area was chosen for such construction.

Looking down on newer smaller Great House from the top of the canyon

The canyon served as a crossroads for travelers from the four far-flung corners of the world. To the southwest there were openings heading to Monument Valley, to the northeast the great Chaco Road headed towards the ponderosa-covered mountains of northern New Mexico and Colorado.

M’s photo – the famous Fajada Butte stands at the entrance to Chaco Canyon, welcoming travelers for the last 1,000 years.

The canyon still serves as a crossroads of culture. People from all over the world, for all types of reasons, come to Chaco. Some are searching for answers to one of North America’s mysteries (where did the Ancestral Puebloans go?), some come for a love of the southwest, and some simply come because they want to check off Chaco on their National Parks Passport book. Whatever the reason, we all leave with the same thing: more questions than answers. Isn’t that what travel is really all about?

Never Stop Exploring

Traveling Ancient Roads in New Mexico (or Our Urination Vacation) Part 2: All Roads Lead to Chaco Canyon

Besides finding the perfect book on rock art at Chaco Culture National Historic Site, M and I were blessed with the most random animal sightings on this trip. While walking to the breakfasty-awesomeness that is the Happy Belly Deli, we heard the craziest squawking in the air.

just barely visible from upper left diagonally down to lower right…. hundreds of geese flying south for winter

The drive from TorC to Chaco was long, but interesting. Lots of music was listened to, lots of places found on the map, a quick detour into Albuquerque for Indian food, and discussion of the new spaceport in New Mexico.

My view for the whole ride… looking good, M!

As we entered the park (after a long and washboarded road off the highway), we saw a sign for elk. I made some smart-ass comment about always seeing Watch for Animal signs but never seeing the animals. Just as the words left my mouth, I spotted not 1, not 2, but 7 elk about 60 yards away! Big tall antlered males and cow-looking females. I’m pretty sure M got to hear me say in my most baby-talk voice how I loved the cute little elk (and to his credit, he still loves me). Ok, so I did get a photo of the 7 cute little big-antlered elk but it looks like every other tourists’ animal photos; the kind where you show people and have to back it up with “see? right there? I swear that brown bump is an elk butt!”

After hitting the visitor center for our park passport stamps, we found the perfect campsite and set up shop. I’m typically a low-key car camper or backpacker…. tiny stove, tiny tent, no pillow. M is a bit more luxurious. We packed my feather bed, two big sleeping pads, several pillows, Coleman two-burner stove, and awesome food. We were set to hit the loop road that takes visitors by 8+ great houses that are about 1,000 years old.

Our sweet-ass campsite set-up – M’s photo

 

Exuding excitement! Seriously, I was in nerdy archaeology and photography heaven! (M’s photo)

I quickly discovered that I was traveling with Ansel Adams….

M’s photo – the clouds rock!

M’s photo – but the blue sky rocks hard too!

M’s photo – Checking out 1,000 year-old masonry work as the sun goes down

We made it to two Great Houses, walking all around and photo-documenting every inch, before we lost the sun and had to head back to camp. Once the sun went down, my southern-ass began to freeze. I had 3 layers, gloves and a hat, and STILL was cold! We had forgotten firewood so there was no fire to keep warm by. We ate a quick meal and hit the tent, snuggling down in our sleeping bags.

In the middle of the night, I was pulled from sleep by an odd sound that I hadn’t heard in years…. Coyotes! Click here for random video of coyote sounds. (Lennox was very interested in my computer as it suddenly began speaking coyote to him). Coyotes are such a wonderful part of any desert camping experience. I can’t believe that in Texas people hunt them for sport and the state kills them as nuisance wildlife.

Another amazing thing about camping at Chaco? The un-freaking-believable night sky! I got up to pee in the middle of the night. Stepping outside the tent, I looked up and stopped dead in my tracks. I swear I reached up to try and touch the stars, they were so bright and so close!

[Totally dorky side note: most of Chaco’s Great Houses were built in relation to the stars and the movements of the sun. If my night sky were this gorgeous, I would do the same!]

A not-so-amazing thing about camping at Chaco? At some point in the night, M heard something walking through our campsite. He says it sounded like human footsteps and there was a trail connecting several tent sites together. That’s normal and a totally cool camping thing… but me finding a large puddle of urine not 10 yards from our tent and M realizing that it was the guy he heard walking in the middle of the night? not cool. I’m hoping that the dude was simply walking down the trail away from his tent and found a great bush to relieve himself by, not realizing that he was actually in our tent site.

Anyone who has ever camped knows how horribly cold it is in the morning when your need for coffee (or a toilet) overrides your need to stay in your warm bag. Anyone who’s camped with me knows that I will bargain almost anything for YOU to make the coffee and let me stay in my bag.

making my own coffee… M’s photo

The good thing about the desert is it’ll warm up quickly once the sun rises. We had breakfast and hit the trail – Pueblo Alto Trail leading up out of the canyon onto the plateau and offering great views!

M’s photo – me climbing up a crack in the rock wall to get up out of the canyon and onto the plateau

Fantastic snacktime view of Pueblo Bonito, the most visited site at Chaco

M getting his own shots of Pueblo Bonito – love the brilliant yellow cottonwoods lining the creek down below!

Continuing the trail along the edge of the canyon, we passed over one of the many ancient roads leading out of the canyon to the north.

Chaco Road steps carved into the cliff edge carried millions of humans and tons of trade-goods to present-day Colorado and Utah – M’s photo

Our trail was a bit smaller, and the steps were a bit rougher. The upside is that I love my ass in this photo… it looks pretty good!

ok, stop looking at my ass

Goofing around on the trail – definitely a great part of hiking! Learning to use the continuous shutter on my camera makes it even better!

 

black-on-white pottery sherd… holding a 1,000 year old lithic leftover in my hand

Somewhere along the trail, my spidey-senses began tingling and I spotted this! After examining it, we hid it under a rock right where we found it. [Never take artifacts back to the rangers. Leave it where you found it, in situ, for nature to reclaim or another hiker to ‘discover’.]

A ways on down the trail, still along the cliff edge, we came across another Great House down below. As I stood there focusing my lens to get a birds-eye shot, I realized that one of the NPS masonry workers was PEEING. He had his back to the wall, which meant he was facing me, and after furtive glances to the left and the right, let loose. Even with my awesome zoom lens, I couldn’t spot his little manhood (thankyoubabyjesus). The best part of it was after he zipped up, he happened to look up my way. So I waved….

After 6 miles up on the plateau, we made our way down the rock crack back to our car.

Sorry mom but I have to post all afraid-of-heights photos. Down below is another Great House, and just up the road is our car. – M’s photo

We headed to the visitor center to watch the park’s video, play with some antelope ground squirrels, and then back to camp to make dinner. We had an amazing dinner – brown rice with bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli. Definitely better than my pbj that I usually eat while camping.

The chef and his work space

Oh! and while we were making dinner, I spotted our other neighbor (not Midnight Pee Man) with his back to the parking lot and the rest of the tent sites, PEEING onto a bush behind his tent. Men have no shame! (For those of you counting, this makes the 3rd man in two days to whip it out in the wild and urinate in my vicinity)

See you in Part 3 when we’ll conclude our Chaco adventure and take a look back at things we learned… besides the fact that men will pee whenever, wherever. Whatever….