2001-June Colorado~digging deep into the archives . . . . .

[teddyearp]

Now this is digging _deep_ into my archives. This is my June 2001 trip from Pinetop, AZ through the Four Corners

area, SW Colorado, and finishing with Monument Valley. Let's see if I can do this. . . .


Since this is digging so deep, I should point out that this was before I had a digital camera. The pictures I took

on this trip were taken with a Honeywell Pentax Single Lense Reflex 35mm film camera with a few different lenses. I

believe for this trip I only actually used the standard 55mm and maybe my telephoto 128mm lense. I 'digitized' the

pictures using a scanner and a very early version of Photoshop elements.


Also, as you all know, the difference between film and digital is that one can take many, many more pictures with

much more abandon with a digital since the 'film' for a digital is reusable and costs about the same as a roll or

two of film, and you get the advantage of instant reviewing/editing/deletion. Finally, I see that not only did I

not scan and upload all of the pictures I remembered taking before creating this report, but it seems some are out

of order. Maybe someday I will find, scan, and upload the rest. So for now this is what I have. One last note

before I start. You will find two random pictures intermingled containing a small child with similar backgrounds of

pictures before of after. I have no knowledge of who that small child is or was, but I do know that he was not

harmed before, after, or during the picture process, lol.




To start, it will be very difficult to give exact day-by-day descriptions of the pictures I will now post since it

was over ten years ago. I started in Pinetop, Arizona and went north on SR 77 to I-40 east. Left I-40 to go north

on US 191 through Ganado and Chinle. I _think_ I took a quick look at Canyon de Chelle on this trip, just can't

remember if it was on the way up or down; doesn't really matter, no pics of that in this report. I do know that at

some point on the first night, I turned off US 191 to the west on some dirt road, made a fire near a power line,

cooked some meat and spent the night there in the Navajo Nation [I thought I took a picture there, but alas again,

it's not in current collection].



The next day I continued on through four corners (I got some pics of four corners, can't remember if they were taken

on the way up or the way down-post them later) and on towards the La Plata Canyon. I wanted to try to see Louis

L'Amour's townsite called Shaliko. Yeah I am a Louis L'Amour fan big time. Looks like there's not much more on the

internet about Shaliko, but here I am going up the La Plata canyon:

The La Plata river:

HFTN:

con't

 

[teddyearp]

The next morning I built a fire to cook breakfast and some coffee. I have posted this pic in a lot of places, but

it seems as though I don't do the morning fires anymore, but this pic IMHO is pretty cool; there was just the

perfect rock in the fire pit to perch my coffee pot above the fire to make coffee:

After getting my cowboy coffee on, I meandered back down La Plata canyon. I saw the signs for Shaliko and took

pictures (I thought, but again alas, not uploaded), then through Dolores and then up to Rico via CO SR 145. A few

pics of Rico (OK quite a few):

After leaving Rico, I went further north on CO SR 145 to find a campsite. I found one _maybe_ along the highway,

but anyways, here is my HFTN:

A river runs through it, the Dolores river:

Obligitory flower pic (and you must admit, not bad for a film camera):

 

[teddyearp]

The next day I backtracked back south through Rico to try to find the side road from Dolores to the north that would

pass by another ghost town called Dunton. This endeavor took me north from Dolores, CO back up the highway north of

Dolores to the turnoff near the river; and heading up FR 535.

Dunton is all on private property, just like Maverick AZ:

Beyond Dunton on FR 535:

Further up on FR 535 it has some wicked switchbacks. Here's an interesting picture of what happens when you go too

fast and/or lose control:

After rejoining CO SR 145 I traveled north and passed Trout Lake and then took the road to head towards Alta. From

what I see now on Google maps, the name of the road is Alta Lakes road. As it climbs up it's a very narrow, rough,

and windy shelf road. Even though it could be had in a 2wd sedan, I recommend a 4wd vehicle. I didn't take any

pictures of the shelf road, but took several in Alta. At the top of the shelf road in Alta proper, it levels off

and then heads into a valley that leads (I assume) to the lakes. I didn't go to the lakes, but I did take a few

pictures looking back:

If you go to ghosttowns.com and find Alta, you will find this picture there as well:

A picture of the old schoolhouse:

Looking through that one building:

The sign:

I decided to take a lunch up there at the top of that hillside where Alta is perched. Soon I saw some 'camp robber'

jays. So I placed a few bits of bread on the top of my Jeep. They came and ate them:

So what the heck, I figured, Let me see if I can place a piece or two on one hand while the other hand takes a

picture. Here's the results:

While I was here, I decided to change out my color film to my black and white film since it makes for more

interesting pics of ghost towns. I did so in the middle of the rolls. And upon further review, it looks as though

I must have been able to get two distinct shots of birds in one hand and the camera in the other. The last picture

above was taken right after the switch. Here's a couple more:

Black and White film seems to give a different 'look' to pictures, expecially in a ghost town. I took several more

in Alta, but these were on the way back down the hill Towards the highway:

I used Photoshop to 'sepia' this one:

Some old piece of mining equipment in Alta, last pic I took there:

Next, after going back down the steep road to CO SR 145 I headed back south and then turned off to take a quick look

at Ophir. Here's a few B&W pics of that:

At this point I figured it was time to camp, HFTN. I _think_ the same place as the previous night, but after further

looking at my pics, who knows? I took this trip over eleven years ago, who cares? Somewhere off CO SR 145:

 

[teddyearp]

The next day I left Colorado and headed back towards home, but I still had a couple of places I wanted to stop and

see. Four Corners NM (last time I was there was in 1963) and then Monument Valley. Hey a ghost town trip is not

complete without a blast from the past of images from old John Ford movies. I'm still trying to figure out that

last HFTN pic as I still had B&W film loaded for Four corners and Monument Valley, but there was a few out of order

pics, who knows, who cares?


Onward. I guess in this set of pictures, this is the only picture of Four Corners:

But here is a much better one and in color, but several years earlier:

As best as I can tell looking at the map now it appears as though I must have taken US 160 to get to Four Corners,
then proceeded further south on US 160 to Teec Nos Pos and then west towards Monument Valley. Took a right (North)
on US 163 in Keyenta, passed the entrance to Monument Valley and traveled up to Utah for just a brief spell to take
a couple of pictures on a side road north of the park. This is along that lonely road somewhere off US 163:

And this is looking at some hogan out in the middle of nowhere Utah:

Then I headed back towards the park proper, going down Monument Valley Road:

It appears as though I switched back out to my roll of color film somewhere in here. Last B&W:

Now back to color:

And here's another random pic along Monument Valley Road:

Once I went to enter the (Navajo) park proper, it was getting late and it was almost closing time. I pulled up to
the park booth and said "Ya'te-he do I gotta pay?", or something to that effect to the Navajos manning the entrance.
I guess I did good since they let me in for free, they just told me that the park was closing soon. So on that
note, here's a whole bunch of pics from Monument Valley:

The usual picture:

A few close-ups of the last one:

Further in, here's another:

And another:

Two pictures of the "Three Sisters":

After leaving Monument Valley I was in the 'get back home' mode and it was getting late in the day. I know I spent
this night near Many Farms Lake in the sand, but have no pictures to show it. I do remember I made a decent camp
there, near Many Farms Lake. I can't remember if I took US 163 south through Keyenta to US 160 east all the way
back to US 191 and south or if I took a right off of US 160 just east of Keyenta on Indian Route 59 to go straight
to Many Farms. Knowing myself back then, I _think_ I did the latter, but who knows? I do know that either way, I
camped just north of Chinle and Canyon de Chelly which I do remember visiting the next day, alas no pictures there
either. The next night I was home.


Final observations are, my SLR Camera was good while I had better eyes (before this trip) as some or most of these
are not in as good of focus as my later digital camera pics have been with auto focus. Also I noticed even then
that some of my pictures had a 'stripe' in them which I tried to figure out why, but forgot once I had a better
camera. But all that said , I hope some enjoy!

 

[1leglance]

very cool to see something that wasn't really that long ago yet feels like forever at the same time.

looks like a great trip and you really covered some cool areas with a ton of stuff to see.

what else ya got locked up in the vault?

 

[teddyearp]

Thinking about my April 2003 trip from AZ to Yellowstone. . . . . Oh and I guess copying and pasting from notepad puts alot of extra line breaks in, fixed the borken picture links.