3 Years Around North America, Plus a Few More

[Umnak]

Another Vechicle

Another Vehicle

This is the second year of our wandering and finding someplace to learn more about. It soon became clear here in the Four Corners that the Sprinter was only going to get us so far out into the high desert and surrounding mountains. A 4WD vehicle was necessary to go past the gravel and onto the dirt or rock.

Eve’s first vehicle was a CJ5, which she drove on the back roads of South Central Alaska and up to University in Fairbanks. You can imagine how many friends she made the first time her winch pulled a car out of the snow on campus. She has commented more than once that it is a shame when we have to turn around because of a small stream or for fear that the cabinets will shake off the walls of the Sprinter.

There are a lot of Jeeps here in the Four Corners, and many of them have been lifted and built to go anywhere. Farmington has two OHV areas adjoining the City and countless places to ride or drive.

So, I started looking at Jeeps in the many car lots here in Farmington and on Craig’s List. Once I found a couple that looks promising I thought it best to check with DMV about registering a vehicle as a non-resident. It turns out that you can’t do that easily.

Traveling makes residency complicated. Both of our vehicles are registered in Alaska, where we have lived on and off since childhood. We have an address in Juneau and also one in Washington State. Our mail is going to the one in Port Townsend, where Eve’s parents are housesitting for another couple of years. It would be possible to register the Jeep in either state, but it would be very difficult to have that state be Alaska. And frankly, I think that having a Washington registered Jeep would cut the tie we have with our home. Less emotional, but probably more important, is that it could result in our having to register our Sprinter and 4Runner in Washington as well. Not that I have anything against Washington State mind you, but I don’t want the hassle, not to mention having to pay tax on the Sprinter as it is considered an RV. The 4Runner wouldn’t be taxed as a passenger vehicle, so what’s up with that?

In the end, I decided to bring the 4Runner to Farmington. The week-long ride we did from Port Townsend along Blue Highways would now be done in 2.5 days.



I flew to Seattle on a remarkably cheap one way ticket and then took light rail, ferry and car to Port Townsend. The next morning the 4Runner was pulled from storage, dusted off and fueled. My route was almost completely on Interstate Highways. I intended to make miles the first two days in a change from the slow pace of the past 18 months. It rained most of the route along the Columbia and even on the east side of the Cascades. After a late start and a 500 mile day I spent the first night in Le Grande, Oregon. I didn’t know there was a mountain range in Oregon in between the two sections of high desert. Le Grande seems like a great town in a scenic region. I saw two local brewhouses and a few non-corporate coffee shops along the main road and found a decent hotel and restaurant.


An early start the next morning was meant to give me a lot of daylight and leave an easy third day drive to Farmington. I didn’t count on arriving along Salt Lake City’s section of US 15 at rush hour. I lost about an hour from just north of SLC to Spanish Fork where I turned onto Utah 6 at dusk. I figured I’d get a hotel and take the Pass in the morning, but then saw a sign that said Price, UT was 68 miles down the road. I don’t think that a 65 mph speed limit is appropriate on that pass, at least not at night. Thankfully, there were not a lot of trucks. Price is another nice little town and one that I hope we are able to explore in the future. I got another local hotel and a good recommendation for a local brewhouse whose IPA was as good as its bowl of chili. It was a good finish to a 650 mile day.







From Price to Farmington felt like coming back home. The desert, the canyons, the buttes have become comfortable. Moab was far more crowded than when we past through in August. I saw a few Sportsmobile Sprinters when I stopped for coffee, including two 4WD rigs.


We plan on using the 4Runner more as winter closes in on the San Juan Mountains and to run down to the Santa Fe for hotel based visit.


We’ve slept in it on the Dalton Highway and in B.C. on previous trips. A couple of Thermarests in the back of the 4Runner and a tarp aren’t as comfortable as the Sprinter, but if we can get to more places around here we will count it even.

Two vehicles also gives us flexibility for upgrading the Sprinter’s suspension, and perhaps adding a lift to the Toyota.

 

[Arjan]

Thanks !!!

Please keep them coming.

 

[Umnak]

Thanks !!!

Please keep them coming.

Thanks for the comments and the encouragement. I'll post something about the 4 Corner's Pre Puebloan Sites in a day or so. This is a teaser:

 

[Umnak]

Ancestral Puebloan Sites in the Four Corners - Chaco Canyon

Ancestral Puebloan Sites in the Four Corners part 1

We've been in the Four Corners for two months and enjoy what we've found. We chose this place to learn more about the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi), and the high desert. We've come to understand that they are inseparable.



The center of the Ancestral Puebloan culture was in Chaco Canyon, which is about a 75 mile drive south of Farmington. The last four miles of the road, after the sign that announces the end of San Juan County maintenance, is awful. There are deep ruts from the last rain that must be driven perfectly to avoid sliding off into the brush. The washboards demand that sweet spot of speed, but the Sprinter rattles and sways with abandon at anything past 15 mph, so we go slow. It is not passable in a rain — well it would be fun to try in the 4Runner, but not in the Sprinter.



And then you reach the Park's pavement and forget that you have to take the same road back in a couple of days.



The large ruins, placed strategically in the Canyon and on the north and south mesas, are for the most part open to self-guided walks. Pueblo Bonito was the largest multi-unit structure in North America until the late 1880s, when a hotel in NYC surpassed the more than 225 rooms of the great house.



Standing inside of the south mesa's un-excavated Tsin Kletzin, and looking north, you can see the top of Pueblo Alto aligned on the opposite mesa. Between the two is a large Kiva on the canyon floor. A 1000 year old road connects these sites and then heads due north to Kutz Canyon and Angle Peak 35 miles away.


There are pottery shards just off the south mesa trail, the pottery came from Mexico along with parrot feathers and coca.


Elk and mule deer are in the park along the cliff walls.


We took a walk in late August with a long-time Park educator to the famous Petroglyphs depicting the 1054 supernova. He explained the many petroglyphs and pictographs on the north canyon walls. Pueblo people —Hopi and Zuni — have helped him understand some of the more obtuse symbols as they relate to clans.

supernova glyph


The hike along the north mesa provides great views of the ruins and glimpses at the roads and stairs carved into the walls.



There is no back country camping in Chaco, and the old road has been closed to reduce the number of people moving in and out of the park unseen. I'd love to be able to spend a night in one of the outlying great houses, but understand that the pot stealers have ruined that for all of us. The Gallo campground at the East end of the park sits next to a small cliff dwelling. There are tent and RV sites. The campground is most often full and without it there is no other choice than to park off one of the county roads outside of the park.

 

[Umnak]

Ancestral Puebloan Sites part 2



Mesa Verde in Colorado holds the iconic cliff house dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloans. The campground is miles away from the ruins that are open to the public. Of those, only one, Sprue House, has been open for self-guided walks, though a series of rock falls has closed access to the site. We went on a tour of Cliff House with an engaging and informative guide.



The cliff dwellings are remarkable structures. The ideal environmentalist architecture, they merge into alcoves and overhangs in fluid and most appealing manner. It would have been a good place to live, if you were on the top of the social structure. The hiking trail along the cliff offers good views of glyphs.





I took this photograph of the inside of a tower within Cliff House, those red marks are 900 years old.



The architecture in Utah’s Hovenweep National Monument is different from Chaco and Mesa Verde. There are square and round towers in the canyon and on the ridges. These have small narrow windows and seem more defensive than ceremonial. Hovenweep abuts the Canyon of the Ancestors National Monument, which is full of non-excavated sites and what looks like some fun two tracks. And you can camp just about anywhere.




All three of these sites are within 2 hours of Farmington. I’m researching less well known great houses and cliff dwellings in the area and hope to find time to get to all of them.

The sites are everywhere. The evidence of a complex trading and religious culture are there to be seen on the road and off.


And even the paved roads hold surprises. Navajo ranchers chasing after a cow and calf along the Chaco Road and Open Range in Utah near Hovenweep.

 

[profdlp]

Great pictures - thank you!

 

[Umnak]

Great pictures - thank you!

thanks for your comments. Here are a couple more images from last weekend - just 30 minutes from Farmington. The Sprinter with a new look - a wrap:

Kutz Canyon and the road in, which was vert slick with a recent rain.

 

[Arjan]

Nice !!

 

[Sleam]

You're welcome to come by mine near Madrid NM if yiu like. Great trip report, thanks for all the photos.

 

[mel]

Thanks for the great tour of the land most folks will never see.

 

[mel]

Thanks for the great tour of the land most folks will never see.

:bike_rider:

View attachment 373919

Mesa Verde in Colorado holds the iconic cliff house dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloans. The campground is miles away from the ruins that are open to the public. Of those, only one, Sprue House, has been open for self-guided walks, though a series of rock falls has closed access to the site. We went on a tour of Cliff House with an engaging and informative guide.

View attachment 373920

 

[Umnak]

You're welcome to come by mine near Madrid NM if you like. Great trip report, thanks for all the photos.

Thanks, we may do that or at least try for a joint outing

just got out of the Grand Canyon

 

[Umnak]

To the Grand Canyon

To the Grand Canyon

We spent Thanksgiving week traveling to Canyon De Chelly, Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.

Our route was through the Navajo Reservation between Farmington and Canyon De Chelly, which is a national monument managed in cooperation with the Navajo Nation’s Park authority. We took Buffalo Pass (8,500’) after stopping at Ship Rock for a closer inspection of the butte that can be seen from almost any point of height in the region.



Canyon De Chelly is a place of beauty and history. Pre-Puebloan people lived there for more than a 1000 years, and they were not the first. The Navajos moved in some time after 1300 AD and still maintain a presence in the canyon. The canyon is sprinkled with small patchwork farms and Navajo guides offer horse and Jeep tours to areas not open to non-Navajos.



We were one of only four sites occupied at the Cottonwood Campground, and one of those others were also from Alaska in a Sprinter.


We hiked to White House Pueblo, the only trail open to visitors who decide not to take a Navajo guide. It’s a steep drop to the floor of the canyon, but not far. The Pueblo is a classic cliff dwelling arrangement with an earlier Great House at ground level. It was warmer on the canyon floor than on the rim, and the cottonwood trees still held green leaves.



We’ve become accustomed to using Google Maps, and selected what we assumed was the fastest route from Canyon De Chelly to the Grand Canyon. However, the map function doesn’t make clear if the roads are paved. We came to the end of the pavement abruptly. It had rained that morning and the road (Indian Rt. 60) turned into 14 miles of washboard and slick as ice surface which slowed us down considerably. We watched an approaching storm makes its way toward us for most of the hour it took us to reach pavement again, this time in Hopi Country.

Fortunately, we emerged onto pavement before the snow and rain — in Juneau we call it snrain — hit us square on. Still, the last 100 miles of the trip to the Grand Canyon were cause for tight fists on the wheel. And there was snow on the ground once we arrived.



We spent four nights in the Grand Canyon, three at the only open campground and the final night at the Yavapai Lodge.



There were hundreds of people at the visitor centers and along the trails. We walked the more remote stretches of the Rim Trail, which offers a spectacular view at every stop.

We also took the Kaibab trail down into the Canyon a few miles. The trail is narrow and steep to Cedar Ridge. The landscape is awe inspiring with the mix of colors, terrain and vistas. The sheer drop is an ever present reminder of how time and weather have eroded the uplift.



A group of mule travelers stopped at Cedar Ridge as we were heading back. The mules look sturdy and reliable. Still, I would not be comfortable trusting my life to a mule on those small trails.



Thanksgiving in and near the Grand Canyon Village was crowded and festive. We walked twice into the crowded visitor centers and “studios” there, and also took the bus to the end of the road at Hermit’s Rest. We passed on the too expensive Thanksgiving dinner buffet at the Yavapai Lodge and instead ate at the adjacent Tavern, which had excellent pulled pork and buffalo burger sandwiches. It was surprising to find a reminder of home with Alaska Brewing Company coasters (from Juneau) on the table.

The drive out of the park was a lot less dramatic than the ride in during the snow storm. We stopped for fuel at the highway and again in Tuba City for groceries, before heading northeast to Monument Valley.


We walked around the iconic West Mitten in Monument Valley, spending the night on the gravel pad that the Navajo Nation calls a camp ground. The buttes are truly magnificent, especially at sunset. We couldn’t take the Sprinter on the route through the Monument and hope to return with the 4Runner another day.

 

[profdlp]

Nice pictures! I need to get out west one of these years.

 

[Umnak]

Looking for Twin Angles Pueblo Ruins

Looking for Twin Angles Pueblo Ruins

The Great North Road, built by the Pre-Puebloan Chacoans in the latter part of the 11th century, leaves Chaco Canyon by narrow passes, ramps and stairways and, once at Pueblo Alto, runs almost due north about 40 miles to Kutz Canyon, where it descends into the wash via a stairway cut into the rock wall.


Bonito Pass

The road’s was overbuilt for its time — the Chacoans had no wheels or horses — and its function is a point of conjecture and debate. It’s as wide as a modern two-lane road, and varies less than a 1/2 degree off its due north course from Pueblo Alto to Kutz Canyon. Other roads led to and out of Chaco Canyon as well.


Angel Mound

Twin Angles Pueblo sits just aside due north on a ridge overlooking the wash, and is a little over 3 miles from where the ancient stairway dropped off the rim and into the canyon. That stairway led down the steep south side of the ridge into the wash. We found the ruins on our third attempt, after stumbling upon coordinates from a geocache site. None of the scholarly articles gave the coordinates. I assume that’s to reduce the number of visitors and thieves.



The road conditions were terrible the first time we tried to find the Pueblo. The wash was running with a few inches of water on soft sand, so we abandoned the attempt and went to the rim where the Great North Road terminated at the stairway. We had a nice afternoon there, but even that terrain was too wet to scramble up Twin Angel Mound to see the remnants of a Chacoan shrine. This country turns slick as ice with just a little rain.



Our second attempt was unsuccessful because I used topographic maps — and the maps of my Gaia GPS — that showed the ruin to be down in the wash on a narrow height of land. We spent a good day searching the east side of the canyon for the site, but of course were on the wrong rim.





Our recent successful adventure to the ruins led us along some of the Oil and Gas 2-tracks that crisscross Kutz Canyon. I had the coordinates as a waypoint, and a gps map that showed most of the roads. I had also copied a few photographs taken by others at the site and a vague description of which of the many pump stations was closest to Twin Angles Pueblo. Still, it wasn’t easy to find.



We parked about two miles away and decided to walk the roads to get a better sense of how the Chacoans could have approached the Pueblo — and it was a nice day for a hike. We followed the main 2-track, but that led us away from the waypoint after a mile. A smaller road headed in the right direction, so we took that, figuring if it didn’t work we could always cut across the sage. The ruins are not easy to see, even from the pump station. I scoped the ridges and saw the fence described in one of the narratives, but would have missed it without my monocular.



There is more of the site exposed than I had thought. The 1915 excavation left the Kiva and portions of the 17 room great house foundation uncovered. The view to the south and east is unopposed, while the view to the northwest is clear to the junction of the two arms of the wash.



Steep drops protect three sides with the western approach open to easy foot travel. Anyone at this site would have been able to see people moving along the wash and the assumed signal fire from the area near the Angel Mound stairway. It’s a very interesting place and worth the effort to find.



I’ll be happy to provide the coordinates via a PM for those on Expedition Portal.