April Fool's at Chaco Canyon

Photos at:

http://web.mac.com/goodlenora/iWeb/Site/Library%208.html

(Note: it’s Library 8, there is no 7)

April Fool’s Day, 2009

Well, we certainly got fooled by the weather gods, but not before we had a wonderful dinner with my Sister, Kitty last night. We ate at one of her favorite restaurants in Belen, Pete’s, and dinner was delicious! Our waiter, Shawn (see photo) was a delight, and truly enjoyed waiting on us, and even brought me some Navajo fry bread, as well as the sopaipillas that came with dinner.

After a great visit and dinner, we three gals retired to our hotel room for good conversation. After Kitty went home, Kay and I packed and organized our stuff so we could load the car this morning. We’re getting pretty good at this packing and unpacking and repacking bit.

This morning we got up, had a cup of coffee, loaded Suvie (my SUV), and were on our way by 8.30. We thought we’d drive up the road a piece, to Cuba, NM, and maybe get a hotel room and try for Chaco Canyon tomorrow. As it turned out, we arrived in Cuba at 10.30 for breakfast at the Cuba Cafe. Good food, nice people, and our waitress said we were only two hours out of Chaco, so we decided to go for it!

In just under two hours, we arrived at the Visitor’s Center. The wind whipped through the canyon, and we could see the sand in the air, and feel it try to peel the hide from our faces. Neither of us were sure what to expect in the Canyon, but found the Visitor’s Center and Bookstore lady, Rose, full of good information.

Kay and I tried to get to Chaco six years ago, and the road was too bad to drive. Today Rose informed us the way we were trying to come in was closed, and has been for years. Alas, it was the ONLY way that our AAA map showed, and we just turned around and left. Had we but known that just down the highway a few miles the ‘official’ entrance provided a much nicer way in.....

Today, we took the ‘official’ way in. The first 8 miles were paved, and the last 13 miles were on a dirt road, mostly good enough to drive 35mph or so on.

Shortly after turning onto the road, a car we had been following was stopped in the middle of the road. A small herd of Angora Goats were chomping down the grasses along the road, with their two herd dogs watching over them.

The winds barely seemed to ruffle their furs – I wish they would have shared some of their warm furs.

The winds were blowing fairly steadily at 50mph, according to the weather channel, dust blew in the air, and clouds hung low. The temperature dropped dramatically as we descended into the Canyon. When we drove to the first Pueblo, the snow began to fall, except it wasn’t falling, it was hurled at us, horizontally! Needless to say, Flat Stanlietta stayed warm in my hip pocket, except when she had her photo taken with Rose, the bookstore lady!

The snow looked and felt more like frozen white sand – no fluffy little flakes! By the time we finished walking around the last pueblo on the circuit, our noses were frozen, our hands were frozen, and we were cold through and through. (I wore a whole hand glove on my left hand, but found I couldn’t work my camera with the right hand one on, so I took it off and wore my fingerless glove on my right hand. My fingers (the exposed portions) were really red and stinging. Too much of that and I think we’d have some frostbite. The thermometer in Suvie said it was 33 out – that did not take into account the wind chill. And, trust me, the wind chill was there.

Chaco Canyon is at 6200 feet elevation – we drove over several hills (mountains?) at 7,000 feet to and from there.

By the time we arrived in Bernalillo, NM, about 50 miles up I-25 from Belen it was 6.30. Ten hours to drive 50 miles up the highway. Well, ok, we took a 240 mile detour ;-)

Chaco is a place I’d like to visit again, in the summer, and perhaps do some camping and hiking into some of the back areas. There seem to be many trails, and well marked, but today was just not conducive to hiking.

On another note, we’ve eaten in several restaurants that have had Native American families as customers. After watching several of these families, with small children, I think I can truthfully say the Americans (White Eyes) got it all wrong. We should have sent OUR children to Indian Boarding Schools. Never have I seen so many happy and well-behaved children as when we see the Native American families in public.

“Get this in mind early: We never grow up.”
--Richard Bach