The Grand Canyon and Death Valley

On Saturday morning we woke to completely clear skies, along with iced-over windows on our Subaru. Kathy warmed up the car while I got ready. No breakfast at El Rancho, so we decided to eat in the park. Since we were so early, we were lucky to snag a parking spot right in front of the Bright Angel lodge where we had breakfast. Because of a water shortage the restaurant used paper plates and plastic utensils, so it wasn’t as elegant as some of the other National Park lodges we visited.

After breakfast we got a picture together; early morning on the rim of the Grand Canyon. We walked a short distance down the Rim Trail and found the Lookout Studio. In all of the grandeur that is the Grand Canyon, we appreciated the small plaques posted on some of the walls. “Oh Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: The earth is full of Thy riches.” 

After walking through the Lookout Studio, we climbed down to a small viewing area that felt like we were suspended over the rim of the Canyon. 

Before we got on the shuttle bus we decided to hike the Bright Angel trail. 

I stayed near the top so I could get this picture of Kathy going around a bend in the trail.

Once I caught up with her, we walked as far as the upper tunnel where a kind hiker took our picture.

The upper tunnel is only about a half-mile from the trailhead, but both of us felt that was quite enough. 

The road going west along the Canyon rim is closed to cars most of the year. Fortunately, there are a set of free shuttle busses on three different routes. We hopped on the Red line and rode it to its endpoint at Hermit’s Rest, where we found another inspiring plaque.

After we got back to the Grand Canyon Village, we picked up our car and drove what is called the “Desert View” road that ends at the east park entrance, stopping at each sight. Here’s a picture of Kathy standing in front of the rock formation known as the “duck on a rock”. 

It was a nice, scenic drive and was not very crowded. It took us about two hours with stops. After leaving the east gate we still had to drive back to Williams through Flagstaff, where we had dinner at Chili’s. I like eating in the middle of the afternoon, because usually the restaurants are uncrowded. At Chili’s, almost every seat was filled. As we left I asked the hostess what was going on. She didn’t know and told me that it was never this crowded.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we’ll be heading for our last stop, Death Valley National Park.  

Death Valley National Park

On Sunday we were able to leave before sunrise. It still was below freezing and Kathy, once again, warmed up the car to melt the ice on the windows. Our first stop was Kingman, Arizona, where we ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and Kathy bought some souvenirs for the grandkids. 

Instead of taking Highway 66 and various back roads, we took the freeway past Las Vegas, and turned North on Highway 95. Since we had pretty good phone reception, we were able to listen to most of the Sunday service at Calvary Chapel. We drove past Creech Air Force Base, the command and control center of where Reaper drones are piloted (nothing to see there), and then stopped for gas at the Area 51 Alien Center in Amorgosa, Nevada.

We got to the Stovepipe Wells Hotel in Death Valley before our room was ready. So, we had a late lunch at the restaurant. Once we got settled in our room we spent the rest of the day figuring out what we wanted to see in Death Valley.

On Monday morning we got up before dawn and set out to see the sights. The sun was just rising and hitting the tops of the mountains, so we took a picture together.

Then, I tried to take one of those iPhone “Pano” pictures to take in the whole horizon. I think it turned out pretty good.

Our first stop was the ruins of the William Coleman’s Harmony Borax Works where the mineral borax was gathered and processed for about six years from 1883 until 1889. To get the refined borax to the nearest railhead in Mohave, Coleman designed a special type of wagon which was pulled by teams of twenty animals, usually two horses and eighteen mules.

In 1891, after the Harmony Borax Works had closed, Stephen Mather trademarked the name “20 Mule Team Borax”, and the cleaning product is still sold today. The U.S. Borax company also sponsored a radio, and then television anthology called “Death Valley Days” sometimes hosted by Ronald Reagan.

Just thinking about all of the work those mules had to do made us hungry, so our next stop was the dining room of the Inn at Death Valley, which is located at Furnace Creek. We had an elegant and reasonably priced breakfast and then spent a little bit of time exploring the grounds. It is a very impressive hotel.

After breakfast we drove south on Highway 190 to Zebriskie Point which looks down over the Valley.

Here is picture of some of the interesting mountain formations that you can see from the Point.

From Zabriskie Point we drove south to the Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at -282 feet. In contrast, the Dead Sea is over 1,300 feet below sea level.

At Badwater we walked about a hundred yards out onto the salt flat. 

On the way back to our hotel we visited two more sights. Artist’s Drive is a 9-mile one-way loop road that travels up into the hills. About half-way is an area called the “Artist’s Palette” which consists of the brightly colored rocks you can see (imperfectly) below.

Our last stop for the day was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, just around the corner from our hotel. In 1977 George Lucas used these dunes to stand in for the planet Tatooine. Local schoolchildren from the elementary school were cast as Jawas, the hooded scavengers for the film. We walked out onto the dunes and Kathy shot this picture.

After the dunes, we headed back to the hotel. We both had some elk chili for lunch and finished the blog. Tonight we’ll pack everything up. In the morning we’ll head home after 56 days and 30 different states. It’s been a trip.

Kansas, Colorado & New Mexico

We had no tornadoes in Wichita on Monday night, but we had lightning, thunder, and torrential rains. When we woke up, it had stopped raining, but that was replaced by overcast skies and a strong, cold North wind. We woke a little early, and set out for Lamar, Colorado at 7:30 in the morning.

A little after 11:30 AM, we reached Dodge City, Kansas, which is almost exactly halfway between Wichita and Lamar. Dodge City is the town that Marshall Dillon ruled over in the television series Gunsmoke, which ran for two decades, from 1955 until 1975. Of course, Marshall Dillon was a fictional character, but that didn’t stop the city fathers from erecting his statue in front of the Visitor’s Center.

The “real” characters from that time also have their statues scattered around the historic center of the town. This is “Doc” Holiday, playing poker and drawing his gun under the table. In front of the statue is a sign warning that the bronze chairs can get very hot or very cold. Since there was no sun, and it was above freezing, I was able to take a seat for this picture.

Over the main street they hung a banner declaring that Dodge City was the “Queen of the Cow Towns”. And, at the entrance to the city, they placed a wrought-iron arch, declaring that it was the “Wickedest Little City in the West”. In front of that arch (which was being repaired), stood a statue of Wyatt Earp, and we had to get a picture.

The Visitor’s Center gave us a map of all of the interesting sights, along with some background. To the north we found one of the original locomotives from the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad, which arrived in Dodge City in 1872.

Using the map we drove through the rest of historic part of town and found this statue of Bat Masterson, along with the oldest house (still standing) in Dodge City. This limestone house was built in 1880 by boot maker John Mueller.

After driving around town, we stopped for some Thai food at Thai Garden, right behind the Visitor’s Center. There really weren’t a lot of tourists in town on Tuesday, so we were surprised to find the entire restaurant was full. They have a special lunch menu with an entree, rice, and soup for $11.00. Apparently it’s really popular in town. We waited for a table and found that it was worth waiting.

By the time we got to our hotel in Lamar, the sun had come out and the wind had died a little. We checked in, went out for Mexican food, and then turned in early. I was asleep by 7:00 PM.

On to Taos, New Mexico

On Wednesday, both of us found ourselves awake at 4:30 AM, because we had gone to sleep so early on Tuesday. We set out for Taos, New Mexico under sunny skies. In Lamar, we hadn’t really noticed the Rockies but as we drove West and South, they suddenly appeared, really majestic, covered in snow from yesterday’s cold front.

Because we had left so early, and because we only had a five hour drive, we stopped frequently to look at the historic markers on the side of the road. This sign was just outside of Fort Garland, which guarded the San Luis valley in the late 1800s. 

Because we were so high, nearly 8,000 feet, the air was cold and preternaturally clear. The trees changing colors along the river through the San Luis valley seemed to “pop”, like they were in 3D. As we went through the passes, the leaves were largely gone, but in the valleys they were still bright.

We got to Taos in early afternoon. After we checked into our hotel, we went for lunch. The two restaurants that were recommended in our old Moon guidebook, and that were currently recommended by AI, had both closed. I expected the AI to notice that, since Google Maps certainly knew. 

But, that’s not the way that AI works. It just scrapes the Web and then rearranges what it’s been told. If hundreds of Facebook posts say that you should eat at Michael’s Kitchen, then that’s what AI tells you. It seems more like artificial ignorance, not artificial intelligence.

Eventually, we just scrolled through the restaurants in Google Maps and settled on Orlando’s, a Mexican Restaurant just North of town. Kathy had a shredded chicken burrito, and she thought it was great. I had a burger topped with chili relleno which I found a little too hot.

After our late lunch we strolled around the central plaza and took a picture in front of the Hotel La Fonda, even though we aren’t staying there.

The streets in Taos had a lot of cars (since there’s one main throughway that goes through town), but most of the stores and restaurants didn’t seem very busy. After our stroll, we drove through some of the neighborhoods off of the main drag, and saw a lot of homes for sale. We also saw a few of the larger hotels had closed up, or were being renovated. The last time we were in Taos was after Covid, in 2021, and the city seemed much more vibrant then. Perhaps it was just a different time of year.

Mesa Verde National Park

On Thursday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, and got an early start on our way to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. We felt pretty good because Google Maps showed us that we could get from Taos to Mesa Verde in a little more than four hours. Our route took us through Pagosa Springs, then Durango, and finally to Cortez, all in Colorado. We crossed the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge at 8:30 AM under sunny skies.

Three times we had to wait for a flagman where a portion of the road was washed away and traffic went down to a single lane. In Pagosa Springs we saw several houses that were moved off of their foundations by the flooding. We were heading for Durango about noon when we found Highway 160 completely closed. We spent a fruitless hour trying to route around the closures, using Highway 151 through Chimney Rock and found it closed as well.

Back in Pagosa Springs we stopped for lunch at Subway, saving half of our sandwiches for dinner, and then proceeded to back-track south, the long way around, through the towns of Dulce, Farmington, and Shiprock in New Mexico, and then up to Cortez, Colorado. We got to our room at the Retro Inn a little after sunset, six hours later than we had planned. The Retro Inn is a quirky, family run motel. Both of us thought that it was great.

Since we missed visiting Mesa Verde the day before, we allotted three hours on Friday, before we drove down to the Grand Canyon. We downloaded the National Parks Service 90-minute audio guide to the Mesa Top Loop Road, and listened to it when we got up there.

The day was overcast, but not rainy. The road was pretty twisty; you could go 45 mph on the rare flat spots, but much of it required us to slow to 25-30 mph. I’m not the most fearless of drivers. Fortunately we had the park almost entirely to ourselves. It took us about an hour to get to the top of the mesa.

Once on the Mesa Top Loop Road we started playing the audio tour, but soon found it kind of tedious and dropped back to the guide book we had picked up. According to the guidebook, the first permanent settlers on Mesa Verde arrived about 600 AD. The first houses they built were called pithouses, semi-subterranean homes, which were accessed by a ladder through the roof. Kathy thought that these looked a little like the New Mexico “Earthship” houses, just outside of Taos.

Three of the stops on the tour are excavated pithouses and early pueblos, with some above-ground rooms. Originally these were built with mud-daubed lattice work (similar to adobe). Later they were built with masonry. Around 900 AD they started adding towers and multi-story room blocks. Even though the houses were now built on top of the mesa, they continued to build larger pithouses, called “kivas”, which were used for ceremonial purposes. 

In the 1200-1300 AD, the inhabitants of the mesa started building the cliff dwellings that Mesa Verde is famous for. Behind us, across the canyon, you can see Square Tower House. This is the tallest building in the park, four stories or 27 feet. While it has been stabilized by archeologists, 90% of the site is original.

Further along the road is Oak Tree House, part of a neighborhood of many other cliff-dwelling communities. 

Finally, at the last stop is Cliff Palace, the largest North American cliff dwelling. It has 150 rooms and 21 kivas. In the 1200s many of the residents of Mesa Verde moved from the mesa tops into cliff dwellings, possibly for protection. During that century, there was also a large migration to the south, into what is now Arizona (the Hopi) and New Mexico (the Zuni, Laguna, and the Rio Grande Pueblos).

According to the guidebook we were given, “a series of prolonged droughts, diminishing resources, and social upheaval are factors that may have contributed to this migration.” By the end of the 13th century, Mesa Verde was almost entirely depopulated.

Kathy and I spent about three hours in the park and were both glad we finally got to go. We’ve planned to visit on two other occasions, only to have our intentions hindered by the weather.

Once down the mountain, we started our trip to Williams, Arizona. It took us most of the day to get to another retro motel, the El Rancho. We checked in, walked across the street for dinner, and turned in. Tomorrow (Saturday), we’ll visit the Grand Canyon. We’ve been there once before on my Spring Break. That time we took the Grand Canyon train, but when we reached the park, the entire canyon was covered with fog. We’re hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Arkansas, Missouri & Kansas

On Saturday morning we left Memphis for the long drive to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We had to backtrack for 40 miles on the Blues Highway back into Mississippi. I thought that this time we’d see the crossroads sign at the intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 49, but no luck.

On the way through southern Arkansas we found this swamp with cypress trees, and stopped to take a picture. We stopped for a late lunch along the way, and finally got to our hotel a little after 4:00 PM. We thought about going over to the Hot Springs National Park, but we were both too tired. We’ll do it in the morning.

We woke up really early on Sunday morning, but mostly because of the daylight savings time change. We had breakfast at the hotel and made it over to the park by 8:00 AM. Because the Visitor’s Center didn’t open until 9:00 AM, we drove the Hot Springs Mountain Drive, a scenic loop that overlooks the town and Bathhouse Row. The leaves are turning and it was a lovely drive.

The eight bathhouses, built between 1892 and 1927, are the main attraction at the park. Behind the bathhouses, on the hill, is a half-mile paved trail called the Grand Promenade. We walked the bathhouse row, admiring the architecture, and then walked the length of the Promenade, waiting for the Visitor’s Center to open.

Out in front of the Fordyce Bathhouse, I found this fountain. The water comes out at about 140 degrees.

At the end of the Grand Promenade one of the springs is allowed to flow down the mountain into a small waterfall.

The Visitor’s Center is the old Fordyce Bathhouse. The rooms and windows have been restored, so you can see what it was like. Kathy and I both appreciated the scripture verse on the wall in the main lobby.

The Fordyce is not a working spa; only two of the houses still allow you to soak. The Buckstaff Bathhouse, in continuous operation since 1912, offers the traditional baths and steam. The Quapaw Baths and Spa offers a more modern, communal soaking experience. We didn’t do either, though. The stained glass ceiling here was over the Fordyce waiting area. The actual soaking was done in large, private bathtubs, in small stalls running around the sides of the waiting area.

Below is one of the wall features in the men’s steam area.

After the soaking, the clients would be wrapped in towels and then lie, or sit in a “cooling” room. The windows below are in the cooling room in the women’s bath.

The Arkansas Scenic 7 Byway

Sunday morning we set out for Eureka Springs in the upper-left corner of Arkansas. The Arkansas Scenic 7 Byway is a 300-or-so mile scenic drive that runs north-to-south across nearly the entire state of Arkansas. Driving this was one of my bucket-list items. 

North of Hot Springs the road goes through the Ouachita National Forest. The town of Russellville lies in a valley about half-way to Eureka Springs. We stopped there and had lunch at The Old Bank, which is literally an old bank that has been converted to a restaurant. We had a good, reasonably-priced lunch.

The road climbs north after Russellville into the Ozark and St. Francis National Forests. The leaves were all turning colors and every corner brought a new sight. There were not a lot of cars on the road, and so we took our time, pulling out at the overlooks and just enjoying the drive.

I’ve mentioned before that Kathy and I listen to recorded books as we drive. In Arkansas, we’ve been listening to Stephen Hunter’s Earl Swagger thriller called Hot Springs, about gambling and corruption in 1947. Hunter has actually written a dozen or so books featuring the Swagger family, father Earl and son Bobby Lee. The movie Shooter, staring Mark Wahlberg as Bobby Lee, was later made into a streaming series. 

In any event, Kathy and I are both fans of Hunter’s books, and so on our way to Eureka Springs, we had to stop by Blue Eye, the Swagger family home town.

Because I putt along at 40 or 50 miles per hour, we again got into our hotel, the Inn of the Ozarks, pretty late. Both of us were tired and so we had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, and then turned in.

Our Monday drive from Eureka Springs, Arkansas to Wichita, Kansas, wasn’t as spectacular as the drive through the Ozarks, but, once we got out of the forest it went a lot faster, even though we still kept to non-highway roads. Our hotel stay didn’t include breakfast, so we stopped at the Cubs Cafe and had some great fresh-squeezed orange juice with our breakfast. 

We got into Wichita before 2:00 PM. As we got nearer and nearer, it got darker and darker, and the wind was really intense. When we checked the weather app on our phones, we found out that the whole area was under a tornado watch. That’s a first for us. 

We bought some Chick Fil-A for dinner and took it back to our room. Looking at the news on our phones, we noticed that our Wednesday stop, Pagosa Springs, was under an evacuation order because of severe flooding. I tried calling our hotel, and found the cell service disrupted. Since I was able to cancel for free, up until midnight, I cancelled our booking (with Booking.com) and rerouted to Taos, New Mexico instead.

Watching the flooding in South Florida on the news tonight, we can’t help feeling a little like the Children of Israel walking through the Red Sea. In almost two months on the road we’ve had just a small scattering of rain, and haven’t had to really change our plans at all.