Silver City into Arizona

5/15/11



We decided we were as far south as we wanted to go. Next we wanted to work our way west and north, possibly as far as the Grand Canyon. We headed west on NM-152, a scenic ride starting in desert and then ascending through the Mogollon mountain range.

At Hillsboro, we saw this tree filled with Turkey Vultures. I was careful to park well past and walk back quietly, ready to get the shot if they all flew away, but they seemed relaxed and didn't mind me getting as close as I liked.

Sue's eye had been bothering her, she thought she had a scratched cornea, she'd had one before. We wanted to get it looked at before we headed into less populated areas, so we found an urgent care in Silver City,
Unfortunately it was Sunday, and it didn't open till 1 PM - it was 10 AM. So, we explored Silver City.

This is the only house that remained after a flood washed their original main street down a canyon.

They have an old downtown which is picturesque…

beyond that not much to do on a Sunday.
We got to the urgent care when they opened, and got Sue checked out. They gave her some medicine, and some care advice. We finally got on the road around 3.
We drove into Arizona, stopping here and there - scenery was beautiful.
There was a state park near Show Low, AZ called Fool Hollow Lake - it turned out to be pretty nice, although in an odd setting. It was a public / private endeavor, so it was somewhat camping resort like - very nice facilities, nice sites.
Evidently when it was created, it was in the country, but the private part sold off all the surrounding land and put in subdivisions. Once we were in the park, it was pleasant, and had excellent showers - clean two days in a row!
It was windy and going down in the lower 40s, so we slept back in the bed of the truck. That's been working out well - we were using a pair of Thermarest 'Luxury' sleeping mats, which are very comfortable. Once we were situated each night, it was great. The only problem was moving everything out of the bed, into the cab of the truck or near the truck, otherwise there wasn't enough room for both of us to lie comfortably. I have some ideas for side storage bins, we'll see what I can work out.

Note: I'm posting travel logs from a trip that ended last week - more info below.

5/13/2011
Took a day to enjoy the surroundings. After driving 1500 miles in two days, we managed to keep it down to about 20.  Would have preferred not to drive at all, but we had to do a few errands.
After a leisurely breakfast, we did a little exploring. There is a state park right next to our campground, so we walked over there to check it out, and took a short hike up the hillside. We were still getting acclimated to altitude, and Sue has trouble with it, so we took it easy.
Last time I was in Santa Fe, I noticed a restaurant near where I'd parked, on the edge of downtown. It looked good, but it wasn't open for breakfast. Since the Plaza was still not open, and looked like it never would, we gave this place a try.
It was called Tomasito's, and it was excellent. They served typical New Mexican food, both the red and green chile were great, service was too - we may stop there on the way back through.
We also found their local Annual Manual - a restaurant guide just like the Isthmus's here. That will be a useful resource.
Took care of some work, bought ice, and headed back up the mountain. I took a nice hike up another mountainside - this faced the other way, and reached the boundary of the Santa Fe watershed, which is a valley preserve where the rainwater that feeds the city is collected. I climbed about 1000 feet, which was plenty.

The watershed, with a heart-shaped meadow

Had a light dinner at the campsite - didn't need much after that lunch, and plotted our next moves.

(Later: I've mentioned the Plaza Cafe before, it's one of my favorite places, for the decor, service and especially the food. They'd been closed for remodeling, and I'd heard from people I'd sent there that they still hadn't opened after 6 months.
Since they still weren't open, I feared they were gone.
However, there's a rumor a movie is being filmed there (fairly common in NM) and their web page is still up: http://www.thefamousplazacafe.com/
I'm hoping it will be open soon. If you're in Santa Fe, please check it out, and if you get any news, please let me know!)
5/14/11
Drove slowly south, taking NM14 - a blue highway from Santa Fe - walked through a cute town called Madrid, lots of artists and funky resale - this is what happens to hippies when they get old…
One of the things I love about New Mexico is the variety of landscape. In the midwest, you have to drive 500 miles to see a minor difference. In NM, 50 or even 20 miles can give you a completely different perspective. Combined with a striking color palette, it's a beautiful place, and one I feel a strong affinity for.

Drove up a gravel forest road in the Manzano mountains for lunch - nice streamside in the middle of nowhere.

Part of it had been burned off, which made it kinda eerie. It was a major hawk nesting area.

We worked our way down into the high plains again. It was nice driving the two lanes on a Saturday afternoon, almost no traffic and no one was in a hurry. We stopped here and there to take pictures and wander around.

Once we got in the flats, we jumped on I-25 to get further south. Stopped a couple times looking for food and a place to stay, but there weren't any attractive options for a while.  I remembered Truth or Consequences having some interesting places, but either they've gone out of business or i couldn't find them.
We tried a state park that had a campground, but when we saw the giant tollbooth style entrance with big electronic signs, we figured we weren't in our comfort zone.
We ended up at Caballo State Park, which was desert funky - got a site right on the Rio Grande.  It had showers, which was a big thrill at that point.

Rio Grande in evening light

We asked at the gate if there was anywhere nearby to eat or buy food, and the answer was no.
Hatch was 20 miles away, and I'd been planning to go there if possible - it's the chile capitol of the world - but I hadn't planned on a 40 mile round trip for dinner. Oh, well, when you go to the middle of nowhere, you can't expect things to be nearby! The ranger seemed like the kind of guy who'd know, so I got some Hatch restaurant recommendations from him.
We went to a place called Sparky's - a semi famous burger joint. It had nice old bar decor, and excellent food. We went green chile wild. with green chile burger, green chile cheese fries, and a smoked pork and green chile burrito. I'd definitely go back there.
We'd been sleeping in the back of the truck so far, which was quite comfortable in the cold and windy areas.
It was hot and there were some bugs, so we tented for the first time. It worked out nicely, a little more hassle getting packed up again, but pleasant to be completely outdoors.

On the road again… a few weeks ago.

OK, here's the deal. Sue and I went on a road trip earlier in the month, took pictures, kept a log, saw cool stuff, ate well - the usual deal. However, part of the plan is staying away from civilization as much as possible, so we weren't posting the blog as we went.
Now we're home, catching up, and we have photos and the travel journal. I'm gonna post stuff serially, as I get time to process it.
So, here's the first batch, from May 11th and 12th:

May 11, 2011
On the road again…
I'm heading off again, to the same general area, but this time with Sue along.
She hasn't been able to come along on the last couple trips, and while traveling alone has its attractions, it's also great to have company.
We're aiming for the southwest, without many firm plans. There are things I'd like to see again, things I'd like to show Sue, and a lot of places neither of us have seen yet. 
We'll head for Dinosaur National Monument, on the border of Colorado and Utah. It's a place we both want to see, and it's as far north as we want to travel.  From there we'll work our way south, exploring as we go.
I'll be posting my travel journal, but updates will be sporadic, since we'll be camping as much as possible and staying in the un "improved" places.


May 12, 2011
Shakedown Cruise
We drove to Ogallala Nebraska yesterday. When we started out, it was hot - in the 70's when we were setting out at 7 am, well into the 80's in Iowa.  We knew we'd be crossing the cold front somewhere, but it turned out we were paralleling it.  We could see the line of black sky south of I-80 for quite a while.  Then, luckily when we were at a rest area, it came over us.  Hail, 60 mph winds, and lightning battered us for about 10 minutes. After that, it was still raining hard, but we could drive.
We flirted with the storms all the way through Nebraska, then crossed into a low near Ogallala. Temperature dropped into the 40s, very windy, occasional heavy rain - just what we wanted for our first night camping.
Our destination for the night was a state recreation area at a man-made lake - Ogallala Reservoir. The season wasn't really underway yet, but you could camp if you wanted - just leave your money in the box.
There was a lot of interesting waterfowl about, unfortunately it was getting dark and we had trouble identifying many of them.
I did see a Whooping Crane - that was a treat. I checked later, the reservoir is right on their flyway. Something to keep in mind for future trips.
As we were setting up camp, it started raining - hard. Large drops, blown by 30 mph wind.  Luckily, we were pretty well set up in the back of the truck, and I'd found a campsite where I could park pointing into the wind, so it was relatively cozy in the truck bed.  We ate our dinner in there, and went to sleep early.
It poured and occasionally stormed all night, but we were comfortable. This was Sue's first night sleeping in the truck, and we had to figure out how to set up the sleeping pads, the double sleeping bag, the lamp, etc. It would have been easier on a pleasant evening, but it worked out fine, and we figured we were probably prepared for the worst of it from here on out.

Old movie theater sign on a gray morning in Nebraska

The next morning it was still windy and raining on and off.  We quickly jumped in the truck and drove to town, had breakfast at a nice little cafe, and headed west.
We made good time across the rest of Nebraska and into Wyoming. It was cold and rainy, changing to wet snow as we gained altitude.  At Cheyenne, I-80 was closed.
They don't give you any information as to why, or when it might open again. We did some shopping and drove around town a bit. The weather was not conducive to sightseeing, so waiting for the freeway to open again was frustrating.
With 80 closed and the weather not improving, we decided to take advantage of our flexibility. It was going to be quite cold at Dinosaur, even thought it was supposed to clear eventually, and we decided we'd had enough of cold and rain.
The weather looked much better further south, so we headed down I-25 toward New Mexico. The sun came out by Pueblo, Colorado, a welcome sight. The temperature kept rising, into the low 70's.

Mountains west of the high plains.

We found a promising Forest Service campground - Black Canyon - in the national forest just east of Santa Fe, and made it there by 6:30, plenty of time to get situated and have dinner before dark.
It's now Friday morning, we're sitting in camp, warming up in the sun.  It got rather cool overnight - around 33 -  but it's warming up nicely. We're starting to get acclimated to the altitude - this is around 8500 feet. Sue's plotting possible routes - we're considering Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, the Malpais, there are a lot possibilities.

Hiking trail from the campground - it's all uphill from here!

Last Day

Sue and I have had a painting in our kitchen for 20 years, of a little diner called "Susie-Q" with the motto "Let's Eat Here!"

I knew it was a real place, I'd seen it years ago working in Mason City, Iowa.  I've been meaning to go check it out for a long time, but like Bartlesville, it's not really on the way to anywhere, I'd have to make a side trip.
Mason City is also where Frank Lloyd Wright's Park Inn Hotel was built.  This is a bank and hotel complex, built in 1910.  While FLW was there, he was commissioned to build several houses, and evidently there was a Prairie Architecture boom, because there are also some excellent Walter Burleigh Griffin houses and others built around the same time.

I found the Susie-Q diner, unfortunately it was closed Sundays.  It looks kind of beat up, but still picturesque.

The Park Inn complex was being restored.  According to their website it'll be redone like the original.  Right now it's pretty much disassembled, I hope they can do a suitable restoration.
I took the walking tour, saw a lot of nice homes.  I'm a big fan of Prairie School and the Arts and Crafts movement.  There are some nice examples there.
Even an old fire station - I couldn't find any info on it, but it looked cool.

I followed US-18 most of the way home. The only trouble with the middle of nowhere is there aren't a lot of restaurants.  Other than chain places, I couldn't find anything interesting along the drive.  Eventually hunger drove me to grab a Subway sandwich... oh well.

Eating good regional food and camping out more were the only things I wasn't able to do as much as I'd hoped on the trip, though. The lack of good local food seems to be a tradeoff for exploring the most unpopulated areas, and the weather is hard to predict - it would have been perfect for sleeping out by the time I was leaving.
Overall, it was an excellent time.  I saw a lot of things I'd wanted to, and most of them lived up to expectations.  I had good subjects to photograph, and I had the time to think about my photography - my tastes, influences and motivations, and what images I want to make.
I arrived home recharged, ready to get back to work, looking forward to the next getaway.
Thanks for reading this.  I plan on posting the next trip... when I find out where I'm going.

Zigzagging home

Post for Saturday, Oct. 30
Whenever I'm on a road trip, and it's time to head back, I tend to drive straight through, and get home as fast as possible.  It's partly a habit from when I worked on the road - the Six Days on the Road effect. I remember my father doing the same thing.
I'm trying to reconsider assumptions and habits, and I'm tired of arriving home burnt out from a marathon drive.
So, I tried making the drive home a continuation of the trip, taking my time and stopping along the way.
I was planning on continuing to follow old Route 66, I-44 from Oklahoma City through Missouri.  But I've done that route many times, and I'd already spent quite a bit of time looking at Route 66 attractions.
Google Maps' suggested route was different from my usual one, up I-35 and across Iowa on US-20, going near several places I've been wanting to explore.
First off, though, I made another Route 66 stop - Shamrock, Texas.

There's a beautifully restored service station / diner there I've been wanting to photograph, and the weather and light were perfect.

I stayed on the freeway up to Tulsa, and then headed north to Bartlesville, OK.  The Price Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper, is there - no one ever paid for his mile high skyscraper design for some reason...

I used to work around Bartlesville every year, and vaguely remember noticing it, but I wasn't paying much attention to that sort of thing back in the 80s I guess.
I was wandering around, photographing it from different angles, and then found out that there were tours available, and I was just in time for the last one of the day.  Photos weren't allowed inside, unfortunately, but it was quite interesting to see - partly in a 'what the hell were they thinking?' way.
Like a lot of FLW work, it's more a sculpture than a useful, livable building.

Even though it's 19 stories tall, it's vary narrow, and the rooms are oddly shaped.  Doors and stairways are very small, and the furniture had to be custom built to fit in the angled walls and corners. If it wasn't for all the glass, it would be very claustrophobic.
It's visually pleasing and far ahead of it's time, though, and I was pleased to see they've done a lot of restoration work.
From there it was two lanes for quite a ways, beautiful day to travel through the prairie.

Back in familiar territory

Post for Friday, Oct 29
I've been going through Santa Fe on each trip through New Mexico.  It has a lot of spots I like.
The Plaza Cafe is high on the list - it's an art deco diner with stainless steel interior, built when Route 66 ran that way.  The food and service has always been excellent - highly recommended.
But this time it's closed for remodeling!  Found an OK place, but not the food I was planning on, and certainly not the decor.  Nice sign though.

Went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum next.  I'd been there a year ago, but wanted to see the paintings of landscapes I was looking at yesterday.  Her work has been resonating with me.  I'd like to make my landscapes and still lifes simpler, verging on abstraction.  I also tend to emulate her choice of subject matter.
Andrew Smith Gallery is now right next door - by far the best photographic gallery I've seen.  I spent a rewarding hour or two there looking at original prints by Ansel Adams, Herman Leonard, Elliot Erwitt, Cartier-Bresson and many others.
On my way out, I stopped at Pecos Pueblo National Historic Park. This was a huge trading point, the only year round pass in the area between the plains and the mountain valleys further west.  It eventually had 700 rooms and housed up to 2000 people.
There's not much left, basically foundations, but it's interesting to see the scale of it and imagine what it was like.
The only building standing is the ruins of the mission - I guess it's fitting that after a thriving 1000 year settlement, only the church of the exterminators remains.

I like traveling via old Route 66.  There's a lot of history, from a time when traveling across the country by car was a new possibility.  I like the architecture, the art deco and roadside modern, all the neon...

I've driven the stretch from Santa Fe east before, but the weather had been gray and blustery, not conducive to photography.  Today it was beautiful, bright and warm.
I stopped at some places I'd photographed before, and redid them, and explored some new sites.

A grocery store in Tucumcari has a good selection, I got a big bag of green chiles for 99 cents a pound - my kind of souvenir. 
With all the stops, I only made it as far as Amarillo, but that's an easy two day drive home.

Brought to you by Acme and Little Giant products.

Entry for Thursday, 10/28
Nice night sleeping in the wilderness - the moon was so bright it woke me when it came up.
When I got up, it was 19 degrees and well before dawn.  I'd planned to make coffee and hang out a bit, but I just jumped in the truck and started driving. It worked out well, by the time the sun was coming up I was in another picturesque area.
I did some more map research - the Four Corners make it kind of tough, there are four maps to coordinate to plan a route.  Monument Valley sounded like what I was looking for, on the Utah - Arizona border.
I'd guessed right - it had the spectacular rock formations and views I was hoping to find - like the background of a Roadrunner cartoon.

 There was a sort of road running back behind the balanced rock formation, overlooking a creek and a lot of hills.  Nice place to have breakfast.

From there I headed east - Kayenta, AZ was my furthest point west.  I considered going further, the Grand Canyon isn't all that far, but better not to overdo it - I have to be home by Sunday.

It's a great area to drive.  very sparsely populated, magnificent scenery, easy to pull off the road and wander wherever you like.
I went through Shiprock, which sadly is hazy and eye-watering from the giant coal fired power plants in the area.

Continuing east, I drove through the northern edge of New Mexico.  The land was what I would call 'typically' New Mexico, although NM has so many different terrains there isn't really a representative.one.  Brown, exposed, rounded rock hillsides, pinon pine and juniper in the valleys, douglas fir in the alpine areas.
My next destination was Georgia O'Keefe country.  While I'm not really a huge fan - I like some of her paintings quite a bit, but a lot of others seem contrived and repetitive - I like her eye for landscape and her abstractions.  She had an affinity for the same country I do. In that way, she is an influence on my work, and I want to explore that.
I saw a 'Ghost Ranch' marked on the map and knew she'd stayed there.  As I headed that way, down the Chama valley, the landscape became more orange sandstone, with some green accents, eroded into striking formations.
I saw a mountain that looked very familiar from her paintings,

I inquired and it is indeed one of her favorite subjects - it's called Pedernal Mountain.
Ghost Ranch was a tourist ranch O'Keefe had visited, and eventually bought a piece of for her home.
There is now a small museum there, and you can see the same views that were her 'back yard'.

Leaving there, the sun was getting low, and the scenery was beautiful.  I spent a couple hours wandering around shooting pictures and enjoying the view.

 Spent the night in Espanola, kind of a funky little town on the way to Santa Fe, but with much cheaper lodging.  Had an OK New Mexican dinner - great posole, average enchiladas.