TRAVEL: SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP 2010 PART FOUR COLORADO TO ARIZONA AUGUST 2010

After a week in Cortez, it was time to move on from Colorado and the wonders of Mesa Verde National Park to Arizona and the wonders of Grand Canyon National Park.  But before I left, Laurel and I went to dinner at Cortez's new sushi restaurant, Stonefish Sushi and More on Main Street.  Sushi in the desert is always a questionable choice for dinner, but the pedigree of Stonefish's chef owner, Brandon Shubert, assured me that the former Metate Room executive chef had our culinary best interests in mind (and we spotted Brandon in the restaurant).  Stonefish offered fun creative rolls in addition to good sashimi and friendly service.  In particular, the Colorado Rancher Roll made my dinner as a regional specialty that featured the Cortez ag community in the form of a roll filled with Yellowtail and scallions topped with seared beef tenderloin and wasabi aioli.

Seaweed salad

Colorado Rancher Roll

After dinner we enjoyed a southwestern sunset from Laurel's lovely home in Cortez, next to the Carpenter Trail and Natural Area.  Laurel's downtown neighborhood also houses author Fred Blackburn, another contributor to the well-being of Mesa Verde National Park.  Between Laurel, as the executive director of the Mesa Verde Museum Association and Fred, as head of the Friends of Mesa Verde, their neighborhood is park-friendly indeed.

My Arizona travel plan included stops along the way in true road trip style.  Though I've traveled extensively in the southwest (and lived in New Mexico and Utah), there is always something else to see or do in the desert. For me, that something(s) was Canyon de Chelly National Monument and Petrified Forest National Park.  So I left Cortez in the early morning, driving south on U.S. Route 491, formerly U.S. Route 666.  That's right - the Devil's Highway (or Highway to Hell).  As a spur line of the famous Route 66, Route 666 was changed to Route 491 in 2003 after many years of stolen signs and legends of the road being cursed by it's namesake.  Since I was traveling in daylight, I didn't experience any hounds of hell, ghost cars or mysterious uninvited passengers.  However, I did experience some good old Route 66 Americana and some Native America as I drove across the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation:

Photo from Wikipedia Commons

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "Canyon de Shay") is a national monument located outside of Chinle in eastern Arizona in the middle of the Navajo Nation.  Administered by the National Park Service, the monument is also a living Navajo community and ancient home of Ancestral Puebloans.  A study in contrasts, the Canyon consists entirely of Navajo Nation Tribal Trust Land designated as American public lands where some 40 Navajo families make their homes.  One of the longest continuously-occupied landscapes in North America, the place called by the Navajo word Tseyi (later corrupted by the Spanish to Chelly) was also occupied by the Hopi, descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans, before the Navajo.  I spied signs in front of homesteads announcing their residents as "The Begays" and "The Yazzies".  Standing at overlooks on the South Rim of the canyon, I could hear the tinkle of bells from the collars of sheep and see crops and corrals for horses.

Navajo Nation flag

Canyon de Chelly

White House Ruins in Canyon de Chelly

In the visitor center store I bought Yanabah mint tea - a combination of Navajo herb greenthread with peppermint and spearmint from Ohio.  A Navajo jewelry maker demonstrated his symbolic mother and child pendants along with the Ansel Adams photo the symbol was based on - his mother was photographed by Adams on a visit to Canyon de Chelly in 1941.  As I toured the South Rim drive, I realized that I've seen a lot of red rock landscape in my travels around the southwest, but I was astonished by the beauty of Canyon de Chelly.  My goal in visiting the monument (which actually consists of three canyons including Canyon del Muerto and Monument Canyon) was to see where Spider Woman lives.  Living on top of Spider Rock, an 800 foot sandstone monolith at the junction of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Canyon, Spider Woman taught the Navajo how to weave their beautiful rugs.

Spider Rock, home of Spider WomanThe Navajos most famous rug style: Two Grey Hills

Before you leave the Navajo Nation, on the way to Interstate 40, you'll find a bit of southwestern history preserved at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in the town of Ganado.  By the 1860s, trading posts were established by the federal government to regulate trade with Indians throughout the west. These establishments often served as social centers in the sparsely populated southwest where people shopped for necessities, traded goods and exchanged news as well.  Hubbell has been operating continuously since before 1878, though the retail operation is now managed by Western National Parks Association, a non-profit that benefits many, many public lands in the western states (including Canyon de Chelly).  You can still find Indian trade goods at Hubbell, and the historic site also conducts art auctions, a fall farmer's market, Luminaria Night and workshops each year. The farmer's market produce is harvested from the gardens maintained at Hubbell by NPS staff.  

Hubbell Trading Post

Inside the trading post

Inside the Hubbell rug gallery

All the original buildings are maintained by NPS, including the Hubbell family residence.  Inside the trading post I noticed a curious holdover from history - Navajo baskets attached to the ceiling.  In the historic photo below, you can see the extensive basket collection amassed by the Hubbells covering the walls of their home.  They also attached baskets to the ceiling and this tradition is kept inside the Traders Office.  To learn more about the Hubbells, check out the Hubbell Trading Post selections from WNPA.

Photo courtesy of NPS

Photo courtesy of NPS

It was past lunchtime and I still had a national park and a hotel to visit, so I boogied down the road from Ganado to the highway entrance at Chambers.  May I say that there was an inordinate amount of hitchhiking taking place on this stretch of road?  Perhaps there is not a lot of vehicle ownership or access on this part of the reservation.  Having never picked up a hitchhiker, I wisely maintained my policy since Bigfoot apparently roams this area of the desert in addition to hitchhikers.  Reluctantly leaving the mysteries of the Navajo Nation behind, I approached the Painted Desert on Interstate 40 and took the exit for Petrified Forest National Park.  

Having lately become something of a Mary Colter groupie, my main intent at Petrified Forest was to view the re-modeled Painted Desert Inn.  Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter worked as a designer and architect in the southwest of the early 20th century for the Fred Harvey company at a time when not many women made their living as architects. The Harvey Houses of the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway created not only rest stops for hungry train travelers, but also the idea of the southwest itself and what it represented to the world.  Mary Colter used native materials and decor in all of her buildings, broadcasting "Santa Fe Style" and establishing Indian crafts as fine art.  In several cases the buildings designed by Colter have been razed, but a few have survived - most notably the National Historic Landmark buildings created by Colter to blend in with their natural and cultural environment at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, including Hopi House and the Desert View Watchtower.  The Painted Desert Inn no longer provides lodging in the park, instead this re-modeled building serves as a visitor and education center for NPS and bookstore location for the Petrified Forest Museum Association.

Restored murals by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie

Detail of the petrified wood structure beneath the plaster

The natural landscape was just as showy as the cultural offerings - large petrified logs lay scattered over the landscape like Lincoln Logs.  In some cases, the petrified wood is very colorful and crystalized.  I visited the Crystal Forest site of petrified logs where, despite a century of collectors, the brilliant colors and crystals were still evident.  Petrified Forest also claims a Newspaper Rock - a panel of petroglyphs so dense from added symbols over time the surface resembles newsprint.

Exiting Petrified Forest National Park, you will be stopped by a Park Ranger and asked whether you collected any petrified wood.  Since I purchased a bracelet of petrified wood in the gift shop, I was allowed to go on my way.  Passing through the town of Holbrook on my way back to Interstate 40, I was thoroughly delighted by more Route 66 Americana at the Wigwam Motel, the dinosaurs at the Rainbow Rock Shop and Jim Gray's Petrified Wood Company where a mind-boggling amount of petrified wood is corralled in one location.

My next stop was just down the highway in Winslow, Arizona, made famous by the Eagles song "Take it Easy" in 1972 (insert song lyric here).  In contrast to Holbrook, no statuary or Native American dwellings - just one lovely hotel.  Continuing my Mary Colter tour of the southwest, Winslow is the home of La Posada, a former Harvey House hotel opened in 1930 that is now a National Historic Landmark.  Colter referred to this hotel as her masterpiece, and the current owners, Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion seem to agree.  Purchasing the property in 1997, forty years after the hotel closed for business permanently, Affeldt and Mion restored the hotel to it's original grandeur to the tune of 12 million dollars.

Keen on architecture and all things southwest, I expected to find the hotel very interesting and was not disappointed.  However, I didn't expect to be so charmed by the hotel's ambiance.  The decor is an eclectic mix of southwestern artifact, Old Mexican and Mion's modern art.  The hotel's jewel-like rooms and patios invited me to stay for a long while with good books, martinis in the bar and cryptic conversations next to the turquoise-colored grand piano.

Being an original Harvey House, the hotel is situated next to the railyards.  Though it served a specific purpose when the hotel was built - serving train travelers - the view is now a jarring juxtaposition with the beautifully landscaped gardens.

Wishing I had time to dine in the hotel's restaurant, The Turquoise Room, I perused the gift shop instead and came away with a book, Fred Harvey Houses of the Southwest (Images of America) that features historic photographs of La Posada.  Reluctant to leave, but excited to plan a trip to stay in this lovely hotel, I drove around the corner in Winslow, Arizona and merged onto Interstate 40 heading for Flagstaff and then north to the Grand Canyon.

Junket Ratings:

Stonefish Sushi and More: Junk-O-Rama

Hubbell Trading Post: Junk-O-Rama

La Posada Hotel: Junk-in-the-Trunk and more Junk-in-the-Trunk!

Update on Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 9:13AM by Michelle Hansen

Please see Laurel's comments on this post about Fred Blackburn's work for more up-to-date information.

TRAVEL: SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP 2010 PART TWO UTAH TO COLORADO AUGUST 2010

Ted and I parted ways after 4 days in Salt Lake City - he headed to Baja California to fish and I headed to Colorado for business.  Our last evening in SLC for Outdoor Retailer we attended an industry party hosted by Liberty Mountain that was all the happs, and the source of some great road trip music too.  LM deserves props not only for good food and drink, but also for hiring local SLC band, the Daniel Day Trio to perform their smooth jazz lounge versions of popular hits from other bands like Guns-n-Roses, Nirvana and Oasis. Once we realized they were also playing songs from Depeche Mode and New Order, we were hooked.  We bought the CD.  So next time you're in Salt Lake City, give a listen to the Daniel Day Trio.

 I eased across Utah on my way to Colorado Friday morning via Highway 89 and Interstate 70 through Moab.  I didn't make any sightseeing stops, just enjoyed the scenery and the ride.  I passed through the San Rafael Swell (being considered for National Monument status) and over the Green and Colorado Rivers into Moab before heading into Colorado from Monticello (unlike Thomas Jefferson's place, pronounced "Monti-sello").

San Rafael Swell

Colorado Riverway, Moab

Bike bridge at the Colorado Riverway

The corridor from Monticello, UT to Cortez, CO is part of the Four Corners area of the southwest.  Named for the geographical convention that allows you to access 4 states - Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico - almost simultaneously as they meet at four corners.  This area is also archaeologically rich as the ancient home of the Ancestral Puebloans (better known by the politically incorrect term Anasazi), ancestors of the Pueblo, Hopi and Zuni Indians, who built spectacularly situated cliff-dwellings amongst many other types of masonry architecture.  The high desert climate of the Colorado Plateau and the low volume of contemporary human population has preserved this architecture to a striking degree, though in many parks and monuments the dwellings have been rebuilt and stabilized by archaeologists.  This area is also home to the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute, who are not descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans.  Cortez is the gateway town to Mesa Verde National Park, the first park to preserve the cultural treasures of the Ancestral Puebloans.  Mesa Verde is "green table" in Spanish, and refers to the distinct plateau of green tableland that looms over Cortez at 7000 to 8500 foot elevation.  The ancient native population may have been growing corn, beans and squash on the mesa top, but the Cortez area is heavily agricultural surrounding the mesa below.

Staying with my friend Laurel in Cortez, we decided to celebrate all this agricultural bounty by attending the Cortez Saturday Farmer's Market and purchase groceries for the week.  I had come to Mesa Verde to do some retail consulting work for Laurel's organization, the Mesa Verde Museum Association.  As the Executive Director of this cooperating association, Laurel and her staff raise funds for Mesa Verde National Park by operating visitor center and museum bookstores in the park.  

After acquiring provisions for the week, Laurel and I set out on the Trail of the Ancients, a scenic byway that connects many ancient pueblo sites including the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument designation given to many ancient pueblo sites scattered throughout southwestern Colorado.  Laurel and I had visited Hovenweep National Monument on my last visit, so we hoped to pick up where we left off.  Beginning at the Anasazi Heritage Center with it's fine museum and beautiful native garden, we collected our info and set out for Lowry Pueblo.

Lowry Pueblo with preservation shelter over stabilized room blocks

Laurel enters the re-built pueblo interior

1000 year old plaster on the walls

Kiva stairwell - no large people allowed!

Lowry's caretaker - Western Fence Lizard

In contrast to Lowry Pueblo's stabilized structures, Sand Canyon Pueblo has been excavated, but never stabilized in any way.  Some pueblo ruins in their current state look like piles of rubble - because they are. However, the desert landscape can still be read by archaeologists to learn the history of ancient peoples.

The monsoon season got the better of us at Sand Canyon but we viewed the entire site before it began to rain. Dinner plans centered around farmer's market goodies, so we employed the fragrant basil from the market and Laurel's backyard to create Rotisserie Chicken with Peaches, Walnuts and Basil (which became Rotisserie Chicken with Nectarines, Pine Nuts and Basil in my version).  An excellent cheater recipe that utilizes rotisserie chicken from the grocery store provides a perfect canvas for ripe summer fruit and basil.  This recipe and a tomato basil salad are courtesy of Sunset Magazine - how would I eat without it?  I also found a Bellini style drink with a bottle of Cava (Spanish champagne) nectarines and peach nectar for a summer cocktail.

Next stop on the southwest road trip: Backcountry hiking in Mesa Verde National Park!

Junket Ratings:

Daniel Day Trio: Junk in the Trunk!

Cortez Farmer's Market: Junk-O-Rama

Anasazi Heritage Center: Junk-O-Rama