Travelogue

It felt like Oklahoma. I'm not sure why I thought that--we had never been to Oklahoma before, but it just did. The winds were picking up arousing my fears that we would be dodging tornadoes as we crossed the state--I tend to be rather weather phobic.

We stopped for the night at a KOA along I40 in western Oklahoma set in the middle of some very pretty farmland. We sat by the pool, watching the cottonwood trees throughout the campground swaying in the breeze. Something was brewing. That evening I settled down with my weather radio, as I often do, to see what was going on. My worst fears were realized--severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes were predicted for tonight and the next day. Images from the Weather Channel flashed before me. Why was I the only one concerned? Much to the Herb's amusement, I went to sleep that night clutching my weather radio, listening to the thunder rumbling in the distance.

Travelogue

Boy's painting desert cadillacsFrom the beginning of this year's trip, I had told the kids that today would be the highlight of this year's travels--Cadillac Ranch. I don't think they quite believed me. It was pretty cool though. For those of you unfamiliar with Amarillo, Texas's most famous landmark, it's a piece of landscape art featuring ten classic Cadillacs buried nose-down in the dirt with their upended tail fins tracing the design changes that Cadillac made over the years. The ranch is owned by an eccentric Amarillo helium millionaire named Stanley Marsh II. Did you know that 99% of the world's helium is produced in Amarillo, Texas? Neither did we. Well anyway, in 1974 he hired some San Francisco artists to create this very unique piece of art.

Cadillac Ranch is not hard to get to--in fact, it's visible right from I40. Since just seeing it whiz by from the highway wasn't fulfilling enough, we pulled off I40 onto Hope Road where we could park and get the full experience. There it was, like some bizarre Stonehenge, looming out of a very dusty field. As we strolled the 100 yards across the field, laden with cameras and camcorders to immortalize the experience, the wind picked up covering us with dust. This is not exactly a beautiful part of the country.

When we got to the Cadillacs, the kids were delighted to find spray paint cans just begging to be used--Marsh actually encourages people to make their own artistic statement on the cars. The boys added their names to the hundreds of other travelers that preceded them. Actually, Andrew only added his first initial because he ran out of paint.

Having left our mark in the art world, we continued eastward on I40 towards Oklahoma.

Travelogue

As we drove along I-40 across New Mexico, I began my daily search for a campground facility that would provide the most overall happiness for the family--not always a simple task since we often have different criteria. Herb always wants a natural setting with great views for his well-deserved cocktail after a hard day of driving, the kids want amusement of some sort, whether it be natural or man-made, and I want a place that will keep everyone from complaining.

Our first inclination was to find a commercial campground with a pool so that the kids could burn off some pent-up energy and have fun. With that intention in mind, we pulled in the one that was rated pretty good in the campground guide. It was flat, open, and so windy that you could barely see through the swirls of dust. We just couldn't do it. There had to be something better than this. Tommy was mad because he really wanted to swim and thought that the pool--that you could barely see through the dust clouds--looked like fun. He was overruled and we continued on to Santa Rosa Lake State Park, which had a lake to swim in according to the campground guide. This way everyone would be happy. Herb would have his view and the kids could swim.

It's very difficult to get a true sense of a place from the campground guides. Although Santa Rosa Lake State Park had a campground and a 3,800-acre lake, the campground was situated way up on a hill overlooking the lake, which was about a mile away. It was close to dinner time, we were tired from driving, and there was just no easy access from the campground to the lake. Tom pouted over our decision to leave the campground with the pool, but that's the way it goes.

It was extremely windy, so Andrew tried to make the best of it by creating a new sport--wind skateboarding. He took a large beach towel, placed one end of it under his foot on the board, held the other end high over his head, and tried to sail. Even though he didn't go too fast, it got Tommy out of his bad mood and family harmony was resumed.

Travelogue

Lolo's solo photo of La Ventana Natural ArchThere was so much to see and do along I40 that if we stopped at all the sights, we'd never get home. We decided to skip El Morro National Monument this time and stop at El Malpais National Monument instead. There were two separate approaches to visiting El Malpais. Highway 53 led to the privately-owned Bandera Crater and Ice Caves. Although that sounded interesting, we decided to stick with the federally-owned portion along Highway 117. We tend to shy away from commercial establishments in natural areas--usually they're a rip-off.

Our first stop along 117 was the Sandstone Bluffs Overlook where we had sweeping views of the cinder cones and lava flows that make up El Malpais. I guess it was the barrenness of this landscape that caused the Spanish to name this land El Malpais, which means "badlands."

We continued on to the parking lot for La Ventana Natural Arch, the second largest natural arch in New Mexico. After a picnic lunch, I suggested to the family that we take the short ½-mile hike to the base of the arch where we would get a much better perspective of it. They weren't buying it. After this morning's fiasco in Red Rock State Park where one of my short hikes turned into a multi-hour adventure (we got lost), no one was interested in another one of my short hikes. So, I took the cameras and went alone. I stood with satisfaction under the broad expanse of the arch and took the classic photograph of the sky through the arch. Maybe I'll show it to them and maybe I won't.

Travelogue

It was late afternoon when we pulled into Red Rock State Park, a few miles off I40 near the town of Gallup, New Mexico. We had already had a very full day--over 6 hours of driving with stops at Walnut Canyon and Petrified Forest. Herb was fried and ready to just settle down to a cold beer, some good music, and a view. Well, that's exactly what he got. From the back windows of our RV, there was an incredible view of a natural amphitheater, surrounded on three sides by red sandstone cliffs and buttes, with an interesting rock formation called Church Rock perched on the top of the cliff. Perfect!

Old Farts at Red RockBeing the hyperactive tourist I am, I just couldn't relax until I had explored a little and seen what this place had to offer. Besides, I had noticed an awful lot of activity in the parking lot in the day use area when we pulled in, so the kids and I just had to check it out, leaving Herb behind to unwind.

We were amazed with what we found! Set into the beautiful red sandstone cliffs of the Park was an 8,000-seat arena, and that night it was playing host to an Intertribal Indian Ceremonial Dance of some sort. I called Herb on the walkie-talkies to tell him of our find, but he wasn't budging. He reminded me that it was getting late and we hadn't even had dinner yet. Unable to overcome our curiosity, the kids and I went to the entrance of the arena to take a peek. A brief peek was all we got before we were asked to present our tickets. Since all I had in my pocket was $5 and we were starving, we said, "No Thank You," and headed back to the RV.

Red RockLater, when I found out what a big deal this event was, I really regretted having missed it. It's one of the oldest and largest gatherings of Indian tribes in the nation, and it's been an annual event since 1922. Each year more than 14 tribes, each wearing its own distinctive dress, gather in Red Rock State Park to dance and, sell arts and crafts--and we didn't even know all this was going on just 100 yards from our campsite. I guess one of the disadvantages to winging an itinerary is not knowing enough about the places you decide to stop at.

The next morning we rose early to the sight of a colorful hot hair balloon floating through the amphitheater near Church Rock. Not a bad way to start your day.

Before leaving Red Rock and continuing our drive east, we decided to take a quick hike up to Church Rock, about 2 miles away. There was no real marked trail leading up to it, but it wasn't as if we could miss it--it was pretty prominent. So, we just walked along the canyon floor and then scrambled up some slick rock to its base.

Then came our mistake--walking around the base of it without taking note of where we started. When it was time to descend, we each had a different idea of what direction we should take. It was like picking which spoke of a wheel to follow, and it all looked the same. My idea was to replay the video footage we had taken when we climbed up to try to recognize how the rock formation looked, but I guess Herb felt that this was the male equivalent of asking for directions and said it wasn't necessary. Knowing that he, by far, had the best sense of direction in the family, we followed his lead and tried to look for familiar stuff along the way. I was pretty worried because I knew that even a slightly wrong angle could lead us pretty far off course over the 2 miles we had to cover. Things got pretty tense on the way down as the kids and I started to panic that we actually were lost. Luckily, Herb kept his cool, but I think even he was starting to get a bit concerned.

Finally, we saw a road in the distance. This was both a good thing and a bad thing--bad because there had not been a road on our way up to Chimney Rock meaning we were lost, but good because at least we had found civilization. Getting to the road was a little rough going, but Tommy found a way for us to bushwhack down. As we stepped onto the deserted road and practically kissed the macadam in gratitude, the kids asked, "Which way?" "That way," said Herb and I, each pointing in different directions like characters in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Bowing to Herb's better sense of direction, we headed towards the right. Herb ran ahead to make sure that we didn't go too far in the wrong direction. I had a different approach--I flagged down the first car I saw and asked for directions. Herb's instinct was right, and I just pretended I never had any doubts.

Travelogue

Petrified Forest National Park was one of those stops that I'm embarrassed to say we visited, because we hardly saw any of it. At this point in our journey, we were on our way home and didn't have the ½ day needed to really do the park justice. However, knowing that the Painted Desert Visitor Center was less than a mile off I40, we just couldn't resist pulling off for a quick look see.

Cranky offspring suffering trip fatigueThe park is actually divided into 2 sections, and we were in the much smaller part, north of I40. This was the section that contained the spectacular colorful badlands of the Painted Desert. South of I40 was the major part of the park, a 25-mile drive through an area containing one of the world's largest concentrations of petrified wood.

I hate to admit it, but all we did was stop at the Visitor Center and then drive to Kachina Point Lookout where we gazed blankly at the breathtaking beauty of the colorful badlands of the Painted Desert. If this had been our first experience with the beauty that the West had to offer, we would have been floored. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and we were at the end of a multi-week trip where we had seen so many beautiful places that we were suffering from sensory overload and trip fatigue. It was hard to get the kids worked up about another incredible sight when they had already seen so many in our 3 weeks of travel. This would have been a totally different experience if it had been at the beginning of our trip. I made one feeble attempt to get the family to hike the Rim Trail to Tawa Point (I hate to go down without a fight), but they refused.

This is definitely a place that I want to come back to when we are more fresh and enthusiastic as there are an awful lot of things to see and do here. I can't believe that my only sighting of petrified wood was in a gift shop.

Travelogue

As we got onto I40 eastbound, we were officially on our way back home, which for some reason set a different tone--less frantic and more mellow. The anticipation of the unknown was behind us and there was a feeling of satisfaction from having shared some wonderful experiences together. Anything from this point on was just icing on the cake.

Boys in cliff dwellingThere is an awful lot to see along the section of I40 that goes through Arizona and New Mexico, so there were plenty of choices for breaking up our long drive home. Our first stop was at Walnut Canyon National Monument in central Arizona where there are ancient cliff dwellings built into the sides of a 400-foot-deep canyon. These were the ancestral homes of the Sinagua people, the ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo. They lived in these cliff dwellings from about 1100 to 1250. Today it is considered a sacred place by the Pueblos.

Wanting to do more than just observe the dwellings from the rim of the canyon, we took the fairly strenuous Island Trail, which took us 185 feet down into the canyon. Along the trail, we were actually able to enter some of the cliff dwelling rooms. It was a very different experience from the more crowded, ranger-led tours of the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. Although less dramatic and on a much smaller scale than Mesa Verde, it was interesting to experience the dwellings on our own with almost no one else around.

Travelogue

New Age FamilyWe couldn't leave the area without experiencing the "new ageness" of Sedona so we chose a mountain bike expedition around Bell Rock, which is claimed to be one of the most powerful of the 13 vortexes in the Sedona area. These vortex spots theoretically enhance your psychic powers, emotions, and talents and leave you feeling energized and in tune with your inner being. Hey, that's what vacations are supposed to do aren't they? The ride was great and we did feel energized and at peace, but I'm not sure that it wasn't just from being outdoors and doing something that we love to do.

The trailhead for the Bell Rock ride is on U.S. 179 about 10 miles south of Sedona in the village of Oak Creek. There is ample parking at the trailhead. The trail itself is nice and wide and has amazing views of the surrounding red rock, including Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock. The trip can be anywhere from 3 to 10 miles round trip depending on what side trips you take. The kids really enjoyed this ride and there wasn't any whining. Maybe there really is a vortex here.

Travelogue

Lolo sliding the slide rock gorgeWater activities of any sort are always a favorite of ours so we tend to seek them out. After the heat and barrenness of Sunset Crater Volcano National Park, we were ready for a refreshing swim. We started down the beautiful Oak Creek Canyon Drive which runs from Flagstaff to Sedona. The 27-mile drive is breathtaking as it meanders through ponderosa pine forests in the north to the dramatic red rock of Sedona in the south. At many points along the way, there is access to the chilly but refreshing waters of Oak Creek.

Boys jumping in Slide Rock State ParkBefore settling down to some fun, we usually like to establish where we are going to stay for the night. As we drove along Oak Creek Canyon Drive, we were getting discouraged by the "Campground Full" signs outside each of the National Forest areas. We finally decided to drive into one anyway to ask for advice on where to stay. Luckily for us, someone was checking out early as we were pulling in so we were able to get a campsite for the night. This isn't the first time this has happened to us. The campground was very pretty, with a portion of Oak Creek running through it and lots of ponderosa pines to shade you from the heat.

We then headed a few miles down the road to Slide Rock State Park where there was a line of cars waiting to pay the $8 admission fee. As we had been warned, the parking lot was quite full and the park was fairly crowded. Even so, there was plenty of red rock to sit on and no wait to use the natural slide. The slide was great fun. The water was very chilly, but the air was so warm and dry that it was very welcome. The algae-covered sandstone scrapes you up a bit so long shorts or even jeans would have been a better idea than a bikini. We spent a good part of the afternoon sliding down the rocks, jumping off into the pools of water, and sunning ourselves on the warm slabs of red rock.