POTR #79 - Six To Go

Peace On The Road

Six To Go

June 24, 2013

When we started our summer traveling this last May our intention was to go to the northwest and visit the last six of the 48 states that we have not traveled and stayed in. Some years ago I said that I would not count a state until we had stayed for three nights. We crossed most of Wyoming with only a single nights stay. So we still have six states to go at this time. But with any luck we will make the six yet.

I am sure that every person looks at the surrounding area when they are looking for a place to live. We make our selection based on many factors. Is it in the country, city, forest, near the ocean or lake or river or that which appeals for some other reason. Going around Arizona and New Mexico we have seen many places that we would not choose. In Gallup we went to see some Native American dancers. The spokesman for the dancers talked about some of the Hopi still living in hogans where there is no electricity, no plumbing, no anything that we take for granted in the places we choose to live. It has been to interesting to see the hogans with nothing around except a nice pickup truck parked nearby. I can understand that but something that I have not been able to figure out is a nice house several blocks from any other buildings without any apparent electric supply. Other places in the country every house has electric poles leading to the house. Even in Amish communities the power lines go to the Amish farm houses but are disconnected at the meters. But not the ones I saw on the reservations. I cannot believe that the utilities are all underground. This would be less of a puzzle if they did not have satellite dishes mounted on the roof. Other than that the houses are pretty normal.

In traveling around we saw several ruins that were built up to 2000 years ago. They were built by the people called Sinagua by the Spanish. Sinagua means without (sin) water (agua) or waterless. These ruins were built in one of the hottest and driest areas of the Colorado Plateau. While there were several smaller ruins the most fascinating is the Wupatki National Monument. Maybe a couple thousand years ago it was a better place, agriculturally speaking. Wupatki means “Tall House” in the Hopi language. It is a pueblo style dwelling has more than one hundred rooms. The tallest building had at least four stories and maybe more levels. In the 1930's several of the rooms were used to house employees of the National Park Service. The employees were charged $10.00 a month to live there. There are secondary structures which include two kiva-like structures. Ruins identified as a ball court have been found that are similar to Meso-American and Hohokam ruins in Southern Arizona. No other ball court has been found any farther north. The Pueblo was built around a natural rock outcropping, using the thin flat blocks of the Moenkopi sandstone held together with mortar, giving it a distinct red color. Between 1040 and 1100 during the volcanic eruption of Sunset Crater the whole area was covered with volcanic ash, which in turn caused the native population to abandon the countryside. It is believed that the Sinagua had ample time to move because it does seem that they left very few of their belongings to be covered with ash. Within a hundred to hundred fifty years the area saw a recovery in vegetation productivity due to an improvement in the soils ability to hold water.. By 1182 Wupatki had been started with perhaps a hundred occupants. It continued to grow and it reached a maximum population of 2000 before it was permanently abandoned around 1225. It had grown to be the largest pueblo of the area. Their economy was based on growing corn and squash in arid conditions without the use of irrigation. Artifacts that have been found in the ruins indicate that they traded with tribes that lived near the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This site also contains a rare geological blowhole. It is estimated that it is an opening to a closed underground passage that has a volume of seven billion cubic foot, equivalent to a tunnel 165 feet by 165 feet square and 50 miles long! Under the right conditions wind may exit the blowhole at thirty miles an hour. Also if the conditions are right air will flow into the blowhole. The area has a rugged inhospitable look that is also very beautiful.

WUPATKI NATIONAL MONUMENT WITH THE BALL COURT TO THE RIGHT SIDE

Erma and I lived in Ft. Collins in a trailer park. Not long after we got married we bought a VW beetle. It was about forty miles up the Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park. Estes was up in the mountains, full of interesting tourist shops, and a place that sold GREAT popcorn. The VW got 32 mpg and gas was sometimes 25 cents a gallon, at the local Gas-a-mat. Frequently we would just go to Estes for a bag of popcorn. We figured that it cost about 50 cents or maybe 75 cents. Of course the drive was beautiful and about another 5 miles we would be in Rocky Mountain National Park where we could feed the chipmunks and ground squirrels raw peanuts which were for sale in town just for them. When our daughter was small she loved feeding them. Once she came to us with a peanut bag and said, “Look!” She opened the bag and had a chipmunk in it. It poked its head out, looked around and ducked back down to stuff more peanuts into its cheeks. At that time feeding the animals was encouraged but today I think you can actually be ticketed and fined if you feed them. So even to see the mountains with the snow covered peaks brings back good memories of times in the past. In Estes or anywhere in the park there were almost always deer, elk and Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep. I miss the mountains. I miss being able to go into the high country in less than a hour.

Between the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake, Colorado is a spectacular highway that goes through the center of Rocky Mountain National Park. The road is named Trail Ridge Road and is 48 miles in length. It crosses the continental divide at 10,758 feet and goes on up to a high point of 12,183 feet. It is the highest continuous paved road in the USA. There are higher 4W drive roads that either are NOT continuous or are NOT paved. Eleven miles of the road is above 11,000 foot with timberline at 11,500 foot. Because of the high altitude snow accumulates to twenty foot or even deeper. Snow closes the road anywhere from late September to the middle of October. Highway crews start clearing the road in May with the intent of having it open by Memorial Day. They are usually successful but not always. And even then it is occasionally closed for several hours, up to a day or even more. The park was established in 1915. Longs Peak at 14,259 foot is one of the most impressive peaks in the park and can be seen from many locations along the road. It is known as Beaver Mountain in James Mitchner's book “Centennial.” We have been across the top many times and part way probably a hundred times. It is a big favorite of ours. Unfortunately the shop that sold the popcorn is gone many years ago.

VIEW OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK FROM TRAIL RIDGE ROAD

When I was thirteen I made a trip with my Mother and sister out to Oregon following nearly the same route that we drove today along I-84 through Wyoming into Utah. In 1955 there was no Interstate highway but the highway went right by two parallel limestone strata that have been tilted to vertical. Softer strata on the outside has worn away so that they stick out above the ground about forty feet. Between the two hard layers of limestone the softer limestone layers have worn down forming a channel that is about 25 feet wide and running hundreds of feet down the mountain side. There is not much reason to stop except to stand and view the strange and amazing things that can be produced by the natural forces of nature. This formation is called “Devil's Slide.” The first time I saw it I was not too many years away from sliding down slides at the school playground. I could just imagine the Devil sliding down the length of the channel and hollering his delight on the way down, and then getting up and climbing the hill to do it again and again. There is not a lot that I remember of the trip to Oregon. I was impressed by a filling station, Little America. I remember seeing advertisements that said they had over a hundred stations at which they could fill your vehicle. Today their website says they have sixteen stations. Not nearly as impressive as a hundred or more. So to see the Devil's Slide as it has remained in my mind nearly sixty years later was gratifying. As a teenaged boy I was impressed and I was still impressed when I went by on this trip. It only took a few minutes but was very worth while.

A GEOLOGICAL FORMATION CALLED DEVIL'S SLIDE ON I-84 JUST INSIDE EAST UTAH

In traveling across Texas, into New Mexico, Arizona and then detouring into Colorado we have been struck by how much of the country is dry. It was not until we drove into Colorado that we began to see green fields along the highway. The forests of Colorado are extremely dry to be sure but there is more green along the roadsides. We have not been in a single area that was really having the rains that would be desired. It is so strange to know that not far away there are areas that are flooding and would desire to share the water. A lot of Wyoming seems to have gotten more rain than most of the country we have seen. Out across the fields there seems to be more forage for the antelope to eat. That is a very good thing because we saw more than I would care to count. Many times there were small groups of two to four, but occasionally there were herds of antelope that must have had more than twenty. We enjoyed seeing every one of the beautiful animals.

We have also been impressed by the many geological changes that we pass driving along the road. I think we have a benefit in the fact that our roads have been cut through geological formations. We get to see things from the windows of our vehicles that are not available any other way except by hiking into canyons and gorges. Out our windows there is a panorama of beauty that is amazing. The road may rise a few thousand foot over several miles and reveal a totally new vista. Suddenly an area might display a group of hoo doos or a cliff with holes nearly large enough to be called a room. There is always something new to view around the next corner or along the next mile. As we go through Idaho towards Oregon and Washington we will be seeing a lot of territory that is new to us. We still don't have any specific plans except to go on to new country and decide what we are going to do sometime before we leave the campground where we spent the night. Sometimes it is even later than that.

Till later this is Doug of

PEACE ON THE ROAD