Currently Listening To: Chocolate - The 1975
Miles Traveled: 2808.7
Miles Traveled: 2808.7
Current Location: Flagstaff, AZ
Aaaand I've reached the one week not being as diligent at posting time... I'll catch up in one giant post. But first... pictures! |
| My little camping area in Chaco Canyon. Best place I've stayed so far. |
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| Somewhere along the road in Los Alamos area |
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| Chaco Canyon - Fajada Butte |
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| Buildings in Taos Pueblo |
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| Chaco - Reason # 2873492 why there are "no touching" signs: my first thought was to run up and try to push it over... |
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| Rio Grande - somewhere along the road |
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| Crater! - outside Flagstaff, AZ |
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| Me at Bandelier National Monument |
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| This one is for Dr. Fee - Chaco Canyon, no idea what it is. |
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| I made a friend... Bandelier |
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| Near Los Alamos, along the road |
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| I have no idea what to say about this... I counted 14 dogs while I was there creeping with my zoom lens. Alright then, New Mexico... |
7/30 – Taos,
Bandelier, Black Canyon (written 7/31)
I can barely remember and it’s only been a day… I woke up
very early to go see Taos. I drove
up, took the tour, took a bunch of pictures and just walked around. It was crazy how old some of the places
were, and I enjoyed the stories about all the conquests and the church getting
destroyed. I was going to stay
there the whole day, but ended up leaving in the afternoon because I had
arrived so early. It took me forever
to make my way back, because I kept stopping to take pictures. At one point, I spent a good hour
alongside the road looking at rocks.
I discovered a cool rock that explodes into silver glitter when you
throw it at something hard. It
doesn’t take much to entertain me…
I also made the mistake of not giving a cactus the proper respect it deserves,
and am still picking the little needles out of me (as I’m writing this a day
later).
On my way back to Santa Fe, I took a detour to Los Alamos
and the Bandelier National Monument.
I’ve made it to the point in the trip where all organization goes out
the window, and I just drive until I see a sign that points to somewhere that
looks interesting, and then go exploring.
I had to take a bus to Bandelier because they don’t allow cars, and so I
could only stay there until around five, when the last bus out left. I took like 50 pictures of just a
squirrel at one point. I also met
a girl from Germany… She took a picture for me in one of the little caves. I didn’t ask her to… she just said,
“here, give me your camera.”
Germans... Anyway, after that, I visited the snack bar thing for
lemonade, and the lady running the cash register was legitimately too lazy to
ring me up so she just told me to take the lemonade and cookie that I was
trying to buy and leave. So I
did. I made it back to Santa Fe,
found parking, and then watched a bunch of bands play in the Plaza. There was this one lady who just went
wild, and was dancing by herself in front of the bandstand. The band members didn’t know how to
handle her at all, so they just kept not looking at her. I, however, was
laughing and videotaping. Check
Facebook for more details… :D
After that, I went back to the campsite and went to sleep.
7/31 – Chaco Canyon (written 7/31)
I left in the morning for Chaco Canyon, and I am going to
stay the night in the campsite.
It’s a lot hotter here, which is fine by me. My tent is right by the wall of the canyon, so it feels
pretty awesome. This whole “no
backcountry camping” thing is really bothering me. I don’t like to camp unless I’m staying up half the night
with a knife thinking every sound is a wild animal trying to eat me. It’s just not the same…
I spent the rest of the day doing the nine mile driving loop
through the canyon, stopping at each of the little points of interest. It’s so quiet here. There’s no traffic, loud generators, or
airplanes. It’s very
different from Black Canyon, which was near a road with construction and
traffic to and from Santa Fe. I’m
currently sitting at a picnic table typing, and planning tomorrow. At this point, I was only going to stay one night, but now it depends on
when I call it quits tomorrow. My
next stop is Arizona. I’m going to
meet up with my old roommate Emily Bolton (hopefully) and then take Arizona by
storm. Mostly the Grand
Canyon. I wanna see the Grand
Canyon. I’m really starting to
like Canyons.
On an unrelated note, I have a fancy national park card that
let’s me and everyone in my vehicle (which so far is no one…) into everything
for free! It’s pretty great. It was free. I'll take it...
8/1 - Flagstaff, AZ
Chaco was awesome. I definitely need to go back there sometime with people and go exploring. Hiking isn't the same when you're own your own. I spent the rest of last night reading books from AMH and trying to divert ants from crawling in my tent.
This morning, I drove around once more in Chaco, making sure to check out Fajada Butte one more time. I drove north into Farmington, and then south towards Flagstaff. When I got into Arizona, I stopped briefly at the Petrified Forest National Park. I had that stupid petrified pizza song stuck in my head the whole time. The worst part is.. I can't remember if that's an actual song or not. I feel like it's not... I kept driving out 40 and some of Route 66. I saw a sign for a meteorite impact area, and I had to stop. I have a slight space obsession and a secret desire to be an astronaut, so I was very excited. I ended up spending a few hours in the museum watching the short films playing and checking out the exhibits. I walked out on the observation deck and took about a thousand pictures of the crater. It was awesome! I'm still excited over it.
Soon after that, I arrived in Flagstaff and saw a giant mountain. I wish my city had a giant mountain in it. I was planning on staying here the night, but I may need an additional day for exploration...
So far, so good.
P.S. I think the farthest west you go, the bigger everything is. In Washington, the trees, the mountains, and even the sky were just massive in comparison with the east. It's kinda the same in the south. I'm starting to feel like PA is just a watered down version of everything...
P.P.S. More reflections - I tend to pray more out here. Also, I keep going crazy the minute I am not doing something. Relaxing is hard.
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