Monday, 1 November 2021
I don't remember saying anything about the Ravens I've been seeing in the Monument Valley KOA. It's been a long time since I was able to spend much time around them and it's so nice to see them acting like themselves: hopping around, making an assortment of sounds, looking for food, checking out the people in the area, soaring in the air. They're just great birds. Though I might feel differently if one were in my living room sitting on a bust of Pallas, or any other item. And Pallas, in case you're curious and never looked it up, was either the Titan god of warcraft or a friend of Aeneas or a teacher of Athena, depending on whose mythology you look at. Not sure why anyone would want a bust of any of these alleged folks. But I still like Ravens.
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| today's route The map is mostly pink because I drove mostly through Navaho Indian Reservation land. |
On the road
I never quite figured out where the town of Monument Valley is, but about a mile south of the campground I came to a traffic circle, and I think the town was on the road heading west from there. And I saw a sign:
San Juan County
The World's Greatest Outdoor Museum
And almost immediately I came to a Welcome To Arizona sign, so I figured the San Juan County sign belonged to AZ. I was wrong. I'd just gotten through spending 4½ days in San Juan County, UT. And I learned later that when I crossed into New Mexico, I'd be crossing into San Juan County, NM. Don't know why that sign was only at the southern border of the county. But I agree it's an amazing outdoor museum.
My goal was the Four Corners Monument. I could have stayed in Utah and driven back north toward Hovenweep and branched south, but I still would have either had to go into Arizona or into Colorado. I was afraid there might be snow in the Colorado mountains, and decided on this route into AZ because I wasn't sure I'd be coming up this far north when I spend my month here.
As I traveled mostly east in Arizona, I saw a lot of buttes and interesting mountains like those I'd seen in Utah - not too surprising since geologic forces don't stop with state boundaries.
I passed a vast solar array and then came to this sign:
The tribe has recently expanded the operation, originally completed in 2017, so that now they've doubled their capacity and can supply power to 36,000 homes, which is nothing to sneeze at. As you can see, they're the first tribe in the country to implement such a project, and they're pleased not only with the resulting power source but also with the skills their labor force has acquired. In the background at the base of the mountain is part of the solar panel array.
I passed a sign saying the road had been dedicated to Richard Singer, WWII Navajo Code Talker. I expected other sections of the road would be dedicated to other code talkers, as was done in, I think, West Virginia. But this was the only sign I saw.
These next 2 photos show bits of the landscape with little settlements around their base. The buildings all look alike and I wondered if they'd been built with funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Then I came to this sight.
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| Just before I stopped for this photo, I'd crossed Church Rock Wash, and a road saying something about Church Rock. So I guessed that this is Church Rock. |
That guess was correct, according to this Wikipedia page with better photos than mine and some statistics about this impressive hunk of volcano. https://en.wikipedia.org/Church-Rock-AZ
I started seeing signs saying "Watch for Water on Road Next ___ Miles." The odd thing was these were fold-up signs that had been folded open, indicating there might well be enough water around here worth warning drivers about. I don't know where they were hiding it, but I never saw a drop.
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| The sign said these were called "Baby Rocks." But look at the enlargement below. |
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| Don't these look like the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon? Keep an eye on them for forming arches and windows over the next geological period. And I think that group on the left looks like a king addressing his advisory council, maybe. Or a group of judges condemning someone. |
I passed cattle and fields of sagebrush and isolated houses. This is not a heavily populated land.
I passed towns with Navajo (I guess) names: Dennehotso; Tes Nes Lah; Teec Nos Pos - all in AZ. Later I came to To'koi; Gadii'ahi in NM. As far as I can tell, the Navajo language is in daily use around here. When I was getting gas at a convenience store, I heard 2 women talking to each other in a language I couldn't understand and am guessing it was Navajo. Given the strenuous attempts by early Spanish priests and later BIA officials to wipe out all traces of the language and customs of these folks, I'm happy to report they didn't work. The Navajo culture seems to be thriving.
I saw 2 signs that might have been homemade (though large and clearly done) that were placed on private land, and both said:
Stay Home
Be Safe
Save Lives
COVID devastated the Navajo people last year, landing them near the top in infection rates in the US. But unlike some governments, they took it seriously, closed roads through their reservations, mandating masks and, when available, vaccines. This article https://www.nytimes.com/vaccine-covid talks about efforts by Native tribes in this region and the disturbing recent spikes in infection that they think are caused by residents traveling to non-reservation areas where precautions are much looser.
I saw a pack of 4 or 5 animals trotting along the roadside, and my best guess is they were coyotes. I actually thought they were wolves, but they were much smaller than I thought wolves are, so I'm guessing coyotes.
I started seeing miscellaneous signs saying I was at elevation 5,000'. It was just like in southeastern Utah - these signs were placed out in the middle of nowhere, no towns or even hills nearby. Just signs beside the road. Weird.
Then: Welcome to New Mexico
Land of Enchantment
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| New Mexico - my 34th state |
If you look closely at the route map at top, you'll see the road runs from AZ into NM for a short distance, then back into AZ. But that's okay because at the Four Corners, I wandered around into all 4 states.
Four Corners Monument
The monument sits on Navajo land, which I hadn't realized, and the tribe charges admission to the area. $5 per person, credit or debit only. So I paid my money and took my chances. It wasn't at all what I'd expected.
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| This odd sight is the first thing I saw. |
At first my tired brain wondered if these were narrow motel rooms where people could stay when they visit here. Really narrow, though some of the cabins and campsites I see routinely make that idea barely plausible. I finally figured out (looking through open doors) that these were vendor kiosks, each with its own entrance.
Then I noticed that these arms - there are 4 of them - are very shallow and I could see an opening between their ends that led to a large concrete area. I of course had been expecting grass, not concrete, because I guess a month in Utah hadn't fully educated me to the desert-like conditions in this part of the country.
In those openings there were large signs posted, saying absolutely no pets, just genuine service animals; and saying bring water because you may have to wait a while in the hot sun for your turn to take photos; and also saying this:
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| No part of this thought had ever occurred to me. |
So, not being able to take the dogs with me into the 4 Corners, I walked them all around the place and then moved the RV to another part of the parking area. They had an area designated for RV parking, which was quite a way away from the entrance. Since I'd already walked my dogs and didn't want to keep on walking just because of a sign, I went to the back side where nobody else was parked and real quick got out, went into the center area, looked around and took some photos, and left again. Strange place.
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| Each state with its state seal. In the upper right you can see one of the entrances, and along the top are the little vendor kiosks, some in use, others empty. This isn't high tourist season, I guess. |
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| "Four States Here Meet In Freedom Under God" or rearrange the order - nothing says where the saying starts. |
There were also many flagpoles, one each for each state's flag plus 3 flags of the Navajo Nation and one of one of the Ute tribes. Plus, of course, 1 for the United States. I found a Wikipedia article that has historical information about this place, plus a note about current controversy about its location. https://en.wikipedia.org/Four-Corners That article references one by NOAA's National Geodetic Survey that I found a little technical but interesting. https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/four-corners
Back on the road
We started back and almost immediately had to stop. This frig that I bought last June is too sensitive for the kind of roads I travel on - terrible ruts and potholes on the road leading to the monument - and it starts buzzing at me. The noise it makes isn't the sort that can be ignored for any length of time, so I had to find a place to pull over, clamber over the dog on the beds between the seats, go back and turn off the frig, wait, and turn it back on again. (I still haven't gotten around to looking at the directions for any other way to reset it, and anyway I couldn't do it from the driver's seat.)
US-160 joined with US-64, which became a friend of mine over the next few days.
For a long distance I could see Ship Rock, the landmark (in every sense) that helped establish the location of the Four Corners. But I could never find a place to pull off to take a photo when I had a view that was worth taking. So this is an internet photo.
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| Ship Rock designated a National Natural Landmark |
This amazing rock was part of a volcano, and scientists believe it was originally from 2,500' to 3,000' below the Earth's surface, and has been exposed by erosion. Just think of how long it must have taken for wind (probably) to erode almost 1,600' of rock that was originally almost double that height below the surface. This Wikipedia article has more information about the rock's history and geology and about its significance to the Navajo, who have jurisdiction over it. https://en.wikipedia.org/Shiprock
The town of Shiprock isn't nearly as impressive as the rock, but few towns could be. Their high school is Home of the Chieftains.
I saw a sign advertising The Nizhoni Soap Company and, for some reason, I got curious and looked it up. I'm glad I did. It's the story of a girl who, at about age 10, founded this company with help from her parents. She says her products are made with local natural ingredients and it sounds like they'd be worth checking out. Here's the link to her store. https://www.nizhonisoaps.com The most we did when we were 10 was set up a lemonade stand. Very impressive.
And finally I came to Farmington, which says its elevation is 5,300'. I saw a license plate that read PUTTNITN. It took me a minute to separate all those sounds in my head.
I crossed the Animas River and drove through town looking for the CVS. They had my prescription refills for my blood pressure meds ready. I walked the dogs a bit and then started looking around for the local fairgrounds.
When I was planning my route, I knew I had to come to Farmington, because it had the only CVS in northern NM, and I had to get my meds refilled. So I spent a lot of time looking for campgrounds anywhere at all in this area - even another 90 miles away - with no luck. Several that I called told me, surprised that I should ask, that they'd be closing on October 31st because they'd already had snow. (And I thought, big whoop, we already had snow in Beaver UT but they weren't closing for the winter.) The only thing that looked likely was an RV park that the local fairground operated, intended I'm sure for exhibitors and attendees at fairground functions. What I couldn't tell was whether they'd still be open when I got there, and I tried every phone number on their website and got no response.
So my top priority after getting my meds was being sure I had a place to sleep tonight. And I found the fairgrounds right where Google said they'd be. I saw the signs directing me to the office and, just as on-line commenters warned, the office was really hard to find. I didn't find it.
But commenters also said that security had come to their campsite almost as soon as they were parked and would either take their money or direct them to the office. I found the RV sites, and I talked to another camper working on his RV. He said security had come by and taken his money, and he suggested I call the number posted for security. So I found a campsite and called the security number. Got voicemail and left a message.
Walked the dogs, got settled in, and called the number again and left another message. A couple of times I saw the security car at a distance and would have flagged him down if he'd been anywhere at all within flagging range, but he never came near us. I had my money (and face mask) sitting by the door all ready to meet him, and never saw him. It was weird.
I stayed up later than usual, thinking he'd come by when his usual daytime duties ended, but he never came. I finally went to bed, still not having paid.
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