Wednesday June 19
We had met
two ladies the day before who were intrigued by our camper. They visited discussing our camping
adventures. They had done some
backpacking in the Gila up to some waterfalls.
It almost made me want to try that again. They had left their card in case we ever
came to Arizona again.
We had a
quick breakfast and played once again with the cute squirrel. He really needed a snack. One cashew!
Pulling out of beautiful Luna Lake I was amazed when we pulled into
Lyman Lake north of Springerville, AZ.
The lake level is dropping each day at an astounding rate. The sign for “swimming” is in the middle of
an extremely dry area. When I was there
before, I had not seen the petroglyphs. Petroglyphs
are very common to the area and can be viewed along the Peninsula Petroglyph
Trail and the Ultimate Petroglyph Trail. The trails are fairly easy and even if
I did bite the dust stepping over a rock. Scraped knee but did not hurt the
camera.
I was
excited to be going through Zuni Pueblo.
I stopped at my favorite place to purchase items. The lady there was so friendly and shared a
story of her family traveling to Chaco Canyon.
She believes that the spirits encouraged her to take the trip and be
where her ancestors once lived.
The road to
Acoma led us by El Morro. El Morro
National Monument is located on an ancient east-west trail in western New
Mexico. This massive sandstone bluff was a welcome landmark for weary
travelers. A reliable waterhole hidden at its base made El Morro (or
Inscription Rock) a popular campsite. Beginning in the late 1500s Spanish, and
later, Americans passed by El Morro. While they rested in its shade and drank
from the pool, many carved their signatures, dates, and messages. Before the
Spanish, petroglyphs were inscribed by Ancestral Puebloans living on top of the
bluff over 700 years ago. We walked the
base trail to see the pool and inscriptions and it was of course the heat of
the day.
Further east is El Malpias National Monument. The visitors center was full of information
via a lady from Texas who has blended well into Native American culture and
adopted by the Acoma people. For
centuries people have lived around and sometimes in the lava country. Ancient
Indian civilizations crossed the lava flows with trail cairns and related to
the landscape with stories and ceremony.
We chose to drive the area on another visit.
We spent the night in Grants ready to travel to Acoma for
the first tour of the day. As many times
as I have been there I have never taken the tour to the top of the mesa - The
Sky City. The new Cultural Center is the gateway to the Pueblo and
Museum. A few families live up top but I
believe that it is now mostly for tourist just as in Taos. I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful museum,
tour and eating lunch of somewhat typical native food…maybe. Their pottery is not my favorite though quite
beautiful. A couple of new trinkets are
in my jewelry bag – Acoma pottery pieces beautifully painted. I have no photos of Acoma so purchased cards but will not put them in as my own. hee hee
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| Lyman Lake, Arizona |
| Petroglyps at Lyman Lake |
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| Sunset at Red River, NM |
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| Mountain goats between Questa and Red River. I think this is discipline. |
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| Last night in Red River at Elephant Rock Campground in forest. |
The rest of the trip was spent on the road toward Red
River. We were meeting my family and
friends for several day of Red River Family Encampment. We were in that area for several days and
enjoyed every minute, every song, every service and visiting. Leaving Red River
on Wednesday morning took us to Philmont Boy Scout Camp and on to Caprock
Canyon in Texas. Those last days will be
pictured in another album. A good time
was had for 19 days.
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