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22 June 2024 – Trip Day 83

Today we drove out to the Navajo National Monument. But first, cookies!

On the rest day the kids made cookies and Meagan baked them in batches in the small RV oven.

It was an hour drive from the campground to Navajo NM, which was a very pretty drive through some canyons. Access to the pueblo structures was limited to guided hikes with the rangers. They did have a mock up of the ruins in the visitor center.

Another set of ruins in the Monument.

Some of the pottery that was made by the ancestral peoples. Pottery was apparently their big export.

A view of the valley from the visitor center patio.

The kids worked on their books. Ducky needed to charge up a bit more before we hiked.

The kids continued to work on their books and had some snacks. Ducky was powered up now and ready to go!

On the trail. Ducky insisted on walking himself, which he did a pretty good job of doing. The hike was short, about a mile overall round trip to the overlook.

You can see the Garmin profile here.

From the overlook, we could see the ruins down below.

Up above, a pair of ravens circled above us, keeping watch, ever hopeful for snacks.

On the way back! Ducky did good on the hike, but soon after this he started to have an attitude and be dangerous on the bridge, so he went back in the pack.

A couple of goofballs on the trail.

Back at Visitor Center, the kids completed their books and got their badges.

We stopped at the local reservation grocery store. It was very pricey, but with an OK selection, considering that there was not much else in the area.

That evening, while we were hanging out, this guy came over to hang out. He was all about our camp site. Unfortunately for him, he kept making efforts to get to the babies, so he had to go.

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21 June 2024 – Trip Day 82

So to start, let’s back up a bit to the night of the 20th. We got hit by another monsoon (thunderstorm) that night. I heard some noise above our bedroom and went out to investigate.

 What you see here is a large (2-3 in) branch of the tree rubbing on the slide when the wind gusts would hit it. When it wasn’t windy, it wasn’t a problem. The rubbing was a bit of a problem for me, but fortunately the storm passed shortly after this (at around 1130pm) and we moved the rig a smidge the next day to eliminate the issue.

Radar image of where we were and the storm. at around 1040 pm we were right on the edge of the strongest part of the storm.  

 Two little sleepy heads in bed. Garrett will sometimes sleep in his own bed, but usually will wake up around 6 or 7 in the morning and come to our bed. Randal will wake up somewhat randomly throughout the night for another nursing session.

 Another phone abduction. Another 100 pictures!

 That evening we decided to go for a hike at the park. There was a little trail just past the end of the RV spots that took you out to a vista.

 A view of Monument Valley through the canyon and RV site approach.

 We hiked up to the overlook. Ducky was pretty much done at this point and only wanted to be carried. It was a bit windy up there!

 Mama and Randal at the overlook.

 I took Ducky back to the RV and Meagan and the big kids (and the littlest) went on to explore the arch trail further.

 Kids at the arch!

 Climbing to the top!

 Back at home, Randal plays before bed.

 Arya shows off the cookies she made!

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20 June 2024 – Trip Day 81

After our visit to Chaco, it was was time to depart for Monument Valley, Utah. I proceeded directly with the fifth wheel, while Meagan took the kids on a roundabout path.

Their first stop was to head back to Chaco NHP to observe a solstice presentation by a Native American tribe. However, that was not to be.

 The Navajo were out blocking the road for a protest about wanting to drill for oil on their reservation.

 I happily support free speech – but I don’t support people blocking roads. Also, I think their approach backfired on them. I don’t care if they succeed on their cause. Any good will they might have had evaporated when they caused many people to miss the solstice events that were being put on.

 Photo op at Angel Peak Badlands Overlook of US 550. From there, Meagan and the kids went to Bluff Fort.

 Bluff Fort is one of the early Mormon settlements of the West.

 Just before Meagan and the kids got to Bluff Fort, a storm came through and knocked out power at the site. There was a neat scavenger hunt that the kids got to do. They also got a free cookie, because the ice cream machine was out of service due to the power.

 The also got a petroglyph carving kit, and they happily set about carving their names into rocks.

 The storm also blew over a tree at Bluff Fort.

A few of the history placards at the fort.

 A view of Mexican Hat rock on the way to our campsite.

Meanwhile, I pulled into the campsite just ahead of the storm. I also drove through several bands of rain on the way up – check for the drive video! It was a very pretty drive through the canyons and hills.

My view as I arrived at the campground. The storm that hit Bluff Fort is just over the horizon.

 We some awesome views from our campsite, though. The sandstone bluffs were very pretty to look at.

 I got everything parked and set up just as the rain began to fall in sheets. I grabbed Ducky and tossed him in the RV while I finished getting things situated. You can see all the waterfalls on the mountain side are active now.

 The park didn’t go in much for drainage control. Most of the rain up on the hill side came down through our site.

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19 June 2024 – Trip Day 80

After getting settled in our new site and resting a bit, we made the drive down to Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a 2 hour drive south.

The drive was not too bad, but the last 20 miles or so were on reservation land and it was a dirt road. Fortunately, there was no recent rain and the road was in good condition.

 We beat feet from the visitor’s center out into the park to where a volunteer was giving a guided tour of the Pueblo Bonito ruins.

 Our guide pointed out the solar alignment of some of the structures. The picture he held up shows the sun on a solstice hitting a specific spot on the wall in the building. The working theory was a person or persons were the ‘sun watcher’ priests, and that their job was to monitor the movement of the sun and keep the calendar so they would be able to mark important dates.

 We then went on to explore the excavated ruins. Numerous small openings in the wall required some advanced crawling to get through with the packs. At one point, Alan had to take the pack off as it was so narrow and small to get the kids through.

 One of the rooms with a ceiling reconstructed.

 A section of the wall, showing the construction of the multiple levels. The wooden beams would have extended across forming the roofs/floors of the various rooms.

 The corner window. Our volunteer pointed out that this weakened the wall, so it must have been very important for the builders to make such an opening. This was related to the solar calendar function of the buildings. The volunteer pointed out that there was an outer structure that was likely used in the summer, but in the winter the watchers moved inside to mark the days.

 Arya helps wrangle Randal as he stretches his legs.

 Out the other side of the structure, we were able to look down on the excavated kivas.

 One of the larger excavated kivas with structures in it similar to those seen at the Great Kiva of Aztec. One possible use for the squares was for floor drums. They would be covered with boards or other materials and people would dance/stomp on them to make the sounds.

After our tour, we returned to the visitor center so the kids could complete their books. There was a nice model of the kiva construction to see how it stood in the past.

 Randal was all about being able to run around. The spinny wheel was one of his favorite exhibits.

 Done with their books, the kids turned them in and got their badges.

 After our drive back, I set up a hose mister kit for the kids to play with. They enjoyed the water mist on a hot day!

 Taking advantage of the cool night, Alan gets some work done on the laptop.

 Our guest photographer, Garrett, nabs a selfie as he documents various parts of the campsite.

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17 June 2024 – Trip Day 78

18 June 2024 – Trip Day 79

Ed: This entry is a bit different, as we visited the same site over two days as we were split up. Alan and Evan visited the site on the 18th.

Today we relocated from Albuquerque to Farmington, New Mexico. The drive was pretty straight forward. Along the way, there was a sign for the Aztec National Monument and Meagan took a detour there with the kids.

Stopping for gas at the Sinclair station. We dubbed them the ‘Stinky’ stations because when Jarek was a toddler, he got a stuffed dinosaur from one of them on a cross country move and it was named ‘Stinky”.

Set up in the site. Not much greenery and lots of pavement and stone. It was very hot here as well, regularly in the 100s.

A map depicting the Chocoan or Pueblo culture sites. The sites, depending on where you got, have various names attributed to them.

Approaching the Great Kiva.

Unlike the smaller kivas, which were normally entered through a ladder in the roof, the Great Kiva had stairwell that went down into it.

Evan stands in the restored Great Kiva for a sense of scale.

The roof of the Great Kiva.

The Great Kiva from the outside.

Jarek and Arya work on their books inside the Great Kiva while Randal looks on.

A nice cool place to run around – awesome!

The site contains other kivas as well, but not at the same scale as the Great Kiva.

Part of the structure was available to walk through. These were the doorways used by the Puebloans to connect rooms. It was thought that these were more for air flow than for people movement, as the assignment / ownership of rooms tended to run from the front of the building straight back, and would be accessed from the roof, although occasionally they would have doors facing the plaza.

Randal approved!

Offered a choice of style, Evan picks out his Junior Ranger badge.

Evan got a milkshake as a Daddy Day treat on the way back home.

Meanwhile, back at the RV, Jarek and Garrett process lemons to make lemonade.

Beating the heat, I set up the stove outside to cook tacos for dinner. We’ve really leveraged the outside cooking with the RV. There is only so much heat capacity that the ACs can remove, and once you put in the heat energy from cooking dinner, it takes a long time, and only after it cools down / the Sun goes down do we recover.

Of course with the desert heat, night is the best time to be outside. Randal plays while Garret has gotten a hold of a phone and proceeds to take many, many candid photos.

A contemplative selfie…

Out for a midnight bike ride.

Randal does his new favorite thing – putting things into things. One of our best toys – a cardboard box and some gravel rocks!

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16 June 2024 – Trip Day 77

We drove north of Albuquerque to Bernallio where the Coronado Historic Site is located. This is a Pueblo culture site that Meagan and I have been to before and wanted to bring the kids to. The unique thing about this site is that the kiva has been partially repainted to reflect what was found. Normally the kivas have been found without drawings/paintings or they were burned when the Puebloans abandoned the site. When this site was excavated, it was found intact with multiple layers of paintings on the kiva walls.

Although a state run site, they did have a Junior Ranger program as well. The kids got to work on their books before our tour.

To access the kiva and see the wall art, you need to take a guided tour. We arranged to arrive early enough to get on a tour – which was an accomplishment in itself!

Behind the group, you can see the door which contains some of the actual kiva paintings up for display. They requested no photography of the kiva paintings, so if you’d like to see them you’ll need to go there!

The rest of the paintings are apparently in a basement of the University of New Mexico.

After checking out the paintings, we went out on a tour of the complex. The site had rebuilt and continues to partially rebuild the walls with adobe bricks to show the layout of the site.

A view of the many rooms of the site.

The site also rebuilt a structure so visitors could have an idea of what the rooms were like. Ducky was all about checking it out!

A perfect kid sized room! We need one or two of these…didn’t work so well for Alan or Meagan though!

Afterward, we continued on the path around the site checking out the rest of the ruins. We did go into the big kiva, but again, no pictures of the insides.

After our tour, we had lunch on the patio.

There was a sand bin with some track stamps in it, and the kiddos were all about it, especially Randal.

Books complete, they turned them in for their badge and stamps.

We spotted some kayakers travelling down the Rio Grande. Surprisingly it had a decent amount of water in it. In past years during the summer it was often reduced to a muddy ditch.

Back at the coloring table for some more coloring!

After we were done, we hung out for a bit then drove out to the Sandia Peak Tramway.

We got to the Tram and had to wait a bit to catch a tram up to the top. Meagan and the kids checked out the little museum at the waiting area.

Loaded up and ready to go!

As we climbed up the mountain side, we were rewarded with scenic views of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.

Up at the top of the Sandia Mountains, we got a spectacular view of the North side.

There was a parasailer flying about when we got up there.

Family photo at the top! A bit nerve-wracking as to our left (right in the photo) was the glider launch ramp and some fairly steep drop offs.

After a bit of a wait, we were able to get seated in the casual seating area of the restaurant.

Shenanigans!

Unfortunately, we were rather disappointed. Meagan and I had been to the restaurant several times before when we lived in the Albuquerque area, and were generally satisfied with it. However, since it was redone, and since COVID, it has gone down hill. The food was very expensive and we ended up ordering the kids chicken strips (which was reasonable) and we settled on a piece of cake for ourselves. The cake was very dry and not good and we ended up sending it back. All of the rest of the food on the menu was vastly overpriced for what it was.

We did get some amazing sunset shots, though.

Family with Albuquerque and Rio Rancho in the background. Poor Evan was doing his best impression as a popsicle once the Sun went down and temperatures started dropping.

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14 June 2024 – Trip Day 75

We drove out west to visit El Malpais National Monument (Spanish for the badlands or the bad country). It was a pretty easy drive on I-40 west. We stopped for gas in Grants, NM and were greeted with a freak hailstorm.

Aside with the hail there was quite a bit of rain. We were waiting at a gas station for a while, figuring that the people there were hiding from the rain and not moving, but that was not the case. The pumps at that gas station were running very slowly, like the station was out of gas. We relocated to a different gas station and were able to fill up and get back on the road.

 Jarek speaks with the Ranger about his Junior Ranger book. We printed off the books ahead of time.

 El Malpais was considered bad lands by the Spanish because their horses did not do well and there was not much water on the land. The area consists of numerous lava flows, with some comparatively recent. They are connected with several other sites of volcanic activity in New Mexico.

There was not much in the way of a museum here. the kids turned in their books and received their badges. We planned to come back later for the evening hike out to watch the bats fly out of one of the lava caves.

The clouds that rained and hailed on us earlier threatened to do it again.

We quickly packed up and headed out to El Morro National Monument, hoping to get there before they closed.

 We did get there just in the nick of time for the kids to get their stuff turned in. They had a little museum that was nice, but we weren’t able to take the trail as they closed the park and controlled access to the site.

 El Morro (the headland) was a stop for early travelers with reliable water. The trail access stopped an hour before the site closed.

The drive out was very scenic and I hope to get to that video soon!

We drove back toward El Mapais and stopped at the El Calderon trail head where the hike would start at. We hung out and ate our lunch/dinner and the kids played a bit while we killed some time.

Randal enjoys his dinner with a smile!

Alan helps Evan finish his book. We would give the kids extra rewards if they did their whole activity book rather than what was required for their age group.  

 On the hike with the Ranger. We stopped at a lava tube formation where he explained how they formed. Jarek also asked many questions.

 Back on the trail while the Sun sets.

 Desert thistles taking advantage of the rain.

Our view of the bat cave.

 Waiting for the bats! I don’t have any pictures of the bats due to the low light. I do have a video of the hike and of some of the bats, which you can see here at this post.

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13 June 2024 – Trip Day 74

We drove out to Bandelier National Monument today. This was about a 2 hours away from Albuquerque up by Santa Fe.

This is one of the more popular sites that we’ve been to.

 We arrived and were able to find parking and managed to avoid the shuttle requirement. We had lunch in the picnic area while the kids worked on their books.

 Ducky got his own hat – he was very happy with it!

The site was a short hike from the visitor center. It was a very hot day, but we pressed on anyway.

 A view of one of the large kivas on the valley bottom below the housing areas.

 Meagan checks the pocket guide for information on some of the ruins as we work our way up the path.

 Pressing onward up the trail.

 The trail leads up to the base of the cliffs where ladders are placed at some of the caves so you may climb up and have a look around.

 Petroglyphs on the wall where rooms once stood. The small holes in the rock face are where support beams would have been inserted to form roofs and walls. The trail along the cliff face was very narrow and required deft footing to successfully navigate.

 After we checked out the cliff dwellings, we continued on down the trail to Alcove House.

 Alcove House sits about 140 feet above the canyon floor and required navigating a series of ladders to climb up to it.

 After the first ladder is a short ‘path’ up the hillside to the next ladder.

 Meagan was at the top of the ladder, while Alan waited at the bottom of the ladder.

 Family photo at the top in Alcove House.

 The kiva

 After exploring the Alcove House, we returned to the visitor center. Randal was very excited about being out of his pack pack and being able to walk!

The kids turned in their books and received their badges for being a Junior Ranger. After that, since we were close, we headed over to Los Alamos to see if we could get the Manhattan Project National Historic Park as well.

The Manhattan Project NHP had a nice park, but they were closed when we arrived. They didn’t seem to get much traffic and were only open on certain days.

We dropped off some postcards to be mailed at the drop box, and then proceeded to see about hitting Valles Caldera National Preserve. 

Valles Caldera was accessed from a quick turnoff on the way out of Los Alamos.

We came into the Caldera valley and were greeted with a verdant valley. We made it to the visitor center a few minutes before they closed, and were able to get our stamps and Junior Ranger books. We only had a few minutes inside the park before it closed and had to head out.

We drove out and around the Caldera the other way from which we came in, and came upon a scenic turnout. There we were able to get a glimpse of a herd of elk in the evening light. The phone cameras have quite the zoom on them, and we were able to get a couple good shots.

 On the way back to Albuquerque for the night we came upon an odd sight. The marker roadside told the story of Soda Dam.

We had to stop to take a look at it and get a couple pictures of the unusual sight.

 A close up of the dam.

Dam complete, we returned to Albuquerque for the night.

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11 June 2024 – Trip Day 72

After Petroglyph, the next day we drove north towards Santa Fe and visited the Pecos National Historical Park.

 We arrived at Pecos NHP and the kids got their books. We had lunch outside while they worked on them.

 There was a nice museum inside that documented the Pueblo and its history.

 The monsoons were building while we enjoyed our lunch.

 Numerous mock ups were inside the museum, as well as information on the civil war era battle of Glorieta Pass that took place nearby.

 After they completed the books, the kids had an interview with the Ranger and received their badges.

 After the kids received their badges, we went out for a walk on the short trail that took us to the pueblo and the mission church remains.

 The ruins of the mission stand above the trees.

 There was a large reconstructed kiva on the trail that we were able to climb down into. I helped Ducky descend the ladder.

Down in the bottom of the kiva, we took a look around. This kiva, like most reconstructed kivas, was unpainted. We would later (and had been previously to) visit the Coronado State kiva which was partially repainted.

 An informational sign showing the previous structure and what remains of the mission church. The mission church had several kivas which were incorporated on the church grounds. This was unusual because most mission churches did not have kivas on their grounds. This was also one of the pueblos that was successful in revolting against the Spanish rule.

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