Category: Southwest

When we decided to go to El Malpais and El Morro we also decided to skip Petrified Forest NP (we saw many petrified trees on previous days) and head north from Farmington to Utah instead. We made a small detour to “Four Corners” and drove through four states in an hour: NM, AZ, CO and UT. We arrived at ☞ Hovenweep NM early enough to walk 2-mile loop around small canyon dotted with ruins of Ancient Puebloan villages (towers) on top of the cliffs. These ruins are from later period, 1200-1300 AD. Next morning we were ready to visit more historical sites along Hwy 95: ☞ Butler Wash (short walk to ruin overlook), ☞ House on Fire (3-mile walk), ☞ Cave Towers (short, very bumpy unmarked drive behind closed but unlocked gate and 2-mile walk) and ☞ Mule Canyon Roadside Kiva (ruins just off the highway). There are many more scattered ruins and hiking trails everywhere in ☞ Bears Ears NM. House on Fire was the highlight, as you can walk close to the houses and peek inside. Topography is also very interesting because pueblos were build in or above canyons, close to seasonal water. We saw many spring flowers and some animals (e.g. 2 large snakes). Hovenweep had surprisingly many people, but other sites very few. We made it to dispersed camping at Muley Point (Glen Canyon NRA) on top of Cedar Mesa in time for good evening views of San Juan River Canyon, just at our feet, and Monument Valley on the horizon. This was the best camping spot so far, there were 2 other families camping in the area, but very far from us. Views were amazing. It became quite windy in late evening. We were glad we parked behind some bushes and not on the windy canyon edge. We enjoyed more great views from nearby Muley Point next morning after breakfast.

San Juan River canyon from Muley Point (video clip)

From top of Cedar Mesa (250 million year old permian sandstone) we dropped 400 m down snaking ☞ Moki Dugway (Rt 261) to Valley of the Gods – 17-mile unpaved loop meandering between interesting rock formations carved in the mesa. We drove slowly and stopped a few times to walk around the base of Rudolf and Santa Clause and up above the road near Castle Butte. Valley of the Gods is like a miniature Monument Valley, but the word about it is out and it is becoming popular – there were quite a few cars around. We then stopped for lunch at boat launch picnic site in Mexican Hat and drove by Monument Valley NM (we already visited it many years ago). We found nice campsite at CanyonView Campground in ☞ Navajo NM, with panoramic views of the canyons from flat sandstone platform just a few steps away. One of the best organized campgrounds, and it was free! Next morning, we walked a couple of miles on three short trails: Aspen (towards canyon floor), Sandal (to Betatakin Cliff Dwellings overlook) and Canyon View (to historic ranger station). The rest of the day was just driving to Cliff Dwellers Lodge in Marble Canyon. We started on unpaved and sandy shortcut via Shonto (fun test driving) and later stopped at Navajo Bridge (Colorado River). We spent afternoon preparing for the hike next day and had good dinner on the eve of Piotr’s birthday.

Valley of the Gods from Rudolf and Santa Clause (video clip)

Resources

☞ Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness BLM map
☞ Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness BLM map
☞ NM Area 1 Northwest BLM map

Choosing dirt roads even to travel short distance between local destination was of concern. Is our car’s clearance sufficient? Can we cross washes without getting stuck in deep sand? Running water was not an issue because of the drought. We carried car recovery kit on this trip, but did not have to use it. A shortcut between Chaco Canyon and ☞ Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness did not look too good (although we later concluded it was probably also passable) so we decided to add miles just to stay on more used dirt roads (7950-7980-57-7870). We crossed Escavada Wash three times, skidding quite a bit in the sand in one spot (nothing our car could not handle) and later over new bridge in a spot that could be otherwise problematic. Last couple of miles from Rd 7870 to the Valey of Dreams trailhead were on a sandy path rather than road. We checked out different options and followed what looked passable by eye. We parked our car at one of the “parking lots” near the trail, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but with good view of our hiking destination.

We started exploration of rock formations and Joanna’s favorite finds: petrified trees. Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness has a feel of remote sandy desert with little vegetation. Wind gusts kicking-up dirt/sand amplified the impression (there was a dust storm in the afternoon). We followed mapped trails most of the time, but also explored different corners of “rock gardens” in Valley of Dreams (late morning) and along Ah-shi-sle-pah Trail (late afternoon). Hoodoos are fantastic, really like from a fairy tale or a dream and there is a sense of discovery there – we met only one hiker. Each walk was about 3.5 “slow” miles. The trailheads are 6 miles apart, the latter just off Rd 57. We then drove on “main” dirt roads (57-7610-7500) to ☞ Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness and looked around for camp site – decided to stay near trailhead for our hiking destination next morning.

Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness (video clip)

Our first hike of the day was 6.5 mile semi-loop in De-na-zin Wilderness. We started towards Yellow Hoodoo in the general direction (counterclockwise) of mapped loop, but quickly started wandering around and exploring the site on our own. At some point the trail disappeared in narrow passages with what looked like a small rock scramble. At this point we decided to walk back a bit and down to the main wash, and continue exploration from there (we did not close the entire loop, but were very close). De-na-zin feels also quite remote with few visitors. We then drove around to Bisti (Rds 7500-371-7297). After lunch, we just started walking across flat area along Bisti Wash towards Bisti Arch, Rock Garden and Valley of Bones, and then continued towards Cracked Eggs and Petrified Wood. We zig-zagged 5-mile loop – we liked the second part better. Wind gusts were getting quite strong as we were walking back to the trailhead against the wind in a dust “storm” wearing masks. Bisti is much more developed with many more visitors, but it is also the largest with a sense of vast open space. There are many more rock formations and petrified forests there that we did not get to because we were tired of blowing dust. We liked Ah-shi-sle-pah the most, then De-na-zin, partially because of novelty of seeing fantastic rock shapes, mostly because of remoteness and emptiness, but also because of the weather – in Bisti colors were washed out and views obscured by the dust storm.

We stayed for the night in motel in Farmington. Shower, laundry and resupply time.

We enjoyed green forest and fast running stream next to our spot at Rio De Las Vacas Campground, and relaxing short 5-mile walk on Horse Canyon Forest Rd. Even more so in anticipation of quick change of scenery to hot, dry and desert-like environment at Chaco Canyon (and the following days). To get there our Subaru was subjected to 13-mile rough dirt road test – it was not as bad as we worried, a good sign for more dirt-roads in our plans. We drove there via Rds 7900 and 7950 from NM Hwy 550 near Nageezi.

☞ Chaco Culture National Historical Park is almost unknown, but contains amazing remains of a huge ceremonial center of Ancestral Puebloan people used from 850 to 1250 AD. There are several great houses which are mini-cities consisting sometimes of hundreds of rooms, with multiple ceremonial kivas and plazas aligned to serve as astronomical observatories. We learned about it only a few years ago. Remote location and lack of paved roads mean few tourists – visiting the ruins is real pleasure. Turns out Ancestral Puebloans developed cultural sites on par with that of South American peoples, however meaning and details of their structures, petroglyphs, ceremonies and believes are mostly forgotten.

We stayed 2 nights at the park campground (the sites are too close to one another for unknown reason, as there is a lot of space to spread out the campground ), made two longer hikes to the mesa above the canyon and petroglyphs and visited several grand house ruins (Pueblos), and listened to archeoastronomy talk. It was hot and we hiked a little less than we planed. Joanna wished we had more time there.

We walked 12 miles visiting main sites: Hungo Pavi – Chetro Ketl – New Pueblo Alto – Pueblo Alto – Kin Kletso – Casa Chiquita -Petroglyph Trail – Pueblo Del Arroyo – Pueblo Bonito – Casa Rinconada

We decided early on to concentrate most of the highway driving in the first two and last two days of the trip (1110+1270 miles), and then have fewer miles to cover on other days. Despite late start, we made it to ☞ Bennett Spring SP campground in Missouri the first day. The size of the spring is impressive – underground river coming to the surface. We checked it out quickly in the morning before driving to ☞ Palo Duro Canyon SP in Texas where we had reservation for two nights (Fortress Cliff and Mesquite Campgrounds). The campgrounds were all booked, but many spots remained unoccupied and the park was not overcrowded. We had one full day for a longer hike to the Lighthouse, returning via Givens, Spicer, Lowry and Paseo del River trails. Next morning we hiked Rock Garden trail meandering on cliff slopes above valley floor. Despite large campgrounds in the middle of the park, there are many good trails to explore with few hikers/bikers. It was good decision to stop there. In the afternoon we drove to Grants NM. On the way from Chicago we saw many relicts of Route 66 times (our motel in Grants including) and finally decided to take a picture with the commemorative sign in Grants. Because of large wild fires in New Mexico and Arizona, we decided not to go to Santa Fe, Bandelier NM (closed) and Sunset Crater Volcano/Wupatki NM (recovering after fire) and visited ☞ El Malpais NM and ☞ El Morro NM instead.

We spent one day in El Malpais visiting Sandstone Bluffs and sandstone arch, observing huge lawa flows of different ages (115000-3900 years ago), lava tubes (unfortunately closed for exploration), and hiking Calderon Cinder Cone with different color cinders from multiple eruptions. We ended the day at a very nice El Morro Campground.

We changed gear a bit at El Morro looking not only at the rocks, but also at whats on them: petroglyphs (and modern inscriptions) and pueblo ruins. We spent most of the day “reading” sandstone walls and then hiking up to the top of the messa to visit ruins of Pueblo Atsinna. We stopped at Boca Negra Canyon section of ☞ Petroglyph NM on the outskirts of Albuquerque for more petroglyphs and late lunch, before heading to Sant Fe NF for good night rest at forested Rio De Las Vacas Campground.