Cemetery at Terlingua /  by Dave Hileman

Terlingua was once a teeming mining town of about 5,000 people, now it is a ghost town, sort of. A few people still live here some in rebuilt housing, some in trailers, some in shacks. There is a big tourist type store, at least three restaurants, a couple of art galleries, an inn and lots of rubble. The cemetery dominates a portion of the site. Graves here date back to the mining heyday - they mined mercury here so lots of deaths from the environment. Some graves are recent, as late as last year. Few of the graves still have names, most are just a pile of rocks, a wooden cross and little trinkets left by visitors or friends. There were a lot of beer & whiskey bottles and scores of candles on the site. I was told by a resident that there are/were a lot of ex-military men drinking their disability or pension benefits each month. The cemetery was disquieting unlike most of the cemeteries I visit. Not sure why but it was not a place I was comfortable.

I also spent way too much time at home trying to find out stories of the people whose graves had names. Most did not even have an obituary that I could find but a few did. Two are below in the photos.

This man had a name he was born with and one he used. I found a warm note left by a young woman who played music with him at area bars. She said he was a “poet, writer, musician, philosopher and intellectual. And a great friend.” Behind the grave you can see the scars mining left behind

Could find nothing about Sergeant Holderman but clearly someone had the VA pay for a standard soldier’s tombstone. Almost seemed out of place here.

This man owned a very successful chain of chicken fast food places in a lot of Texas communities - hence Boss Bird. He also owned several other restaurants.

A grave from 2022 but I could find nothing about Annie. She clearly has some friends still in the area who remember her and left a carefully constructed monument.

Kayak on the Rio /  by Dave Hileman

This is the Rio Grande near the western edge of Big Bend National Park. The kayak, paddled by a nice guy named Nathan, is coming through the Santa Elena Canyon section where the cliffs soar to 1500 feet over the Rio. You can and we did hike in about 2 miles and the scenery was stunning.

Fire Fog /  by Dave Hileman

I never saw this kind of phenomenon before. We were traveling east from our campsite at sunrise. It was beautiful and we stopped to take a few images. Then as we traveled further toward the eastern portion of Big Bend National Park we saw lots of fog lifting and the sun just lit some of it up. Only lasted a minute but it was so pretty. Big Bend was fulll of surprises.

Grateful /  by Dave Hileman

Today we honor the men and women who died in service to this country. The first official Memorial Day was held on May 5th in Waterloo, NY in 1866. Other places also claim to be the first but Waterloo is the official one. Originally called Decoration Day, you still hear that on occasion here in the South. People use that to decorate graves of loved ones beyond the original purpose of the day. May was chosen because the flowers are in full bloom. General Grant presided over the first large scale observance of Memorial Day in 1873 when 5,000 people attended at Arlington.

This car was used during WWII.

Desert Color /  by Dave Hileman

These flowers appeared in the most unexpected places, packed red dirt, on a trail, in the edge of the old pueblos’ ruins. Don't know the name but then it would be unexpected if I did. If you do, leave a comment.

National Park #352 - Pecos National Historic Site /  by Dave Hileman

What do you know, another ancient Indian site but with a twist. The Pecos NHS is further to the east than any of the others and occupied a high ridge in the Gloriata Pass, the gap where the Santa Fe trail passed and where a Civil War battle was fought for control of the New Mexico territory. They pueblo here was huge with a population of about 2000 people. Unlike many others they had a standing warrior group that could reach 500 at times. They were the bridge trading partners for the settled pueblos of the four corners and the Apache, Comanche and other Plains Indians. The Spanish arrived here by 1610 and took over the settlement and built a huge church while destroying Indian culture until the Indians overthrew them in the revolt of 1680. Eventually the Spanish returned and rebuilt but also settlers, soldiers, miners and more overwhelmed the area and the Plains Indians raided so often that the Pecos people moved 50 miles west and merged with another tribe. Descendants still come here frequently for ceremonies and services.

The Pueblo extended from where I took this photo to the remains of the church on both sides of the ridge.

You can sense the size of the church from this perspective

This Kiva is still used on special occasions

This one on the church complex is not used any longer. It was used by the priests post 1700 for instruction.

National Park #351 - Chaco Culture National Historic Site /  by Dave Hileman

This park defines remote. We knew it was a challenge to get to this park with our trailer, not recommended, so we approached it from our campsite in White Rock, about a 3 hour drive. We were closer near Mesa Verde and ought to have tried it then but did not for reasons I now don’t recall. I am sure they were great. Anyway, a long but scenic drive to the road that leads to the park. Once you turn off the main highway the road goes through reservation land and is a dusty, bumpy, washboard trail that you are on for 15 miles. Good decision to leave the trailer elsewhere.

The park is very neat. You are in a huge valley or canyon that is dotted with pueblo ruins. There are quite a few and some of the villages were large. It was a major trading center for 100’s of years and their trading partners ranged over 1,000’s of miles. We toured the main park loop road and stopped at 4 of the sites: Pueblo Bonito, Una Vida, Pueblo Del Arroyo and Perfiasco Blanco. These were all large great houses of three or four stories with hundreds of rooms and kivas that were begun in the 800’s and were added to over 300 years. The structures used a new form of masonry that allowed the multistory buildings. They built roads to connect the pueblos and even carved steps in the canyon walls to make it easier to enter or exit the canyon. Remarkable place.

Looking at one pueblo from a community kiva

The access doors were blocked by the NPS

A hint at the size with the people in the left of the frame. There are several kivas visible here

Original wall - note the intricate stone work done with no metal tools

A glimpse of the detail work and the supporting timbers. The wood was hand carried from a mountain 55 miles away. NPS estimate is that there are 20,000 timbers in the original structures.

One of the four carved stairways out of the canyon

This unusual window in an angled wall is to make the summer solstice.

Providing the same view for a 1000 years.

National Park #350 - Bandelier National Historic Site /  by Dave Hileman

This is another Indian site deep in a canyon. The park is huge but the trail to the cliff dwellings is only about 2 miles. The CCC buildings are beautiful with the “sort of” appearance of a pueblo. It once housed not only the CCC but also VC, restaurant, lodge, gift shop and more. Still much of it is in use but sadly not the lodge. The trail to the dwellings is along a river then up steps to the remains of several dwellings. You can enter quite a few of the rooms. Then you get to a place called Long House. It had two or three stores of rooms for about a quarter mile. Many turn around here yet if you continue another 3/4 or a mile further you reach another dwelling, Alcove House. This is unique. The site is on the side of a cliff, like the others but 140 feet above the canyon floor. You reach the site by scaling four ladders and a small set of carved stairs. The three main ladders are each about 35 feet - and the third one is on the face of the rock. It was a time to be cautious about your footing! Still very cool to do. Once inside the space, there were three areas, one large and two small store rooms and a kiva on the edge.

The approach to some of the dwellings. These were natural “holes” that were enlarged by the builders unlike Mesa Verde where the homes were build all of stone under cliff overhangs.

A families room. You can enter here the floor is stabilized. Note the fire blackened wall and roof

Some of the rock stairs the CCC carved. Below you see the ruins of a valley floor pueblo.

Part of a rare remnant of a painted wall. Most of these dwellings were painted but little of that remiains today.

Climbing up ladder two - photo credit TLT Associate Photographer Cindy

Looking toward ladder three of four - photo credit TLT Associate Photographer Cindy

Finally our custom is to celebrate every 25 parks with some special ice cream. That was in short supply but the mint custard served as a good backup. We also celebrated a few of these milestones with Rusty and Janet so I sort of included them with the dominoe tiles 3 5 0 that they gave to me on this trip.

National Park #349 - Valles Caldera National Preserve /  by Dave Hileman

This is a wow park. You descend from a mountain that is between Valles and Bandelier park and suddenly this impossibly huge landscape appears, like a meadow on steroids. The valley is 13 miles across and four or five wide ringed with mountains. Breathtaking. It has not been a park too long. The rights to thousands of acres were obtained in 2007 but NPS did not take full possession until 2015. They are still evaluating what to do with aspects of the park. There are miles of hiking trails, 2500 elk and these vistas. Just amazing. The whole valley had 40 inches of snow covering it just three weeks before we arrived so the ponds and streams were full. We saw one small herd of elk at a distance. We only had 2 hours and the ranger gave us a back country permit to drive 2 miles to some of the old cabins that the ranch used for years. They do not yet know what they will do with them. Anyway this is going to be a park that will draw people. It is close to Bandolier (next park report) and in a beautiful area.

This herd of elk was at least 2 miles away.

This is a 140 year old ranch house. Could not get closer on this day

Lots of these about.

National Park #348 - Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument /  by Dave Hileman

What a contrast between parks. The Petroglyph was a bit of a disappointment the Salinas Pueblo Missions was a treat. There are three main areas and a VC all separated by a few miles. These are pueblos that the Spanish in the late 1500’s assimilated into Catholic Churches. The church buildings are massive for the day, the largest could hold 500-600 people at a time. The people stood, no pews, but that too was normal for the time. The buildings were constructed along side of and in one case attached to the existing pueblos. There was a strong desire on the part of the Spanish monarchy to spread Catholicism and many of the priests and monks were sincere in their efforts. However, they also trampled many cultural and ethical boundaries in their quest for converts. It spilled over into a revolt in 1680 that ousted the Spanish for 20 years. Today you view the remains of the pueblos, the second churches - built after the reconquest and some of what is called the second resettling by Mexican farmers in the early 1800’s after many of the Indians were gone. Standing in the ruins of the church you get a sense of the scope of the complex, the size and grandeur of the main sanctuary and the effort it took to build. The walls were covered in a mud mixture, they had elaborate painted walls inside either on the plaster on on wooden panels and the entire building was bright white with a limestone final coat over the earthen colored walls. It gleamed in the sun and was visible for a long distance.

Imagine this much longer and about 25% taller, coated in a bright white limestone wash. It is impressive today, but a bit older than Bruton Parrish in Williamsburg it must of been amazing to see 300+ years ago rising from the plains.

Flagstone floor in the second church

I like this image of the barefoot boys trekking up these stairs - there were no stairs in the pueblos.

Note the kiva on the church complex. In the first effort the Spanish filled the kivas. In the second they used them for instruction on the church doctrine. Cultural adjustment!

National Park #347 - Petroglyph National Monument /  by Dave Hileman

This is a strange park. It is a National Park but the only land the park has is an old house used for a VC and there are no petroglyphs on the property. The state of Arizona owns some but Albuquerque owns most of the sites. They do little to protect them, this is an urban area 17 miles long with several thousand petroglyphs. They also prevent the NPS from patrolling the site in any fashion. So you arrive at the VC with a sign telling you there are no trails or petroglyphs here and you go to a site where they are and there is a NP sign but nothing else. A mess of sorts. We only visited one site plus the VC. They are less than impressive except for the general idea of age and the numerous symbols. The rocks are jumbled all up and down small hills and you walk among them on a path or a boardwalk. The petroglyphs are generally faded and most are hard to see. Sort of expected with scratches on the rocks that are 100’s of years old.

Looks like rabbit to me.

National Park #345 - El Morro National Monument /  by Dave Hileman

You need water, lots of water, crossing the high deserts of NM. Water for you and your animals that keep you alive and tote your household goods, or soldiers, or freighters. That’s what brought the Indians here, the Spanish here, the settlers here, the miners here, the soldiers here and the railroad men here. And they left their mark on the high walls surrounding the fresh water spring that still flows. Indian petroglyphs, paragraphs in Spanish - including one from a future governor and names and dates scratched or painstakingly carved into the basalt. Over 2000 of them and many with stories researched and presented in a small booklet they loan you to use at the site. One 12 year old girl was wounded by an arrow in an Indian attack that left 9 others dead. She recovered, made the journey and became a schoolteacher in the gold fields. Super cool place.

The pool against the rock face

Spanish

Indian, some of the Indian date from about 700

Soldiers, the impossibly neat Mr Breckenridge was KIA in 1862.

Railroad survey team

National Park #344 - Yucca House National Monument /  by Dave Hileman

Your visit does not start well when the ranger at Mesa Verde (they are the admin for Yucca House) tells you it is “stupid” to go to the site. Yup. She mentioned that she is a trained archeologist and she hardly knows what she is looking at, so “what do you expect to see?” She said I should go to X site because at least there they have signs. I persisted and she just shrugged her shoulders and said there is no point in going, there is “nothing to see.”

We went anyway. But you knew that, right. It was a long drive and to get to the “park” you had to negotiate four miles of dirt road that wound through a rancher’s cattle pasture, park by his house and enter a gate like you would see on your grandmother’s garden. What did we see? Well, one partial wall, several mounds of broken rocks and dirt that clearly covered other rooms, the outline of at least two kivas, maybe three, and scores of pottery shards, decorative and utilitarian. All spread over three or four acres. A big site, protected since 1919 but never excavated. There are no signs to describe the setting but you still “know” that you are in a special place - untouched for 1000 years. You sense the atmosphere of how remote and isolated life would have been and how challenging just to survive. And you can pick up pottery pieces and hold the pot that hands had formed and decorated 900 to 1100 years ago. Magical.

Neither Cindy nor I have finished our degrees in archeology but we still appreciated our brief walks among the ruins and pot shards of Yucca House.

The Visitor Center, the Sign, the Trail and the Gate. NPS saved a few dollars here.

The entrance gate

The exposed wall

The land

National Park #343 - Aztec Ruins National Monument /  by Dave Hileman

A remarkable place that is not Aztec. The name came from some of the trade goods in the site from central Mexico found here. This is a very old dwelling with parts dating from 800-900. One of the most interesting features is a restored Kiva - one for clan use not just a family. It was restored by the original archeologist - who also used some of the site materials to build his house! The kiva was magnificent and it was impressive to see what a finished kiva may have looked like. Very different than the raw stones when the white plaster and polished wood is intact. We also were able to enter several sections of the site that were unchanged - original roof and walls unchanged for 1000 years.

Kiva exterior

Kiva interior windows are ground level

original unchanged room near back of the complex

Overview, Kiva on right, family kiva is the circle of stone left of the Grand Kiva.

Great signage. VC was the archeologist’s house built in 1919

We Interrupt This Blog for a Special Weather Alert /  by Dave Hileman

Well, it’s over now. But on Thursday near to Oklahoma City it was a different matter. We were in the city visiting a museum and the National Memorial. On our way back to the Harvest Host, an old horse farm, we got a weather alert on our phone, Tornado Watch. We got back, opened the trailer a bit to cool down, it was not raining yet. Then our host, Colette, came to the trailer. We needed to take this seriously and she offered to see if her neighbor who has a shelter would allow us to come to it. They did and we did. It looked like an old fashioned cellar door, the slanty kind. It hinged open as we gathered. Colette, two other RVers, the husband and wife who owned the home, their granddaughter, son and daughter-in-law. Plus dog! It was a tight fit The calm demeanor of all the “experienced” people and the baby and the dog put us at ease. They watched weather, patterns, reported positions of spotted and potential tornados and some did touch down pretty close. Maybe not for Oklahoma folks but for Raleigh people a mile or two scores in horseshoes.

I never felt threatened or anxious it was a surreal event. The sky was alternately dark and foreboding then an eerie kind of green tint. The sun as it set was a hazy yellow tennis ball in the sky, barely alit. Lightning flashed across the sky and we waited about 2.5 hours then we were given the all clear and returned to our unharmed trailer. And, against all odds slept well.

We met several folks in Oklahoma City who went our of their way for us. None more so than our hosts, for the night and for the shelter. So kind of them and how generous with their time and effort. Everyone went well past the expected assistance and we are very appreciative of their hospitality.

Cindy got into conversations about Disney so even underground in unsettled weather there is Disney.

As the storm arrives