Monument Valley - Day 1 & 2

 

    I had some grand plans to make a road trip during my school's spring break.  Unfortunately for me, I am a being called as a witness in a trial on 3/11.  That falls right in the middle of my break, so my week-long roadtrip was a no go.  With that in mind I looked at places I have wanted to visit and Monument Valley was towards the top of that list.  I texted Ryan and he said he was in for a quick weekend jaunt.  I busted out of work at 12:30 and made my way to Flagstaff to pickup my passenger.

    Spanning approximately 320 miles, the drive from Phoenix to Monument Valley takes between 5 and 6 hours through three distinct ecological zones.  You start in the Sonoran Desert, make your way through the high-altitude ponderosa pines of Flagstaff, and end up in the high seat plains of the Colorado Plateau.  Monument Valley sits on the Utah border in Northern Arizona, and is on the Navajo Tribe land.  

    I grabbed Ryan and we left Flagstaff at 1:30PM and drove to Kayenta, AZ.  We grabbed some drinks, put some gas in the car, and were on our way.  Before arriving at the View Hotel, we stopped at a gas station that happened to be a pizza place too.  I had a cheese pizza, while Ryan opted for the chicken fingers.  It was tasty food for a gas station.  We checked into the hotel and the view from our balcony was incredible. The View is the only hotel located inside the tribal park and was opened in 2008.  All of the rooms face East towards the valley, and most provide a stunning view.  Since we as the sun was already down, our view was of dark silhouettes.  

    

    Since we both went to bed so early, we were both up by 0600.  I setup my camera to grab some sunrise photos and stepped onto the balcony.  It was a chilly 28 when went outside.  As the sun started to rise, the silhouettes of the valley turned into a dull red, backlit by the sunrise.  The sun ended up rising right behind Merrick Butte.  

    

    We made our way to the restaurant for the included breakfast.  It was surprisingly good for a free hotel breakfast.  We had a sunset tour booked for 4:00PM, so we decided to take our car down into the valley on the 17 mile drive.  The Navajo Ranger who checked our ticket told us to be very careful as we drove into the valley.  They had a car lose an oil pan the day before.  We decided to push forward in a 2019 Ford Mustang convertible.  The first 5 minutes of the drive had me thinking I had lost my mind.

    The 17 mile loop starts and ends at the Monument Valley Tribal Park Visitor Center.  It is a rough, ungraded road with several steep switchbacks at the beginning.  They recommend you do the drive in a high-clearance SUV or 4WD, but you dance with the one your brought.  After the initial 5 minutes, the drive was rough in places, but overall not that bad.  We spent about 2 hours traversing the bottom of the valley and made our way back to the hotel around 11:30AM.

    Ryan crawled back in bed to take a nap, and I did some work on my photos.  My eyes started to get heavy around 1:00PM, so I closed my laptop and closed my eyes.  I woke up at 3:15PM, 45 minutes before our sunset tour.  I wasn't sure if it was going to be a solo tour or my partner was going to go.  As I was walking out the door, Ryan decided that he would take the tour with me.  We met our tour guide Carlos who worked for Carl Phillips Photography.  When he heard that we had already driven down to the valley, he suggested a tour of Mystery Valley.

    

    While the 17 mile loop in Monument Valley is famous for towering buttes and Hollywood history, Mystery Valley offers a much more intimate, archaeological experience.  Locals describe it as the "soul" of the region, focusing on traces left behind by the people who liver there long before cameras arrived.  The rock formations are primarily De Chelly Sandstone, a rock layer that reveals the environmental history of the region from nearly 275 million years ago.  The De Chelly sandstone is "cross-bedded", meaning the layers are highly inclined rather than horizontal.  This structure indicates the rock was formed from massive sand dunes blown by prevailing northeasterly winds across the supercontinent Pangea.

    The deep red and orange hues are caused by iron oxide coating the quartz grains.  You can also see the "desert varnish" - dark, shiny streaks of manganese and iron oxide that often coat the alcove walls where water typically seeps.  Mystery Valley is geologically distinct from the main park because of its "backcountry" features, which are more similar to the landscapes found in Arches National Park.  There are several key geological landmarks found in the valley. Honeymoon Arch, a massive natural bridge that demonstrates how wind and water can wear through a sandstone to Crete a sky-lit opening.  Skull Arch is a prime example of differential erosion, where harder cap rock protects the softer sandstone beneath it, resulting in a shape that resembles a hollowed-out skull.  The final landmark is Square House and Ancient Ruins.  While these are cultural in nature, these cliff dwellings are geologically significant because they were built within natural "seep lines" - geological layers where groundwater hits an impermeable surface and flow out, providing a permanent water source.

    Three hours went by fast, and before we knew it, we were back at our hotel.  We headed up to the restaurant where Ryan ate chicken fried steak and I settled on a green-chile cheeseburger. We went back to the room, watched some Twilight Zone and were out before 10:00PM.  I had a morning sunrise tour booked for 06:30AM. 

    

Santa Fe - Day 2 (December 28)

    As Bruno Mars might say, "jump in the Kia, girl let's put some miles on it".  The plan for today was to drive to Taos, NM, then on to Chimayo, and return to Santa Fe.  We started with breakfast at The Burrito Company, which was next door to our hotel.  The food was great, but the crowd was unruly.  There was a group of families, along with their kids, taking up much of the table space.  The kids were feral.  Once they finally left, it was nice to be in near silence!  

    We started driving towards Taos at 0945 and arrived at 1110.  Our first stop was at San Francisco de Asis Mission Church.  The 1000 Mass was letting out and we were able to step inside for a few minutes after people left.  It was good to see the church completely full.  The church was completed in 1816 by the Spaniards and is one of the most photographed and painted churches in the world.  It has massive "beehive" adobe buttresses and flowing lines.  Artists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams have created art of the church.  O'keeffe called the church one of the most beautiful buildings left in the United States by the early Spaniards.

Virginia O'Keeffe

Ansel Adams

    One of the ushers gave us a quick history of the church and turned us loose to explore.   The focal point of the church is the main altar screen.  Known as reredos (altar screens), the one in the parish church is among the finest surviving examples of Spanish Colonial devotional art.  In the center is an image of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Louis IX and Jesus the Nazarene.  The screen featured eight antique oil paintings on canvas that were likely imported from Mexico or Spain.

Altar at Christmas

Main Reredos

North Transept Altar

    After leaving the church, we stopped at the adjoining gift shop.  Jennie picked up a Christmas Tree ornament luminaria.  We drove into Taos and found it to be lacking.  We expected something along the lines of Santa Fe's plaza.  We didn't find anything like that.  There was another church about 5 miles from where we were, so we drove to it.  It turned out that the church (St. Jerome) was located on the Taos Pueblo and required a $25 per person admission fee.  The kicker was the Pueblo was closed down, with nothing else opened.  We passed on that "opportunity".  As we walked back to the car, we were asked by someone if we had purchased tickets.  We told them we did not and she fired back, "You can't take any pictures because they are covered by the admission fee." 

    We started driving to Chimayo and wanted to pick up some snacks.  There were no convenience stores open anywhere in Taos.  We ended up as a grocery store where we picked up some Utz potato chips and drinks.  The drive to Chimayo was on The High Road To Taos.  It was a slow drive (1:15) to go 45 miles, but the scenery was impressive.  Once we arrived in Chimayo, we found parking and began to explore the grounds.  

Carved Wood Doors.  

A River Runs Through It.  This Reminded Us of Lourdes.

Jennifer picked up some Mope along the way

    We wanted to visit Chimayo for a couple of reasons.  For me, I wanted to photograph the church, especially at night, with the luminary lights lit up.  For Jennifer, she wanted to visit the place where the holy dirt was located, and to rub some dirt on her heart.  The heart of the sanctuary is not the church or altar, but a small, low-ceilinged room called El Pocito (The Little Well).  The healing nature of Chimayo predates the 1816 church by hundreds of years.  Long before the Spanish arrived, the Tewa Pueblo people considered this site sacred.  They believed a hot spring once bubbled here, and when it dried up, the remaining mud and earth retained the sprint's healing spirits.  In 1810, a local friar (Bernardo Abeyta) reportedly saw a light shining from the ground.  He dug with his hands and found a crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas (the "Black Christ").  The crucifix was moved to a nearby church three times, but each time it miraculously ret urned to the specific hole in Chimayo.

    

Entrance To El Posito

Abandoned Crutches, Braces, and Photographs of People Who 
Have Been Healed at Chimayo.

The Spot Where The Crucifix Was Found

A Bag Of Holy Dirt To Go.  I Laughed At The 
Warnings Inside The Room.  Do Not Eat Or
Drink The Dirt.

    The church at Chimayo is one of the most photographed churches in New Mexico.  It did not disappoint.  The Catholic history of Chimayo began in 1810 when Bernardo Abeyta, a member of the Penitentes, saw a light shining from the ground near the Santa Cruz River.  He dug into the ground and found the crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas, a devotion originally from Guatemala.  After removing the crucifix three times only to find it returned to the spot, Abeyta realized the Lord wanted a sanctuary build on the exact spot.  Construction began in 1813 and was completed in 1816.  It was originally built as a private family chapel.  The architecture is a classic example oof Spanish Colonial adobe construction, with massive walls, twin bell towers, and a roof supported by heavy wooden beams.

Heavy Wooden Beams At Entrance To Chapel

Famed View of El Sanctuario de Chimayo

Inside The Chapel

The Beautiful Jennifer

    We had about two hours until sunset so we drove to a restaurant called Rancho de Chimayo.  There was nearly a 1 hour wait but it was worth it.  Jennie ordered soup and a chicken tortilla.  I ordered green Chile enchiladas.  The food came with Sopas for desert.  We were so done after eating and we waddled out of the restaurant to drive back to Chimayo.  I capture some photos as the sun was setting and more once it was completely dark.  I was happy that we waited to get these shots.

    After getting the shots I wanted to capture, we drove back to Santa Fe and spent some time at the Hotel Chimayo pub.  We ordered a few drinks and ultimately made our way to Herve Wine Bar for wine and dessert.  We had a bottle of sparkling wine and some cheesecake.  We walked back to the Hotel, had a fire lit in the room, and headed to bed after our long day.