Posts tagged ‘American West’
Taos
Last stop in the four corners. Nice to end the trip in a somewhat familiar Totnes like bohemia feel. Any town where art galleries and bars are abundant life is good. Taos is a small town nestled in the snow peaked Sangra do Cristo Mountains. An eccentric place, a history of luring artists from all over with its fabled clear light. Hung out at Eske’s brew pub, listening to some great live music. Strange to be in the last stop of the four corners trip we could carry on living like this forever I think. What a fantastic journey. Can’t wait to get back to the studio to see the images up close.
We ran out to Taos Pueblo village which is a Native American community with these amazing multi-storied adobe buildings that have been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years. About 150 people live within the pueblo full time. Other families use them as summer homes. Selling all kinds of crafts and art work. We spent hours wandering around.
Start the long drive back to Philly tomorrow. Can’t even imagine living inside again yet.
The open road is such a contagious feeling.
Sometimes I feel like an addict craving more
wind in my hair, more moments of such wonder.
Oh well… On the road again.
Ladders, Ladders & more Ladders, Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde National Park contains some of the most notable and best preserved cliff dwellings in the United States. The park was created in 1906 to preserve the heritage of the Ancestral Puebloans. The Puebloans used to live in dwellings on top of the mesa until around 1200 AD when they moved down into the cliffs and built whole villages.
We are camped right on the outskirts of the park – to early in the season for the park campground. The drive into the park is a long winding road up through the mountains. Riddled with devastation from lots of forest fires. Since 1906 80% of the park has been burned by fire – mainly lightning strikes.
We picked two hikes that lead to a couple of villages. Cliff Palace & Spruce Tree House. Cliff Palace has over 200 rooms, mutli-storied constructions that certainly seem to hold up to any modern day architecture. Everything has remained so preserved in the dry climate it appears as though this bustling society just left suddenly. Black soot remains on the ceilings as a reminder that some family ate here, slept here, loved here. A lifetime ago perhaps, but then in comparison Stoke has been a thriving community since around the same time. We climbed down into a Kiva (thought to be used for ceremonies) it was a good 10 degrees cooler – lovely break from the heat.
Crazy ladders everywhere to get in and out of the sites.
Perfect Sunset, Monument Valley
You don’t even realize how much you associate your idea of the great west, of cowboys & indians, with this one spot on the planet. The area feels strangely familiar even though you are obviously just lost in the desert. Hollywood seeping into your memories, diluting your capacity for real thought.
The whole park lies entirely with the Navajo Indian Reservation on the Utah/Arizona border. A long straight empty road cuts across flat desert as you approach. Until 1,000 foot stark red cliffs on the horizon curving away just in front of you. Love this road, love this drive.
Air feels warm, gritty, generous.
Monument Valley which is actually not a valley in the conventional sense, but rather it is a wide flat never ending landscape, interrupted only by these high rise, red, red rock formations rising hundreds of feet in the air before you. Towering giants of life coloured earth. They are the very last remnants of sandstone layers that once covered the entire place.
Landforms are unforgettable
