Ann's Travelogues - DEATH VALLEY AND BEYOND 2016-17

OCTOBER 2016 - ... 2017

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TRAVELOGUE # 7 - Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and Northern Arizona into New Mexico: Pueblo Ruins

Wednesday December 3 - Tuesday December 9, 2016

Published Jan. 28, 2017 (Kelley's 28th Birthday!)

After one last view of Lake Mead, I headed to the Hoover Dam. Got to view it from the relatively new (2010) Memorial Bridge, then went down and actually drove across the dam (most traffic now goes over the bridge). The Colorado River separates Nevada from Arizona as well as the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones. Then I headed south through Arizona, stopping at Kingman, then on to Prescott Valley. Then I drove through the town of Jerome - an old mining town perched on a hillside at 5000'. Also visited several Pueblo ruins - Tuzigoot National Monument then Montezuma's Well, then Montezuma's Castle. Unfortunately, Sunna had a very scary encounter with a Jack Russel Terrier at Montezuma's Well - he was a recently adopted fighting dog (!) and the people didn't know how badly he behaved in public. He escaped his harness and attacked Sunna - it seemed to take forever for them to catch him. Sunna also slipped out of her collar trying to get away, I fell on the loose rocks trying to protect her. What a nightmare! We made it that night to Camp Verde - we were both still shaken up.

The next day we drove over a 7000' pass and encountered snow! So I found a side road and stopped to let Sunna run in the snow. I discovered that sometimes it was hard to see her against a white background! We stopped at more Pueblo ruins. I had trouble finding a place to camp and ended up at a casino. By this time we had driven pretty much diagonally SE across Arizona and entered New Mexico at Lordsburg and then drove north to Silver City for the night.

I spent the whole next day driving on a dirt road about 80 miles round trip to get the Gila Cliff Dwellings - an outstanding example of Pueblo cliff dwellings. Then it was a very steep hike up to the dwellings. Really interesting. Didn't get to a place to camp until 5pm. In my notes I remembered feeling like drives like this are like meditation to me :)

View of south end of Lake Mead from an overlook on the way to the Hoover Dam. RV park is off in the distance to the left.

Above: the approach to the walkway over the Memorial Bridge. Yes, it was pretty steep. Below: The bridge dedication plaque - in memory of two veterans who were also well known - one an athlete, one a public figure.

Above and Below: views of Hoover Dam

This was the view of the walkway from the top. See my little RV down below?

I drove over the dam itself and took this photo looking down river - see the Memorial Bridge above.

Towers on the bridge gave the time - in two different time zones!

I had to just slow down to take the pictures above and below - there was no stopping on the bridge. Below, some beautiful sculptures. I couldn't stop to read about them.

This was a tourist stop - the next cavern tour was a long wait, so we just took a walk - in some snow with a monument to Route 66.

I know you always wanted to know where the expression "Dope on a Rope" came from...

Above and Below: when I saw this view I felt like I was seeing the Grand Canyon! In a way, I was. This was just south of Flagstaff (see the snow covered mountain above). It makes sense that the rock walls are part of the same formations. I was driving high above the valley below and passed a number of mining excavations.

Above: the town of Jerome. It was high up so that it was close to the mines and miners.

This Pueblo was on a hilltop - with great views of all the surrounding areas. Probably a security measure.

Picture this with the walls full height and roofs on each room!

Above, you can really see the valley wall that I saw from above.

Above: another view of Jerome, where you can see how high up it was....

Above and Below: Montezuma's Well - a natural sink hole, and the cliff dwellings on the side.

Above and several more below: Montezuma's Castle

Above: Diorama of the Montezuma's Castle ruins. Below, a wonderful sunset from the park we made it to that night.

We stopped at the top of a 7000' pass so Sunna could run in the snow. She really liked it, even though she's standing still here, she ran around a lot.

Not sure what bridge this is. Below, pics of the Tonto National Monument Cliff Dwellings. It was quite a steep walk up the ruins.

You can get a sense of how high we were.

I loved the new growth on the Saguaro cactus. And the curve-billed thrasher below.

On the way to the Gila Cliff Dwellings (above: Welcome Trail of the Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway). Below, amazing rocks.

Gila is pronounced Hee-lah

Petroglyphs and impressive rock formation

It was quite a hike up to the dwellings - I had to leave Sunna in the RV.

The holes you see are where they put poles to support roofs for shelter. Below, you can see the scale and the size of the overhanging roof.

Above and below: trying to capture the huge expanse of roof over the dwellings - the caves were deep into the hillside. The black is probably from soot.