Friday, June 10, 2011

Southwest Indian Road Tour 2009

Road trip in May, 2009 with Peggy and Lee Collins in our car.  Here we were entering Canyon DeChelly in Arizona

Pat and Eugene at an outlook at Canyon DeChelly

Looking at a tower down in the canyon

A view of the canyon - there are a lot of Navajos who live in this area.

On the trail to the White House ruins

Crossing the river after reaching the bottom of the canyon.

Looking at the White House ruins

Peggy and Lee in front of White House ruins

Showing the trail as we are hiking out of the canyon
Window Roch on the western Arizona/New Mexico border

The NavajoNation Tribal Center (there is a real cow in the picture just wandering around)

D
Dinner at a restaurant near the hotel in Albuquerque

The next day we visited the Albuquerque temple grounds

The front of the temple

A view of the back of the temple from the parking lot

In Santa Fe at Loretto Chapel with its miraculous stairway (notice the strange guy inbetween Pat and Peggy)

Eugene in front of the cathedral

Pat standing by a pig sculpture at an art shop

Pat inside one of the many gift shops

The art section of Santa Fe

Pat looking over the jewelry

All of us sitting down for a minute after shopping

A flute player in front of a shop

Eating some great Mexican food at a Santa Fe restaurant
Entering Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico

Ruins of dwellings built in and around some natural cliffs

Ruins out in the open

Eugene and Pat on the path to more ruins

More of the path to the ruins (Pat in red)

The four of us on the path

Passing more ruins

The highlight of the ruins was this area where we had to climb a lot of ladders.

Peggy and Pat had gone up part way.  More to go!

Here we are on our way to the top.

We made it to the top.  Eugene climbed up, too.

Pat sitting down for a rest at the kiva on the top.

Going back down the ladder.

An interesting squirrel we saw on the hike --notice the long ears.

The hotel we stay at in Taos, north of Santa Fe


We visited the Taos Pueblo village

The ruins of the old church and the old cemetery

These are actual dwellings of present-day Pueblo Indians.

The new church in the village

Adobe ovens, one with a door and one with a door.  They had to cover the ovens to keep the dogs from going in for shade.

Neat looking group of Pueblo houses (like apartments)

We had to have a guide to go in (she is in white).

More ovens (notice the Indian behind the ovens in front of the turquoise door)

A shot of an Indian artist putting out his wares between the ovens.  They didn't want us to photograph the local people.

One of the dwellings showing the color and interesting door decoration.

Many of their shops were their actual homes that they opened to us during the day to sell their wares.

Pat looking at a flute on the wall (notice the oven/range that they would use after they put their artwork away for the evening.

Another view of the pueblos.

A skull hanging in front of a pueblo.

An Indian artisan displaying her wares.

There are several Indians in the shade of the "awning".

Some of the flower arrangements they had for sale.

A scenic view of the houses.

A closer view

This shows the ladders and the color.

Eugene and Pat sitting outside the blue door.

Now we are in front of the red door.

Pat standing on the corner of Rotten Tree Road with her new bag she just bought.
Lunch at cute restaurant in Taos.

More shopping - Pat and Peggy and their bags.

Eugene and Lee trying to stay awake waiting for the shoppers to come back.
Aztec Ruins National Monument

A view of the ruins (much of it has been restored)

Here's Eugene standing on some parts that haven't been restored.

Pat looking through several walls (their doorways were very small).

Looking down into a large kiva

We went down inside a big group kiva that had been restored.

We took our own picture while we were inside the kiva.

A Navajo woman decorating her pottery at the Aztec Ruins.

Before we left New Mexico we saw Ship Rock in the distance.



Actually, we went to this trading post after leaving Canyon DeChelly and Window Rock (the blog puts things where it wants to put them.)

The outside of the trading post (our car is parked in front)

Pat holding a cute bear inside the trading post.

Eugene took a picture of the Indian woman from afar.

Peggy looking at a book in the trading post.

There were hundreds of beautiful rugs available to buy.

Pat ready to buy her Hubbel Trading Post tee shirt

Eugene exploring some of the out buildings on the post.