Hello and welcome to the newest edition of From The Vault! The series where I go back and dredge up old, lost, or unwritten stories of my travels. This was a two day trip I did in 2019. Much like the U.F.O. Watchtower adventure, the Official Plan for this trip is written in my trip journal that I left back at home this summer. (Everything is on my laptop now). Despite this setback, I felt it was fairly easy to reconstruct the complete trip. I’m just going off of pictures and memory since this is before I had google timeline. Apparently I wrote this in Covid isolation earlier this year, but I never posted it. Huh? How did I forget this? Anyways, here it is! Hope you enjoy!
Day 1: The Drive
I left my duplex at 8pm and headed down I-25 to Albuquerque. Driving on I-25 at night can be scary because you never know when a deer might attempt to cross the highway while you are cruising at 80mph. (Although I’ve never seen one on I-25). Once in Albuquerque I hopped onto I-40 west and in a little more than an hour I was at my hotel in Grants, New Mexico. Almost 300 miles from Philmont.
The original plan was to do all this in one day, but I changed my mind at the last second. I decided to do the first 4.5 hours the day before so I wouldn’t have to leave at midnight. The catch was that I left at 8pm so I arrived at the hotel at midnight. Worth it?
Day 2: The Adventure
This was the epic travel day. First I went south to El Malpais. It is a huge lava field in the middle of the western New Mexican desert. Some parts look similar to the vast lava fields in Iceland, but that’s a story for another day.
It was really hot even though it was still the end of May and the summer hadn’t officially started. (I consider June the start). I got to walk through a bit of the lava formations and hike up a dormant volcano.
The trail up was made of golfball to baseball sized pieces of gravel. Walking in sneakers was kind of a struggle. The trail was pretty short and once I got to the top the view was interesting, but kind of a disappointment. I wanted magma! Lava! Steam! None of that here sadly, just a few trees and larger stones in the pit. Cool to see a crater though, not many of those in Boston.
I took the longer scenic trail down, which had the benefit of more shade. There were a few more lava formations on the way back.
One of the cool things near El Malpais is the New Mexican Ice Caves! I kid you not, it was probably near 95F outside in the sun. If you walk down 2 flights of stairs you get to a little cutout at the bottom that is cold and has ice! I thought it was really interesting and totally worth a stop.
The sign said 12 – 15ft thick ice, but I think it’s a seasonal thing. Maybe a specific day in the summer or what have you. Still, seeing ice at all in this landscape was crazy. Next I headed west on highway 53 for about 15 miles.
I was now at El Morro! This is basically a city on top of a cliff. The Ancestral Puebloans called this ‘home’ for nearly one hundred years. There were also little caves at the bottom of the cliffs rather than halfway up like at Mesa Verde NP or Navajo National Monument.
They also went to the top of these rocks and had ceremonies and such. Going up was pretty easy and you had to go up a steep metal staircase. There were a fair amount of people there that day so there was a bit of a line to go up the stairs.
The Puebloans also had houses on the top! You can see the brick remains as you walk around on top. It was sort of like the brick houses at the Salinas Missions National Monument.
The view from the top was really nice! Once at the top there is a paved trail that is mixed with a rock scramble. I think rather than take the time and money to smooth everything out, the park service opted to leave it as authentic as possible. It is a nice turn from the museum tourist style paths like the ones elsewhere.
Going back down is a nice change from the populated summit. Here you have a winding concrete path on the backside of El Morro. On the way down you get to see a rock that isn’t really supported by anything.
I also saw a snake on the path I was on so I deviated and went the longer way back to the visitors center.
Next up was the Hubble Trading Post National Monument near Gallup, New Mexico. Crash course history lesson: The Navajo were exiled to New Mexico from Arizona. About a decade later they were allowed back into Arizona. Hubble bought the trading post and traders would come trade with the Navajo. Today it still operates as a trading post and is the oldest continuously operating one in the Navajo Nation! (This might be a little off and I’m sorry)
Most of the items (like jewelry, rugs, clothing, or other handmade things) were too expensive for me so I just got a small memento of my visit and some pancake syrup for Brenda. Usually food gifts are best because they eventually go away and don’t take up unnecessary storage space at home.
Walking around the outside of Hubble Trading Post was interesting as it’s sort of tucked away in a small neighborhood. This trip was back when I didn’t really plan out how long I’d spend at each location so I now (when writing this) assume I expected nothing here but the trading post and therefore wouldn’t spend as much time. I remember taking a little extra time to browse as the google reviews were wrong and it was actually a sizable place. Also it turns out that there are actually a decent number of people who visit for the National Park stamp as well as the surrounding property.
The last stop of the day was the main event: Canyon De Chelly National Monument! (Pronounced: ‘Canyon Day Shay’) I had first glimpsed a sign on my way to the Grand Canyon, but when I said “can we go? Pleaaaaase??” Mom probably thought that a deserted dirt road in the middle of nowhere spelled disaster and replied with “No we have no time”. Haha I had finally made it back. Driving anywhere into Arizona from Philmont is nuts. Canyon De Chelly is about as close as you can get to New Mexico.
I walked into the visitors center and they informed me that the park was closing within a few hours so it would be difficult / impossible to see everything…challenge accepted. I did admit that seeing the north and south rims in 2 hours or less was impossible So I chose the south rim because it was closer and set off.
~Side note: Ok here I’m going off of picture time stamps and I believe I was here for a total of 2 hours. I’m also not sure which pictures are at what viewpoints because I never labeled them. Also a fair chance I’m posting them in the wrong order.~
Usually it takes at least a few hours to reach all the way to the end and stopping at every viewpoint according to the ranger, but since I didn’t have much time he pointed out some of the best places. (Junction, White House, and Spider Rock I think). I decided to go all the way to the end first then casually make my way back towards the exit.
This place is HUGE. I’d call it a lesser known Grand Canyon. (It’s not as deep). The Spider Rock viewpoint actually made me speechless. (Not joking…my expectations were average when planning this out). It was like there was an oasis in the middle of this canyon. The orange colored walls really made all the green plant life pop.
One thing you don’t realize about this picture is that, at the time the only thing separating you from a 600ft fall is a small 4ft high stone wall right on the edge. If you are afraid of heights this is not the place for you haha.
Snaking my way back I got to see some cliff dwellings! They were way way down in the canyon. The only way to get to the bottom is to book a fairly strenuous guided hike to the bottom. I think I could make it down just fine, but back up I’m not so sure.
Another viewpoint showed me a massive rock pile next to a canyon wall. I’m not sure how it formed, but it must of been quite the collapse if that was the case. If you look closely you can see peoples houses. One reason why you can’t just hike in as an average tourist is because people still live there. I’d imagine that the park service assumes some people would be not be respectful and thus made the guide rule. Perhaps the people living at the bottom like a more peaceful ‘just me and not you’ sort of lifestyle. I’m not sure.
One strange thing I saw was what looked like a child’s footprint in the ground at the top of the canyon. That is weird because the ground is solid rock and you can’t just make a footprint like you can with wet concrete. It’s possible it was carved and I’m just being foolish. Around this footprint I had a local resident come up to me and tried to get me to buy one of his jewelry pieces. Since I only had a few dollars in cash and he didn’t have a credit card reader that meant that I could only get a small wristband. I’m relatively easy to convince, so I bought one and it’s in my National Park drawer at home. 🙂
In my opinion, one drawback of Canyon De Chelly is that to see viewpoint after viewpoint of essentially the same thing from a different angle makes a person like me bored quite easily. Of course this is probably because I saw the best place first then made my way back through the other viewpoints, but who knows?
The drive back to Philmont was something that I was unsure of. The plan was to stop at Pauls house then make it to Philmont from there, but I think that since I was running late I either skipped it or dropped by, waved a quick hello, and left for Philmont. The drive back was about 450 miles in one go. That’s between a short and medium drive for me. It wasn’t really the distance that was making me hesitant, but what I’d be driving through: nothing! I-40/I-25 is boring if all you are doing is driving at night. Plus wild animals, cops, and crazy Albuquerque drivers.
According to the plan I got back at 9pm, but without any true record of that I’m theorizing it was more like midnight because I have one picture of the highway right before Paul’s house at 9pm. It takes at least 3 hours minimum to get to Philmont from Albuquerque so therefore sometime after midnight makes sense. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading about this old trip! See you next time!
Stats
Estimated total miles: 932mi
Actual miles: Not sure, I didn’t record it. Probably within +/- 25mi of that estimation. Usually I’m not far off unless I make a (major) unplanned detour.
Bb8 pictures: 1
Could I do this in a day now?: Maybe!
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