I drove too much yesterday so kicked back today to enjoy the scenery.
The last time I was here the weather was overcast, turning to heavy rain, and the visitor center/hotel complex was under construction. Threat of road closures chased me out before I had any chance to enjoy the view.
The new building complex is very nice, an excellent place to sit back and just watch the view. The gift shop is quite remarkable for it’s quality jewelry and other crafts, all at a completely fair price. If you can’t afford Santa Fe prices, this place will make you happy.
The museum was a disappointment. Native Americans don’t have a written history, and aren’t particularly interested in old things. So their museums usually start when the white occupiers showed up, leaving everything else to the anthropologists to figure out whatever they wish. They have a history, of course, but it exists in stories told and re-told, songs and dances done and re-done, which you can see and hear but not in the museum format. So it’s a disappointment to tour any native museum because there isn’t much to place under glass to display.
I chatted at length with the lady that owns “the surface rights” for the “RV park” I’m in. The park itself is a dirt field with a few ramadas you see along the road for selling crafts. Ten dollars a night. It has a view almost as good as the park. Good place, but I’d be surprised if it’s here the next time I come through.
Tomorrow it’s a trip to the Farmington area. Blowey right now, but otherwise excellent weather.