We arrived into the heat in Grants on Tuesday, September 7th. At an altitude of 6,460 feet, Grants was lower than we had been in over a month and further south. Temperatures were in the low 90’s, not the high 70’s and low 80’s like we were used to. Grants is in the high desert, is very dry and has spectacular scenery. To the north is Mt. Taylor (named for Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican War and the 12th President of the United States – 1849 until his death in July 1850 of an undetermined digestive ailment) and to the south is El Malpais National Monument. “Mal Pais”, Spanish for “bad country” is an area of volcanic activity and large lava flows. There are five major lava flows within the monument – El Calderon, Twin Craters, Cerro Hoya, Bandara, and McCarty’s. The oldest is the El Calderon flow which is about 115,000 years old, while the youngest is McCarty’s which is only between 2,000 and 3,000 years old. As previously explained, we went to Grants because of Tony Hillerman novels and to visit the El Malpais National Monument.
Our home for three nights was the KOA Journey campground in Grants. KOA (Kampgrounds of America) was the first chain (corporate owned and franchise owned) of campgrounds in the US. Founded and headquartered in Billings, MT, KOA consists of two campground designations, Journey – focused on providing single night or a few nights of camping with a small number of amenities, for campers on the way to somewhere else; and Holiday – usually collocated with a “destination” (a national park or city) and offering a wider range of amenities for campers who will stay several days up to a week, to visit the “destination”. Of course, the Holiday parks are more expensive than the Journey parks. At the Grants KOA Journey we found some really nice workampers, who made us feel very welcome with continental breakfasts, good coffee and lots of advice about the area. We really enjoyed the small nature trail in the adjacent to the campground in the lava flow with interpretive signage.
Martha spent Wednesday, September 8th, concentrating on computer work while Walt explored Grants trying to find a tire shop that could replace our leaking valve stem extension, going to Wal-Mart and visiting the El Malpais Visitors Center. The Visitor Center was on the east end of Grants, had a great movie about the high desert of New Mexico, lots of books (Walt’s kryptonite – he only bought two, plus a T-Shirt), including several Tony Hillerman novels, and recommendations of hikes in the National Monument. The film was narrated by N. Scott Momaday a Kiowa Indian novelist and featured scenes from the movie “Four Faces West” (1948) with Joel McCrae and his real-life spouse Francis Dee. In one scene they are on a train and, describing the scenery out the window, Francis exclaims, “there are nothing but rocks”, a fit description of much of the arid west.
In the evening, Walt took the dogs, Joon & Bess, on an adventure, driving down the east side of the Monument to the Sandstone Bluffs overlook and then the La Ventana Arch trail. The Bluffs provided a great view of the most recent lava flow (McCarty) and the Zuni Mountains to the west. However, as the sun was also in the west, the view was hard to really appreciate. The La Ventana (The Window in Spanish) Arch was a ½ mile hike to a large spectacular arch. On the trip back to the campground, he captured the sunset behind a large rock outcropping (as Francis Dee exclaimed, “there are nothing but rocks”.
Martha joined Walt on the morning of Thursday, September 9th, to return to the Sandstone Bluffs and La Ventana Arch. The view from the Bluff was fabulous with the sun behind us from the east. You could see the vast lava flow (about 25 miles long), the bluffs were great to climb around on and they showed such evidence of erosion and the effect of geologic time. We were able to see the sun rise above La Ventana arch and shine down through the arch. Martha was entranced with the light and took lots of pictures. We returned to Grants, stopping to offer a young man and woman a ride to the Wal-Mart, and going to the Wal-Mart ourselves. After lunch at the motorhome with the dogs, we drove south to the “Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano” (www.icecaves.com/). This is a privately owned property on the side of the National Monument that features a hike into one of the volcanic calderas and to a lava cave that contains ice year-round. There was nice cloud cover and the hike to the caldera was pleasant. This volcano had “blown out” the side of the cone so the hike entered the caldera from the side, not a steep climb to the top. On the way up, you could see 15 to 20 other calderas that had been active during the volcanic period of the area. From the caldera, we hiked through the lava flow to the ice cave. During this portion of the hike, the sun had come out and the lava rocks were warm, so we were really straggling by the time we arrived at the ice cave. Descending many steps, we were in a 31 degree environment that felt really good. The cave geometry traps the cold air and keeps that cool temperature year-round. The ice collects mostly in the winter and is estimated to be up to 20 feet deep. The ice was “mined” in the past, but not since the 1940’s.
While we were at the Grants KOA Journey, a group of about 20 mountain bike riders spent one night with their tour guides. This group was cycling the western Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico. Mostly riding dirt roads and trails, their trip of 65 days was about a week from the finish. Most impressive was the fact that the group included several 70 year-olds. There is hope for us yet.
Packing up at 7:00 AM on Friday, September 10th, we departed the Grants KOA Journey and went to Delta Tire Shop in Grants. They took the two tires off the driver’s side rear and determined that there was a valve stem leak in the inner tire. They replaced the valve stem, but they did not have a valve stem extension. The Tire Pressure Monitoring transmitter and the valve stem are now inside the outer tire and not easily accessible, but at least the tire no longer leaks!!! Cost was $22.00!!
We drove west on I-40 to Gallup and then northwest, crossing the New Mexico/Arizona border, into the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation encompasses much of northeast Arizona, the far northwest portion of New Mexico and small parts of southeast Utah and southwest Colorado. We drove through Ganado and Chinle on US 191 and then Walt missed the turn for Arizona highway 59 at Many Farms. Martha was taking a nap on the couch, recovering from the Ice Cave and Volcano hike and Walt was listening to Syd Masters cowboy tunes on the CD. At Many Farms, the remaining distance to Monument Valley was about 70 miles, but when he next looked, the distance (Google Maps) was 108 miles. The roads were two-lane with no opportunity to turnaround, so he resigned himself to traveling an addition 30+ miles and just enjoyed the scenery. The drive on US 160 west through Chinle Wash, a dry stream bed ranging north-south for over 50 miles was very beautiful. We finally arrived at Kayenta, AZ, and turned north on US 163, crossed the Utah border and arrived at Goulding’s Lodge and Campground (https://gouldings.com/). Hidden in a canyon to the west of the Monument Valley Tribal Park (run by the Navajo Nation), Goulding’s resort was all red sandstone, rock and dirt, with the rock walls towering overhead. Harry Goulding was a sheep trader looking for a new business opportunity and a place to call home. In the early 1920s, Harry and his wife Leone, whose nickname was “Mike,” visited Monument Valley and were enamored with the area and quickly set up a Trading Post. In the 1930’s he and his wife traveled to Hollywood to persuade a movie production company scouting out locations in the southwest to come to Monument Valley. They fortuitously met John Ford who was looking for a location to shoot Stagecoach (1939) with John Wayne, and the Hollywood love affair with Monument Valley began.
