Saturday May 6, 2023 - Canyon de Chelly to Hovenweep National Monument

 

The heater did its job last night. It had light work since it is cool this morning but not cold. But a sunny day once again. We did the dump station this morning and re-upped our water. We only have 7.5 gallons of clean water and 7.5 gallons of grey water (sink) and the checmical toilet, so pretty quick and easy. These stations usually have a long water hose so we just snake it inside the camper and re-fill the water tank. It looks like about half the campsites had folks in them.

We saw the Saskatchewan folks outside their rig so we stopped. We saw them a day or two ago. They have the same color Dodge Ram Promaster van (sandstone) which is a little unusual. Very nice folks heading back north. They recognized us as well, again, the sandstone van thing.

Today’s plan is easy: drive to Hovenweep National Monument. We really like these national monuments, memorials, and historic sites since they’re hidden gems and less traveled than some of the bigger attractions with more name recognition.  The red rocks and desert are slowly leaving us as we head north and instead we are seeing a lot of grassland. Today will be mostly Navajo Reservation again which gives it an “other country” feel. Not many chain places, but a few. 

We are travelling through grassland with the original red mesa popping up. Monument Valley is just to the west, so we saw a lot of that type of thing. Lots of single story houses dispersed here and there way out in the middle of nowhere. The Navajo must like their space and they certainly have the vistas.

Breakfast/lunch in Bluff, Utah at Twin Rocks Cafe. All day breakfast and WiFi! We have been through Bluff before together and I have been through here once or twice with the motorcycle. Small town underneath a long line of bluffs. Mormons went through here in the early 1800’s then came came back and settled.

Rough paved road all the way to the park. We stopped at the ranger station and a couple of folks there gave us the lowdown. Puebloan people were here in the late 1200’s and built a lot of architecturally interesting stone houses and storage towers for food. They were not here too long. The buildings, now ruins, are for the most part two story. They are round tower like or square with a tower at one end. One tower was built square but twisted as it goes up. Must have been an architect with an eye for style in this tribe.

We got a campsite easily and as of last night Deb said the campground was only ⅔ full. After nailing down the campsite we did the 2+ mile walk around the ruin site. They built a lot of these with square stone but I did not see a lot of square stone around so did they cut stone somehow? Or did they use up all the square stone? I’m sure someone must have done a Masters thesis on this…

We made supper in the van and were in bed by 9:00. We picked up an hour so it gets dark around 8:30 or so. Another great day.