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"Trinity"...

4/5/2008

5 April ‘08

Saturday

“The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-make phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before…”Trinity””. Twice a year the government opens the Trinity Test Site at the White Sands Testing Grounds, and we were there on one of those days. The Trinity Test Site is the location of the “Manhattan Project”, where in June 1942 the final design and testing of the world’s first atomic bomb took place.

No matter what our personal feelings about the bomb and the testing, it was a part of our history. The fact that we were in the area on one of the days that they open the site to the public was exciting. To pass through the gates and see where the “event” took place, to stand on “ground zero”,

and to know that the world was changed forever when the testing was successful, was very sobering. Yep, while traveling we do see the “unprecedented, the magnificent, the beautiful, and the stupendous, but thank God we don’t often see the terrifying”.

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From Lava to Pueblo

4/4/2008

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4 April ‘08

Friday

Last night we pulled into The Valley of Fire National Park and found ourselves a great camping site. There are only 6 sites that have water and electric hook-ups and we found one available. Valley of Fire campground is the location that over-looks the lava flows that have covered more than 150 miles of New Mexico. We sit about 80 feet above the flow and have a view over all the flow and a part of the White Sands Bombing Site…fact is, we just had a couple jets do a low run over our heads and disappear into the mountains in front of us. The deafening sound of the jet and then the blast in the distance of their bombs, made it kind of exciting. Below us, there is a wonderful pathway that winds around for over ¾ mile over the top of the lava.

You can stay on the path or wonder down into the flow to get the close up view.

Last year at Lava Beds National Monument in northern California, we learned that the lava flows can be very sharp, so we stayed on the wonderful path that was provided for us. At the end of the boardwalk we were stricken with the artistic beauty of a "One Seed Juniper" tree...it was striking in contrast with the black lava.

There are a lot of stones in the Salinas Valley as we found when we visited the Pueblos.

The Salinas Valley Pueblos were built over 300 years ago by the Anasazi and Mogollon societies. Now I don’t have any idea as to who they were but they definitely were builders. All around the pueblos, the Indians developed a large farming and living community. The pueblos at Salinas Valley were individually small but as for the complete community it was considered large.

What we visited today was the contiguous stone and adobe homes of the Anasazi. It is estimated that at one time, more than 10,000 people once lived and worked here. They not only raised, and gathered their maize (corn), pinon nuts, beans, and squash, they were hunters. Soon after Spain conquered and colonized Mexico, they (the Spanish) traveled north and soon found their way to Salinas Valley. We read a little of the differences of the Pueblo and Spanish priests and the direction of how things went from there…not always friendly!!! During the times that were a little rough, there were “hidden” rooms that some of the Pueblo peoples would go to for their safety. The dwellings seemed to be either single or double floored, but where the hidden rooms came in, a larger hole was dug and then rocked over with a hidden entry someplace un-noticed.

The rock walls for all the pueblos were at least 2 feet thick, and this gave the people the insulation that was needed for the winters and hot summers, and of course, for their security.

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From The Prehistoric Jornada Mogollon...

4/3/2008

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3 April ‘08

Thursday

Just 15 miles further north of the sand dunes was our overnight stay…this was our 2nd Wal-Mart parking lot stay since we started all of this. We stayed in Alamogordo, New Mexico which is a small town that is mostly supported by the military installations around the area. Another 30 miles north from Alamogordo is a very interesting place to spend some time. It’s called the 3 Rivers Petro glyph Site. They have recorded well over 21,000 petroglyphs that were left for us to enjoy by the prehistoric Native Americans from 1,000 years ago.

The pictures were made with stone tools by removing the dark patina on the exterior of the rock. Some of the pertroglyphs were made by simply scratching the patina to the lighter layer below and others were created by striking (“pecking”) through the patina. The site is about 5 miles off of the highway and sits on about 60 acres of an area of small hills that over look the vast flatlands below.

They feel that this was most likely a trading area for all the different tribes that frequented the area from miles away. As we go into all of these different sites, we are constantly reminded that this is “snake country” and they are now out. I hope that we don’t get complacent, but so far we haven’t seen or heard one of the rattlers, but we’ll keep our eyes and ears open…

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From Transmission to White Sands...

4/2/2008

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2 April ‘08

Wednesday

We finally got our car back… For the last couple of months we’ve had this howl coming from the transmission area and I just felt that Sierra Vista might be the place for us to have it looked at. The work was all done under warrantee and they thought they might be able to get it done for us in 3 or 4 days. Well it took 7, but who’s counting???

After picking up the car at the dealer, I found that it had the sound of a vibration so back I went. To shorten this up a little, a couple of months ago we went into the red clay area of Yuma and put so much of that “goo” under and around the car, that I wasn’t able to get it off even after using the under car power wash 3 times. Now the dealer decided that it just had to be some of that mud that was stuck on the rear wheels and putting them out of balance. OK, let’s not argue the point, let’s just give it a try…so we are… Well, we pulled out this morning from Sierra Vista and are hoping for the best. Our route took us east on Arizona Hwy 10 all the way to the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico and the glistening white sands of the Tularosa Basin.

The Tularosa Basin is in the northern end of the Chihuahua Desert…is that too much information? Anyway our first stop was at the White Sands Visitor Center. There we learned about proving grounds were they test fire all the missiles, sometimes land the space shuttle, and the 8 mile circular drive through the “White Sands National Monument”. About two miles off of the highway, we found waves of glistening white gypsum dunes.

The brilliant white gypsum dunes are the largest in the world and we’re running around in our bare feet to really “get the feel”. The semi constant blowing wind (it was blowing pretty good today) is constantly changing the look of the dunes by moving them about 30 feet a year.

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"Trinity"...

From Lava to Pueblo

From The Prehistoric Jornada Mogollon...

From Transmission to White Sands...

Locations

Archives

"Trinity"...

From Lava to Pueblo

From The Prehistoric Jornada Mogollon...

From Transmission to White Sands...

*Locations*

*Archives*

Locations

Archives