Creek Running North

And this be one of the places i am headed a week from Thursday for my 60th birthday Southwest tour.  It has been way too long--twelve years--since i was down there.  I also can’t wait to revisit the opposite SE corner of the state, the Chiricahua Mountains, and that tour around the Dragoons: from Benson to Tombstone to the National Monument to Wilcox.  I really like the eastern half of the state with the mountains and river valleys, and the Apache reservations, as well as the western half of New Mexico.  I still remember quite clearly, 50 years ago, getting stuck in a winter blizzard in Taos and not being able to get back to SoCal and school for more than a week.  In some ways that region hasn’t changed all that much in all these years, much like the Grand Canyon.

According to FoxNews, i don’t know anything about global warming because it is a Northeast liberal conspiracy hoax perpetrated by ignorant people in Maryland who are suckers for NY elitists, but there seems to be something quite different in the air today up here.  It is January 3rd, right?? So why was i just out walking in the rain, along a raging Spokane River leaping over the falls, looking every much as it does in May, and noticing non-hibernating tree and ground squirrels??? This must be a blip or minor abnormality and bears no relationship whatsoever to the unreality of global climate change.

I am still kicking myself for never having gone to the Grand Canyon while I lived in NM. Heck, I didn’t even see Chaco Canyon.

But I have seen Cheddar Gorge. Not quite on the same scale, but cool if you like cheese.

I had the great privilege of hiking down the South Kaibab trail back in 1986, staying overnight at Phantom Ranch, and hiking back up Bright Angel trail the next day.  If only I could do it again in the company of a geologist.

Kathy, if you ever get the opportunity, go back to Chaco and visit the Grand Canyon on your way.  In fact, take a good map, draw a 200 mile radius circle with the apex at the four corners and visit all the major and minor sites within it.  Perhaps one of the greatest single collections of geological and archeological wonder in that size circumscribed region on the planet.  I am a huge Chaco enthusiast, but Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, the Canyonlands (and the real Rainbow Bridge), Painted Desert, are only a tip of the iceberg of stunning wonders that abound with every next curve around a sandstone wall.