Four Summers ago NM, Arizona

part 2 USA trip 1, 2009

We returned to New Mexico in June. Since this was our first trip, we had ordered a complete camping outfit for our motorhome online and after unpacking and installing everything in the cabinets, the journey started!

Because I was longing for some art and culture, we traveled the famous Turquoise Trail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe first. I was intrigued by its name (of course!), the quaint little shops in a place called Madrid and the overall atmosphere that was described in the tourist brochure. We were not disappointed!

In the first series of pictures you can see the mountain range we drove through, the turquoise stones, the artsy boutiques, chillie strings, and mailboxes. This was my very first time to see these boxes lined up and I remember being thrilled (many more would follow...)!

 click the images please

After having visited Santa Fe once again we left for Arizona. We had been in this Grand Canyon State before and this time our goal was the Canyon de Chelly in the area near the New Mexico border. This landscape was also empty and very dry, which you can see in the second storyboard. The Canyon was very impressing, we first drove along its gorge from above and later that day took a trip down in the canyon with a jeep. Unlike the Grand Canyon, this one can be reached by car, though that is limited to a few touroperators, mainly run by Native Americans. The whole area around the canyon, including the campground, was Native American terrain.

The cave dwellings were amazing, it is unbelievable now that people have been living there a long time ago. The truck that took us down in the canyon was a very sturdy one, which appeared to be no luxury when it started to rain. In a very short period of time the bottom of the canyon was like a river...! Of course we were    impressed by the cave drawings, the shape of the rocks. Down in the canyon a little Native American girl appeared as soon as our jeep arrived, she showed us her jewelry and managed to sell some.

I've been posting about the Canyon de Chelly back in 2009 and you can read that post here

More information about the Turquoise Trail in New Mexico can be found here and there is lots of information about the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona here.

Have a wonderful day, thanks for visiting!

Regina