Letter 4 We left Elk Creek campground headed for new territory, we stopped to see the
black canyon of the Gunnison.
Inside the visitor center we could see the
whole length of the canyon via aerial view.
Outside we walked down a
trail to see it in real life.
Three years ago we followed the opposite side of the canyon. All this (the unplanned detour with the trailer over steep hills) made Fred nervous so we moved on after a visit of about 2 hours.
The rest of the day continued with big excitement. We headed to a BLM park just off the side of state highway 145. Fred was determined not to go over any high passes so we swung way our to the western edge of Colorado.
We found the BLM park between Placerville and Norwood along a branch of the San Miguel river. As we pulled off the highway onto a gravel road we drove through some bushes encroaching on the roadway, then we turned parallel to the paved road, then we turned sharply to the right and down a hill to a parking lot. It was not big enough to turn around in so we pulled up and turned, several times. As we eventually turned to the right, we pulled into the nicest spot
Gravel up to the creek, bushes and some trees on either side. We visited outside for a few minutes while the water was getting hot for Fred’s shower. No one else was around—no campers or river visitors. We had no cell service. We were totally alone. We talked about how vulnerable we were to kids doing mischief or robbers.
This was a very appealing site with the river tributary at the back of our trailer, the solitude and the beautiful wooded setting. We decided to hide our billfolds and get the 18 inch long cheater bar from the hook-up supplies. All this conversation was very light hearted. If something were to happen we would trust God to take care of us. Fred said we should help ourselves as much as we could.
Then we had the best experience of our camping career!
About 3:30 in the afternoon, Olivia had set out our chairs, cheese, crackers and wine. Fred went to shower. She sat down to enjoy the view and refreshments, when she happened to notice something coming through the trees. It was a
bear! A young bear was headed straight toward Olivia! A bear! She immediately moved to unlatch the trailer door from its open position and flew into trailer, slamming the door behind her. Fred came out of bathroom wondering what was happening. Olivia was taking a
picture. Fred quickly found our bear whistles and started to blow. We decided the bear was about a year old and about 100 lb. The bear slowly moved off while also
looking around to see what whistle noise was. So Fred began to whistle again and he turned and left for good. We have thru the years read about bear protection—what to do if you meet a bear. One suggestion is a whistle, but it doesn’t always work. We keep them for just this occasion. They had never been used. We kept our heads about us and did what we could and thankfully it worked.
He didn’t like the whistle. God took care of us.
Bears can follow an odor from miles away. Wine and cheese are their favorites. Don’t bears roam and feed only at night? During most of the summer they do, but when they prepare for hibernation eating is a 24 hour job. Most need over 25,000 calories a day so that they can fatten up for the winter. So it isn’t surprising to see a bear during the day in late August.
It was interesting to see what looked to us like human body signals made by the bear.
Since he was probably out on his own for the first year, it’s possible he had never seen a human. Maybe his mother communicated to her youngster that he was, with no exceptions, the ruler of the wild forest. His body language said he was over whelmed by his encounter.
He was headed straight to the cheese, not distracted by anything. After seeing Olivia, he seemed to move hesitantly, as though he wasn’t sure what to do next. The way he held his head, then moved it from side to side told us he couldn’t believe other animals were as big as he and their den (trailer) was huge. These movements looked so human. Bear encounters are rare, but each year in North America there are mauling deaths.
Although we never talked about a desire for an encounter, we have always been alert for seeing a bear. I think we both had a desire to see a bear close up and living to tell about it. It was an exhilarating heart pounding unforgettable event. What an experience.
We pretty much stayed in the trailer, we just knew he would come back. We did hear dogs barking and found it was someone collecting buckets of river rocks. When we did go out we each had our whistles. We also didn’t cook, didn’t want cooking aromas to drift from the trailer. It was a good night for sandwiches. We also removed the snacks from the suburban.
This bear didn’t need another invite.
We decided it would be a good time for someone who might do mischief to show up. We would tell them there was a bear and we would let them to climb a tree! We laughed! It would be a perfect storm for camping—someone coming to rob us and being attacked by a bear!
The next morning as we were attempting to get out of the campground we forgot to take the turn in several tries. We ended in a jackknife position. That took at least 45 minutes to correct. We cut down 3 little trees and filled in some ruts to be able to make that corner. Fortunately we only had a few streaks on the side of the trailer and the sewer vent pipe lid is now missing. Oh well, this day made for an interesting story. We hope you enjoyed.
Later, we stopped at the ranger station in Norwood to report the bear spotting. They enjoyed our story and told us this was a perfect bear encounter. No one hurt, the bear still alive and scared from the food, learned a new dangerous sound. All is well.
We had been corresponding with Dee & Jack Stroope as they were in Arizona and Utah and we thought they might join us in the Durango area. This morning Olivia was able to reach Dee by text and see where they were. Since we were not going over any high passes we were taking the most western route we could to circle around to Durango. Sure enough they were heading into Colorado on an east west road that we were headed to. As we neared that road our service was better. We decided to meet in the little town of Dove Creek. Fred was desperate for cappucino and more so a place to pull off the road. Our last 59 miles had been very scenic with NO pull offs.
We had passed
sunflowers.
After a great reunion in a little grocery store/ restaurant with great hamburgers, we move over to Mesa Verde National Park.
The next day Dee, Jack & Olivia entered the park to take a couple of cliff dwelling tours. Fred didn’t want a rerun. Dee decided it would be best for her not to climb down and up, so Jack & Olivia proceeded through
Cliff Palace. After meeting up with Dee we went through the museum and looked at other parts of the park before going back to the trailer.
The next day we drove east through Durango stopping at their huge Walmart. At the entrance they were roasting green chili’s and we decided to split a 25 pound box of mild chili’s. It would be two hours before they were ready. They had a long line of already purchased boxes to roast.
We moved on to Vallecito and set up camp. Jack went back to get the chili’s. The four of us
gathered our tools and sat down to the picnic table. Two and a half hours later we cleaned up our mess. We had 24 pints of chili’s in zip lock bags ready to freeze.
Chile is truly a favorite local food. New Mexico has twelve chile producing counties and it is the state’s top cash crop. Not surprisingly, New Mexico ranks first in the world for the amount of chile produced and acreage planted. New Mexico produces over 76 million pounds of chiles each year. Try it on one of your meals today!
We were so pooped after that hard day, we treated ourselves to the park’s
hot tub. Sure felt good. Afterward Fred said the water smelled like green chiles. The next day we met a few of the others in the park. This is a nice park and we might come back for a month another year.
Sunday morning we attended the
First United Methodist Church of Durango. We made note of the TV screens on either side of the sanctuary.
We stayed in Vallecito three nights before driving south through Shiprock where Olivia searched out the
Four Corner’s Ministry from whom she had acquired her cross and flame necklace. This building is made to house mission trips that come to help this poor community.
Then on out to four corners where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah come together.
The monument marks the only point in the US where four states meet. The new plaza and interpretive panels hold an Indian market place with hand-worked crafts is open daily.
The drive out was very desolate with a very rough road. The monument was designed with 4 sides build for Indian vendors with lots of jewelry and other Indian products. Olivia
sat on the marker with each extremity in a different state. Then she
shopped, and shopped, and shopped.
One vendor was making
Indian Fry Bread.
Back along the highway we bought some
Kneel Down bread. It was more like a tamale only with fresh coarse ground corn.
Heading south we passed the actual
Ship Rock.
All the way to Gallup we were saddened to see the
desolate land and poor living conditions.
We also saw strange
power poles. We wondered why they were shaped that way.
As soon as we arrived in Gallup we drove to Perry Null Trading Co, to take a few pieces of Indian jewelry to be repaired, then went to Earl’s to enjoy their Mexican food and shopping.
You’ll find Earl’s—the best place in town,
Just off interstate forty at Gallup,
The Indian capitol of the world, and jewelry of all sort,
All authentic and Indian made,
Just under Earl’s awning—there in the shade,
Those native Americans gather,
To display what they made,
Young Indian children bring to your table on a tray,
Beautiful gifts on sale that day,
A most beautiful place to stop, and
The finest place in the world to shop.
If it’s authentic Indian jewelry you seek,
Visit those Navajo’s and take a peek. The food inside,—the best to eat,
The native American’s—Navajo they speak,
But never worry if you can’t speak Navajo,
They speak English for those on the go,
At an altitude of sixty five hundred feet,
When the winter is blowing in,—it looks so neat,
So all you rednecks traveling west,
Stop at Earl’s and get the best,
The best jewelry—and the best to eat,
And the friendliest Indians, If native American’s you seek,
There’s twenty thousand people that live in Gallup,
Nineteen thousand and ninety nine native Americans, And then there’s Earl,
From Earl's menu
Olivia read in the tourist information about an Indian lady Angeline Touchine, who sells her jewelry out of her home in Church Rock. Gallup’s Red Rock city park and campground where we stay is in Church Rock, three miles east of town. One night after Olivia had made contact with her,
she and her granddaughter came to our trailer to show us her work. Michael and Leisa, our newest friends, camped next to us also came over to see. They had never bought any Indian jewelry, but they fell in love with it. We enjoyed meeting Angeline and hearing her story about how she and her husband started making the jewelry. Now her husband has passed, but some of her children and grandchildren are following in her path. Counting her husband’s grandchildren from his first marriage and from their marriage, she has 68 grandchildren.
The next morning a
hot air balloon took off from our park. Each December Gallup has a balloon festival.
Saturday August 30, our trip for this year is drawing to an end. We stayed over for the Gallup flea market. We found Olivia
several pieces of new jewelry, look hard on the Indian blanket. Fred wondered if Medicare would pay for an operation to add more fingers to each hand so she wear more jewelry.
Actually Fred is very happy when she can find and buy a new piece.
Then we packed the trailer and headed to Albuquerque. We made good time, but also wanted to stop at a truck wash to clean the rig. Sure enough it took us 2 hours to accomplish the wash. By the time we stopped at the Isleta Lakes RV park it was almost dark. Yes we were very tired.
The rest of the trip will be history as we drive about 200 miles a day, so we will see you when we get home in a few days. We have been very fortunate to have this trip and we count our blessings.
We do love hearing from you so email us at
olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com
