Now nearly a month delayed, here is my second to last post from my road trip.

After Mesa Verde I arrived back in New Mexico, the state that first brought my guard down and lured me into adventures. I was in the far northwestern corner and, desperate for a shower and some internet, drove until dark searching for a state park that would provide. I was disappointed. I ended up at El Vado Lake State Park and picked a campsite just as a storm started to blow in. I set up my camp stove with a pot of soup and huddled in the car as the flame struggled to warm. I ate in my car and when I ventured out to do dishes and brush my teeth realized that it was snowing. It wasn’t my coldest night but I woke up to this:

Cooking my breakfast requires a little more interaction with the pot and I wasn’t about to stand out in the snow before the sun came up. So I packed up, did a quick washcloth scrub over the sink in the bathroom, and drove south around the lake and then East on the highway until I found a sunny spot, opened the car doors, turned up NPR, and had coffee and oatmeal at Echo Ampitheater all by myself.

My second stop that day was at Bandelier National Monument. I walked into the visitor’s center and up to the ranger and asked him where to go. He asked if I was familiar with the park and I said “I honestly have no idea what’s here. I just saw it on the map and came!”

It turned out to be another site of Ancestral Pueblo ruins, inhabited between 1200 and 1500 AD. The area has at least 3,000 sites, not all of which were lived in at the same time; much like urbanization of our population, over time the Anasazi moved from their small settlements into larger more concentrated cities. One of these is called “Long House,” an 800 ft long stretch of multistoried homes built against and into the cliffs. The geology of Frijoles Canyon is beautiful itself, and the way these people carved rooms out of the soft sandstone reminded me of Cappadocia in Turkey.

Walking around there I bumped into an older couple a few times and they highly recommended I see a place called Tent Rocks south of Santa Fe. I asked the ranger about it and he said there was no easy way to get there from Bandelier, even though it’s probably only about 50 km as the crow flies. I really liked this area and didn’t want to get back on the highway yet so I just kind of drove south west and hoped I would find a way. I came across a whole bunch of things up in the Jemez Mountains including Valles Caldera National Preserve (a caldera is a collapse that happens into inactive volcanos, exactly like what created Lake Atitlan that I visited in Guatemala), “Soda Dam” (a build up of minerals over centuries that has created a natural dam and waterfall), and some nice rock formations and lookouts.

I stopped and asked for directions in a little Pueblo and an hour later finally made it to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.  It was designated in 2001 which makes it one of the youngest monuments in the country. It is known for hoodoo/mushroom rock formations similar to those at Bryce and other places, but it does have something special about it. Especially the slot canyons and white and pink sandstone created by a lot of volcanic activity in the area.

The man at the front gate noticed my New York license plate and reported it was snowing over there. “That must be nice,” he said. “We’re way too dry here for this time of year.” I didn’t tell him that I had come out of a squall that morning and replied, “Everything in moderation.”

Then it was back on the road. I decided to go back to Ute Lake State Park in eastern New Mexico, where I knew there were hot showers. The weather was much nicer that night and in the morning I was greeted by two sweet dogs from the campsite next door. A lot of guys were there on fishing trips and I had a few “You’re sleeping in your car??” conversations.

I was heading East in a big way. I never did meet up with Chris (who recently moved to Singapore!) and was loving where I was and my traveler’s pace of life but things needed doing back at home in the Northeast. I had to interview for a job that was lining up, I found out there was a problem with my papers at the DMV, and time was running out to sign up for health insurance. One of my biggest shocks coming back to the US was realizing that it costs a LOT just to BE here. I was spending $30-50 a day on gas and maybe $5 a day on food, but that wasn’t including all of the required background costs of registration, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone, storing my things…. And the reality was that I needed a job and income, soon. I wasn’t disappointed necessarily. I just had to do what needed doing, and added more places on my list to visit in the future.