My traveling companions and I are in Monument Valley, Utah at the comfy confines of Goulding's Lodge. The temperature dropped 20 degrees since yesterday to a cool and windy 61 degrees. Monument Valley is located in the Navajo Nation Reservation and surrounds the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park on the Utah-Arizona border. Unfortunately, due to high COVID-19 infection rates among the Navajo, the park is closed. Fortunately, Goulding's has prepared alternate viewing sites in a tour we are embarking on later. The photo above is view from the patio attached to our room. The skies here and in Arizona and New Mexico has been affected by smoke drifting from disastrous wildfires raging in California and Colorado.
Oh, and my travel companions include my mother, the "bagel" Einstein, and Priscilla, my sister's the so named Ford Flex, truly now Queen of the Desert.
COVID has apparently taken its economic toll on small town Texas. We passed through towns I know and some I did not, like Early, Lawn, Shallowater, Sudan, and Zephyr. Perhaps a microcosm of larger cities and socioeconomic situations of the nation as a whole. Clearly run down and empty or closed businesses, but you can also get a sense of a more affluent home or business, albeit on very small scale. A wide disparity. It had been raining, so at least farmers are not seeing drought conditions lately. Otherwise, we might have to get Lawn and Shallowater together.
In west Texas, we see changing landscape, not only in geography but in resources. It is a combination of old and new with towering energy generating windmills in the same field as old oil pumpjacks, still churning their black gold, all in the midst of a field of cotton. The section of Texas between Abilene and Lubbock and northward to Amarillo produces the most renewable wind energy in the US.
In this time of dealing with COVID, we have seen varying degrees of mask wearing. New Mexico has tighter restrictions on gatherings than other states, yet most people there were not wearing masks. In rugged, independent, "don't tell me what to do" West Texas, 90% or more were wearing masks. My home state is taking it in stride. Of course, it is Labor Day 2020 weekend and many want to enjoy the outdoors. We took meandering scenic drive through the Jemez Mountains and Santa Fe National Forest just west of Santa Fe, and witnessed several gatherings of maskless picnickers, hikers, and kids enjoying waterfalls. I hope they stay healthy.
The scenery in this area in the is spectacular. The area also includes the vast Valles Caldera. The geography of the mountains reflect the volcanic eruptions from the ancient caldera. The forest includes ponderosa pine, spruce, and pinon trees. Evidence of forest fires can be viewed in several locations but as nature does, regrowth and recovery is under way. Old and new.
We didn't see elk on this day in the aptly named Valle Grande in the caldera, but they are quite prevalent here. I did see a grey fox, hunting for its lunch.
After a few interminably long roads, we arrive at Goulding's and have a mostly relaxing day ahead.
More from the road next time.
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