All posts filed under: Heritage Travel

Posts about travels to places around the globe that reflect our shared heritage

Home of the Cliff Dwellers

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We had been told by friends and colleagues that Mesa Verde was a special place.  But until we saw the stone communities, hiked the canyons, climbed among the cliff dwellings, heard the rangers tell the stories of the Ancestral Puebloans, and took in the majesty of the landscape, it was hard to comprehend its wonder. We spent two days at Mesa Verde National Park and the lack of internet connectivity…not to mention the lack of televisions in the hotel rooms…helped us focus on the people and their stories.   It made for a very special visit for our family. On the first day, we arrived in time to visit the Spruce Tree House site (see photo above), which is easily accessible and a good introduction to what we’d see the next day.   With our appetites for the site visit whetted, we satisfied our appetites for food with a great meal at the Far View Lodge’s restaurant. The second day was full of hiking and climbing.  All four of us began the day by visiting the Long …

Bluff(ing) our way to Canyon de Chelly

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When last we were in the land of Internet connectivity, we left you in Bluff, Utah – population 320.  After driving through Monument Valley with a stop at Goulding’s Trading Company for some great Navajo tacos, we arrived in Bluff to spend the night at the historic Decker House Inn.  We were met by Sandy the innkeeper in one of the town’s more substantial homes, and shown to a wonderful double room where we could all spread out.  Needless to say, Andrew and Claire were pleased! Bluff is located in the middle of a very harsh landscape of red sandstone and deep gorges.  The town was settled by Mormon pioneers in the middle of the 19th century, and some of the buildings from that era (such as the Decker House Inn) have survived.  Even with such a small population, Bluff had some good restaurants, probably the best quality trading post we’ve seen so far, and a historic preservation organization which had prepared walking tours and great brochures of the town’s history.  After a scrumptious breakfast served …

A Few Observations From the Road

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Observation #1:  Native Americans didn’t locate near cell towers.  That’s a good thing.  But it means that we’ve had almost zero connectivity from Canyon de Chelly and Mesa Verde.  Expect the next full post on Saturday when we’re in Durango. Observation #2:  Is ANYONE left in Europe?  I can’t believe it because they are ALL touring the American Southwest.  Our experience has been that there are 3/4’s international visitors to 1/4 domestic visitors everywhere we go.  We went on a great tour of Canyon de Chelly with a big group from Italy.  Out of 24 people, only 8 of us were from the US.  It has been great to listen to all the languages but what it says about the exchange rate…and my upcoming trip to Slovakia…isn’t so wonderful. Observation #3:  Once you get the post from Durango, you can learn how I made it through an 18″ tunnel I  climbed yesterday afternoon at Mesa Verde with Andrew and Claire at the Balcony House ruins.  I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about that – …

Sacred Places

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After two wonderful days at the Grand Canyon, we headed out on Tuesday – but not before making a stop at Mary Colter’s beautiful Desert View Watchtower at the eastern entrance to the park.  Colter designed this gift shop and observation tower for the Fred Harvey Company in a way that appears to blend into the landscape.  She also brought in Hopi artist Fred Kabotie to paint the interior of the tower with symbols that depict various elements of Hopi mythology and religious ceremony.  There is a great reverence for the Native American culture here in Colter’s work.  Click on the link above for a description of the construction of the tower.  This structure is also featured on the beautiful cover photograph of my colleague Arnold Berke’s wonderful book on Mary Colter. After leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed to Utah, driving through the magnificent Monument Valley of Arizona and Utah.  Read the Wikipedia write up linked above to begin to understand the geological and tourism aspects of this wonderful place, but it is best understood …

Meteor Shower Over the Grand Canyon

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We were fortunate to be staying at the Grand Canyon on the night of August 11-12, when the Perseids Meteor Shower took place over North America.  Had we been at home, we would have lamented the fact that we’d have to drive a long distance to get away from the city lights to hope to have a chance to see the meteors.  However, when Andrew saw a feature while checking his email yesterday, he stopped by the front desk to see if the park was planning anything special and yes! – we were going to be up at 2 a.m. checking out this celestial fireworks display. The Olympics have come along at a bad time for us, because we stayed up until 11:30 p.m. (local time) to see if the USA men’s gymnastic team would hang on to the silver team medal.  (They didn’t, losing in the last event and dropping to the bronze.)  So we got about 2 hours of sleep before the alarm went off, but everyone pulled themselves out of bed, put on …

A Grand Day

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Monday dawned clear, sunny, and beautiful over Grand Canyon, and we made the best of it.  The crowds thinned considerably from Sunday, so we could hike, eat, and enjoy all there is to see at our own pace. On Sunday, we stopped to talk with a ranger and had looked through his telescope to see one of the California Condors in his nest.  These remarkable birds — now being re-established in the wild after having a brush with extinction — have a 9′ wing span, fly at about 55 miles per hour, and can soar to 20,000 feet and then coast for two hours. So imagine our surprise on our way to breakfast on Monday when a California Condor (#72 as tagged on his wings — he was that close) came swooping over our heads looking for his breakfast.  It was wonderful, and I whipped out the camera and captured this picture as he circled overhead.  The size of this bird was amazing…as Andrew points out, just think that one wing is about the size …

Take It Easy

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“Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona; What a fine sight to see…” But I get ahead of myself. Sunday was a big travel day on our western trip, but we did manage to see some great historic sites and landscapes, eat a couple of nice meals, and recall a part of our youth. Sunday morning we left the first of three hotels with a great history that we visited that day.  El Rancho in Gallup, New Mexico bills itself as the “Home of the Movie Stars” – as long as you mean movie stars of the 1930s-1950s.  We stayed in the Spencer Tracy Room and had fun walking through this funky western-style lobby (see photo below) looking at pictures of Errol Flynn, an early Fred McMurray, Katherine Hepburn, and the like.  We left El Rancho and found a great local breakfast diner in Gallup – called My Sister’s Place – that reminded us of the Beverly Restaurant in Staunton and the City Cafe in Murfreesboro (two of our favorite family breakfast restaurants).  Suitably fortified …

A Magical Day at Acoma

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Yesterday was magical for the Browns as we visited Acoma Sky City, the country’s oldest continuously inhabited community, on a splendid summer day.  Acoma Sky City is a National Trust for Historic Preservation Historic Site and one of this country’s very special places.  Rising early we arrived at the spectacular Sky City Cultural Center – a center that blends with the land and was designed only after the community held a series of focus groups with tribal members ranging from age 4 to 96.  Every detail at the center has been thoughtfully considered, and we received a top-to-bottom tour from Center Operations Director Randy Howarth.  Randy was our host for the day and saw to it that we got to experience all that Acoma had to offer. Acoma Sky City – the spiritual home of the pueblo – sits on the top of a 357 foot mesa.  We joined a tour group that included some bikers from Belgium who were riding Historic Route 66 from Chicago to LA.  After riding to the top of the mesa, …

Petroglyph National Monument

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On our first day headed west, we spent most of the day in the air getting to Albuquerque, but did arrive in time to walk a bit around Old Town and then visit Petroglyph National Monument; Our time in Old Town was spent eating some good New Mexican food and taking photographs. We’ve included one above by Claire that we all enjoyed. After leaving Old Town, we drove out of Albuquerque a short way to visit the Petroglyph National Monument.  Most readers will know that Petroglyphs are Native American sacred art — images etched in stone that may date from 2,000 – 3,000 years ago according to the NPS brochure.  The landscape itself is amazing.  This is a 17 mile mesa created by volcanic eruptions which left striking basalt boulders.  The images were then etched into these boulders — some 20,000 in all with the majority made 400 to 700 years ago.  On our hike to the top of the mesa, we took countless close-ups of the petroglyphs.  These are wonderful works of art and …

Travels in India – Establishing the International National Trusts Organisation

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This November I’ll head to Slovakia for the annual meeting of the Executive Committee of the International National Trusts Organisation (yes, we use the British spelling).  While there, I hope to post some comments and photos about both the work and the historic buildings we tour.  In preparation for that posting, I am linking to the posts made on the PreservationNation blog last December, when I was in India for the establishment of INTO.  It was an extraordinary trip which included an opportunity to share the stage with the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh (who just last month survived a vote of no confidence in India).  Slovakia will be with a much smaller group, but we are looking forward to reviewing the progress we’ve made with INTO in the first six months.  More to come. DJB