6-7-09 Sunday (Move The Visitor’s Center)

No doubt, this subject may only interest fellow RVers but here it is anyway.  I love that this beast has sliding doors at the back, has a wall that folds up, and a floor that slides out to create a screen room!  We spotted this 5th wheel here at the park.  We’d never seen one with this feature.  I had wondered if it were a factory option or something the owner added.  Jim got to speak with the owner (also a KOA employee) and found that it is indeed factory but no longer done this way. 

Sometimes, visiting a state isn’t complete without rocks and Indians.  In the case of Petroglyph National Monument, we got both in one.  I’ve mentioned petroglyphs in other posts.  Jim and I joke they are ancient Indian graffiti.  The website excerpt: Petroglyphs are rock carvings (rock paintings are called pictographs) made by pecking directly on the rock surface using a stone chisel and a hammerstone. When the "desert varnish" on the surface of the rock was pecked off, the lighter rock underneath was exposed, creating the petroglyph. Archaeologists have estimated there may be over 25,000 petroglyph images along the 17 miles of escarpment within the monument boundary.

To see these was more of a mountainous hike.  The glyphs are all around.  We were disappointed in the care of this park.  Many of the signs explaining the sites were missing or barely readable due to delamination. 

The visitor center was humorous.  We park the car, walk to the center, and the lady says, “Are you here to see the petroglyphs?  Well, you won’t find any here.”  She pulls out a map and shows us where to drive.  2 miles away.  What the hell?  Why is the visitor center so far away from the park?  I’m sure there was a great explanation however, I chose not to know so that I can just bitch about it instead. 

Above: Pretty flowers, no?

Above: Petroglyph of someone with a hat or “big” hair?

 

Above: Wow, that’s like exercise or something.

 

Above: More glyphs.

Above: We parked where?

 

Above: On top of the mountain, with the city in the background.

The other day we passed 2 strange looking homes (side by side) while driving so I marked them on the GPS so we could revisit them in the daylight.  Here they are:

The next thing is something we did that we really didn’t do.  Huh?  Well, we were interested in the Sandia Peak Tramway which is stated to be the world’s longest aerial tramway.  The tickets are $17.50 each.  I was cheap and said no.  Jim said let’s so it so off we went.  When we got there, we got out of the Jeep and saw spectacular views from where we already were.  We agreed to skip it. 

We may go back one evening to see the sunset from the tram’s parking lot.

We returned to the RV for a nap.  I actually took a nap.  Strange, really.  After nap-nap time, we ventured to old town.  They had some carnival/fair going on.  Maybe being a Sunday evening it wasn’t very busy.  The shops were all closed and only the rides were going.  It sucked.

Above: I love these flowers too.

 

Above: This was at the end of some kid’s train ride.  Look at the nipples.  In general, how creepy is this, especially for children?

The rest of the evening drove around old town, downtown and uptown.  It was too dark for pictures though.