LIMPING DOWN THE ROAD

Rt 87 from Second Mesa to Winslow is beautiful with changing rock colors and many buttes. It was very interesting the first time, a different view the second time, and much less interesting the third time at 30 mph.

This Nipple Butte, interesting any time.

During our first trip we discovered this park. On the way back we noticed it had camping, and this was our destination on our third trip. Interesting. We arrived safely on Friday and got set up. Saturday Duane removed the broken spring, then we drove to the Park Office and signed up for a week. The rest of the day we spent driving around Winslow finding necessary stuff like the church, the laundromat, the grocery, etc. Duane found a place that had a spring, but it wasn't the right kind.

Sunday we explored the Holmolvi Ruins for which the park is named. The name means place of little hills and the ruins are of different towns of the Anasazi, the ancestors of the Hopi. There is some discussion on whether the people settled here then migrated to the north or from the north here and back north. Within the park are 4 town sites, but 3 & 4 are on the other side of the river and are closed. At 10am we biked to Site 1, one mile away. There are info boards at the parking lot, then this short walk to the hill. A marked path winds around the ruins

Broken pottery shards are everywhere. Someone had place shards on several different rocks.

The rooms are hard to distinguish in the pix, but are easily seen when you are actually there. The rooms are small, usually no more than 5x5 and sometimes smaller, but up to three storeys tall. They were walled, partially underground, and all connected outside. Inside some of the rooms had doorways. The rooms were built around a central plaza, but other plazas were built as needed. A lot of the rooms were used for storage. Others were kivas--used for special ceremonies, not unlike churches. Others were used for cooking, sleeping, crafting, etc.

This cleared space was a plaza. Across the flood plain the green strip grows along the Little Colorado River.

Water in the Little Colorado bed. Even if the bed is dry, water is not far down.

We kept on the lookout for wildlife, especially reptiles. This male leopard-spotted lizard was the only life we say at the ruins.

Biking back we decided it was already too hot and too windy. We refreshed ourselves with a nice drink of water, then jumped in the truck for the 3 mile drive to the Ruins II. This town was much larger--1200 rooms around 3 plazas. Rooms and plazas were added as the population grew. It is speculated that people from the other towns may have moved here for some reason.

This kiva was reconstructed for educational purposes. Walls were built up and entrance was by ladder through the roof. Behind the little bench there is a small rectangular hole. The people believed that they were formed in the earth and the gods led them through several levels before they emerged into the light. The hole (probably) signifies their entryway.

This was a women's plaza and was probably surrounded by rooms reserved for women's uses.

Flood plain, river, San Francisco peaks in west

The pink roof is a little picnic area. Winslow is to the right.

Winslow in the far right. Smoke from the Wallow wildfire makes the peaks hazy.

These excavated and partially rebuilt rooms give a good indication of what the inside of the village looked like. It wasn't clear whether they had outside doors or whether all the rooms were accessed through the roofs. The center wall on the right had an interior doorway.

Click on the pic below for some very interesting info.

I thought this sign interesting. This town was farther away from the river than the first town, yet this area still floods.

The green line of the river in the distance is about 1/2 mi (a guess) yet at one flood time the river deposited this log here, not far from the above sign.

Since we have been here we have learned some interesting things about this park. The park is very nice with paved (albeit somewhat bumpy) interior roads to the ranger housing, visitors center, campground, and ruins. The roads to the ruins are dotted with covered concreted picnic areas. There are two pictograph sites, but the pictures are hard to see. One site is a walking trail that is in progress. Their are numbered signs with points of interest, but the trail guides haven't been completed yet. The visitors center/gift shop is very nice. The staff are friendly, welcoming, helpful, and very informative. The campground is very pleasant with wide paved pull-thrus and back-in sites. Each has a picnic table, a small tree for some shade, a fire ring, and water and 50 amp electric hookup, and a nice view of the desert, all for the bargain price of $25 a night with no day use fee tacked on. If you pay for 5 nights you get 2 free. You are free to wander around the surrounding desert, but you must remember that it is a desert and has biting and stinging things in it. More on this park later, Louise and Duane