Vacation Photos--Aztec Ruins, New Mexico

Aztec Ruins, New Mexico

As part of our Four Corners vacation trip, we visited many archeological sites, including Aztec Ruins National Monument in northern New Mexico.  It's a site that was inhabited by the ancestral Puebloans.  We were able to walk around and through a portion of the ruins. 

This complex had about 500 rooms. 

Visitors are able to follow the trail through the West Ruin, built centuries ago. 

Part of the interior.  These people were short and hardy!

Part of the self-guided tour takes you inside some of the small rooms.  I show the photo above to give you an idea of the size of the doors.  That's my man looking through another door into another room.  The ancestral Puebloans were shorter than modern people, but they would have had to duck through these doorways, too! 

A touch of summer color amongst the ruins.  

The ancient Puebloans put windows in the corners!

The Ancient Puebloans built kivas for ceremonial and gathering purposes.  There are thousands of kivas in ruins all over the Four Corners area in the American southwest.  The kiva in Aztec has been reconstructed to resemble what the kiva might have looked like when it was in use by the Ancient Puebloans.  

Have you started thinking about your next adventure?  Will it be before the New Year?  Just into the New Year?  Not until next summer?  

For me, the ideas and the thinking and the planning are great fun.  Imagining.  Wondering.  Learning.  

What adventures are you planning?

Congratulations!!! Winner of the Giveaway!

Image from Free GIFs and Animations

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks again to my wonderful, special customers at my Etsy shop, Lucinda's Nice Things for getting me to my first milestone of 100 sales!!!  It's very special to me to have you support me while I stumble and bumble along my learning way in this endeavor. 

Thanks, too, to those of you who visit my blog.  I really love it when you leave a comment, letting me know that you're out there and reading what I write.  It's very special that you visit my little spaces on the web.  I'm honored. 

To celebrate my sales milestone, I held a giveaway of a Target gift card.  And . . . now that the time for entries is passed, the winner is . . .

heidijaneblankets!!!!

Thanks for playing along with my giveaway!  Thanks for visiting my little shop.  Thanks for hearting my shop and leaving nice comments.  

Very special indeed . . .

Giveaway!! Thank you for 100 sales!!

Thanks to my buyers, I have finally hit 100 sales in my little Etsy shop, Lucinda's Nice Things!

It's had some fits and starts, but I'm starting to get the hang of having a little online shop and business has been good lately.  Thanks to those of you who bought from me while I'm learning along the way.  Thanks to you for buying when my pictures haven't been perfect (that's most of them!).  Thanks for buying when I have typos.  Thanks for helping me out when I let you know I don't know something about an item  And thanks for pointing out that it's impossible for that bangle bracelet to be only 4" around!

I'm celebrating this little milestone by having a giveaway here on my blog.  I thought about it a bit and I chose this $25.00 gift card from Target . . . fun stuff!

Here's hoping for plenty more sales and more milestone giveaways!

Here's how to enter the giveaway (and thanks to RikRak for the ideas!):

1.  Visit my Etsy shop called Lucinda's Nice Things
and tell us in a comment below about your favorite thing and why you love it!
One entry!

2.  Heart Lucinda's Nice Things on Etsy and tell us.
One entry!

3.  Follow me on twitter Denny1600 and tell us.  
One entry!

Please note that each entry must be its own comment.  Thanks so much!

It is possible to have a maximum of three entries total per person.

Using random.org, one winner of the $25.00 Target gift card will be chosen on Monday, November 8th at 7 PM EST.  

Open to contestants worldwide.

Please be sure to leave an email address where I can reach you.  Thanks!!

Just to be sure you know I mean it:  THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

Vacation Photos--Canyon de Chelly and its "Other" Ruins

Ruins (whose name I don't remember) in Canyon de Chelly

  After we recovered a bit from our hike back up from the White House Ruins in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, we headed off to see the canyon's other sites.  Those are overlooks along the North and South Rims of Canyon de Chelly and one of its "connector" canyons, Canyon del Muerto (Canyon of Death). 

Then we heard it again!  That rattly vehicle!  Here it is with passengers . . .

We got to the point where we were searching all alcoves in the cliffs for possible ruins.  Those Ancient Ones were brave to put their homes in these nearly inaccessible alcoves!

The descriptive sign explained that the ruins to the right were from structures built earlier than the structures to the left.  The structures to the left were built in the Mesa Verde "style." 

You'll get to see plenty more Mesa Verde structures later!!

So, our culture is certainly not the first to move in and remodel or upgrade pre-existing housing.  Recycling, reusing, repurposing.  It's been around for a loonngg time. 

See the little structure in the little alcove? 

There were structures in all kinds of alcoves.  We peered into all alcoves we could see.  We used our binoculars to see if there were ruins in alcoves that caught our eye.  Ummm . . . and how did they get to it?  I'm not a fan of ladders or heights or boulders that hang out into nothing, so I would not have made it in this culture, I think. 

More sandstone abstraction.

Back in the car and down the road to visit more lands of the Ancient Ones. 

Vacation Photos--Canyon de Chelly's White House Ruins

View near the start of the White House Ruins Trail in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona.

A small desert dweller on the sandstone next to the trail

The ancient people who lived in Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "shay") built homes in the canyon.  They used alcoves in the canyon walls for some of their structures.  The White House Ruins Trail takes you to one of these ruins.  This is the only trail that non-Navajos can take into the canyon without a guide.  It's about a mile and a quarter down into the canyon, but centuries back in time. 

Part of the trail is carved from the sandstone walls of the canyon

Before you know it, you're well down into the canyon.

Some Navajos live and farm down here in the canyon.  We passed a young Navajo couple leading a mare and her colt.

Once you work your way around a bend and cross the wash with water in it (foot bridges, thank goodness), you spot this amazing sight.

White House Ruins (photo taken by my man)

There is a structure at the base of the cliff alongside the wash.  There is also the structure in the alcove part way up the cliff.  The Ancient Puebloans lived in the canyon until the mid-1300's. 

After we looked at the ruins and took waayy more photos that I'm showing here, we picked a spot in the shade of some cottonwoods for our snack.  While we were sitting there enjoying the shady quiet, we heard a rattling vehicle approaching.  It's a vehicle used for tours in the canyon.  On this leg of its trip, it had no passengers.  You can see it has no shade.  It's called "Shake and Bake," referring to the "comfort" of its ride and its lack of shade. 

After our quiet time in the shade, we started our trip back up the trail to the canyon's rim.  As we stopped to catch our breath and to get a bit of a break from the hot sun, I took some abstract looking photographs of the canyon wall.  Here's one.

After a few switchbacks and a few more "photo" stops, we finally made it to the top of the rim!  There was a pleasant breeze that hadn't been able to make it down into the canyon.  We walked to the overlook and saw where we had been from a different perspective. 

Then we were off to the next chapter of our adventure.

Vacation Photos--Canyon de Chelly's Spider Rock at Sunset

Spider Rock at Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

What do you do when you've set up your camp in the campground, had your dinner, done your dishes, and there's still sunlight left at a beautiful canyon location?  Grab your camera and head for an overlook!

The setting is beautiful.  The light was wonderful.  It was just the two of us for most of the time.  There was another couple for a while.  The male half of the couple offered photography tips to me, clicked away, and then left!!  How could you not stay for this?! 

Turkey vulture near Spider Rock

There was another young man at the overlook.  He stayed the whole time we did.  However, he was braver than we were and climbed over the short wall and sat on the rocks that REALLY overlooked the canyon.  He enjoyed the entire spectacle in silence.  We saw him again the next day on the White House Ruins trail into the canyon. 

I'm warning you:  we took LOTS of pictures from this overlook.  I'll not share ALL of them with you, but it's such a special place . . .

According to the Navajos (Dine), Spider Rock is the home of Spider Woman, the savior of the Navajos from the monsters who were killing the people.  Spider Woman taught the ancestors of the Navajos how to weave on a loom.  Spider Woman also enforces obedience in children. 

Mother Nature cooperated beautifully.

My man took some fantastic photos!  He did some black and whites.

Then he switched to color.

What a way to start an adventure in a special part of the world . . .

Vacation Photos--Hubbell Trading Post

Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona

We got a chance to get away for a great trip this year.  We decided to visit the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado (we missed Utah because we kinda made up the end of the trip as we went along).  We're interested in archeology lately, so we headed off to visit some historical sites. 

First off, we traveled to Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona.  It's a national historic site.  The trading post there is one of the historic buildings there and is still in operation.  The wooden floor really creaks.  No one moves in that building without making a sound!

We ate our picnic lunch at a table provided in the shade of some HUGE cottonwood trees.  It was quite peaceful.  We visited the trading post and walked around the grounds.  There is the old house that the Hubbell family lived in while they traded here, the garden, the chicken house, another residence, and a guest hogan. 

Above the door to the trading post. 

I was interested in the Navajo Churro sheep and their guard llama, but . . .

They were none too interested in me!

The old barn at Hubbell

Did I mention that this place was really peaceful?