The Colorado Rockies, sunset, as seen from I-76: this was near the end of the first day on a road trip from Sheboygan to the California coast in the summer of 1978. The trip overall was the longest drive I had ever undertaken, and easily one of the most memorable. I took more photos than ever before, so (for better or worse) my travel report will need to be stretched over several posts.
But here's a quick summary in advance: My friend Max (you met him in South Bend and Maine in earlier posts) met me in Sheboygan, and we drove west via Spring Green and Dubuque, through Iowa and Nebraska to Denver, south to the Raton Pass and westward to Taos, Santa Fe and eventually to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest. Then southwest to Phoenix, where we met my friend Gloria at the airport. The three of us made a loop that took us to the Hopi Reservation, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and down to Santa Monica, where Gloria's family lived. Max and I drove up via Big Sur to the Bay Area, where we visited his aunt and cousin; and after Max flew back east from San Francisco, I drove back down to Santa Monica to stay with Gloria's family and see much more of Los Angeles, before driving back on my own via Nevada, Utah and Western Colorado, after which I retraced my steps, so to speak, to Sheboygan. For this post I'll report on just the first 3-1/2 days of the trip.
I took no Wisconsin photos during the 1977-78 school year, but here are a couple of glimpses of Christmas 1977 in Cleveland: the family Christmas tree and Jim and Donya:
As you can see, I was often still not getting the best results from the Nikon. And this would be the place to mention that during the Western trip to follow, the camera itself was not always functioning properly. When I had the slides developed, I found a number of shots with a shadow over the right portion of the frame, as if the shutter hadn't quite opened or closed in proper synch--the same problem I'd had with shots of the Monterey Coast in '75, Indeed, a number of slides had to be discarded. Fortunately, the majority of the shots, including ones of my very favorite places, had no such problem, and for the remaining ones I've been able to make some corrections after scanning, by lightening shadowy parts or by cropping.
Max came up to Sheboygan in mid-May, as soon as our spring semesters were over. For the first leg of the trip we took a scenic route by heading directly west/southwest through the Kettle Moraine State Forest and on to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin in Spring Green. These places were new to Max and a welcome sight for me, though since I'd already taken photos during my first visits (cf. BOXES 103-105, 106-107), I pointed my camera only twice: at a kame (I think Dundee Mountain) in the Kettles and at a gate designed by Wright:
Crossing the Mississippi called for a photo just to document the event:
But I didn't take any shots of Dubuque, though it was a town of some visual interest, or of the impressively rolling hills of Western Iowa. In Nebraska a less than visually stimulating drive was enlivened by stops at the rest areas along I-80, where the state had commissioned interesting sculptures at each 'plaza.' Here is what we thought was the best of the artworks we saw, a kinetic sculpture:
The next photos in my slide box show our first glimpses of the Rockies as sunset approached. (We settled for the night in Sterling, CO.)
And the next morning? More of the same, as we approached Denver:
We spent much of the morning walking around downtown Denver, but I have no photos to show for it. (I recall stopping at a record store, and I think we walked past the Capitol.) The drive south on I-25 provided an unending sequence of great views of the Rockies to our right. In the three shots below--taken probably by Max from the passenger side, like many of the road shots to follow--the second shows the Air Force Academy, identifiable by its famous chapel, and the third (also the first?) is of Pikes Peak.
Our second lengthy stop of the day was at the nearby Garden of the Gods Park, where we got our first views of fantastic Western rock 'sculptures.' The photos below are, I would say, the least satisfactory of the trip (see my caveat above), but here they are. All these rock formations have been given names, but I'll leave them anonymous; you can look them up if you like.
And here's a shot of me with camera and Max with binoculars, looking at Pikes Peak as reflected in the windows of what I assume was a visitors' center:
As we continued south, the mountains thinned out (i.e., the Rockies became the Sangre de Cristo Mountains) and the landscape became more 'Southwestern':
We spent that night in Trinidad, CO, a truly Western-looking town, thanks to the flat-topped Fishers Peak close to town. I liked some of the downtown storefronts (though the cars now remind me of how unappealing I find the standard American motor-vehicle designs of those days).
The drive south continued alongside the Sangre de Cristo range, with (to my Ohio eyes) classic 'Western' views of horses against mountains:
I-25 took us over the Raton Pass into New Mexico, at which point we turned west toward Taos. As we went over the mountains the landscape became forested, with even a trout stream:
And then the epic expanses of New Mexico:
In Taos I was surprised and entertained by the adobe style of even the local J.C. Penny's:
Of course we visited the Taos Pueblo, but since I'm finding no photos, I assume there were restrictions against photography, as would be the case with the Hopi Reservation we visited later. I did take a photo of the central plaza of the city:
The drive from Taos to Santa Fe was particularly scenic. In the second of the four photos below you can see, from a distance, a glimpse of the Grand Canyon of the Rio Grande.
Near the northern outskirts of Santa Fe we set up camp in a state forest, then drove the surprisingly short distance into the city for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Here are a couple of shots of our campsite the next morning, including the Olds Omega that was making the trip possible:
My photos of Santa Fe are mostly of well-known landmarks, starting with the 1610 (!) Palace of the Governors:
The San Miguel Chapel also dates from around 1610, while the much more modern St Francis Cathedral was completed in 1869:
A fantastic altar screen carved from volcanic stone in 1761 can be seen in the Cristo Rey Church:
Next is a house that proclaimed itself to be the oldest private dwelling still standing in what is now the USA:
. . . and the rather newer State Capitol (1966):
And finally, here is a partial view of the 1917 Pueblo Revival Style Museum of Fine Arts (now the New Mexico Museum of Art; for an old postcard showing more of the building, see here).
At some point during the afternoon I was sitting on a bench in the historic Plaza near the Palace of the Governors. I saw someone entertaining the crowd with a marionette:
While I was sitting, an elderly Native American man sat next to me, and we got into a conversation in which he told me about his life. After a while he asked me for a couple of dollars to get some lunch, and before he left, he said, "You can take my picture." I felt awkward about playing the role of tourist taking a photo of a local person, but it seemed rude to turn down his offer. I've thought a lot about the photo I took, but can't put anything into words:
The next day we went on to Albuquerque, continuing to be wowed by the landscapes:
We didn't spend much time in Albuquerque, though we did stop at the Old Town Plaza, with the 1793 San Felipe de Neri Church dominating one side:
On another corner of the plaza I remember having a fine lunch at a traditional Mexican, or rather New Mexican restaurant. (This was before Southwest Cuisine became a thing and Santa Fe became a culinary capital.) After that, we drove off to what turned out to be one of the best parts of the entire trip, the Acoma Pueblo, followed by a powwow in Gallup -- but I'll leave those to report on in my next post.
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