4 Wheels 4 Girls

Thursday, April 6, we visited the Sky City Pueblo. The Sky City is the coolest Pueblo I’ve ever seen, and it’s located on the very top of a 374 foot tall mesa. The Acoma people still live in this amazing town today. You might think the Acoma people just live up there part time, only so people can say it’s the oldest continually inhabited city in the USA. But no, people still live there, even a few kids, and I met quite a few men and women selling jewelry and clay pots with beautiful paintings and designs on them. Here’s a picture of an Acoma woman’s amazing pots. She was selling them on the top of the mesa, right outside her house.

Here's the pots. Aren't they beautiful?

Our tour-guide, Gary, who was an awesome tour-guide, by the way, lead us all around Sky City. As we walked around, we stopped at a man’s little sale set-up. Gary said, “Look at his great bluebirds!” And that attracted our attention. Well, I would have looked at them anyway, but these bluebirds were so cute! I stared at the four sizes of bluebirds, the biggest ones, about the size of golfballs, were five dollars, the next size down, four dollars, next size, three, and the smallest, which I thought were the cutest, were two dollars. I kept eyeing the tiny bluebirds and thought about asking Jean if I could get one, and I finally asked. Guess what she said? No. So I asked again. She still said no. Then Ellie said, “Please momma can we get one?” And I said, “Just the little ones? Please, can we each get a little one? There’s four! And they’re only two dollars!” She still said no. But I couldn’t let her say no! They were so cute and I felt bad looking at the man’s artwork without buying anything. During all this, the man was listening and could tell we really loved them. I couldn’t believe what he did next. He picked up the four little bluebirds and handed one to each of us! Oh my gosh, I wanted to give him something in return really bad! He was basically giving us eight dollars! Actually, more! With all the hard work he put into all those adorable birds, I think they were worth at least twelve dollars, at least I think. I didn’t know the man’s name, so I couldn’t name my bluebird that, so I named him after the tribe he came from, the Acoma tribe.

This is Acoma! Isn't he so cute?!

As we finished our tour, Gary gave us a choice:
Take the bus back down
Or walk back down
You might think I’m joking, but I am being completely serious. Look at the pictures in my sisters’ posts to see that I’m not lying.
We made it back to the RV with all six people, my bluebird, Acoma, Ellie, Ana, and Greta’s bluebirds, a bag of four cookies, and six pies!!!
Even though it was rainy, we had a great day at Sky City.

On April 6th, we went to an Acoma (a native American tribe) pueblo, or village. We got a ride up to the village on top of a mesa with our tour guide, Gary, and another man in our tour group. Gary was an Acoma native American who lives in the pueblo. He showed us an old church, a cemetery, and lots of houses and kivas, or places where the men pray and do ceremonial things, and he taught us a lot about his culture and his people. I loved learning about all the legends and stories; I talked about it with my family all day!

On the road there were lots of vendors selling jewelry, pottery, and even food! One very kind man gave us each a handmade bluebird, and we bought six pies and some delicious pumpkin cookies from a woman. (We each got our own pie! 😀 )

When the tour was over I was disappointed.

There was a very cool little path made to climb down the mesa, and we took it! It was awesome. Here is a picture of me climbing down:

This steep stairway down from the top of the mesa has been used for a thousand years by the villagers.

I loved the tour, and the pies were delicious! Mine was blueberry, and the other yummy flavors were cherry, peach, and apple. You should all see the pueblo!

On April 7, we went to the Acoma Sky City Pueblo, on top of a mesa. It is called the Sky City because it is so close to the sky.

Look close, and you can see some square buildings along the top of the mesa. The path up to the top is a dark line on the right side.

Mesa means table, in Spanish.

I met a guy. His name was gary. He was very very funny. He was our tour guide to the Acoma city on the top of a mesa. It was very fun.

The Acoma people in Sky City were trading pottery. Much of the pottery was handmade, and I wondered how they made it. On the pottery there were different animals that meant different things. I think the bunny meant that everyone was happy. Or the dog. The lizard was for the lizard clan, which is not around anymore. I got some pottery. I got a blue bird. Their art was very amazing.

I learned a lot from Gary about the Acoma people. I learned that the women own the houses. If a woman divorces her husband, she takes his clothes and saddle and sets them outside the door.

Gary told us about a race a long long time ago. There was a woman with a pot of water on her head and a man with a sheep on his back. They raced down from the top of the mesa, along one of the steep, rocky paths, and the man tripped and fell on the woman and they both fell and died. The Acoma people believe the man and the woman are still racing together on the path.

I learned that the Acoma had ovens. They looked like igloos sitting outside the buildings. The Acoma use the ovens to bake bread and cook corn. Not everybody had an oven, so they had to use other peoples ovens. They would pay with part of what they cooked in the oven.

It was very windy and sandy up on the mesa. Sand flew in my face. It was still fun. We walked down from the mesa. It was cool and amazing going down. Also, I was scared, but that didn’t ruin it. It was still cool.

Now I am sleeping at a campgroud. I am really writing in my journal. It might be confusing.

Geez! So many strange, hard-to-pronounce names! El Malpais is a great monument where you can hike and see the remnants of an old volcano as well as the lava rock and little caves formed by the rock. The visitor center taught us a lot about the different volcanoes throughout the park and about the animals that live there.

We found this lizard, who has spines down its sides

After the visitor center and lunch, we went for a three mile hike into the volcano. On the way we saw lots of animal scat, which Ellie has been interested in learning about. 😀 We saw the poop of a coyote, a deer, a bunny, and maybe even a mountain lion. Also, we saw several caves formed by the lava rock crushing into the ground. It was really neat, and there was one called Bat Cave that Stella really wanted to explore (but no one is allowed).

This cave is actually part of a long lava tube

At the top of the volcano it was super cool ’cause you could look down into the volcano!

Behind my sisters is a lava trench, which is a collapsed lava tube

We hiked back down a mile and a half back to our RV, then left the park. It was a great day!

On Tuesday, April 5th, my family went to Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. There were hardly any real wood trees there- all the trees were petrified, meaning they had turned to stone! The logs looked just like they were still made of wood, with the same texture of the bark and everything! The logs had beautiful colors-black, brown, pink, orange, red, purple, yellow, and even grey. There was a little hike we did where we walked through hundreds of petrified wood logs. Here are Stella and Ellie doing their Junior Ranger packets by one of the logs:

Stella and Ellie working hard!

At the visitor center, there was a place where kids could dig up fossils in a big tray. I buried the fossils so my sisters could dig them up. Here is a picture of them digging:

Dig dig dig! 😀

After the visitor center, we went on a mile hike into the Blue Mesa, still part of Petrified Forest. It was a fabulous day to hike; warm and windy. We took lots of pictures, and here is one of me with the blue mesas behind me:

There I am with the mesas in the background. Beautiful, huh?

We saw even more petrified wood on our hike, and here we are in front of another log:

Doesn't the rock look just like wood!?

Petrified Forest National Park was amazing. I really loved it!!! 😀

We learned lots of facts about the Navajo from Kenneth. We learned that each Navajo has four clans, one from each grandparent. He said that when Navajo get married, they have to marry outside their four clans. We learned that the Canyon de Chelly has to branches. The south branch is called the Canyon de Chelly. The north branch is called the Canyon de Muerte, which means the canyon of death. It got that name because a spanish priest and soldiers killed more than 500 Navajo women and children there.

We learned that the Navajo still live and farm in the canyon. Land is passed down from mother to oldest daughter. If a Navajo wants to own and farm land in the canyon, they have to ask three neighbors for land and permission. If one of the three says no, the Navajo is not allowed.

In the canyon, they plant corn, beans, squash, watermelon, cantaloup, and tomatoes. They also plant peach, apricot, cherry, and pear trees. We learned that horses are very important to the Navajo people. I saw lots of horses in the canyon. I even saw two foals. The navajo horses were smaller and had bigger heads than other horses I have seen.

Navajo houses were called hogans. They are round and made out of sticks and mud. Hey Nell, isn’t that neat that the Navajo live in hogans?

Anasazi houses on the ground and up on the cliff

The Anasazi ruins in the cliffs had doors that looked more like windows than doors. The did that so the kids wouldn’t get out and fall. They built their houses up on cliffs so if it flooded it would not reach them.

On April 4, we went to the Canyon de Chelly in the Navajo Nation in Arizona. We went with Kenneth. He was a Navajo person. We got to ride into the canyon in his car. We got to drive through in the water. It was very fun. We went out side and took a break and looked at jewelry. It was very very fun.

The sky is so blue, the cliffs are reddish brown.

It was cool seeing Anasazi houses. They looked very small but actually they were very big. They were very high up on the side of a cliff. They used a ladder and climbed the rocks to get to them. They lived there around the time that Jesus was alive, or a little after.

I would just like to add that Goosenecks of the San Juan River State Park was a special place, and our only issue was that we were there on an extremely windy evening. We hoped the wind would die down after sunset and we would be able to enjoy the stars and the morning view of the canyon below us, but, unfortunately, the winds only grew stronger. It wasn’t worth the million-to-one chance our parking brake wasn’t up to the task. We will have to try again another day, another trip.

Sunday, April third, we went to camp at the Goosenecks of the San Juan River State Park in Utah. I was excited because I thought we’d actually get a good place to sleep. But boy was I wrong.
When we arrived I was very disappointed at where we were going to stay. It was pretty much a 100 by 50 square foot area of dirt and dust. With a hole in the ground for a toilet.

There was a cliff though, and when I walked out to the edge of the cliff, which had no fence, by the way, the view was amazing. There was a river a thousand feet below winding through the mountain/plateau things. It was so pretty and it looked like the Horseshoe Bend to me.

We didn’t take a picture of it, but the river was winding like this:

View Larger Map

I drew this picture of the canyon:

Looking down at the San Juan River

Ana drew this picture of us looking down on the river:

Ana's drawing of us looking down into the canyon

It’s hard to read the writing, but it says this, from left to right:
“I’m Jean. Ana be careful. It’s amazing.”
“I’m Ana. It’s cool. I see the sand won river.”
“I’m Van. Ana doesn’t it look so cool?”

But the wind was so strong that I felt like I was going to fall off, and I’m not kidding about that. Really. So I went back to the RV.

Well anyway, when we went to bed, I was really tired. I climbed in bed and tried to get some sleep, but the only thing I could think about was the wind that I could hear right through all the closed windows, which sounded like the sound of someone swinging a stick or rope through the air but 10 times louder and felt like 10 men were pushing the RV with all their might from both sides, and to the edge of the cliff. The RV was also only, like, 20 feet from the edge of it.
I finally fell asleep, but only a very light sleep. It was truly horrifying, especially when trying to slow the pulse of your heart.

I was relieved when I felt the RV bumping up and down instead of side to side. My tired brain decided we were driving. I listened closely, waking up more, now, but didn’t open my eyes. When I heard Dad’s voice giving Jean directions on where to go, I was certain we were going to a different campground or at least somewhere less terrifying to sleep. After that I slept great, not waking up a single time more.

When I woke up in the morning and heard the sound of cars driving by, I realized that we were at the side of the road. How pathetic, I thought, but was also happy because I got a good night’s sleep.

Well that’s the story of Gooseneck State Park, the most horrifying place in the world.
( Almost. But anyway, never go there. )