September 12-15, 2024
I left Saddlehorn Campground, at Colorado National Monument, on Thursday, September 12. That morning, I took a short morning ride, only for an hour, but I wanted to have some exercise. Next, I went to Fruita Community Center for a shower, then I began a long drive. It was a little over 400 miles to Bonita Campground, about fifteen miles north of Flagstaff. The first section of the drive was on I-70 west. It is through a desolate looking area, no towns, not much of a hint of human activity, yet it is a beautiful landscape. The next section takes US 191 south to Moab. There is a long downhill section just before town. It goes right past Arches National Park. That whole area is dramatically scenic. I stopped in Moab on a whim that Moab Cyclery could look at my bike. The rear wheel had somehow developed a slight wobble. I hoped maybe they could fix it while I had lunch somewhere within walking distance. I took the bike into the shop. They took it off my hands immediately and put it up on the bike stand. They had it fixed in five minutes, no charge. I left five bucks in the tip jar.
Back on the road, I wandered south along scenic areas reminiscent of western movies. Redrock, high cliffs, steep grades, and mountains in the distance. I passed through the small towns of Monticello, Blanding, and Bluff – all in Utah. After Bluff, I switched to US 163, passing through Mexican Hat and Monument Valley, now in Arizona. Monument Vally has some pull-off areas where one can take photos. I did take some, but the conditions were less than ideal. There were strong winds this day, and they had apparently stirred up dust such that there was a haze running all the way from Moab down to Monument Valley and past.
There are signs on the north side of Monument Valley marking the spot where Forrest Gump stopped running. There was quite a crowd of tourists there, too, standing in the middle of the road, such that I had to slow down to about 5 mph and pass slowly. Everybody loves Forrest. About twenty-five miles south from there, US 163 ends, and I turned west onto US 160 in Kayenta, taking it through Tuba City. It had turned dark by now. After Tuba City, I turned south on US 89. I stopped in Cameron. There is a Trading Post there with a variety of Native American artwork. I started talking with one of the artist-workers there, Jeffry James John. He was outgoing, friendly, and talkative. He at one time studied psychology at Dine College, a tribal land-grant college in Tsaile, Arizona, not far from Canyon de Chelly National Monument. He started working with silver and creating jewelry working under a mentor, and that was how he found his way into the Trading Post. He showed me several of his pieces, each stamped or signed with a distinctive JJJ.
From the trading post, it was about thirty miles more to the turnoff on Forest Road 545 for Bonita Campground. I found my site and in a short time I was in bed and asleep. I had no idea yet how nice the campground was.
In the morning, there was a chill in the air. Bonita is at 7000’. It got down to about 50 by morning. The most obvious aspect of the campground was the abundance of beautiful ponderosa pine trees. It was windy, and the air sweeping through the pines made a wonderful sound. The campsites were large and well-spaced. The campground road curves through the area, contributing to a sense of privacy. There are 44 campsites, and there could have easily been another 44 by putting a site in between each of the original 44. I met one of the campground hosts, Eric, from Ohio, and we talked for about fifteen minutes about his summer being there. He loved it.
I went for a bike ride later in the morning. The scenery was amazing. It was beyond any expectations. Forest Road 545 runs on the east side of US 89 for 35 miles. For the first two miles, there is a large meadow on the south side of 545. At that point, the road rises slightly and enters Sunset Crater National Monument. The campground is right at the entrance. For the next several miles, the main landscape features are the ponderosas and multiple types of evidence of volcanic activity. The first evidence, which startled me, was a huge lava field of rough looking rock several hundred yards wide and about thirty feet tall. It is at least two miles long. The rock is of a type that flowed swiftly as magma, during an eruption of Sunset Volcano 900 years ago. This type of flow solidifies as a “jumble of jagged fragments” (according to my Earth Science textbook, the one I bring with me on my travels …) and is known by its Polynesian name a’a’ (pronounced ah-ah).
After seeing this, I began to realize that the ground all over this area, for miles and miles, had some type of volcanic composition. In some places there was a gray-black sand. In other places there were fragments are various sizes. Some the size of the ball-point on a Bic pen, some were pea-sized, some were marble-sized, and there were others that were boulder-sized. Despite this, there was vegetation, having found enough suitable soil to gather nutrients and water. In some places it was thriving, such as the meadow I described. It was full of green and golden grasses as well as yellow wildflowers. In some places, there was very little vegetation, just a ponderosa here and there growing out of a blackish looking ground cover of cinder-ash.
On Saturday, I did a hike along the edge of the lava field with a short section of trail that went through the field. The trail also climbed a smaller, older volcano, called Lenox Crater. It erupted about 1,000 years ago. The entire area is known as The San Francisco Volcanic Field. Note, there are no trails up Sunset Crater and hiking on that volcano is prohibited. On one of the side trails there is a memorial dedication that describes some use of this area by NASA. It says that every astronaut that walked on the Moon did some training here at Sunset Crater.
On Sunday, I did a forty-mile (RT) bike ride from the campground to Wupatki Visitor Center. I had learned the day before that such a ride would be challenging. Bonita Campground is at 7000’ and the visitor center sits at 4800’. Riding there would be easy. Riding back would be a workout. The climb back included one section that covered that elevation change in fifteen miles, not steep, certainly not flat. The other factors were the temperature difference, it was around 85 degrees at the visitor center, 70 at Bonita, and there was a 20-mph headwind coming back.
I left the campground on Monday. I drove to the Wupatki Visitor Center, this time to see Wupatki Pueblo, which was amazing. It had 104 rooms among other features. From there I continued fifteen miles farther on FR 545, stopping at four other Pueblos: Nalahihu, Citadel, Box Canyon, and Lomaki. It is amazing that so many people lived in this area. There is archeological evidence that there were around 100 dwellings per square mile at one point.
I had a great time here. I did a lot of exercise, and I enjoyed the gifts of Nature and History.
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