This post is Our First Pandemic Trip, Part 4, September 2021. We left Mesa Verde with our next major stop Big Bend National Park. That is easiest done by driving through New Mexico. However, New Mexico at that time required people from states like Texas with high covid rates to quarantine for 14 days. It was not clear what we could and could not do, but normal tourism was not allowed. So I have a few pictures I took from the motorhome or very nearby, including some very interesting murals. We did overnight once in New Mexico, at Valley of Fires Recreation Area near Carrizozo, which has self-registration. And then to Texas where we overnighted at Monahans Sandhills State Park.
The so-called Four Corners region may not be familiar to you. This is where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. It is part of the Colorado Plateau which is rural, rugged, and dry. Here is a view from the road, near Towaoc, Colorado. According to Wikipedia: Most of the Four Corners region belongs to semi-autonomous Native American nations, the largest of which is the Navajo Nation, followed by Hopi, Ute, and Zuni tribal reserves and nations.
One of the first towns you come to on 491 from Colorado is Shiprock. Shiprock is famous for the rock formation named Shiprock. The most interesting thing about Shiprock the town from my point of view was the murals on abandoned buildings.
There are lots of interesting rock formations in the area, but Shiprock is the most famous. To the Navajo it looks like a rock with wings and it is sacred to them.
Because of the restrictions on visitors to New Mexico, that’s basically our trip in New Mexico. We got on the fast roads and went quickly to Valley of Fires Recreation Area near Carrizozo, and got the last site, a non-electric one with no view… But it was a place to sleep. I don’t know if I mentioned, but campgrounds are rather hard to secure because by September, and certainly by now, people have figured out it is pretty safe to travel by RV. And RV sales are through the roof!
Our next overnight was Monahans Sandhills State Park, with Big Bend National Park our next goal, and our next episode of this little story…
“A camera is a tool for recording what was visually there. But human experiences are more than just what we see. Two people seeing the same thing will have different experiences due to other senses such as touch, smell, and hearing as well as things like personality, emotion, perception, interest, imagination, attitude, and past experience. All of this comes into play when a photographer chooses when and how to frame an image and also how to later develop the image. … Particularly powerful images can engage the imagination of the viewer causing them to create their own story in their mind.”
Sean Bagshaw, Photographer
