Farmington NM to Sedona AZ

First, a word about Jesus' pears. They look like small boscs. They are sweet, crunchy and are very satisfying. Mana? Wrong Testament?

The morning belonged to the sky gods. To adorn the stark landscape out of Farmington on NM route 64, they staged another son et lumière show complete with pillars of rain and lightening bolts. Thunder and lightening and rain, oh my! The weather held until I  was leaving the Four Corners Monument, the only place where you can be in four States at once: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. The monument is on Navajo land. There is a modest admission fee and, today at least, a modest Indian market. Heading west out of the monument in US Route 160, I drove through the first of several rain squalls. One or two approached dramatic, but mainly they served to cool things down.

Navajo dwelling

After visiting Chaco Cultural Monument yesterday, I still yearned for cliff dwellings. I considered the four hour detour to Mesa Verde, but settled instead on the Navajo National Monument near Kayenta, Arizona and on my way to Sedona. The drive there along Route 160 took me past Monument Valley and tableau of Indian life in the 21st century. Trailers, tract homes, prefab boxes - not a hogan in sight. I was last on this road 25 years ago. The place names are the same, Farmington, Shiprock, Window Rock, Tuba City, but they are no more the Indian towns of Tony Hillerman novels. They are small cities with a distinct overlay of Indian decoration on uni-culture development. Such a contrast to the magnificent desolation of the land they inhabit. I couldn't help but think about Tibet. The Han overlay of indigenous  Tibetan culture with decidedly mixed results. There is no question the Indians are better off thanks to tax free cigarettes and gambling, but at what cost? Maybe none except aesthetics.

Keet Seel Pueblo

The Navajo Monument put me back in a space where I could focus on the land. The pueblo peoples knew how to harmonize with the land. Their footprint is light and in harmony with the surroundings.

I made it to Sedona by 4:30 thanks to traversing another time zone. I zipped past the Grand Canyon turnoffs and didn't even hesitate. The Grand Canyon is not this trip. I reentered population density in Flagstaff. It is a beautifully located city surrounded by the Coconono National Forest. 45 minutes later I pulled into downtown Sedona after a tree-lined drive through Coconino. All I will say about the little bit of the town I saw is it is better to stay outside the town. They should just get rid of the town. It's a bad marriage of Taos and Rodeo Drive.

Sedona sunset

More pictures on Facebook. Tomorrow, Palm Springs.