Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Lyman Lake State Park, St. Johns, AZ - June 2-8
This is another of AZ's lovely little-used SPs. Lyman Lake was the first recreational SP in AZ. Unfortunately, due to budgetary issues, some of these parks are in danger of being closed.
I guess they figure fewer people will complain about this than other ways to make ends meet for the state. We think it's a shame for them to possibly lose forever such lovely & historic resources. Both Homolovi and Lyman Lake have ancient sites & rock art that it would be a shame to leave unprotected. For only $2, they took us over to the other side of the lake in a pontoon boat to see the park's best rock art. There was also a hiking trail on a peninsula that led to much more rock art. 
Much wasn't marked, so we just had to keep looking. When there wasn't rock art, there were lovely views of the lake & surrounding area. We also drove to the Rattlesnake Point Pueblo, a compact pueblo village with about 85 rooms, of which 4 have been excavated. There is also Baca Pueblo nearby, also on the SP's property, but it has not been excavated.
We spent a full day driving over to Petrified Forest NP (about 60 miles) & visiting the various exhibits, overlooks & hiking trails. We of course saw lots of petrified wood in the southern part of the park. It is amazing that there is any left, since in the late 1800s and early 1900s so many people were carting off as much as they could carry. Some of it looks so much like wood & wood chips, you have to pick it up & feel it to be sure it's rock. There are several trails that wind through vast quantities of petrified wood. We walked on the Giant Logs and Crystal Forest trails; the Long Logs & Agate House trails were closed for renovation. 
Further north in the park is the Painted Desert, with spectacular overlooks & a lovely rim trail, with outstanding views of the brightly colored hills. The Painted Desert Inn was built in 1924 and was named a Natl Historic Landmark in 1987. In the 1930s, the CCC did extensive restoration on it. It supplied Route 66 travelers with meals & lodging until it closed in 1942. 
In 1947, the Fred Harvey company took over more renovations, under the supervision of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (whose La Posada Hotel we visited in Winslow), and it was again opened. Fred Kabotie, a renowned Hopi artist, was hired to paint murals of Hopi culture on several walls. It closed again in 1963 as an inn, but it is now in use as a museum & information center for the park. The murals are gorgeous. There is also a pueblo located in Petrified Forest, Puerco Pueblo, probably occupied about 700 years ago. In addition to partially excavated rooms, there is also some fine rock art and an interesting solar calendar. 
We also walked the Blue Mesa loop trail, which descended from the mesa top down into cone-shaped badland hills of bentonite. The minerals in the soil are responsible for bands of blues & violets in the unique land forms. The hills of the Painted Desert area are mainly shades of red, so there is quite a contrast.
Another day's outing was to the Springerville (AZ) area, where we visited Casa Malpais Archaeological Park, which contains a 16-acre pueblo occupied by the Mogollon (Western Pueblo) about 600 years ago. It is one of the largest & most complex ancient Mogollon communities in the US. We were able to take a fairly extensive tour of the pueblo with a guide from the center in town. Of special interest was the "room" called the "observatory", which was described to us by an archaeologist we met later in the day as a solar calendar second in size only to Stonehenge. This room had various windows & doorways which were lit by the sunrise & sunset at special times of the year.
Also near Springerville was the Little House Museum, located on the grounds of the X Diamond & MLY Ranch, a working cattle ranch since 1879. Many famous people have visited here, and the tour includes items of local history, turn of the century (19th-20th!) fashions, antique musical instruments & amusing anecdotes. Every imaginable musical device was on display: nickelodeons, Edison phonographs, Swiss music boxes, all in good working order. Also a Violona, an "automated" violin & piano, which plays when you put in the correct coins. The US Patent Office voted the Violona one of the 8 greatest inventions of all time in the late 1800s. We weren't as impressed. The tone was akin to a not-so-very-talented child's recital ("Minuet in G"), and the tuning of this item left something to be desired, hence their relative lack of popularity and current scarcity! Also on the ranch property was the Little Bear archaeological site, which we also visited. Visitors can participate in the excavation, under the guidance of an archaeologist.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 12:03 AM 
