Salt River Canyon

We left Tucson on Friday, December 3rd. We had planned on going home through California, but instead went through New Mexico into Colorado so that we could spend some time with Lauren's mom, Janice.

As we went north through Arizona, we crossed the Salt River Canyon in the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.

Salt River Canyon

Many describe the vista where U.S. 60 crosses the Salt River Canyon as the most dramatic in Arizona. Here the highway descends 2,000 feet of steep switchbacks, crosses a bridge, and ascends the opposite side of the canyon. About 20 miles below the bridge, the spectacular steep-walled canyon bisects Salt River Canyon Wilderness. Within the area elevations range from 2,200 feet at the canyon's lower end to 4,200 feet on White Ledge Mountain.
We were blown away by the views as we descended into and then out of the canyon. Truly spectacular!

Salt River

At the bridge that crosses the river.

Painted Rock Along a Trail

After the salt river canyon we stopped at a roadside natural area to feed the dogs and to stretch our legs. The trail had several random painted rocks and various holiday decorations on trees and on the bridges.

Our Campground for the Night

We spent the night at Datil Well Campground. We pulled in late in the evening, set up the van and ate dinner. Then...

Dark Sky

We moved outside to stargaze in the near total darkness.

The Milky Way

The view of the stars was amazing. No light pollution at all. The photos don't do it justice.

Sunrise at Datil Well

Datil Well Campsite

Sunrise Hike

Why Are We Outside This Early When It's This Cold?

You people are idiots.

Woody Doing Some Bouldering

Nessa

Early Morning Family Portrait

Introducing... The Very Large Array

Located in New Mexico between the towns of Datil and Magdalena is the Very Large Array (VLA). The VLA is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory. It is comprised of twenty-eight 25-meter radio telescopes (27 of which are operational while one is always rotating through maintenance) deployed in a Y-shaped array and all the equipment, instrumentation, and computing power to function as an interferometer.

An astronomical interferometer or telescope array is a set of separate telescopes, mirror segments, or radio telescope antennas that work together as a single telescope to provide higher resolution images of astronomical objects such as stars, nebulas and galaxies.

Have You Heard of The VLA?

We had never heard of the VLA. Luckily, brother Dan suggested that we check it out, since it was on our way to Colorado. So glad that he did. During non-Covid times, there is a visitor center. During Covid, there is just a pull-out on U.S. Hwy 60 (which the VLA crosses) to stop at and ogle.

The VLA has been featured in several movies, including Contact and Terminator Salvation. It was also featured on the cover of Bon Jovi's 2002 album Bounce.

The VLA Truly is Very Large

Each of 27 independent antennas has a diameter of 82 feet and weighs 230 short tons. The antennas are distributed along the three arms of a track, shaped in a Y configuration, each leg of which measures 13 miles long. Using the double rail tracks that follow each of these arms and a specially designed lifting locomotive, the antennas can be physically relocated to a number of prepared positions, allowing aperture synthesis interferometry with up to 351 independent baselines: in essence, the array acts as a single antenna with a variable diameter.

Science and Exploration

Astronomers using the VLA have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters, and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produce radio emission.

In September 2017 the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS) began. This survey will cover the entire sky visible to the VLA (80% of the Earth's sky) in three full scans. Astronomers expect to find about 10 million new objects with the survey — four times more than what is presently known.

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Further along in our travels through New Mexico we visited this National Monument. It is a collection of ruins of three Spanish missions, near Mountainair, south and east of Albuquerque. Construction of the missions began in 1622 and was completed in 1635.

A Little History

Once, thriving Native American trade communities of Tiwa and Tompiro language-speaking Pueblo people inhabited this remote frontier area of central New Mexico. Early in the 17th century Spanish Franciscans found the area ripe for their missionary efforts. However, by the late 1670s the entire Salinas District, as the Spanish had named it, was depopulated of both Indian and Spaniard. What remains today are austere yet beautiful reminders of this earliest contact between Pueblo Indians and Spanish Colonials: the ruins of three mission churches, at Quarai, Abó, and Gran Quivira. We made it to the first two, but not to Gran Quivira.

The ruin pictured here is at Abó.

Abó

Abó was the site of a Native American Pueblo. The community, composed of Tompiro-speaking Tanoans, was recorded to have a population of more than 1,600 in 1641. As village-dwelling and sedentary Pueblo Indians, the Abó Tompiros' livelihood depended on agriculture. The region where they lived is more than 6,000 feet in elevation, near the upper limit for corn cultivation. They had little surface water for irrigation, rainfall was sparse and sporadic, and winters were cold. Tompiro settlements were made viable by their proximity to salt deposits in the Salinas and to the bison herds of the Great Plains. The Tompiros were important traders and middlemen between the Plains Indians and the Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley for salt and bison skins and meat. They also hunted small and large game in the region, especially deer, pronghorn, and rabbits and gathered wild foods, including pinyon (piñón) pine nuts.

Quarai Ruins

The Quarai were a Tiguex (Southern Tiwa) Pueblo band of American Indians. They were one of several bands of Tiwa speakers that populated the Salinas basin when it was first documented by Spanish explorers in the late 16th century, and were referred to in Spanish documents as the "Cuarac". Based on the archaeology of the site, they are estimated to have settled here around 1300 AD. By the early 17th century the large pueblo compound had been built. Spanish missionaries were received by the Quarai in 1626, and granted permission to build a mission. Named Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepción de Quarai, it was completed in 1632. Although the community did well, a severe drought afflicted the region beginning in the late 1660s, which combined with attacks from hostile Apaches to lead to its abandonment in 1675.