Route 66 - Discovering New Mexico on the Tourist Track
Sample the legends and secrets of the American Southwest
“It’s not what you find at the end of the road that makes a destination fascinating, it’s what you discover along the way,” goes the oft-quoted saying. I like to say it anyway.
Especially on my recent trip motoring through central New Mexico where I was able to sample the legends and secrets of the American Southwest.
If you held a driver’s license in the 30 and 40s, you might have been looking for your promised land via Route 66. America’s most famous highway carried people and energy that shaped the Southwest, and today, it still holds rich treasures and traces of those earlier eras.
History and Hollywood hold their place along the stretch of vintage 66’ that I explore between Albuquerque and Sky City. Billy the Kid roamed this land, comedienne Lucille Ball hid out in these parts during her divorce from Desi Arnaz, and Ernest Hemingway dined in cafes along the route.
Landmarks dot Route 66 throughout “Indian Country,” and The Budville Trading Post is perhaps one of the most photographed along this stretch. The Hamlet named after H.N.” Bud” Rice, who started an automobile service and touring business here in 1928, lies 34 kilometers east of the city of Grants. This area is surrounded by a magnificent score of scenery with cliffs, rocks, and mesas that still attract the attention of movie crews.
Among miles of immortalized asphalt lie small towns, many enthusiastically promoting Route 66’ nostalgia, paving the way for tourism. The small town community of Grants is doing just that. They advertise Grants as the place where “modern highways meet ancient crossroads.”
We head southeast to El Malpais (Spanish for “bad lands”) to explore the National Monument. The Monument is 115,000 acres and protects one of the largest lava beds in New Mexico. A short hike on the sandstone bluffs rewards me with stunning views of the more prominent landscape features. Mountain ranges and mesas dominate this challenging environment in a land that is kept alive by the spiritual and physical presence of contemporary Indian groups. Prolonged sight-seeing at this height proves too much for my shaking knees, and we move on to view “La Ventana Natural Arch.”
La Ventana Natural Arch is a spectacular wonder of eroded sandstone, deemed the largest readily accessible natural arch in New Mexico. The arch has been considered “the window” to this enchanting area for 150 years. Our last stop is our final destination Acoma Pueblo (Sky City.) Built in the 12thcentury, Acoma Pueblo is the oldest continuously inhabited Indian pueblo in the U.S., perched on a solitary sandstone mesa, 107 meters above the desert floor.
Since the pueblo lacks electricity and running water, only 15 families live here year round. The New Mexico Department of Tourism states that “The reservation communities are not living museums or theme parks, but homes which should be respected as such.” Photography is a particularly sensitive issue. Fees and restrictions vary from tribe-to-tribe.
We experienced their rules and regulations first hand, when the shuttle bus from the visitors center left without us. Although the tour was scheduled for five o’clock, they departed early, apparently the last scheduled tour for the day. We were not allowed to take our own transportation to the mesa and subsequently missed the hour-long guided tour. Tribal policies are strict and enforced. We were given only one option, which was to come back the next day. With my scheduled flight departing New Mexico later that evening, disappointed, we reluctantly drove away. Information: 1-(800) 747-0181.
Author: Tracey Rayson
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