Hubbell Trading Post. At the time, Katie had been reading a book called Vagabond For Beauty which Megan had given to us back in Park City. It is a biography about Everett Ruess, a young guy from California who gave up all his possessions in order to travel around the country honing his artistic skills while trying to capture natures beauty. Everett eventually went missing in Southern
Utah and no one has yet found his remains, but before tragedy struck this traveler he spent a short while at the Hubbell Trading Post, hence our interest in the site. The Hubbell family has always had a soft spot for artists and still to this day artists are allowed to stay at the trading post for free as long as they want. All that is required of them is to leave one piece of artwork for the families personal collection before they leave. The Hubbell Trading Post was about an hours ride north of Route 66. The structure itself is very small and unassuming. We would have easily missed it had there not been National Park signs all around. The complex hasn't changed since at all over the years, no supplemental buildings have been added and it is still a functioning trading post even today. During our visit in the gift shop, Katie was lucky enough to be asked to join a private tour, so we hopped on the opportunity to see the inside of the Hubbell house. After the tour, we decided we couldn't visit
a trading post without buying some supplies, decided on some herbal tea and salsa, then made our way back to America's Main Street. We crossed into New Mexico, making frequent stops along the way at every teepee shaped Indian store to shop and help break up the long drive. South of Route 66 there were two National Monuments that we wanted to visit. We decided to make the drive south to visit one today then we would drive Route 66
at night then hit up the next one the following day. El Morro National Monument would be todays excursion. El Morro is a large stone monolith that jets out into the valley. There is a pond there, sometimes a waterfall too, that has been a continual water source for centuries. Thus, people have made this a
frequent stop on their journey west. El Morro has been designated a National Monument because after visiting this watering hole, it had become customary to carve your name in the side of the white stone. The native americans started this tradition and it continued for hundreds of years resulting in thousands of names and pictures carved into the rock. The cool part about the site is many of the
later people who carved their names were parts of Calvary units or else famous in some regard and the national park service has been able to trace their history and stories both before and after they came to this site. We arrived on the site with just enough time to do a hike to the top of the stone structure and visit the ancient indian ruins there and do the hike along the base of the structure and see all the engravings. After we left El Morro we headed back to Route 66 enjoying a beautiful sunset along the way. We spotted a badger near the road (our second on this trip) and pulled off for a bit to honk at him trying to get his attention. The only city
that we passed through along Route 66 that night was Gallup NM. This town is famous for being the home of the El Rancho Motel
which in its hay day housed many Hollywood elite's. They showcase this fact by littering their walls with the pictures of all their former A-list guests, all of whom have now faded into obscurity, at least as far as Katie and I were concerned. After walking the inside of the hotel we drove along Route 66 looking for City Hall which had a newly built neon Rt 66 sign. It was far less impressive than fame had reported, and after we snapped a quick photo we drove until we reached our rest stop and bedded down for the evening under the bright New Mexico sky.
The second of our National Monuments that we wanted to visit was called El Malpais National Monument: aka the bad lands. It got this name because it is home to 29 volcanos. They have all three different volcano types at this national monument: shield, composite, and cinder cone. We made our way to the visitor center and talked with the ranger for quite a while. Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit a large majority of park because we had plans that day
to visit Alberquiuqre and Santa Fe that day was well. Still we had some time to explore and decided to make our way to the Land of Fire and Ice, a family owned business that offers a tour of a volcano and an ice cave. When we got there we hiked to the top of the volcano first and walked inside the crater. This was really nothing new for us but walking inside a volcano is always a fun way to start your morning. Next we visited the ice cave and we were both really excited about this. Though the opportunity to see ice inside a cave had been dangled before us many times on our trip, we had yet to see it and we were both excited about the opportunity. The ice cave did not disappoint. Not only was there tons of ice both hanging off the ceiling and walls but also enough on the ground to form a miniature skating rink. While inside the cave Katie and I began to experiment with seeing our breath. Admittedly, this doesn't sound like much fun, but believe me it was. Since there was absolutely no wind in the cave and since the sun was shining at the perfect angle this time of day, you could slowly exhale and watch the moisture flicker and twirl in the sunlight until it faded into nothing. It was honestly one of the most fascinating things I
have ever seen. I could have wasted hours just staring at my own breath, but alas we had to move on and continue our day. We stopped at the WOW Diner back on Route 66 for a quick meal once we got back to the highway. The ranger we had spoken to earlier was a Route 66 fanatic as well as a park ranger and highly recommended this place as a must see. We enjoyed the atmosphere much better than the food but our bellies were full nonetheless and we continued on our journey east. On the way to Albuquerque we passed by Owl Rock and Dead Mans Curve, both renowned Route 66 landmarks and even stopped at another house owned by the Hubbell family. In Albuquerque, we made a quick stop at the Marble Brewery then headed
to the outskirts of town to visit Petroglyph National Monument. Again racing against daylight and closing time we only had enough time to do 3 short hikes before we would be kicked out of the park. Luckily at this site the petroglyphs are so concentrated that we were able to visit hundreds of petroglyphs in this small
amount of time. After night fell and the gates closed we had a decision to make. This section of Route 66, like many along the way, has 2 different alignments. Once upon a time the road traveled north to go through Santa Fe, but later on it was realigned to just pass through Albuquerque, avoiding the northward jaunt completely.
Since we had the time, we decided to drive both stretches and get a feel for both cities while we were here. We drove the Albuquerque stretch which was full of neon lights and gaudy signs that moved and flashed in the darkness, then looped back around and headed north to Santa Fe. We were planning on eating dinner at the Santa Fe Brewing Co which was right along the Route 66 alignment. We pulled in and had a beer but there was no restaurant in sight so we didn't stay long. We found another brewery, Second Street Brewery, in the center of town where we finally got to enjoy a late meal before driving back down to the main highway to find a spot to sleep at for the night.
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