Homolovi Ruins State Park

We enjoy Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow and have been here at least four times.  The sites are really spacious.

There are lots of pretty things to see here.

Flowers are blooming.

And we saw this beautiful 1958 Flying Cloud Airstream, pulled by a 1961 Chrysler.  It has been fully restored.  I loved the license plates on the car and trailer.  Cars with those fins were sure cool when I was in high school!

And the ruins, of course.  There are two main sections of ruins visible to visitors.  We walked to Homolovi I the other day.  Here are pottery shards.

And some structure walls have been restored.

This, however, is not something you want to see.  Our campsite has water and electric but no sewer at our site.  When we drove to the dump station, the black tank valve wouldn't open so we couldn't empty the sewer.  An RV technician from Winslow came to try a repair.  He wasn't successful so he ordered a new part.

He returned yesterday with a new part. What he found was that the black tank and the black pipe between the tank and dump valve were full of calcium deposits. The water in Arizona is extremely hard and white deposits develop on (and in, obviously) our plumbing. We couldn't believe how many large clumps of white deposit he was able to flush out of the tank. When we tried to empty it originally, a chunk of that stuff had blocked the tank opening.

Everything seems to be working correctly today. We hope it stays that way.

Beginning of Our Summer Travels

Yesterday we locked up our home in Gold Canyon and pulled out with the Airstream just after 9 am.

About 180 miles north we pulled into a very different parking place. There isn't a stucco-covered building in sight, just a few rvs and lots of open space. We are staying at Homolovi Ruins State Park for 3 nights. This is the 4th time we have stayed here. What a spacious, quiet campground. We have water and electric, not sewer.

The park protects the remains of several early villages of the Anasazi people from the 1200s and 1300s. The villages were located along the Little Colorado River and may have been abandoned about 1400 because of frequent flooding. The people may have moved on to Hopi Mesa to the north.

On our walk today, we visited the ruins of Homolovi I. Here is evidence of a building on the hillside.

Potsherds, broken pieces of pottery, have been moved together to show some evidence of everyday life back then.  Some of the pieces show texture that indicates pots made with coils of clay.  A few pieces have been painted.  Archaeologists can look at evidence like this and learn about local practices and trade with other communities.

We are really in the wide open spaces here. Look at the view from the road we walked between the campground and Homolovi I.

Look at our sunset here last night!

It feels good to relax and not have anything we have to accomplish right now. Preparing for travel and making arrangements for our trip to England have dominated life for weeks--maybe months. It is good to just be.

The Power of Advertising

You have probably heard of Wall Drug in South Dakota. Why? Because there are signs all along I-90 as you approach Wall, announcing free ice water if you stop at Wall Drug. Today, Wall is a major destination for travelers. Almost the same thing can be said for Winslow, AZ. Why do we know about it? Most of us have heard, and can repeat, at least a couple of lines from the song, Take It Easy. "Standin on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona, watching all the girls go by." That may be the only song I know from the Eagles (I'm not much of a pop music person), but even I know that line. And each year thousands of people have their picture taken at Standin on the Corner Park. Even John.

The corner is on famous Route 66.

Winslow is a fun town to visit and we have spent five days at nearby Homolovi Ruins State Park. The town has a number of murals.

There was a cute statue? decoration? in front of the store across the street from the corner.

The Winslow High School mascot is the bulldog. One corner on the road out of town has this great statue.

And we really enjoyed the sign in a cafe window, especially since we will celebrate our 50th anniversary next  month. I wonder if  Jim and Carolyn are the owners or if the celebrating couple are just being honored before the cafe is sold.

We stayed in Homolovi Ruins State Park two years ago. We spent three winters volunteering at Casa Grande Ruins in Arizona and have visited Mesa Verde National Park, so we are fairly familiar with the native peoples who settled here in the southwest. Although less well known, Homolovi Ruins shows some of their settlements. Modern-day Hopi people believe this was the home of their ancestors.

This informational kiosk tells about one of the villages visitors can explore here in the park, Homolovi I. A second village, Homolovi II, is a little over two miles away, at another location in the park.

If you are interested in more information about Homolovi Ruins, you can check out my blog from two years ago here of the park's web site here.

Mormon settlers also came to this area in 1876, under the leadership of General Lot Smith. They moved on in 1881 after a number of floods on the nearby Little Colorado River. The settlement's cemetery is near Homolovi I.

We were interested to see that a couple of the trails in the park had been constructed by Elderhostel groups (now Road Scholar).

We saw a couple of interesting RVs here in the state park campground. They are earth cruisers, all terrain RVs. Originally built in Australia, they are now built in the U.S. to be shipped throughout the world. You can get more information about them here.