Travel Recap #9: Balloons, Moons, and Ancient Ruins

 

During our down time in the first week of October, I learned of two coming events: the Annular Eclipse and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Both were within a day’s travel (for the eclipse, meaning the path of greatest coverage), and just a handful of days away! We had planned on heading straight to 4 Corners, but re-routed ourselves to Albuquerque so we could see some awesome hot air balloons first. Enter: Funcle #2. My brother Sam! He was a fantastic host and the kids just loved his endless supply of Capri Suns. He invited us to join him bright and early at the VIP tent for breakfast at the Balloon Fiesta before the Mass Ascension. We caught the Dawn Patrol on our way in, which was the first group of balloons lighting up the dark sky like a bunch of giant glowing fireflies. We then found our tent, ate a hearty breakfast and enjoyed a fantastic vantage point overlooking all the balloons as they began to inflate and take off. Several traveled directly overhead while others hovered above the field or wafted toward the mountains, which were beginning to radiate the sun’s morning rays. It was fun to play I-Spy with all the different balloon designs and we really loved the up-close experience! We were able to continue to enjoy the show from afar for the next couple days as the balloons went up each morning (weather permitting) for about a week or so during the Fiesta. We even caught a glimpse of the fireworks and drone show in the evening. Fun times!!

With that event checked off the bucket list (that we didn’t even know was on the bucket list…), we made our way to the 4 Corners monument to stand at the crosspoint between Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. It was pretty much a plain square compound in the middle of nowhere with the four state flags and a round seal to stand on. Good photo op, but not a whole lot else. Yay, we did it. Next! 

Our next stop was a lovely (albeit sandy) field off of a bumpy highway near the San Juan River and the town of Bluff in southern Utah. It was smack-dab in the “ring of fire” path that the eclipse was set to follow (90% coverage of the sun), so we camped out there for a few days and waited for the big event. We took one day and drove to Hovenweep National Monument, and it just so happened to be the year of their centennial so the kids were able to collect extra badges when they completed their Junior Ranger activities. We had no idea what to expect when we got there, but it turned out to be a pretty interesting place! We did the full loop hike around the ruins of the village built on a canyon rim around the 13th century A.D. It really made us think about what life would have been like at that time and whether we would have chosen a similar location for our settlement (the edge of a cliff seems hardly ideal, but that’s where each structure stood!) 

The day of the Annular Eclipse was fun as we had a couple hours to keep “checking on” the progress of the moon through our handy dandy solar/eclipse glasses. I love it when natural events get to stand in for any homeschool lesson I might otherwise have had to plan ahead for  (I really enjoy science, but having to prep for experiments and get creative with demos just drains my happy meter.) 

Although our bike rack was starting to sag, we pressed on into Arizona from there. A few days later, we learned that if we had taken the alternate route through Mexican Hat - versus the road directly south from Bluff we drove to get to Hwy 160 - we would have come across the well-known area of Monument Valley. We had no idea that’s where it was! I was so disappointed in my own failure to conduct adequate navigation research in advance of our travels. Justin was bummed we missed the “Forest Gump Road.” Guess we’ll have to go back sometime!