More Observations While Traveling About The West

. Some small town and county museums have collections bigger repositories can only drool over. The University Museum in Silver City, NM comes to mind.

. Since Mesa Verde was named a national park in 1906, 80% of the park has been burned by fire. Thousands of previously unknown archeological sites that were hidden by brush were found after the blazes.

. Truth Or Consequences, NM, was formerly called Hot Springs but subsequently named itself after the TV game show. The Red Haven Motel gives you your next morning's breakfast when you check in.

. No one knows who stocked Yellowstone Lake with lake trout, but the species is decimating native trout and there's a $10,000 reward for the perpetrator. There's no fishing limit on them.

. The April 5 1909 front page of the Arizona Gazette reported that a Smithsonian funded expedition in the Grand Canyon found caves with Egyptian mummies and artifacts. Many geographical locations in the Grand Canyon are named after Egyptian and Hindu deities. Here's the article.
This area of the GC is off limits, even to park personnel.

. If you need WIFI on the road, try it first if you can before digging into your pocket.

. Spider Woman lives on top of an 800 foot high sandstone spire in Canyon de Chelly. Navajo lore has it she taught the Diné the art of weaving, after helping them slay the land and sea monsters.

. Glacier NP offers tours in vintage Red Busses made by the White Motor Company. If it's cold they have wool blankets.

. Dead Horse Point State Park in UT was named for a herd of wild mustangs who were left to die of thirst 2000 feet above the Colorado River.

. I70 east of Vail in CO has the highest elevation along the Interstate Highway System at over 11,000 feet. My old Chevy truck choked along at 10 MPH.

. A proposed dam in Dinosaur NM ignited a firestorm of opposition that led to congress passing an act that saved all our parks and monuments.

. A sign on route 10 entering Texas from Louisiana says "El Paso 850 miles".

. Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon has three rock slabs and spiral petroglyphs where rays mark the cycles of both sun and moon, the only place in the world to do so. Found by amateur Anna Sofaer, the site so enraged a dogmatic "scientist" that he climbed up and started jumping on them.

. The Canadian summer temps at the Chief Mountain border crossing in Montana are derided by locals as "90 day wonders". 20 years ago they siezed our cherry 1965 Mustang because we had fireworks and a revolver. I told them they'd be sorry when the US annexed Canada. They melted my .44 magnum down, supposedly.