Chris McCabe's Post-Pandemic Colorado-Utah National Parks Solo Road Trip 2021

In no particular order, here are some photos of things I came across on the road trip that didn't quite fit into a specific blog post (with descriptions of same) but that I thought were significant or interesting nonetheless, and therefore worth sharing. Statue of CCC worker at Zion National Park Public library in Clayton, New Mexico Beatrice, Nebraska Scotts Bluff National Monument

The Golden Driller is a 75-foot-tall, 43,500-pound statue of an oil worker located in front of the Tulsa Expo Center since 1966. It was built from a steel frame, covered with concrete and plaster, and is the sixth-tallest statue in the United States. When I googled things to do in Tulsa, Golden Driller popped up as a place to check out. It looked like a classic road trip stop, like the giant axe in New Brunswick, Canada, that Clare refused to stop at on the 2017 Nova Scotia road trip. So, of course, I just had to drive there to take a photo of the statue for the blog, which, however, proved more difficult than expected as the area around the statue was fenced off for construction and the street which runs in front of the statue is four lanes wide with no parking on either side. But I managed nonetheless, and here it is, though I think that the golden sheen has worn off or the statue is awaiting a fresh repainting.  

When you google things to do in Tulsa, the Philbrook Museum of Art is invariably listed as the #1 must-see attraction in Tulsa, or is routinely listed in the Top 10 Tulsa attractions. So of course I decided to add Philbrook to my list of things to do after the Woody Guthrie Center. The museum is housed in a 32,000 square foot Italianate villa, once the 72-room home of oil tycoon Waite Phillips (think Phillips 66), and is often described as the most elegant oil mansion constructed during the early Oklahoma oil boom. The neighborhood of the museum also appeared to be where the very wealthy of Tulsa live as the houses I passed by on the way to the museum were mansions that looked like they belonged on the Main Line. When I arrived, I paid the admission fee and, upon striking up a conversation, learned that the receptionist at the admissions desk was a Tulsa native who had just graduated from Bryn Mawr College (and her name was Claire)! Of course, I told her I was from Philadelphia an...

This epic road trip was not only a chance explore the great and glorious National Parks of the West, but also a chance to travel through small towns and visit small museums in America's "flyover" country, as it's often referred to. So, when I looked at the map to plan the return trip home from southern Colorado, I saw an easy return route through Oklahoma and an opportunity to stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which I had never visited. I knew that the Bob Dylan Center was located in Tulsa, and, although it was not yet open to the public, it was a draw for me nonetheless. I was also aware that May 31, 2021, was the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (during which the Blacks working and living in the Greenwood District of Tulsa were brutally attacked and murdered, with their homes and businesses burned to the ground, and the Greenwood District was essentially obliterated from the map of Tulsa). I knew I could experience a bit of horrific but necessary history wi...

After my stroll through Perry, I headed straight to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit the Woody Guthrie Center , which is a museum and archive center dedicated to the iconic songwriter and protest singer and located in the Tulsa Arts District. Right next door is the Bob Dylan Center which is not slated to open until May 10, 2022, which means I'll be making another trip to Tulsa next year! The Woody Guthrie Center was an awesome museum and center, and provided a great introduction to Woody Guthrie and his life and music. The introductory 15-minute film wasn't showing, but there were five interactive video screens, each dedicated to one phase of his life with six short films highlighting each phase. I watched and listened to all of them.  There were also interactive exhibits that allowed you to search and read his song lyrics in their original format. There was one big exhibit that included the original handwritten lyrics of “This Land is Your Land” and videos of other singers' rendit...

The hotel offered only a cold breakfast, so on the recommendation of the lady at the hotel, I headed to downtown Perry, Oklahoma, for a full breakfast at Kumback Lunch, a cafe with the same name and location since 1926, and billed as the oldest cafe in Oklahoma. The 1930's gangster Pretty Boy Floyd apparently ate at Kumback, and his photo hangs on the wall. As did Charlie Hanger, the state trooper who arrested Timothy McVeigh in 1995, after the Oklahoma City bombing.  When I finished breakfast, I took a stroll around the town of Perry and came across another Carnegie library and a mural of the state of Oklahoma which was situated on a wall next to the Perry Wrestling Monument Park , which honors a history of extraordinary high school wrestling champions at the local Perry high school. It's an homage to small town America for sure. Carnegie library in Perry, Oklahoma Mural at Perry Wrestling Monument Park

When I arrived in Perry, Oklahoma, I found a truck stop restaurant for a fried pork chop dinner before checking into the hotel. After dinner, I ordered a slice of homemade coconut cream pie, but they were all out, so I had to settle instead for a slice of homemade chocolate cream pie instead. In the end, it didn't really matter. I was just as happy with chocolate as I would have been with coconut.

After Capulin Volcano, I again headed east on U.S. Route 87 to Clayton, New Mexico, and then into Oklahoma, where I turned onto U.S. Route 412 which runs through the hard luck towns of Boise City and Guymon, Oklahoma. (In fact, I retraced a portion of the route home we drove in 2013 on the Grand Canyon road trip - from Clayton, NM, to the dust bowls towns of Boise City and Guymon, OK.) After Guymon, I continued east on U.S. Route 412 towards Woodward, Oklahoma, where my next destination was  The Plains Indians & Pioneer Museum . Due to the time zone change (from Mountain to Central), and other stops along the way, I lost at least an hour, if not more, and did not arrive at the museum until about 4:45 pm. Because the museum was closing at 5:00 pm, I had all of about 15 minutes to greet the lady at the door and then dash through the museum and take it all in. It was your typical "Pioneer" museum with exhibits on Plains Indians, the buffalo, pioneer life, small town depictio...

Did you ever wish you could walk around a volcano, or venture into its crater? Well, at Capulin Volcano National Monument you can do just that, and that's just what I did. I hiked the crater rim trail, which allowed me to look down into the crater, and the crater vent trail, which allowed me a close-up view of the inside of the crater, now filled with volcanic rock. Along the way, I made sure to avoid any rattlesnakes that might cross my path. And, believe it or not, it was the first day of the road trip that a visit to a park or attraction was interrupted by a steady rain, though I had a rain jacket and an umbrella so I managed to stay somewhat dry. As an aside, Capulin Volcano, which is in the northeastern area of New Mexico, east of Raton in the town of Capulin, was declared a National Monument by President Wilson in 1916 because it was such a perfect specimen of an extinct North American volcano.

 

After my pilgrimage of sorts to the Shrine, I stopped in at the visitor center in San Luis and asked the kind lady behind the desk if there were any other spots I should visit in the area. I told her I was headed to Raton, New Mexico, so she suggested that I drive south towards Questa, New Mexico (only 30 miles away), and then drive east towards the towns of Red River and Eagle Nest, New Mexico. She said it would be more enjoyable than driving north, then east, then south to Raton. So I took her advice, and needless to say I was not disappointed. The drive to Red River and Eagle Nest was via a loop that includes Taos, New Mexico, and is referred to as The Enchanted Circle. The route to Red River and Eagle Nest goes through the glorious mountain scenery of Carson National Forest. After Eagle Nest, the route to Raton was via U.S. Route 64, which was also beautiful and passed through Cimarron, New Mexico, a town with lots of old west history. In addition, the route brought my road trip fu...

On the road trips we took as a family when I was growing up, my parents invariably planned a visit to a Catholic church or shrine, or had us make some sort of pilgrimage to a place of religious significance in the Catholic faith. In fact, I believe that our family road trip to Mexico City in 1966 (yes, we did drive all the way to Mexico City from Pennsylvania with two parents and 12 kids and maybe one grandparent in tow!) was designed in part to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. So, when I read about the  Stations of the Cross Shrine in San Luis, Colorado, not far from Great Sand Dunes National Park, I knew that I just had to pay a visit to keep the family tradition somewhat alive. I am happy I did. When I got there, I strolled the entire walking path of the Stations of the Cross sculptures, which are not-quite-life-size bronze statues of the 15 Stations of the Cross (photos of the first and the last are included). Then I paid a visit to the chapel (wh...

After Great Sand Dunes National Park, I headed east, towards home. On my way to San Luis, Colorado, I passed Fort Garland Museum .  Fort Garland was in existence from 1858 to 1893, with its garrison of over 100 men, and served to protect the earliest settlers in the San Luis Valley. The museum is just the kind of tiny, historical museum which is a timeworn staple of all cross-country road trips. These museums tell a small bit of history or cover some other semi-interesting topic, are inexpensive, and can usually be toured in less than an hour, so you're educated just a bit more than you were before (but about a topic you will likely forget when you get home) and you're back in the car and on the road in no time. So I stopped in, paid the $5 admission fee, and took a self-guided tour of the museum, which consists of exhibits about life in the Fort that are housed in the original adobe buildings which have been preserved for future generations.