Amache National Historic Site

After my hike at Picture Canyon, I made the long drive north to the small town of Granada, Colorado to check out the relatively new Amache National Historic Site which preserves the site of a Japanese American incarceration camp. 

My first stop was the site of the actual camp.

There was a map of the site that I used to find my way around and visit the different points of interest. My first stop was the historic reservoir. 

 From there I drove through some of the areas where barracks once stood that housed the incarcerated Americans. 

One of the few buildings still standing from the camp is the concrete remains of the Co-op Store. 

My next stop was the very powerful cemetery. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have your family forcibly removed from your home and then to lose a loved one in a desolate place where you had no choice to live. 

I spent quite q bit of time in contemplation at the cemetery before I moved on to a few reconstructed structures. First was the water tank. It was moved out of the site but eventually rebuilt in its original location.

Then, I checked out the rebuilt watch tower and rebuilt barracks building.

The rebuilt Recreation Hall was my next point of interest.

My last stop at the incarceration site was a place where prisoner signatures could be found in the concrete foundation of a former barracks building.

The signatures are concrete evidence of a sad chapter in American history. Real peoples' lives were uprooted and destroyed for the supposed good of our nation during a time of war. Interestingly, there are many trees growing out of cracks in the concrete of these barracks. 

I find the tenacity of these trees symbolic of the human spirit of those who once lived in the site. This was my second visit to a Japanese American internment site this year. The other site being Minidoka in Idaho. These are important places that help to tell an embarrassing, but important part of our nation's history. I finished my visit to Amache with a stop at the visitor center which is housed in an old bank building. I couldn't spend too much time at the site though, as I still had a long drive home. I was glad to have made this visit as part of my trip to the plains of eastern Colorado. 

Comanche National Grassland: Picture Canyon

 After my hike of the Santa Fe Trail, I made my way west to the town of Springfield, Colorado where I stayed in a hotel for the night since my tent was shredded. This turned out to be a good plan as it rained pretty hard all night. Besides the hotel, I found a surprisingly good place to eat: the Lost Dog where I got a bacon jalapeno burger and a beer. 

When I awoke this morning it was still raining. I got the free breakfast and hit the road south towards the small town of Campo. I headed west into the national grassland to Picture Canyon. Upon my arrival, I realized that the place looked a bit familiar. Back in April of 2003, Noelle and I had traveled through the area in between seasonal jobs. We had visited Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma and stopped at the small town of Kenton, where someone suggested we check out the tri-state point of OK/CO/NM and a place called Crack Cave. It was Crack Cave that brought us to Picture Canyon. 

This visit I started my hike under overcast sky. Almost immediately after starting the hike I found a side trail that led to a cliff that featured many petroglyphs and pictographs. 

I spent a pretty long time following the cliffline and looking for rock art. There is even a small cave that I climbed up into and found rock art in.

When it was finally time to move on, I headed for the location of Crack Cave. The cave itself is really just a crack in the sandstone wall. It is gated and so you cannot go inside. However, during the equinox it is possible to see rock art inside the cave illuminated by sunlight. There are stone ruins near Crack Cave, 

and another wider cave with some rock art inside. 

From the Crack Cave area, I made my way back to the main trail and started on the Arch Rock Loop. Soon the trail split with a sign directing equestrians to take one fork, while I took the hiker fork. It was quickly obvious why the trail split, as the hiker fork climbed some steep slickrock. 

The views in this section of trail were spectacular! I climbed up the slickrock and into the flat prairie above. Here I encountered a couple of tarantulas. 

Soon, the trail dropped down into another small canyon. A trickle of water flowed through creating a green oasis. 

Towards the bottom of the canyon the trail forked and I could see a sandstone arch off in the distance along the trail to the right. 

This would be the direction I would be headed for the next leg of my hike. As I approached the obvious arch, I found another arch, partially hidden by vegetation to the right of the trail.

I inspected this decently sized double arch for a bit,

and then moved on to the main attraction the "Arch Rock" for which this section of trail is named. 

The section of trail from Arch Rock back to the trailhead was less interesting than the rest of the hike. I found a few more tarantulas,

and caught a nice glimpse of a "Balanced Rock" near that road as I returned to my car.

Comanche National Grassland: Santa Fe Trail

 After my hike at Vogel Canyon, I headed into LaJunta to grab a few supplies. I ate lunch at a park in town and then headed out for adventure number two for the day: a section of the Santa Fe Trail. I arrived at the Sierra Vista Overlook and walked up to the interpretive panels there before starting my hike. The hike starts by cutting over to a stone monument dedicated by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Colorado. 

From the monument, there is not a foot path, you simply follow stone markers placed along the route of the trail. 

Since I was walking slightly into the sun, the markers were a little difficult to find. I used a hill in the distance as a reference point and was able to make my way along the trail route.  Along the way I found a few artifacts like a square head nail.

 I'm not sure if the nail was a trade item that was dropped along the way to Santa Fe, or maybe just left from an area homestead. Either way, it was an interesting find. I continued along the trail past cholla cactus,

until I came to a fence. This was the second fence I encountered. However, the first one had a gate that I could open to pass through. This one did not. Rather than climb over the fence, I opted to turn around at this point, especially given that the hike was a bit monotonous and the wind was starting to pick up. Along the way back I saw a small ground of pronghorn. No tarantulas in this area. 

Comanche National Grassland: Vogel Canyon

It got extremely windy last night as a cold front pushed through the mountains and out onto the plains. The wind shredded the rain fly of the tent and I ended up sleeping (sort of) in the car. This morning the winds were calm and so I packed up and headed over to Vogel Canyon as the sun rose.

Stone ruins I passed on the drive to Vogel Canyon.

I arrived at the Vogel Canyon Trailhead and immediately hit the trail. I pretty quickly reached the ruins of an old farm/homestead.

From the ruins the trail dropped down into the canyon and soon a side trail lead to the canyon walls and some of the rock art that the canyon is famous for.

From the rock art panels, I dropped back down to the middle of the canyon and followed what I thought was the trail for a bit. I somehow got a little off track before finding my way back to the trail to complete the loop. In a few areas there were pools of water; spring fed I believe. 

The trail continued along the bottom of the canyon for a bit. It was relatively level hiking. 

Near a second set of ruins, a stagecoach station I believe, the trail starts to climb out of the canyon.

I made my way back towards the start of the trail and then headed out on the short overlook spur.

Near the end of the overlook spur, I found another trail which I followed past some interesting rock formations.

This trail led back down into the canyon where it joined with the first section of trail I had used to descend into the canyon. I took the trail in the opposite direction, ascending back to the parking lot to finish up my Vogel Canyon adventure.