Expedition: Retirement

 The last time we passed through Topeka, Kansas, we paid a visit to the Equality House, owned by the non-profit organization Planting Peace. Located across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church, the Equality House is positive reminder that hate is not the final answer, and that good people can and should confront bigotry and hatred. We had also wanted to stop at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park on that trip, but we weren't there during the hours they were open, and so we had to skip it.This time we made a point of visiting Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. Housed in the former Monroe Street School, which was one of the segregated Topeka public schools that formed the basis for the court case in Brown v. Board of Education, this site tells the story of that landmark Supreme Court decision and highlights its role in the broader fight for civil rights. This "park" is really more of a museum, with two primary exhibit galleries. The first tells the story of school segregation, from the doctrine of "separate but equal" that arose out of the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, to the various court cases supported by the NAACP to challenge this principle. Five of those cases, from four states (Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware) and the District of Columbia, were combined into a single case for appeal to the Supreme Court. NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall (later appointed as a justice on the Supreme Court) used psychological research to argue that separate was inherently unequal and that segregation, in and of itself, placed minorities at a disadvantage. This argument was so persuasive that the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was a unanimous 9-0 holding that separate but equal was unconstitutional.The other gallery showed the legacy of the decision, placing it in the broader context of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Even after the Supreme Court issued its decision, the fight to desegregate schools was far from over. Over and over again, local authorities fought back and resisted efforts to end segregation. In some cases, entire public school systems closed rather than desegregate. In other cases, the federal government had to step in to enforce desegregation. Progress was (and continues to be) slow and incremental. This museum is a reminder of how long and difficult the struggle has been, and stands as a beacon for what could be, even as hard fought gains are slowly eroded away.From the street, the building looks like what it used to be, a modest neighborhood elementary school. Except for the NPS sign on the lawn, it would be easy to pass by without any idea of the role this building played in our history. The side of a nearby building has been painted as a giant mural celebrating the Civil Rights movement. Somehow, standing here in this moment seemed important, to witness this piece of American history, and to understand its importance in light of current events.

The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve has been on my list of places to visit for a long time. I'm sure I considered it for the trip we made back in 2009, but its location is far enough out of the way to make getting there somewhat difficult. Located in the Rio Grande valley in southern Colorado, the star of this park is the 30 square mile field of absolutely massive sand dunes. The dunes are formed with sand blown off the valley floor and trapped as the winds push up and around the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and are the tallest sand dunes in North America, with the tallest towering about 750 feet tall. But the National Park is more than just the sand dunes. The enabling legislation that created the park includes provisions that extend the park protections underground to include the hydrologic features here, which are essential to how the sand dunes survive. The dune field is bordered by two creeks that fill with snow melt every spring, and which carry sand from the periphery of the field out on to the valley floor, where the water either soaks into the ground or evaporates, leaving the sand to be blown back to the dune field to refresh and maintain the dunes. This cycle is also instrumental in the life cycles of the flora and fauna here as well, all of which is showcased in the impressive visitor's center.We have visited sand dunes elsewhere: Jockey's Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and White Sands National Park in New Mexico in particular, but as impressive as those were, they simply were not even close to the scale we encountered here. After stopping at the Visitor's Center and learning a little about the park, we ventured out to the sand dunes themselves. As we had entered the park, we met some young ladies (ski instructors from Steamboat, Colorado, as it turned out!) who were on their way to try snowboarding on the dunes. Now, as we walked across the dry creek bed towards the dunes, we could just make them out on some of the lower dunes. They were off to the right of where most of the visitors were climbing in the dunes, and we chose to head in their direction. We climbed up close to where they were and watched them for a little while. The amount of friction between the snowboard and the sand was significantly higher than it would be for snow, and it clearly made it harder to slide. They struggled a little, but managed to get some clean runs in, but they finished and left long before we finished our hike.We would spend a solid two hours hiking in the sand dunes, climbing from the peak of one dune to the next, trying to see further into the dune field. We never made it to the tallest dunes along the front edge of the field, but we did get to the top of a couple that had to be nearly 500 feet tall, which did allow us a glimpse further back into the dune field. We found that the sand was firmest and easiest to walk in if we stayed near ridge lines, and much less stable if we tried to walk out on the face of the dune. But even the relatively easier conditions on the ridges wasn't exactly easy, especially at this altitude (the base of the dunes is about 7,500 feet above sea level!). Additionally, sand was constantly filling our shoes, and the wind blowing sand at us from what felt like every direction. But the struggle was worth it for the views. Because we chose not to follow the majority of the people into the dunes, but set off in a different direction, we eventually found ourselves far enough away from everyone else that it almost felt like we were all alone in this totally alien landscape. And even when we did get a glimpse of others, they were little more than dots on the distant dunes.But every footstep we took away from the parking lot was another we would have to retrace to return, and eventually we realized that we would need to turn around before we were to tired to make it back. We made a large loop through the dunes, eventually coming back to the low ridge we had begun our climb on and backtracking from there down to the creek bed. By the time we were retracing our original path, the wind had largely erased our footprints, a reminder of how little impact our presence here would have on the appearance of the dunes.

 After finishing our tours the Lower and Upper Antelope Canyons, we still had most of the afternoon free to do some additional exploring in the area. Anticipating this, I had researched possible hikes in the area, and found one in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area across the Colorado River from Page that looked to be the right length and difficulty to suit our need. To get there, we had to drive by the Glen Canyon NRA visitor center at the Glen Canyon Dam, so we stopped to learn a little bit about the dam and Lake Powell, the reservoir behind it. We didn't spend a lot of time here, but it was interesting to see that the water levels in the lake have recovered a bit from the record low it reached in 2022. However, the lake is still well below its historically normal capacity, suggesting that continued conservation efforts are in order.From the visitor's center, we continued out to the trail head parking area, just a couple of miles away. Our hike was about five miles, and was neither very long, nor particularly difficult. But the desert landscape was striking, and we got to explore some interesting sandstone formations. There were plenty of others out on the trail as well, many of them trying to capture the perfect selfie photos of themselves amongst the formations. The day was warm enough to be comfortable for walking, without being too hot, and we enjoyed the couple of hours we spent exploring this small area.After our hike, we headed back into the city of Page so we could get something to eat before we needed to head out to Horseshoe Bend for sunset. We arrived about a half hour before sunset, and tried to figure out where to best photograph this incredible vista. I found myself struggling to capture the entire scene in a single frame with my camera. My widest angle focal length simply wasn't wide enough to get the whole thing. My frustration was increased when I saw all the other people around me successfully capturing the scene with their phones. As the sunset and I was still unable to figure out where and how to get the shot I wanted, my wife finally convinced me to pull out my phone and take my photo with that. Sure enough, my phone was able to capture a wider angle that successfully capture the entire scene, the way I envisioned it in my head. So much for all my expensive camera gear! I guess I'm going to need to remember that my phone should be considered part of my photography equipment.

Of the five missions that are designated as the UNESCO World Heritage site in San Antonio, only the Alamo is not part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (which has to be among the longest names in the NPS). The other four missions are (in the order we visited them): Mission Concepción, Mission San José, Mission San Juan, and Mission Espada. Each of these missions was founded in the early 18th century, and all were relocated to their current locations in the 1730s. And the churches at each of these missions continue to serve as active Catholic parishes.

We started at Mission Concepción, which is considered to be one of the oldest unrestored stone churches in the US. We managed to catch most of a tour provided by an NPS volunteer, who had a clear and deep connection to this site. In addition to talking about the history of the site, he pointed out how the architecture was aligned so that the beams of sunlight coming through the windows illuminated specific locations in the church on specific Catholic feast days. He also talked at length about the frescos that decorated the mission, both inside and out. He was a font of information, and had his own theories about the meanings of the frescos and the images included in them. He expressed a wish for enough funding to clean and preserve more of the frescos, which might make further research into them easier and might shed more light into what roll they might have played at the mission.Our next stop was Mission San José, the largest of the missions, and referred to as the "Queen of Missions". The NPS Visitor's Center is located here, and we watched the film presentation about the missions and their role and purpose. These missions were created by the Spanish Crown with the goal of teaching the indigenous populations how to become productive Spanish subjects. But the missionaries were motivated by a desire to convert the natives to Catholicism. The natives who moved into the mission compounds were expected to adopt European manners and learn skills that would allow them to live in a European-style economy. My wife's friend, who visited the missions with us, was deeply moved by the video, which helped her better understand her roots and heritage. We then walked around the grounds, which were the most complete of any of the missions we visited, providing us with a much better idea of what these missions might have looked like almost three hundred years ago.When we reached our third stop, Mission San Juan, we found a far less complete compound. The full church here was never completed, and the current church was originally built to be temporary (Unfortunately, I somehow didn't manage to take any photos of the exterior of this church). Even though the mission was largely in ruins, aside from the church, we were becoming familiar with how the missions functioned and what the ruins represented. We also were able to explore a little of the preserved farm land, with the acequias (irrigation ditches) that survive from the mission era, showing the level of agricultural activity the missions developed.By the time we reached Mission Espada, our final stop, we felt like we had learned as much as we were likely to that day. But Espada was easily the prettiest of the missions, at least to my eye. The other interesting part of our explorations at Espada was the ruins of the mission school, which continued to operate as a parochial school into the 1960s. Except for the signs describing this history, I would have been hard pressed to identify these ruins as being that recent. It surprised me to see how little was left of buildings abandoned only 50-60 years ago.Along the way, we also learned that these four missions, along with the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio make up the El Camino de San Antonio Missions, a pilgrimage route for faithful Catholics. Those who complete the pilgrimage route can receive a certificate of completion, and those who walk the route can receive a 30km credit towards completion of the El Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Inside each church was a stamp that pilgrims can use to document their visit to that location.

We visited the missions because they were a designated UNESCO World Heritage site, without much in the way of expectations for what we would find. Our visit here was enlightening, showing how the Spanish colonial period changed the native culture and the landscapes of this part of North America. It illustrated how the modern culture of the indigenous peoples is a mixture of influences from their native traditions and the Spanish practices that were instilled by the missions. It was also a stark reminder that the history here is far older than many people realize, that the Spanish were here long before this land was part of the Texas Republic or the US.

 When we booked our bicycle tour in southern Arizona, we chose not to book an air package, but instead decided we would make a road trip out and back. We left home a week before the bike tour began, leaving us time to do some sightseeing along the way, and planned to do the same on the way home. We are huge fans of the National Park Service, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that many of our stops along the way were sites under the NPS authority. But we also had some bucket list items that we hadn't been able to get to on earlier trips that we wanted to make an extra effort to get to on this one. And, we also managed to visit two more UNESCO World Heritage sites: the San Antonio Mission and the Taos Pueblo. (I've updated my list of visited World Heritage sites to include these).

When we finally returned home, we had been gone for 22 days, and had driven more than 5,000 miles. We had also completed a five day bike tour in the Sonoran Desert and the Saguaro National Park, riding a total of around 120 miles. We visited eight different NPS sites, visited several Navajo Tribal Park sites, visited friends and family, and more. We spent the trip living out of our bags...the longest we stayed in the same place was the final three nights of the bike tour. There were three other places we spent two nights, but everywhere else we only spent a single night before moving on.

It was a great trip, and it highlighted the diversity of this country in landscape, people, and activities. While this type of travel might not suit everyone, we can certainly recommend visits to any of the places we stopped at along the way.