Colors of Flagstaff

It's been awhile since I did a "Colors of ..." post, so here's some major color from my trip to Flagstaff, Arizona, this past week. The parrots belong to a guy from Cottonwood, who was showing them off on a downtown Flagstaff street corner. I thought I was just going to hold one for a picture, but he kept adding more!

And this is me with Judy Sall in one of her shirts in her very colorful booth at Flagstaff Open Studios. Her dyed shirts sold like hotcakes.

I also bought these cards at Open Studios because they show the cheery colors of the sunflowers that are blooming all over Flagstaff right now. My friend Don lives on the property in the photos and he was pretty sure he knew the woman who owned the horse. By coincidence, we ran into her later in the day and she confirmed that it was, indeed, hers.

Then there were these two paintings of horses by Tanner Jensen on display in the Coconino Center for the Arts. These colors are so delicious that they made my mouth water! The show features horses by three artists, but Tanner's are my favorite for their pure saturated colors and curving lines.

We also saw this beautiful big Navajo rug on display at an open house held by the Museum of Northern Arizona at its Easton Collection Center. Normally the center is closed to the public, so there was a nice crowd there for this special treat, which focused on rugs. This one is 18'4" by 12'2" and was made between 1885 and 1890 by an unknown weaver.

The exhibit included this display of native plants and the colors they produce when dying yarn.

The collection center itself is a work of art, set within view of the San Francisco Peaks in a beautiful stone building with wildflowers on the green roof. Some of the collections can be viewed at https://musnaz.org/collections/

The Museum of Northern Arizona is down the road and is one of my favorite museums in the country for its comfortable ambience as well as its art and culture of the Colorado Plateau. I always relax on the couch in front of the stone fireplace after viewing the exhibits and imagine what it would be like to have a living room like this! We also wandered through the sunny courtyard garden, below.

Hopi katsina dolls at the museum ...

... and a special exhibit of Southwest landscape paintings.

Part of another museum exhibit.

Don's shirt adds a splash of color to the natural beauty near the museum. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona and is graced by the largest contiguous Ponderosa pine forest in the world. The scent of the pine needles on a warm day is intoxicating!

 

Here are the ruins of a Hopi ancestral village nestled in that pine forest that we visited over the weekend. It's called Elden Pueblo and is believed to have housed as many as 100 residents between A.D. 1150 and 1250 and up to 200 over the next 25 years. The San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff are sacred to the Hopi. Below is a picture of one of the peaks from behind my friend's house.

And then there was the food! I had some of the best enchiladas verdes ever at Agave, above, which also gets major points for its colorful decor, including chairs and tables with Mexican village art. We had our final dinner at another colorful Mexican restaurant, below, called MartAnne's, before I headed back to Tucson the next morning.

And this is the view of bustling downtown Flagstaff on a Saturday afternoon from the Weatherford Hotel, where we ate at Charly's Pub and Grill and then wandered through the historic building. The upstairs balcony was filled with visitors lounging in chairs, drinks in hand, taking in the atmosphere on a lazy, warm afternoon. 

It was a great visit, packed with color and culture. My next post will take you on our excursion to the Grand Canyon and the historic Cameron Trading Post. Stay tuned!

Have a colorful day

Blue bowl finished

I finished the big blue bowl and put on the blue sunglasses for a photo because the blues remind me of warm blue lagoons and swimming pools. Instead of tapering the end like I usually do, I let it undulate down the outside of the bowl like an ocean wave.

Here's the other bowl and the tray that I made this month to use up some of my strip scraps. I still have enough for MANY more bowls.

The colors go well with my Mexican Talavera pot.

Have a colorful day

I got my kicks on Route 66!

Earlier this month I took a road trip with a friend along parts of historic Route 66 from Flagstaff, AZ, to a pow wow in Gallup, New Mexico. It was the 101st Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, a two-week celebration of Native American culture and and heritage, and it was spectacularly colorful!

But first was breakfast at the beautifully restored La Posada ("The Resting Place") in Winslow, Arizona. It started as a Fred Harvey luxury railroad hotel in 1930 designed by famed architect Mary Colter, who also designed buildings at the Grand Canyon. Later it was nearly gutted and turned into railroad offices then fell into disrepair before being lovingly restored by its current owner. It's still a work in progress. For more info: the-history-of-la-posada

The dining room has turquoise ceiling beams and the walls are full of art. My orange crepes stuffed with cottage cheese were divine.

We wandered around the hotel and grounds, enjoying the art, gardens and comfortable sitting nooks.

Then we walked down the street to check off one of my bucket list items: "Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona" with the Jackson Browne statue! Businesses in Winslow have milked this for all it's worth, although my friend Don, a historian from Flagstaff, says that Jackson Browne actually stopped in Flagstaff, not Winslow. The story goes that Glenn Frey of the Eagles, who finished Browne's song when Browne got tired of writing it, thought Winslow sounded more melodic than Flagstaff.

Holbrook was another of our stops along old Route 66. The businesses that boomed when 66 went through suffered later when I-40 was built, bypassing the towns. But we stopped to view the old cars at the once-famous cement teepee hotel.

And the stop wouldn't be complete without going to Painted Desert Quilts, where I educated Don about fat quarters, jelly rolls, layer cakes and charm packs. It was his first time in a quilt shop. I bought a charm pack to make another baby quilt for my granddaughter, who's due in January.

When we finally reached Gallup, we went straight to another historic hotel -- El Rancho -- to soak up the Southwest atmosphere and have a late lunch/early dinner before going to the pow wow's evening festivities.

El Rancho opened in 1937 as a base for movie productions and was a haven for movie stars in the 1930s and '40s whose photos adorn the walls. But it was another victim of I-40 until the Ortega family bought and restored it. The hotel is now full of Southwestern charm and warmth ...

... and delicious food in the restaurant.

We each had Mexican.

Then it was on to the pow wow at Red Rock Park where we enjoyed Native American art that included paintings, jewelry, rugs, baskets, katsina dolls and more. I can't believe I didn't get pictures! I think I was just overwhelmed by so much stimulation that I forgot to take photos.

Next, we gathered with hundreds of others to wait for the Grand Entry parade and traditional night performances with dancing and drumming. We heard shots echoing off the massive red cliffs around us and assumed it was to mark the beginning of the ceremonies -- but it wasn't. The crowd started rushing away en masse because security thought there might be a shooter in the area. We were sequestered inside the art building away from windows until it was determined that there was no danger, but by then it was pouring rain, the evening's festivities were canceled and we were all told the leave. It was sort of exciting! The shots were from someone practicing target shooting on a nearby property.

Saturday's parade (above) through downtown Gallop made up for the lack of festivities the night before. And later in the day there was traditional dancing in colorful costumes with feathers flying and drums pounding.

We had looked forward to seeing the Danza de los Voladores (also known as the Flying Voladores), but high winds cut the performance short after they had climbed to the top of the nearly 100-foot-tall pole. Below is a photo of what the ancient spiritual Mexican ceremony involves, with the flying men slowly descending to earth as they rotate around the pole. The fifth man plays music at the top.

We also browsed at least half a dozen trading posts that carried an enormous amount of turquoise jewelry as well as other native art and crafts. I bought a simple pair of turquoise and silver hoop earrings.

The next day we headed back to Flagstaff with more stops along Route 66. I had never been to the Petrified Forest National Park, and I loved the colors and historical building.

This is my kind of sky -- 

wide open over a desert landscape.

Petroglyphs in the park were carved from 650 to 2,000 years ago by Pueblo people who farmed and hunted in the area. There is an astonishing number, probably carved over many generations. This first site is called Newspaper Rock because there are so many petroglyphs.

This is another one, with a bird holding what looks like a frog or lizard in its beak.

The famous chunks of petrified wood glisten with colors created when the wood was replaced with stone through mineralization.

I really enjoyed the Painted Desert Inn, which has been turned into a museum complete with rocking chairs, and a jukebox and ice cream counter in the old tap room in addition to the expected historical information and art. The original inn was built of petrified wood in the 1920s, but unfortunately it was built on unstable ground and began to crack. Today's adobe facade dates to a 1930s renovation.

The Salt Lake mural at the inn depicts the story of two young Hopi men on a salt gathering journey who walked a 230-mile trip from their home to the Zuni mesas and back, passing through what is now Petrified Forest National Park. It was both a physical and coming of age ceremony. This is just one of many beautiful art works at the museum.

Then our journey wound to a close as we drove into the sunset toward the San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff. I'm glad I didn't have to walk!

Have a colorful day