It is the end of October in cold and rainy D.C. and I am thinking: “What should a jobless wife do to best use this time of the year?” One idea is probably to find a fellow spouse and put heads together. So I did with my friend Iva, whose husband also works for the Bank. It did not take long to come up with an exciting idea, “Let’s explore America, let’s leave our working husbands behind and go to the warm and sunny Phoenix, the capitol of Arizona!”

We started our sightseeing by visiting Casa Grande National Monument, the ruins of the largest, mysterious structure built by the Hohokam Indian tribe almost 700 years ago. Various theories place it as an observatory, a temple, or a granary. It was astounding how the four stories high and 60 feet long building dominated the flat and sandy country around. After learning about Hohokam traditions and history we continued south to Saguaro National Park. This park has two parts, the West and the East, both known for the supreme symbol of the U.S. Southwest—the cacti “saguaros”. Extraordinary giant plants, with personalities and arms reaching toward the blue sky, cover most of the Sonoran Desert, the hottest and driest region on the continent. We had wondered what the many round holes in the plants were, until we learned that the saguaro is like a multi-storied apartment complex and the holes are excavated nests—birds’ natural skyscraper. In summer the saguaro produces fig-like fruits, harvested by Indians in the past and used to make jam, syrup and wine. We spent a whole evening and the morning of the following day wandering among these still old fellows who have grown patiently inch by inch for decades.

After an evening in the popular western city of Tombstone, we drove further southeast to Chiricahua National Monument. It’s a Mecca for hikers and birders; an island covered by trees and unbelievable standing up rocks called “pinnacles.” Many of these formations have names like Sea Captain, China Boy, Organ Pipe, Big Balance Rock, but you can always use your imagination and see some new funny faces like we did.

We left Arizona and followed our trail to the nearby New Mexican Park Gila Cliff Dwellings. There, a short walk led us through Gila River valley to an impressive structure built by the Mogollon tribe between the 1270s and 1300. The dwelling consisted of 40 rooms inside several natural caves, used for daily living, sleeping, cooking and storing food, as well as for ceremonies and burials. Historians still wonder why only one generation ever lived there and why they disappeared.

We can recommend spending a night at a spa called T or C (Truth or Consequences). We were lucky to find lodging there, as it was on a weekend and many people came to enjoy the popular hot springs and baths built by almost every motel. An evening and a morning bath was included, and although it was quite late when we arrived, we opted to take a warm bath before going to bed. A tiny wooden construction led us to a dark underground, and it required courage to enter the mysterious clear water with a stony floor. But we loved it and it felt like being in a real spa.

The following day we stopped in the historical district of the city Las Cruces. The dominating San Albino Church was consecrated to Basilica just the day before and there was a big event for the locals with music and dance performances. As it was November 2nd, the All Souls day, there were several booths decorated with flowers, candles, crosses and photographs of family members who had passed away. It was a way of commemorating the dead which I hadn’t witnessed before.

Our next day plan covered White Sand Dunes, one of the world’s natural wonders. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 sq miles of desert and have created the world’s largest gypsum dune field. The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Only a few species of plants like yucca grow rapidly enough to survive burial by the moving dunes and several types of animals have even evolved white colorations to camouflage themselves in the pure white sand. We felt like we were in the middle of winter mountains covered by fresh snow, but with the temperature almost 30 degrees Celsius and in shorts and T-shirts it felt a little weird and wonderful.

From there, we went North to see Three Rivers Petroglyph, a short trail where about 21.000 petroglyphs were found. All the outstanding examples of prehistoric Jornada Mogollon rock art, including masks, hand prints, wildlife, sunbursts and geometric designs. The number and the concentration makes this place the largest rock art sites in the Southwest!

The next place we visited was Valley of Fires, a rarely visited site. It’s an about 40 miles long and 6 miles wide area covered by black lava, which buried everything that stood in its way million years ago. The newly constructed paved path allowed us to walk among the mysterious petrified lava streams and dangerous cracks, sporadically overgrown by cacti and yuccas. It looked like the lava had destroyed everything just few decades ago, not a million years ago!

The last day of our trip we visited Carlsbad Caverns, an underground world hidden from sunlight. It is an incomparable realm of gigantic subterranean chambers, fantastic cave formations and extraordinary features created drop by drop for millions of years. From there we continued southwest, crossed the Texas border and stopped for a short walk and at the visitor center of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We spent very little time here as we were short of time to explore this impressive massif with the tallest peaks of Texas…

The whole trip came out far better than expected. Iva proved to be an excellent driver and I was a reliable fellow-traveler and navigator. We enjoyed traveling together and got to know each other really well. Traveling in America is really easy and so many fantastic places are accessible to anybody who wants to discover new places and and have fun exploring. The services of the National Parks are just amazing and do offer something for everybody to learn and enjoy. Whenever you have a chance, take advantage of this fact and go explore the variety of interesting places America offers. We wish all future explorers a good trip and, remember to “have fun”!

Daniela Drapakova