Gallup

Inscription Rock at El Morro National Monument

Bruce, April, Kristen, and Jeff at the summit of Pyramid Rock in Gallup, NM

Bruce and April Forman have been some of my dad’s best friends since grade school.  After med school, Bruce took a job with the Indian Health Service on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, AZ.  They moved back to Michigan for a decade or so, but are now back working for the IHS in Gallup, NM.  Gallup is sort of in the middle of nowhere – 2 hours West of Albuquerque, near the AZ border – so not many people come to visit, despite the fact that the surroundings are quite beautiful.  We stayed with them for 3 days.

The night we arrived, Bruce had to work late, so April took us for dinner at a great local Mexican restaurant for chile rellenos.  Navajo children were walking through the room throughout dinner, selling jewelry and other homemade crafts.  Kristen bought a pretty opal ring, whose setting and band the woman claimed was gold, but promptly turned Kristen’s finger green.  Oh well!  The opal is still very pretty.

The next day, Bruce and April went to work, but gave us several suggestions for an ambitious day of sightseeing.  (April should really be a tour guide of the area).  We first went to El Morro National Monument to see Inscription Rock, a place frequently visited by people traveling across the Southwest (first Native, then Spanish, then American).  The broad, soft side of the mesa at El Morro is perfect for chiseling, and it became a custom for famous travelers to stop and sign the rock.  Afterwards, we headed back to Gallup and made a stop at Richardson’s, the largest local Navajo trading post.  We didn’t intend to buy anything, but somehow left with $1,000 worth of Navajo rugs for our future apartment.  Which seems pricey, but as my dad points out, “$1,000 in a trading post doesn’t get you a lot of rug.”  That night, Bruce and April took us for pizza, continuing a family tradition of Friday-night pizza stretching back to the 1960s.

On Saturday, the four of us went for a 3-hour hike up Pyramid Rock.  The summit had commanding views of the surrounding mesas, the Southern end of the Navajo Reservation, and nearby Gallup.  Afterward, we had brunch at the old train station at their friends’ diner, went back to the Forman house, and hung out until dinner.  That night, April cooked us some delicious vegetarian fare: stuffed squash and a fresh green salad.  Mmm.

The Formans could not have been better hosts, and we’d really like to go see them again ASAP.