This is the record of our journey along the Grand Enchantment Trail, also known as the first thing that brought us to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The winter and spring of 2010 was a wet one in the Southwest, high mountains were blanketed in feet of white and the low desert wore a cloak of flowers like no one had seen in decades. The GET traverses 770 miles of high mountains and low desert in Arizona and New Mexico from Phoenix to Albuquerque.
We spent the winter leading up to that spring in frigid northern climates, living in my (Jeannie) grandparents basement as I cared for my Grandma in her last months of life. It was an intensely beautiful-difficult time, and the only thing we wanted to do at the end of it was walk. Walk to process. Walk to explore. Walk to warm our bones in the desert sun.
On April 4th my brother dropped us of at the edge of the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix and we started walking. In keeping with our true style we just jumped into it, having only a stack of topo maps, a vague idea of what we were getting into, and carrying way to much stuff (food and art supplies namely). The way is remote and aside from the few small towns with grocery stores, you need to mail yourself boxes of food so as not to get stranded in Klondyke, AZ with nothing but a bag of nuts to your name. So we mailed boxes of food to a few choice locations, and walked.
Jeannie Ortiz
Jeannie Ortiz
Jeannie Ortiz