7:56 a.m.
We drove east on Interstate 40 from our motel in Gallup to Red Rock State Park, which is north of the freeway near Church Rock. It’s a small park, area wise, but it has a large parking area and a museum, as well as a large, modern arena which is mainly used for Native American activities and rodeos. We followed the signs to the Pyramid Trail, which is way back in the park, through the horse stalls and rodeo trailer area. When we arrived we were the only one’s there.

9:21 a.m.
We made it back from our hike up the Pyramid Trail. We hiked out for a little over 30 minutes. When we started climbing to the top of Pyramid Rock, I balked a bit, not really into a steep climb at that time. Up to that point the trail had been easy to moderate, with some sandy spots in the washes. Most of the way it was packed sand or rock, with some slick rock. It was well worth the hike, but we thought it was only going to be two miles round trip. We ran out of time, so headed back.

There are great views of some very colorful geology, and, of course, Pyramid Rock sits on top of it all, visible almost the entire way. Once we got back in there we could see a colorful plateau to the north, and Church Rock toward the east. There were also good views of the surrounding valleys. But we didn’t see much of the really colorful spires that I had seen in the photos and expected from the descriptions of the trail.

9:32 a.m.
After we changed out of our boots we drove back through the Park toward the entrance. There was some sort of event going on in the arena. We suspected that it might be a high school graduation ceremony. One of the things we noticed in Chinle was that many of the graduating students soaped the windows of their cars, announcing that they had graduated. There were cars in the parking lot at Red Rock with similar decorations. We also noticed at various locations across the Reservation that there were large gatherings of people that may have been to celebrate the graduation of family members.

From there we drove into the campground to check it out and to use the restrooms before we headed down the road. It’s a large campground, mostly exposed, but with a few tall cottonwoods to add some shade to some of the sites. There is an RV dump station, drinking water, and it looks like there is electricity at every site, as well as a picnic table and fire pit. The restrooms in the campground are modern, and have showers. There also seem to be a few primitive sites.

There is also a US Post Office back in there, and that’s where we spotted a small sign indicating another trail. From the looks of the small canyon to the north, toward which the trail seemed to head, I would say that that was the trail we had intended to take. But there were no signs pointing that way as we entered. Just follow the signs to the Post Office and look toward the canyon behind it. You’ll see the small sign. Though it held the promise of some exciting geology, we had to save it for another trip.