I've been hiding in snow, I've been treading on ghosts

Thursday morning started off with a short drive to White Sands National Monument where the blinding pure white sand dunes could almost be confused for snow if it wasn’t for the blazing hot sun. After a short walk on the boardwalk loop and learning about some of the local critters we headed back to Alomogordo to regroup before an afternoon drive to Cloudcroft. I had the GoPro running for most of the drive so will post links once I have that uploaded.

Friday was the final day of TT West and we did two stops at the Salinas National Monument on the way to Albuquerque. It was interesting seeing the differences in settlements as we traveled north. The harsh and very primitive settlement at Walpi, the cliff dwellings at Montezuma Castle with at least some water present and then the larger settlements at the pueblos in Salinas with much more local water. The more northern settlements were also the most recent with more Spanish influence including ruins from the churches setup by the Spanish missions.

Today my return trip begins and the focus will be more on geology than archaeology as I make stops at Monument Valley, Capitol Reef, Bryce and Zion.

There’s a star man, waiting in the sky

Yesterday was primarily a driving day crossing from Arizona to New Mexico after a stop at the Petrified Forest National Park. The route took us along Route  666 191, the Coronado Scenic Trail, 100 miles, 460 corners and elevation up to 9000ft. It is also one of the least traveled federal highways so our convoy of 11 cars skewed the average for the day. We had a short stop at the Red Mountain overlook to regroup and catch our breaths before continuing the second half that winds up running through a massive copper mine at the town of Morenci. I have GoPro video of the entire route so eventually the highlights will make it to YouTube.

Today we started with a drive to the City of Rocks park for some short hikes through the volcanic formations. That was followed by some more entertaining roads to Hatch for our lunch stop. The afternoon excursion was to the White Sands Missile Range Museum but due to a minor legal issue I was not permitted to enter the site. Given this is an operational military base I thought it wise to not protest and instead headed to the History of Space museum in nearby Alamogordo. This turned out to be a really nice museum with some great exhibits showcasing the early days of the space program and it looks like they are expanding some of the exhibits. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

Tomorrow we’re off to White Sands National Monument, where they do not require a RealID license for entry, and then a driving tour of some of the other local sights, including a search for the pistachio farm we keep seeing signs for.

Don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy

Nearly 2000 miles in now and I think my sanity is intact. Also, I can now say that I’ve stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona but nothing particularly interesting happened. It has been a fun few days here though. The TT West event officially started today with drives to the ruins at Montezuma Castle, an attempted lunch in Sedona and finishing off the loop with a stop at the Meteor Crater. Sunday we took things a little easier with a short loop drive to the Hopi reservation to get a tour of the Walpi village which dates back to 900 ad.

Tomorrow is mostly a transit day with the group of 11 cars migrating east to Silver City, NM, by way of some of entertaining highways.

I have not kept track of driving stats over the last two days other than there’s been a lot of seat time and a lot of unhealthy fuel consumption and we’ll just forget the average speeds 😁

Speeding 72, We're faster getting nowhere

Today’s title is a bit more accurate with the lower speed limits on the state highways I had the cruise set at 72 for most of the day. A few brief excursions to redacted mph to pass slower traffic although there really wasn’t too much of that to deal with.

The day started very chilly in Beaver, 33° when I started the car and dropping to 28° as I motored down Hwy20. The rainstorm I drove through yesterday evening left a fresh dusting of snow across the landscape but thankfully the roads were clear and dry. Once I turned south on Hwy89 the skies cleared, temps came up to a more reasonable mid-40s and the views continued to improve the further south I got. 89 runs between Bryce and Zion so I was able to catch some glimpses of the “outside” edge of the Zion canyons, a teaser for next week. 

Eventually 89 turns east and runs along the Utah/Arizona border before finally crossing just north of Page. My first stop of the day was just south of Page, at the Horseshoe Bend overlook. My first time touring this area in 2007 I ran into a hiker in Capitol Reef that suggested I stop here as I was going to be in the area to see Antelope Canyon. It seems far more popular now, a proper visitor center and parking lot. Lots more people now too but there’s plenty of room along the length of the rim to get good pictures. I didn’t spend too much time here as I was eager to get back on the road.

Stop number two, after a quick refuel in Cameron, was the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The last time I was here in 2013 we stopped at the north rim but it seemed like the south rim had more spots to stop. It was also more on the way, sort of. It was also much less crowded than I expected so I stopped at several of the view points which get you slightly different views into the canyon as you head further west.

Eventually Hwy64 turned back south and it was a short drive to I-40 for the final leg into Winslow. It doesn’t seem like I’ve only been on the road for three days. The change in weather and scenery break the days into their own segments with something new around every bend. Except for I-40. I think that looks the same all the way across Texas.

Stats for the day:

460 miles
59 mph
28 mpg, much better than I expected with all of the climbing
7:48 total drive time

Imagine myself in an automobile A hundred miles an hour, only me at the wheel

Ok well maybe not 100mph but speed limits did kick up to 80mph for most of the day which helped shrink the 540 mile drive. Today was the highest mileage day of the trip and was expected to be the most boring with not much scenery through eastern Idaho and the many cities on I-15 through Utah. Lots of rain throughout the day and way more traffic than yesterday.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to start out better and I’ll be off of the interstate pretty early and headed down Hwy 89 which threads through several national parks and forests so I expect the scenery to improve. Also on the agenda are stops at the Horseshoe Bend overlook and the south rim of the Grand Canyon and whatever else looks interesting along the way.

Some pics from the road today. I was worried that leaving the Elph at home would be a mistake but the iPhone has filled the role of getting quick snapshots quite nicely.

 

Stats for the day:

540 miles
72 mph
26 mpg
7:26 drive time