Gallup to ABQ

I left Gallup, NM, this morning and headed toward ABQ.  But first, I had to make a few stops along the way.  Just a note about driving and finding places in New Mexico.  Whereas in Arizona once you get off the ramp, there's a sign telling you which way to go, left or right.  In New Mexico, you're expected to know where you're going.  What?!  So, I started out a bit frustrated this morning when I went exploring off the Interstate.

Although I have been to the Continental Divide in Colorado, it was a must stop today.  Yep, this is it.  Exciting, huh?

I saw a sign on the Interstate for Ice Caves and the Bandera Volcano, so I decided to check it out.  The first picture is the museum.  You can see they have tons of Hummingbirds flying around, and the grounds are wonderful for a picnic lunch after your hikes to the ice caves and volcano.  Today the smell of smoke in the air was very noticeable on my hikes.  The smoke cloud can also be seen in some photos along the path.

There were two separate trails, the volcano trail and the ice cave trail.  The first photos are on the volcano trail, with comments.

Lightening trees (photos above and below).  Trees that grow in lava tend to draw lightening strikes due to the iron in the lava. 

The brochure points out that this is a great place to see wildlife.  I didn't see anything in the way of wildlife, and was especially glad I didn't see the mountain lion or bear they said occasionally wander through.

 The path was rocky/sandy and all up hill.  Quite a climb!

 Lava fields.

Cinder cone.  A crack in the volcano swelled, sprayed lava into the air which hardened in mid air and fell to the ground as cinders.

Inside the volcano.

Along the path.

After a time out to get the rocks out of my shoes, and a bottle of water, it was on to the ice cave.

Bandera lava flow.

 In a forest I found cacti?

Example of twisted trees.  As you might imagine, trees have a hard time growing in lava and, therefore, have very shallow roots.  This results in the trees growing twisted.  And another cause of shallow tree roots is a lot of fallen trees in a wind storm.

Outside entry to the ice cave.  I counted over 50 steps down (and up!) to the ice cave.

The ice cave maintains a year round temperature of 31 degree or lower.  The ice in the cave is currently over 20 feet thick and as snow and rain fall in the cave, the ice builds up and deepens.  Some of the ice is over 3,400 years old!  The green on the ice is Arctic algae.  This ice cave served as a natural ice box for settlers and the Pueblo Indians in the area. 

After hiking out to the ice cave, the 31 degree temperature felt refreshing.  I sat for awhile in the peacefulness of it all and was rewarded by a bird flitting about the cave area.

 Another black bird.

You can see the smoke from the Arizona fire in this photo.  The tree in the photo is a Douglas fir and one of the oldest trees in the area.

Cattle on a lava hill?  How do they find stuff to eat?  This was taken back on the highway from the ice caves/volcano.

On my way back to the Interstate I checked out the sky and saw that the smoke was worse than yesterday.  Today, the clouds are not just white.

I decided to stop at the Zuni Canyon.  The views, as you can see, were spectacular.  Part of the road was rock and kicked up a bit of dust (you should see my rental car, uff dah!).  I was disappointed to see that the signs on the side of the road had multiple bullet holes in them.  One sign on the side of the road was difficult to read due to the bullet holes in it.  I didn't stay long.

My last stop of the day was the Pueblo of Acoma.  Prior to taking photos, photographers are required to obtain a permit and then you must keep it attached to your camera until you reach the Interstate.  The beauty of the area requires that a permit be obtained.  It is, needless to say, stunning.

The above photo is my favorite.  I came up a hill, turned a curve and there it was, this beautiful vista.


When I stopped to take the photo, I noticed a panel truck.  A voice called out to me to come and check out the jewelry.  I did and met Joe, quite the flirt.  :0)  He very graciously allowed me to take his photo, even though I didn't buy any of his jewelry.

As I continued my drive into ABQ, I counted no less than 7 State Patrol cars writing tickets to speeders.  One patrol car sat at the bottom of a hill where the speed limit dropped from 75 MPH to 65 MPH, on the way down.  The State of New Mexico made out like a bandit on speeders today!

Tonight I'm in ABQ and fly out at about 1:30 tomorrow afternoon.  There is a bit of a haze here in ABQ from the fires in Arizona, but I don't think it will be an issue for flying.  I'm expecting a long day tomorrow as my flight arrives in Milwaukee at 8:30 p.m., and then I'll have the drive home.  I'm not ready to come home...I just got started exploring!

The Petrified Forest

As I headed back to ABQ, I stopped at Holbrooke, AZ, another Route 66 town.  Aren't these wigwams awesome?!  You can actually stay in one overnight. 

Further down the road I found these prehistoric creatures.

As you all may have heard in the news, an area in the southeastern part of Arizona is on fire.  This picture was shot just outside Holbrooke, approximately 90 miles from the fire.  In the remainder of the pictures where you see what looks like low clouds, it is actually smoke from the fire.

One to do item on my bucket list for this trip was the Petrified Forest.  I was not disappointed.  There was so much to see, I spent the whole afternoon there.  Before I traveled the route in the forest, I stopped at the museum and gift shop; I wanted to buy the whole store.  I don't know what it is about rocks that I love, but the museum had awesome specimens.  Since you are not allowed to pick up and take rocks or other items from the forest, I did buy a small bag of petrified wood at the museum. 

Bench outside the museum.

 Cacti growing out of wood?

Tepee with petrified wood steps leading to the door.

Plume cloud again from the museum.

Note the huge black bird on the sign.  These birds were everywhere my entire visit and didn't seem to be afraid of anything.

The first stop was one of the visitor's centers.  The landscape was pretty barren, with petrified trees thrown in for color.  I could not get over the colors.  I was also surprised to find flowers and a cactus.

Next stop was the Crystal Forest.

 Even though the picture is of poor quality, this shows what it might have looked like in the Triassic Age...

 and this is what it looks like now.  Wow, huh?

I took this picture because I was able to capture the moon (it shows up waaay at the top of the photo barely visible).  I thought this picture looked cool with the moon and the landscape which looks almost moon-like. 

This is an agate bridge.  The bridge is a natural bridge consisting of natural rock on either side and a log of petrified wood across the rocks creating the bridge.  You will note the concrete below the petrified log in the second picture; this was added by the Forest Service to support the bridge.  Visitors are not allowed to walk on the bridge.  Also, note the plume of smoke in the background.

 These pictures are of what they call "blue mesas."

These are called tepees.  They do resemble tepees, don't they?

The Newspaper Rock was the most interesting stop along the way.  The rocks along this stretch consisted of primitive drawings made by the Native Americans.  The Forest Ranger said this area was known as the "art gallery" as there are so many drawings.

Puerco Pueblo also contained drawings made by the Native Americans.  At first I couldn't find the drawings, but then I ran into a woman from St. Louis, MO, who took me back to the drawings and pointed them out.  They were right under my nose; I was looking across the way like I did at Newspaper Rock.

Remember the ruins from yesterday? More, but different tribe.

Also, remember the round Kiva (ceremonial area) from yesterday?  Here's a square Kiva.

A lake in the desert is very different than a lake in the midwest...they're all dried up here!  The whole time while driving in Arizona I looked down expecting to see the river or "wash" as they call them here to see the water...and nothing but dried up desert.

I was so excited when I shot the following picture.  I finally caught a couple tumbleweeds not blowing across the road!  I know, they're just dried up bushes, but still.

This next photo takes a little bit of imagination.  See the old telephone poles?  They mark the old Route 66.  Interstate 40 runs parallel to the telephone poles.  Don't know the story on the old car, but perhaps it's a Route 66 fixture also.

This was the highlight of my day....ladies and gentlemen...the Painted Desert.  I know, freakin' awesome, huh?!  Almost looks as cool as the Grand Canyon.  I was driving along and literally came around a curve in the road and voila, there it was in all its grandeur.

These are badlands.  The Native Americans originally called them badlands (they had a fancy word that I can't recall right now) and the materials that make up these hills are so unstable that they could totally transform a landscape after a rain or other storm.

After I left the Petrified Forest, I followed Route 66 into Gallup, NM.  Route 66 runs parallel with Interstate 40, but is a much slower pace and I was able to stop along the road and take photos of huge stone cliffs.  One stop I made was an old Native American trading post.  Further down the road I saw the last picture.  I didn't realize what I had until after I had downloaded it from my camera.  If you look real hard, you can see tepees on top of the lower hanging cliff.

I stopped for the night in Gallup, NM.  The weather is gorgeous here, no haze from the smoke traveling from the fire in eastern Arizona.  I was listening to the radio during my trip today and it was a little disconcerting to hear the evacuations of the towns surrounding the fires, even though I was miles away from the action.  It was reported that the fire is now larger than the City of Phoenix.