6 Jan 10
We stayed the night at Kristen’s grandparents in Mesa and enjoyed some quality time with them (and their cats). In fact, we had a stowaway in the morning who had to be shooed away before Mary took him home to Boston.
Well, Boston via the Grand Canyon, of course. What’s a trip across the country without seeing the Grand Canyon?! So we headed north out of Phoenix, jumping off I-17 (where we bought the most expensive gas of the trip - over $3/gal!) to drive through Sedona. Our atlas said it was a “scenic drive”, but we had no idea. I-17 outside of Phoenix began with rolling desert hills studded with Saguaro cacti, became steeper hills covered in brush as far as the eye could see, turned into a plateau, and took us down into a valley.
Then we turned on to NM 179 and… wow.
Turns out that Coconino National Forest contains an area called Red Rocks Country. Sedona is in the heart of these rock formations. It was amazing. We then wound our way back uphill on roads with 15 MPH curves (it made me think of the Kanc!) and out to Flagstaff.
From Flagstaff we drove north through more National Forest (Coconino and Kaibab) and the Navejo Indian Reservation, which was beautiful but man, did the US Government give them some barren land. After passing Little Colorado Canyon, an impressive crevasse, we arrived at Grand Canyon National Park.
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Arizona
National Park
5 Jan 10
After breakfast at our great hotel this morning (as pictured previously), we hit the road for Tucson. We made a couple of short stops en route, once to get coffee in Lordsburg, NM (at Buckabrew’s [next door to Mom and Pop’s Pyro Shop], which we highly recommend) and once at The Thing (which was worth about the buck we paid for it - there’s a gorgeous rest area about a mile further up the road that we wished we’d visited instead). We’d previously enjoyed our time on I-10 in west Texas, but southern New Mexico and Arizona just took it to a new level. Desert, mountains, plant life, rocks, sunlight… this had it all.
Arriving in Tucson, we met up with Kristen’s grandparents at the Sonora Desert Museum. We spent the afternoon wandering there, focusing mostly on the animals, to be honest. We both confessed a soft spot for zoos as we left, admiring the cacti but really loving the mountain lions and otter.
We left Tucson via Saguaro National Park on a beautiful, very bumpy dirt road that we weren’t certain would end.
We ate dinner at Miner’s Camp near Phoenix after a bladder-testing ride that passed Casa Grande (at a distance). We saw the most amazing sunset to our west, but couldn’t stop to admire it in anything but the rearview mirror. Then we drove to Mesa to do visit cats, do laundry, and have a quiet evening before tomorrow’s drive to the Grand Canyon.
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Arizona
New Mexico
national park
Checked out of our motel and hit the road to San Antonio this morning, reaching the Alamo before lunchtime. We’d heard it was underwhelming; we thought it was pretty but very crowded. It seems Michigan State and Texas Tech are playing a bowl game in San Antonio? Fans from both school were there with colors flying. It was also a special “First Saturday”, so there were re-enactors there to demonstrate weapons and other things.
We were about to head out of town to eat our lunch at a rest area, but remembered the San Antonio Missions as we made our way back to I-10. We let Garmina (the GPS when she is not being bossy) guide us to the San José Mission with the intention of merely eating lunch on the grounds, but found ourselves charmed by the Mission itself.
The grounds are beautifully maintained and the mission in general amazingly well preserved. They were also expansive, and lent themselves well to photography. Mary enjoyed playing with the model at the entrance.
And Kristen found some hidden desert gems in her explorations.
We managed to steal a couple of dried out pomegranates on our way out as well. Neither of us had seen a pomegranate tree before!
After lunch, we hit the road again and also started the longest straight-without-road-change leg of our trip to date, with 312 miles of I-10 between San Antonio and Fort Stockton before we headed north on US-285 towards Carlsbad Caverns. When we get to I-5 outside of LA we’ll see if Texas or California gets the longest stretch of the trip.
We were both pleasantly surprised by how beautiful this stretch of Texas was. We’d feared that it would be a particularly monotonous part of the trip, but instead found some of the prettiest roads to date. Kristen especially enjoyed being able to really enjoy the scenery while driving: the open skies meant that simultaneously seeing the sites and watching the road was easy!
After turning onto US-285, we drove carefully to avoid the many suicidal deer in the area. We also contemplated speed limits of 75mph on two-lane roads (NOT a split highway). Our last stop in Texas was tiny, deserted Orla, TX, where we enjoyed views of the near-full moon over the abandoned café.
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New Mexico
Texas
national park
day 5
4 Jan 10
A very bumpy drive thru Saguaro National Park.
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New Mexico,
national park
on the road
day 7
We arrived at White Sands National Monument just a little after 4pm on Day 6. Too late to go on the guided Sunset Stroll, but not too late to visit the park. And sunrise and sunset are supposed to be the best times of day to see it!
We enjoyed a couple of educational stops along the way with information on dune flora and fauna. Mary was a bit enraged to see a woman and her dog carelessly wandering about the dunes in a more sensitive area of the park. Just wait for Heart of the Sands! You’re even allowed to sled there!
But really, just seeing the endless rolling dunes was more than enough for us. The backdrop of various New Mexico mountain ranges provided a dramatic backdrop to the dunes on practically all sides. Kristen especially enjoyed the views of Sierra Blanca, a 12,000 foot, snow-capped peak to the north of the park which called to mind (on a lesser scale) the snow-capped giants of the Alps. The setting was all New Mexico, though. We’re happy to be in the scenic southwestern portion of our trip that we were so excited for. It’s definitely meeting expectations so far!
Notes
New Mexico
national park
day 6
This morning, the beginning of the 6th day of our trip, we visited Carlsbad Caverns. They were absolutely amazing! Apparently the Big Room where we were is the biggest cave in the western hemisphere. It was simply miles of speleothems, the general term for stalactite, stalagmite and other cool rock formations found in caves. They’re also known as “decorations”. The tours were booked and we were a little rushed due to plans to also visit White Sands National Monument (a 4+ hour drive away and closed at sunset), so we only had a chance to explore the Big Room.
In addition to the awesomeness of the caves, we were incredibly impressed with the cathedral-like lighting job. Whoever in the park service managed that one deserves lots of thanks. And hopefully a pay raise because I wouldn’t want to change many of those lightbulbs. Between beautiful lighting, adjustable camera shutter speeds (it was dark down there) and various things along the path that we could use as impromptu tripods, we got some fantastic pictures as well. Above are just a few of the many, many, many we both took.
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New Mexico
national park
day 6
3 Jan 10
Arrived at White Sands at sunset stayed til our hands were cold and it got dark
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New Mexico
national park
on the road
day 6
