Into Arizona

This day started differently. Back in Estes Park, Colorado the disk brakes started sounding the alarm. It wasn’t until here in Gallup, New Mexico that we could find both the time and an available Midas. So we packed the car, I dropped Becky off at the Wal-Mart and settled in at Midas. The woman at the counter was a Navajo and lived on the reservation. We had noticed something that looked like very black dirt that had deeply and irregularly plowed. It was so irregular that a person couldn’t easily walk across it; the crests and valleys appeared to be up to three feet apart. Looking closer, it was rock, not dirt. She told me it was lava from the local Bandera volcano. The volcano last erupted about 10,000 years ago and is a crater rather than a hill, so we didn’t see it when we passed. Had a good conversation with her, the car was finished at an acceptable price and we hit the road.

Our entrance into Arizona was like licking a lollipop with a popcorn center. The interstate 40 entrance is dramatic and can be seen for miles. Of course, you don’t know what you’re seeing is the state line until the mile markers close in on zero. The road travels what looks to be the middle of a very expansive basin walled in by a continuous wall, except straight ahead. At that point the wall breaches like someone blasted through for the highway. But not so, it’s a natural passage and quite wide.

As you approach, you can imagine that anyone at the top of either side of the breach could see wagon trains or a single horse coming for miles. And the breach would be a great place for an attack. A real gateway and who ever controlled the cliffs would control who passed for quite a distance along the border.

Also, getting closer, you can see that the walls at the breach aren’t the porous gray granite seen up to this point. Rather they are very large, smooth dramatically-red boulders. In addition, billboards start to announce that visitors must bring cameras because of what Arizona is about to present. But shortly after entrance, the candy is gone and only the popcorn is left. What’s on the other side is miles and miles of flat scrub grass and sage brush growing in what looks like a desert. Just not interesting.

Immediately after crossing into Arizona, we are in the Indian version of Berlin. Trading post after trading post and all with the same stock. One was named Geronimo’s Trading Post. I couldn’t help but think that a legendary warrior deserves a better monument. Crazy Horse sure got one.

After a while, we arrived at a sign announcing the Petrified Forest. We got off and drove the 26 miles through the National Park that starts with the Painted Desert and ends with the Petrified Forest. The Painted Desert offers what looks to be red lava fields and panoramic views of the prairie. Interesting but not comparable to the Badlands. The road then travels for about 15 miles through plain prairie ending with a disappointing Petrified Forest. The forest consists of two view stops of scattered pieces of petrified logs. Just not impressive. What’s more impressive are the two Petrified Gift Shops just outside the south end of the park and at Holbrook. Both have many more examples of petrified logs and fossils that is offered by the park. Also both have more interesting presentations and explanations than the park. The gift shops were worth the visit.

As we approached Flagstaff, the terrain became much more interesting. The prairie gave way to foothill and then, quickly, to mountains. The scrub grass gave way to pines. The Rockies started to reappear in the background. The sky gave another great performance on this part of the trip. It was mostly clear and blue with all of the clouds piled up behind the distant Rockies. At first, the clouds, because of their shape and color, gave the illusion of the shadow of the mountains being projected against the sky. As we go closer, the clouds moved both toward us and lowered toward the mountains. The projection illusion disappeared but gave way to blanketing the largest of the peaks. It actually looked like the top third of the mountain was covered with a deeply fluffy blanket of cotton. It was spectacular.

If you’re waiting on something to be delivered, we know where it is. Because there are natural channels through the mountains, the road, the railroad and the river all travel side-by-side. Makes more since than blasting. We’ve seen as much railroad as we have road. On much of those rails sits miles of trains that are stopped. Now you know.

We’re now at Williams Arizona, three hours behind Ohio and ready to spend the night.