Ran into people from St. Paul at breakfast this morning.
Car was frosty, but the sun was rapidly burning off the frost. Beautiful sunny day. But cold. When will it warm up??? Good thing I brought lots of warm clothes.
No sign of snow anywhere until I crossed the Continental Divide. Then, bingo, snow everywhere. What, is there some sort of curtain that kept it on the west side of the divide???
Great scenery today through the mountains. The only snow around Albuquerque was on the very tops of the Sandia Mountains. I think of the pioneers as I look at those mountains and wonder how they managed to find the passes to get them through. Not to mention that they weren't rocketing along the interstate at 75 mph or so in a car equipped with all luxuries and piped in music. I don't know how they did it! I have a great deal of admiration for their persistence.
Arizona's entry sign says, “Arizona. The Grand Canyon State welcomes you.
Before I finish with New Mexico, they have interesting color on their overpasses—they've made an effort to jazz up the freeways a bit. Good for them! And both Arizona and New Mexico have a 75 mph speed limit on the interstate. In town it's 65. Good for them. You can make good time.
I went to the Petrified Forest National Park this afternoon. This also includes the Painted Desert. January is definitely the time to come—had the park almost all to myself. So peaceful and quiet. If I decided I wanted to see something again, I was able to just turn around on the road and not worry about traffic in front of or behind me. Here's a picture of petroglyphs.
I saw a sundog! Saw this reflection of the sun in the clouds that sort of looks like a rainbow and thought that must be a sundog. Confirmed it with the ranger on my way out of the park. Couldn't get a good picture of it. But I got something.
I thought the park was gorgeous. The skies were unbelievable—you can see forever in the desert.
Here's a picture of a petrified log.
Here are some of the teepes.
It was a great day!
I had a friend from Maine who loved the desert. He couldn't get enough of it and drove to the desert every chance he could to take pictures. I had the opposite view in that I thought Maine was more picturesque. I finally asked him why he thought the desert was more beautiful. He said, "Why, there are no trees to get in the way of the scenery."
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