Day 10

Day's Traveling
    Start: 9:00AM (Santa Fe, NM)

    End: 9:57PM* (Flagstaff, AZ)

Total Travel Hours

     Joanna: 45 hours 33mins

             4 hours 8mins 7 (train) 37 hours  20mins (car)4 hours 5min (plane)

     Alex: 44 hours 23mins

              4 hours 8mins (train) 36 hours 15mins (car) 4 hours 5min (plane)

States Driven through:

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland*, Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona (10/12^)

*only 14 miles were traveled in this state 

^ didn't realize we would be driving through Utah and Colorado

True to the patrons at the Santa Fe Brewery it was pretty cold this morning. No snow, but it was in the teens even with the sun shining. Jo and I woke up at 7:27 packed up and headed down to the free continental breakfast (I’m going to miss these when I get back home, they are just so convenient!). From breakfast it was back in the car.

Because our driving tour had been in the pitch black the night before, we decided to do a quick drive through the town again and stop at one of the landmarks that had looked cool the previous night. The Cross of the Martyrs overlooks the entire city from a hill in the North part of the city. It was still chilly, so Jo and I ran/ walked briskly up the pathway to the cross (Jo actually made her own path at one point as to cut off part of the path that basically just curved back and forth up the hill side). From the top you could see everything. Unlike Philadelphia, New York City or even Albany there were no skyscrapers allowing you to look over the city to the mountains in the distance.

After some pictures we jogged back down the ramp (using Jo’s path again) and headed back to the car. From Santa Fe the plan was to use two scenic roots I had found  from a book my dad gave me to get to the four corners. Jo and I headed out of Santa Fe on what we thought was root 20 North, but actually turned out to be Rt. 84 and 285. But no harm no foul, we were able to get on the scenic root using a New Mexico 503 as a crossover road. The scenic root travels Northwest through the Jamez mountains, however where Jo and I got on to the road it was actually more convenient to go the opposite direction. The road mostly traveled west so we didn’t lose much ground/time by traveling South versus North. 

Once on the right path Jo and I thought we would be able to just follow the road signs for the “New Mexico Scenic Roadways” for about 170 miles while we took in the surrounding scenes. However, as life would have it the signs weren’t that helpful. We followed our map and the road signs and stumbled across the first outlook by chance. We were driving up the side of a mountain when Jo spotted a beautiful vista and soon after a lookout point. We stopped and took bunch of pictures, it was amazing. I can understand perfectly why people want to become artists. Views like this are breathtaking and trying to recreate something so beautiful through any means could be fulfilling (no worries mom and dad, I’m not changing majors… yet).

Anyway, after the first lookout… we lost our grasp on the map and the road signs were no longer helpful. We stopped in the town of Los Alamos and headed to the Visitor’s Center. We were lucky the woman who began to help us was an expert and enthusiasts of the trip we were trying to make through New Mexico. Using about five different maps she helped us navigate the rest of the scenic tour and after a quick stop to get batteries and a cup of tea we were back on the road.

The next stop on the scenic road was the White Rock lookout in White Rock, NM. Jo and I made it to the lookout around 11AM. I had thought nothing would be able to top the last view… but I was proved wrong. The view looked down into a valley with a river flowing through it (similar to the great valley in the Land Before Time). Words really can’t do justice here, so please look at the pictures.

     

Jo and I hung out at this point for a bit, we munched on popcorn and sat on the edge of the rocks wrapped up in our blankets.

After our short rest it was back to the road. The rest of the trip didn’t have any lookout points similar to the first two but the road twisted and turned into the Jamez Mountains. The Mountain was covered in snow, however the road also travels outside of the mountain range and provides a completely different environment full of red rocks and hot springs. All and all it was a very pretty drive and we made sure to pull over a few times to snap some pictures of the different environments.

  

Because we traveled the first scenic road backwards we were unable to travel on the second roadway I had found. Instead we found a semi-scenic highway that would take us through Farmington, NM (the city closest to the Four Corners monument) through Colorado and finally end at the monument. Of course I took way to many pictures of the scenery even though it was beginning to get cloudy… so here is one to sum up the scenery.

It’s crazy driving through such flat states. You can see mountains and towns in the distance miles and miles before you get there. It almost makes the road seem longer because it is just taking forever to reach the mountains in the distance.

After a brief drive through Colorado (didn’t realize we needed to drive through it so I didn’t include it in the original count, sorry for any confusion this causes) we made it to the four corners monument! … as they were closing. Brief history the 4 Corners monument is the location where the borders of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. It is the only place like it in the United States and as our little write-up describes it, “Go ahead- climb onto the concrete marker and stand in four states at once. Then look out across the unbroken desert and up at the borderless blue sky. You’ll come away with a sense that nature distains our attempts to draw lines all over its creations and to parcel tidy territories out of such sprawling majesty.”

Anywho, It was around 4:30 when we pulled up, the park closes at 5PM and for some reason the woman there decided to close early- maybe because Jo and I were two of four people at the monument? As we walked around and took pictures Jo and I again witnessed an activity not many people have ever seen, the closing of the 4 corners monument. We had to scramble to take pictures as the woman took down the surrounding flags and rushed us to leave. We got some good shots though, and got to be in all 4 states at once!

 

Heading out of the monument it was a quick drive back through Colorado, then through New Mexico and then finally into Arizona. But although out final destination was in Arizona, I had found another scenic road that would take us through monument valley and through Utah. So back north it was as we passed into Utah (Again, didn’t realize the road took us into another state and I didn’t include it in the original count. We are now at 12 states that we have driven in if you have been counting correctly).

The sun was setting and Jo and I were quickly running out of time to actually see the monuments we would be driving through. Like some of you reading this blog, we had already seen parts of Monument Valley through watching any movie with cowboys or a western theme. But, we had driven here for a reason, to see them in person! However, we needed gas… and these roads on the border of Arizona and Utah were sparsely populated. On our way to the first view Jo and I tried to use the Garmin to find a gas station in the direction we were headed.

The closest gas station the Garmin found was 145 miles away… no good. Turning around the next closest station was 30 miles away. So we turned around. We actually only traveled about 20 miles before we found a gas station in Bluff, Utah that the Garmin hadn’t known about. After filling up we headed back to the monuments as the last bit of light was disappearing beyond the horizon, so much for seeing the monuments (We did catch a glimpse of the first monuments, The Valley of the Gods, but it was dusk). At this point on the route it was pointless to take a different route, so we countinued traveled along the road. The following pictures are what we should have seen had it been light outside.

 

    

Oh! And we did pass a gas station… only about 20 miles from where we turned around, thanks Garmin.

We passed back into Arizona and stopped at a Sonic (My first and second ever trips to Sonic have been on this trip) to pick up some grub before continuing the final 150 miles to Flagstaff.

Jo had been working with her sister, Tina, to find a place in Flagstaff to stay. Tina found a super cheap room at the Ramada Inn. So Jo and I plugged the address into the Garmin and went on our way. As we got close Jo and I saw sign for a Ramada Inn that didn’t match the Garmin’s direction. Due to our previous experience with faulty information from the Garmin we decided to follow the signs to the Ramada Inn rather than follow the Garmin. We found the Ramada Inn and I went in to check in.

The Garmin was right… there are two Ramada Inn’s in Flagstaff. The Ramada East and the Ramada West are separated by one exit. We first stopped at the Ramada East… where we didn’t have a room and then had to get back into the car and finish driving to the Ramada West. It wasn’t a big deal, but I guess we should still listen to the Garmin.

With the third day of driving behind us it was time to hit the hay and get ready for tomorrow.

PS- Tina the room is amazing, thanks for findings for us!!