ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
HAHAh "Ho-made" pies! And with the picture of the girl, that is something else. Gave me a laugh though. What wouldn't have given me a laugh is that gas sign....$3.95 for gas! Yikes!
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6,500 Miles With the Crazies - A National Parks Road Trip Extravaganza
- Thread starter HouCuseChickie
- Start date
HAHAh "Ho-made" pies! And with the picture of the girl, that is something else. Gave me a laugh though. What wouldn't have given me a laugh is that gas sign....$3.95 for gas! Yikes!
Yeah, I wasn't happy paying for gas in any of these states. I don't think we ever paid more than $4/gal, but it was still significantly higher than home. I remember mentioning to David that the girl kind of reminded me of Snow White, especially since she makes pies in the movie. That may have been some of the inspiration, but the Ho-Made part cracked me up.
It was very neat to finally see it in person. That's funny about the snow. I guess I've gotten so used to living someplace without real winter that it doesn't phase me. Still, I remember those days of living up north and how nice it was to travel to warm places in the dead of winter.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
We had driven through a snow storm to get there. We had made our plans months before and only had a week off to visit friends in Cedar City, Utah, Page Arizona, and Prescott. So we were on the road headed toward Salt Lake City and it was pretty bad. The roads were open, but it was dicey in some bits. So then to get to Page and it was BBQ weather was a novelty. It was so nice!!
July 28 Continued...
And then it was off to the next destination. We had a ways to go, but the aim was to be in Monument Valley around lunchtime. The drive through the edges of Glen Canyon to Monument Valley are quite pretty. I swear, this one thing reminded me a lot of Devils Tower from a distance.
All in all, it was a pretty drive...
The farther east we went, the more rain we started to see.
Unfortunately, along the way, we passed a horrific accident. There were at least 5-6 vehicles involved, including an RV that spun off the road and was barely visible from the drop off on that side. One of the trucks lost its entire driveshaft. I remember seeing several stuffed animals thrown out onto the road and some blankets blowing in the wind. The road was completely block, but some guy in a poncho (nobody official looking) started directing traffic through the middle of everything. I couldn't help but thinking that we could have been part of this nightmare if all of them didn't take a little too long with the bathroom and getting drinks at a convenience store right after visiting Horseshoe Bend. This was a really remote area, somewhere in the Navajo land, and it would be a good 20-30 miles before we started to pass all of the emergency vehicles rushing to the scene.
After the accident, we passed quite a bit of rain. The areas that flood were well marked on the road, which is a good thing, but we were just watching all of the neat visuals the dark clouds and rain were having on the sky around us...especially with all of the rock formations as backdrops. It also was really this bizarre opportunity to see areas like this, full of rain, when they're normally dry as a bone.
And then it was off to the next destination. We had a ways to go, but the aim was to be in Monument Valley around lunchtime. The drive through the edges of Glen Canyon to Monument Valley are quite pretty. I swear, this one thing reminded me a lot of Devils Tower from a distance.
All in all, it was a pretty drive...
The farther east we went, the more rain we started to see.
Unfortunately, along the way, we passed a horrific accident. There were at least 5-6 vehicles involved, including an RV that spun off the road and was barely visible from the drop off on that side. One of the trucks lost its entire driveshaft. I remember seeing several stuffed animals thrown out onto the road and some blankets blowing in the wind. The road was completely block, but some guy in a poncho (nobody official looking) started directing traffic through the middle of everything. I couldn't help but thinking that we could have been part of this nightmare if all of them didn't take a little too long with the bathroom and getting drinks at a convenience store right after visiting Horseshoe Bend. This was a really remote area, somewhere in the Navajo land, and it would be a good 20-30 miles before we started to pass all of the emergency vehicles rushing to the scene.
After the accident, we passed quite a bit of rain. The areas that flood were well marked on the road, which is a good thing, but we were just watching all of the neat visuals the dark clouds and rain were having on the sky around us...especially with all of the rock formations as backdrops. It also was really this bizarre opportunity to see areas like this, full of rain, when they're normally dry as a bone.
Each time we got ahead of the rain, we'd also see how the reddish ground made the bottoms of the clouds appear sort of pinkish-coral.
As we got closer to Monument Valley, we started to see more "monument" like formations in the landscape...and some more average, but nice, features.
David was particularly interested in this one, at least from the front angle. I won't give you his official name for it, but he thought it looked like a rather buxom woman. Needless to say, he also was the passenger and taking all the pics.
"She" wasn't nearly as fun from the back.
David just kept taking pictures as we got closer to the end point on the navigation.
Navigation for these places is kind of tricky, because there's no real address. I could tell by our surroundings that we were in the right area, but not quite exactly where we were trying to be.
To further complicate matters, our goal was to make it to a spot known as Forest Gump Point. Navigation actually had that in the system, but it didn't bring us there. One of the lodging and food stops well known in this area is Goulding's. There's really not a ton out here, but I'd heard about this before our trip and wasn't horribly bothered that it routed us to a Goulding's convenience store. It gave us a much needed bathroom break and we had service for our phones. Navajo Nation currently has Monument Valley's driving area closed due to Covid, but thankfully, most people are still residing in the area...so I was able to Google the specific road and mile marker. We had actually been on the correct road...just hadn't gone far enough. So, we started driving again...and things started to look very familiar...
It's all very photogenic, but it's not as much wow in person. Oh well, we kept taking pics.
We decided to stop at a pullout that didn't have anyone selling stuff. Yeah, lots of people selling stuff at these pullouts in this area. This was where we chose to have lunch. Not much of a lunch spot, but also...how often do you have lunch sitting in the middle of Monument Valley?
Pink clouds!
After lunch, we drove a short ways up the road to what had to be Forest Gump Point. I say that, because it's the only spot we saw in the entire area that was filled with cars...and had people out in the middle of the road pretending to run. I don't think the family shared my astonishment, but seriously...we'd driven all this way...we're out in the middle of the desert...no manmade structures in sight...and here are at least 12 cars pulled off to get pictures. Of course, some people were also there selling things like jewelry.
Kendall...whose favorite movie is Forest Gump...who went nuts when she found out I was taking her here...refused to fake run. I had to put a snapshot from the movie with her just to prove to myself that we really were in the exact spot. I think most people have seen the movie, but this is the spot where Forest decides he's tired and stops running. I know a lot of westerns had scenes filmed in Monument Valley, but for us...it was all about Forest Gump.
After this, we started making our way towards our stop for the night...Farmington, NM. We saw some pretty interesting rock formations along the way as we approached the San Jose River.
What I wasn't expecting was Mexican Hat, UT!
At first I saw a little peek of it and thought...nah, it can't be. Well, the original navigation I'd done was just to Monument Valley. By adding on Forest Gump Point, navigation changed it up and was sending me a different way...right into Mexican Hat!
It also put us 5 miles away from Gooseneck State Park, with that overlook similar to Horseshoe Bend. Off to our left, shortly after passing Mexican Hat and the turnoff for Gooseneck State Park was Valley of the Gods. Some people like this just as much as Monument Valley.
There were all kinds of interesting formations off the road too.
Like this one that looked like an arch until you got closer.
This was right around the time we turned off towards NM. I was hoping to at least see Four Corners Monument to add Colorado - officially - to this trip, but it's also a site that Navajo Nation has closed due to Covid. What's really crazy...I could see Colorado. We were only about 40 minutes away from Cortez, CO. This is where we stayed when we went to see Mesa Verde NP and Canyon of the Ancients NM back in 2019. So, some of the visual landmarks we saw on our drive from Moab to Cortez were standing out during this drive as well. This wouldn't be the only time during this trip that I would recognize mountains from a different angle, but either way...it was just interesting to me.
I don't think David got any pictures of them, but we also saw quite a few wild/feral horses along this drive. It didn't really occur to me until he pointed out that there were no homes or anything in sight. Just some random horses here and there, clustered together, making it on their own. After the trip, I did some reading on this and found a woman's scathing letter to the Navajo Nation for failing to provide water and food to all of these wild horses. Key word = wild.
There was a lot of nothing for a while in NM and then out of nowhere, this almost creepy looking blackish rock formation appeared on the horizon. The closer we got, the more ominous it looked.
I don't think I've ever seen Krull, but David said it looked like something from that movie. I think he's right...maybe it was the inspiration. We'd later find out that it's known as Shiprock and there was a small town named after it as well.
Not too long after Shiprock, we arrived in Farmington, which was a larger town. David had to take a place of this burger chain's sign because he thought it was kind of bizarre looking. LOL
We arrived at our hotel and it was sort of a work in progress. It was recently purchased and was being refurbished. It was a nice looking place, but also a bit bizarre. Not all of the rooms had numbers and some areas, like the pool, were completely closed off. It noted it was along a riverwalk...which we could kind of see outside of our room window.
Oh well, we were all hungry. We're not generally fans of NM style Mexican food since it often is more pepper based, but everyone was in the mood for Mexican...so that's what we had. At least the place brought out chips for the meal (unlike the place at Glacier where we had to pay for our chips).
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. They had a nice outdoor seating area. David and I hung out and had some drinks while the kids played some silly game.
I wasn't kidding about some of the room numbers.
Coming up...we pick the wrong national monument, we see a whole lotta sand, and we spend the night on a mountain...with some awesome Milky Way time and a ghostly encounter.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. They had a nice outdoor seating area. David and I hung out and had some drinks while the kids played some silly game.
I wasn't kidding about some of the room numbers.
Coming up...we pick the wrong national monument, we see a whole lotta sand, and we spend the night on a mountain...with some awesome Milky Way time and a ghostly encounter.
It's funny how some of the spots get cold and wintery while others stay mild. I remember snow being a real concern for the Grand Canyon, but that we might be ok if we got just a little farther east. I remember that from growing up...how it wasn't grilling weather until at least May.
MinnieM123
Premium Member
Once again, really enjoying your scenic photos. It's an entirely different "world" out there!! 
Once again, really enjoying your scenic photos. It's an entirely different "world" out there!!
Thank you! It's really incredible to see all of these differences across the country.
Judi8281950
Member
Enjoying your TR. 
When we were at YS we stayed in the park for 9 days, during our stay at Mammoth, right outside our window I saw an elk give birth. Here is the baby getting her first taste of milk.
When we were at YS we stayed in the park for 9 days, during our stay at Mammoth, right outside our window I saw an elk give birth. Here is the baby getting her first taste of milk.
Wow, what a treat!!! We stayed at Mammoth for a few of the days during our 2005 trip. We had a bull elk licking his wounds in the adjacent parking lot and a bunny that kept hiding out under our rental car.
I think he lived in this shrub in front of our cabin.
Still, not even close to a baby elk being born right in front of you. So cool!
July 29th
I know we slept in a tad, but we eventually ventured out and walked to the Denny's next door. I think the hotel was supposed to have breakfast, but things were kind of on hold with all of the construction. Breakfast was relatively uneventful, and we hit the road for the next leg of the trip once we were done...well, after walking back to the hotel and getting our bags.
We had several national monuments as options for the first half of our day.
1. Aztec Ruins National Monument
2. Bandelier National Monument
3. Petroglyph National Monument
Aztec Ruins and Bandelier looked interesting, but Aztec...while not far from Farmington...would have put us a little off track for the rest of the day, and both had Mesa Verde and Canyon of the Ancients vibes. Had it been like the day where we went to Pipestone and there was nothing else on the way, I would have probably picked Bandelier. Still, Mesa Verde has kind of ruined us for other dwellings like this. I was an idiot and missed the petroglyphs at Capitol Reef and that NM felt like it was going to keep us on course, so we headed towards Petroglyph, which is basically on the western edge of Albuquerque.
So, we drove towards Albuquerque. I drove and I took a few pics along the way.
*Phone pics...just not as good when I'm rushing.
The drive...even the part coming down from Farmington...gave me flashbacks from our Red River trip in February 2020. For a while, we were running parallel but slightly west from that route and would eventually end up on some of the same highway. So, this would be the second time we could see a previously traveled path sort of off in the distance.
I was really dragging this morning and had to be sure not to rely too heavily on my vehicle's steering assist. As much as I like that feature, it makes me understand a bit how Tesla drivers kind of get lulled into letting the car take over. It will yell at me if it senses that my hands haven't been on the wheel for a while, but it can essentially drive itself. Speaking of, the onboard nav, it mapped us close to Petroglyph, but didn't actually take us there. There were signs all around the area about petroglyphs, but we ended up at this interesting little airfield. It looked like it was for flying drones and RC aircraft. That in itself is kind of neat.
Thankfully, we were in civilization and Google Maps knew what to do...sort of.
So, it got us to the visitor center, which is good...
...but after looking at the map, we saw that the trails with the petroglyphs are in like four different spots in the area. Ultimately, there were no trails at the visitor center and just one lone petroglyph for viewing.
We did see a little lizard while we were there.
Kendall also had a heart attack over this ribbon snake that boldly raced in front of her.
There were also quite a few desert thorn apples around...
And just cacti and other desert like stuff in general.
We had a quick talk about...do we or don't we want to find one of the actual trails. It was hot, we were hungry, and there was more to do this day...so, the answer was no. After using their fly infested bathrooms...seriously the most disgusting fly strip assortments I've ever seen...we went in search of lunch. We just wound up at a Chilis...nothing exciting.
After lunch, we headed towards Alamogordo...well ultimately, White Sands National Park. I fought a bit to stay awake and took a couple of pics, but it was just too much.
I know we slept in a tad, but we eventually ventured out and walked to the Denny's next door. I think the hotel was supposed to have breakfast, but things were kind of on hold with all of the construction. Breakfast was relatively uneventful, and we hit the road for the next leg of the trip once we were done...well, after walking back to the hotel and getting our bags.
We had several national monuments as options for the first half of our day.
1. Aztec Ruins National Monument
2. Bandelier National Monument
3. Petroglyph National Monument
Aztec Ruins and Bandelier looked interesting, but Aztec...while not far from Farmington...would have put us a little off track for the rest of the day, and both had Mesa Verde and Canyon of the Ancients vibes. Had it been like the day where we went to Pipestone and there was nothing else on the way, I would have probably picked Bandelier. Still, Mesa Verde has kind of ruined us for other dwellings like this. I was an idiot and missed the petroglyphs at Capitol Reef and that NM felt like it was going to keep us on course, so we headed towards Petroglyph, which is basically on the western edge of Albuquerque.
So, we drove towards Albuquerque. I drove and I took a few pics along the way.
*Phone pics...just not as good when I'm rushing.
The drive...even the part coming down from Farmington...gave me flashbacks from our Red River trip in February 2020. For a while, we were running parallel but slightly west from that route and would eventually end up on some of the same highway. So, this would be the second time we could see a previously traveled path sort of off in the distance.
I was really dragging this morning and had to be sure not to rely too heavily on my vehicle's steering assist. As much as I like that feature, it makes me understand a bit how Tesla drivers kind of get lulled into letting the car take over. It will yell at me if it senses that my hands haven't been on the wheel for a while, but it can essentially drive itself. Speaking of, the onboard nav, it mapped us close to Petroglyph, but didn't actually take us there. There were signs all around the area about petroglyphs, but we ended up at this interesting little airfield. It looked like it was for flying drones and RC aircraft. That in itself is kind of neat.
Thankfully, we were in civilization and Google Maps knew what to do...sort of.
So, it got us to the visitor center, which is good...
...but after looking at the map, we saw that the trails with the petroglyphs are in like four different spots in the area. Ultimately, there were no trails at the visitor center and just one lone petroglyph for viewing.
We did see a little lizard while we were there.
Kendall also had a heart attack over this ribbon snake that boldly raced in front of her.
There were also quite a few desert thorn apples around...
And just cacti and other desert like stuff in general.
We had a quick talk about...do we or don't we want to find one of the actual trails. It was hot, we were hungry, and there was more to do this day...so, the answer was no. After using their fly infested bathrooms...seriously the most disgusting fly strip assortments I've ever seen...we went in search of lunch. We just wound up at a Chilis...nothing exciting.
After lunch, we headed towards Alamogordo...well ultimately, White Sands National Park. I fought a bit to stay awake and took a couple of pics, but it was just too much.
I didn't wake up until we were in Alamogordo. At least it was just in time to see a speed trap, which would keep me out of trouble on our way out. I'm sure they get lots of people coming off the highway for the park and the Air Force base. There's also a missile range out there. We did see some aircraft fly overhead, but I didn't have the camera ready. As we approached, you could start to see the sand.
Oh well. We at least made it to the visitor center before closing.
The girls got their stamps, I got my ornaments, and the ranger gave everyone in the building a warning about the storms in the area. She said that we don't want to be out there if there's lightning and to be mindful of wind, as it doesn't take much for sand to cover the road. In other words, you're going to get lost in a sea of white. I could see the storms, but they were pretty far away, and I hadn't spotted any lighting. So, we headed into the park.
We stopped in this first large boardwalk area. There were people sledding, but the girls had 0 interest. So, we just walked and took it all in.
I know it all starts to blend, but like the red rock style parks, the endless white sand gives you a better idea of how huge the sand field is in the park.
What really struck me...this was a very different feeling than Great Sand Dunes NP. Granted, we didn't hike those massive dunes because the sand was wet, but those looked more like mountain dunes. This just looked like an endless sea of white. It reminded me a lot of the sand dunes at the beaches in NJ, but there was never any ocean...just more and more sand. And it was that nice sugary white soft sand that I don't mind as much.
After we finished on the boardwalk, we drove farther into the park towards this loop area. Still wasn't seeing any lightning in the rain off in the distance, but the wind had really picked up. I saw an area where I wanted to stop...got out...took a few pics...
What really struck me...this was a very different feeling than Great Sand Dunes NP. Granted, we didn't hike those massive dunes because the sand was wet, but those looked more like mountain dunes. This just looked like an endless sea of white. It reminded me a lot of the sand dunes at the beaches in NJ, but there was never any ocean...just more and more sand. And it was that nice sugary white soft sand that I don't mind as much.
After we finished on the boardwalk, we drove farther into the park towards this loop area. Still wasn't seeing any lightning in the rain off in the distance, but the wind had really picked up. I saw an area where I wanted to stop...got out...took a few pics...
That's a woman with her hair blowing in the wind...just to give you some perspective on size as well as the wind intensity.
I think I took this at our first stop, but you can get a better idea of the area and the storms around us.
...and then got back in the car. The sand was blowing so hard that it felt like thousands of little needles hitting my skin. It was also starting to cover the road. I could still see where the road should be, so we decided to use that as our sign to leave. We did see the ranger taking down the flag on our way out.
This only recently became a national park. I know when we flew over back in Dec. 2018, it was still classified as a national monument. The nicer signage still reflects it as such as well.
I'm happy we saw it, but I'm really mixed on it being elevated to National Park level. Mind you, I don't like sand and Great Sand Dunes ranks as one of my least favorite parks. That being said, the dunes at Great Sand Dunes looked like sand mountains (although, probably more the height of foothills), and there was a wow factor with that. Of course, there is a wow factor with this too...looking out and seeing nothing but a sea of white sand. Maybe it's because it's a bit more accessible that it feels this way.
After the park, we decided to head to our hotel. Originally, I was just going to stay in Alamogordo, but my boss has spent a lot of time in New Mexico and suggested some historic old lodge up in the mountains in the town of Cloudcroft. Pardon the bug collection on my windshield. It was a constant struggle for the entire trip.
Unfortunately, my boss forgot to tell me to stop at this one pull out/overlook area on our way up the mountain. I guess you can see White Sands from up there. Oh well. We got a little turned around on the way up to the top once arriving in the town, but we eventually got there.
It's a neat looking hotel, but I'd soon find out that the construction I read about online was very much a big deal right now. The front entrance was completely closed, so I had to go around the back and enter via a back entrance near the pool and restaurant. They didn't really have any place for me to unload the bags, but said I could temporarily park in the handicapped spaces back there. So, we moved the car back there. Oh yeah, we had a physical key again, but this time it was all fancy and brass. I'm not sure that made up for the place having no elevator. I know it's an old hotel and I know we made it without one in Zion, but for whatever reason, it felt like a real challenge getting our bags upstairs in this place. Maybe it's because they have a fancy restaurant connected to whatever was still open off the lobby, and all kinds of people in nice clothes were in our path. I was so pitiful that some man offered to help. He changed his offer to get it to the landing after he realized how heavy my bag was. I guess any kind of help is help.
Once upstairs, we were very pleased with our room. It was large, nicely appointed, and we had sort of a woodsy view.
I also went out and took some pics inside the hotel
It was getting late and this was a sleepy little town with very few options. None of us were up for a fancy meal, so we found a place called Dave's. Thankfully, we made it before they closed. David was very happy to be eating at his own restaurant. LOL
The food, while more of what we'd been seeing a lot on the road, had some local flare and the cheese sauce was apparently divine. Sam was also super pleased to find out that they would never put beans in their chili! LOL
It was dark when we got out.
These exterior pics of the hotel would be the first I'd take during our stay. It's really unfortunate that we couldn't get into that front area or the tower.
Got a little bit of sunset and the back of the hotel on our way back inside...
I also took a few more interior pics...
*this felt a bit out of place.
When we got back to the room, we noticed the door was sticking a little, but nothing unmanageable. It had doing it earlier too...about the same way...we just didn't say anything about it until now...but it would come up later. Still, I had other things on my agenda. It was a clear night and the elevation was almost 8,700', so I decided to take the camera back out to try some more Milky Way pics. I dressed a little more warmly because it was already in the 40s outside and with the wind, it felt more like upper 30s. As soon as I got outside, I was greeted with a clear view of the Milky Way. Surely, it had to be easier when it was visible like this with the naked eye! Still no tripod, but they had these little drink holders along the deck that did a great job of holding the camera. Warning...I may have gone a bit overboard.
Meteor!!!
Milky way and meteor!
