Back to California

I had originally planned on heading back to California via the Grand Canyon (northern Arizona), however, I spent too much time stopping and taking pictures, and so I missed my schedule by a couple of hours---instead of catching sunset, it would have been already dark. This is coupled with the fact that I caught quite a bit of snow starting at the New Mexico/Arizona border.

My father gave me a GPS device that he no longer used, so the following will be enhanced by longitude and latitude numbers! Click on the links, and you will go to Google maps---you can then look at satellite views or (to give you a sense of scales) the topological view.

Gila National Forrest.

I spent the night in Silver City, NM, after hitting US 180 off of I-10 at Las Cruces. The drive into Silver City was straight and flat, and the drive into the Gila National Forrest was coming into the foothills of the Rockies, officially the San Francisco Mountain Range. My first stop was the Alfred Leopold Vista (33° 11.014' N 108°49.739' W, Elev 5197 ft).

I got out of the car and quickly realized how cold it was. I had to change into a sweatshirt as I took some pictures.

After leaving the rest stop, I traveled a few miles and saw a turnoff for the "Catwalk Whitewater Picnic Ground" (33° 22.342' N 108°50.547' W, Elev. 5131 ft.) . Luckily, the water wasn't TOO white, as the park would have been rendered inaccessible:

It was a very nice little picnic area, about six miles off the highway, with a small river running behind it.

And, of course, I had to try my fancy camera out. This is a small aperture and long exposure picture of a piece of driftwood in the water, doctored just a bit with Picasa.

US 180 continued through the mountains, with steep drop offs to one side, and sheer cliffs to the other. This is a turnoff at 33° 32.604' N 108°56.122' W, Elev. 5950 ft.

Apache National Forest.

I began to climb further and further into the mountains, and at about 7000 feet it started to snow. And, even more beautifully, they hadn't scraped the highway. Now, my truck has 4WD and a manual shift option (which makes engine braking a breeze), so I had no trouble navigating the roads. In spite of my Texas licence plates, I do know what I'm doing when I'm driving in the snow, but there are a lot of idiots around. I pulled off of the interstate at a pass (33° 43.945' N 108°56.101' W, Elev. 7835 ft.) and took a few pics.

I had to be quick, because it was a bout 25 °F degrees outside.

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.

As I came into Arizona, it was increasingly clear that I wouldn't make the Grand Canyon by sunset, so I decided instead to hit the Petrified Forest (34° 47.670' N 109°53.445' W, Elev. 5397 ft.).

Now, I was imagining a forest of trees which were petrified, as the name implied. If the name of the park was truly descriptive, it would be called "A Forest Once Existed Here, but all the Trees Died and Fell Over, and now They're Rocks", but I imagine that it wouldn't have fit on the sign.

I came into the park through the western entrance, and as I drove down the main road there were the fossilized remains of many ancient trees.

The ranger at the entrance to the park assured me that it rarely snowed in the park, and getting to see it in such a state was a real treat. Maybe it was a treat for her, but because it was cloudy, it was hard to see all of the colors for which the park is famous.

If I had to guess, I think that there used to be an ancient river which ran through this part of the country. The river deposited various sediments at various times, lending their colors to the sand.

This is a formation called the "Teepees".

I would have liked to have stayed a while longer, but it was getting late, so I had to move on.

I stopped for gas once I got back on the interstate, and found this dinosaur in Holbrook, AZ (34° 56.272' N 110°07.900' W, Elev. 5268 ft.).

Meteor Crater.

The final stop was Meteor Crater (35° 01.971' N 111°01.309' W, Elev. 5590 ft.), outside of Winslow, AZ (which is more than just a line in an Eagle's song). 50,000 years ago, a meteor hit the Arizona desert, leaving a crater about 1 mile in diameter.

It's a little hard to appreciate the scale of this thing. I'd suggest going to Google via the link above and looking at the satellite picture of the crater. It is really impressive.

To give you SOME idea of the scale, the rock I labeled in the picture is about the size of a house. That's the claim, according to the meteor people.

This is a piece of the guilty party...

All in all, I have to say I quite enjoyed my holiday. I got to see a good chunk of America, I learned some masonry, and I got to see Lefty. I also started a fossil collection, which (I'm sure) I'll post about in the future. There were TONS of fossils in Arizona, and even quite a few roadside shops which sold them. And, of course, Bryanne bought me a beautiful fossilized megalodon tooth for Christmas. But more on this later!