We've had several wonderful days, these past few. Right now I am looking at high grasslands outside of Winslow, Arizona (I know you're humming the Eagles song! It's that Winslow, Arizona! ). We're spending the weekend at s beautiful state park called Homolovi. Many archeological studies of the Hopi native American people going back to the 1250's.
We are so happy to be here! The view is expansive and desert-like. We will walk some trails later after we run a few errands.
Thursday night we slept deep in the Cibola National Forest, although not our original intention! We were headed to Bluewater state park in New Mexico. We found the kiosk and paid our fee, but then couldn't find the campground! We followed a road that we thought would take us to the campground, but instead saw a sign for the national forest. Long story short, we ended up on a very dust, rocky road and we just kept going! Then it got dark and we decided to keep on going, having seen signs for a campground about 8 miles away. Going no more than 10 mph, Michael did an extraordinary job driving. This place was awesome! Trees and tall cliffs, steep drop-offs; made for an interesting drive! We finally got to the campground, dark and quiet with no people around. No amenities except pretty clean pit-toilets. The silence and the starry night sky were perfect!
We left the forest around 9:30am, and it was snowing for a bit, driving another 7 more miles on the mountain road, finally getting to a packed dirt road. This drive was through the Zuni Canyon with cliffs of reds and grays. Glorious! Finally saw some people as we reached the small town of Grants. We finally found route 40 west, the road we've been on for a while.
Happily we made it to Albuquerque, and found an REI to purchase some needed supplies. Fun, fun, fun!
On April 21st we slept at another gorgeous state park, Lake Arrowhead near Wichita Falls, Texas. This park was lush green.and stunning. Saw our first black-throated sparrows along with white-crowned sparrow, kildeer. Heard eastern screech owl too. As we headed out, we drove through an active prairie dog town and boy, are they cute!
On our drive to Santa Rosa in New Mexico, we saw white pelican, snowy egret and our first oil rigs in the distance. Beautiful wild flowers, mesquite trees, cacti, singing western meadow lark and great blue heron. Saw our first cowboy on his horse, rounding up cattle! And saw our first tumbling tumble weeds! Saw a kestrel too.
Everywhere it is flat and you can see forever! Then the skies grew super dark and a tornado warning was on the radio. Talk about anxiety! We drove out of the way luckily and no tornado materialized. This was in Adrian, Texas.
We crossed the border into Arizona and found Santa Rosa state park for the night of April 22nd. Another pretty place, but campsites were close together. Saw our first white-winged dives and an olive-sided flycatcher. It was desert, our first real time to see this habitat our travels.
So here we are on the 25th on a cool windy day. We also plan on wiping down both the teardrop and car that are covered with dust from the forest road! Heard Flagstaff is having snow so we're glad we are not there! We will be heading to California tomorrow most likely.
The teardrop is absolutely wonderful! It tows so easily. She handled the mountain road beautifully. Our 4runner is great, too. No issues other than happy ones!
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