Journey to California, Day 3
Jul. 5th, 2007 07:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragoness_ePosted a day late because I was too tired last night. The Quality Inn in Amarillo had a really good "Continental" breakfast, too.
Flat, flat, flat. Wind farm to the north of the highway for several miles. Huge pylons supporting three-bladed props, with each blade nearly as long as the pylon was high. Painted white and can be seen for many miles. They farm something up here. Terrain is deceptive; it appears flat, but close-up, there are depressions and low hills. It's mostly farmland, interspersed with some cattle range. Passed three wind generators close by the highway, not far from a ranch where they had cattle corralled, and cowboys on horses tending to them.
This is flat, yo.
From green plains I went up over some sandhills and all of a sudden it's arid on the other side. Mesquite, juniper and sagebrush, sere dry grass. Then over another bunch of sandhills, and poof!--it's green again. Eventually the hills became rockier and ruggeder, and I was in the Mesalands... and across the border into New Mexico.
Visitor Center is hidden away in the hamlet of San Jon, New Mexico. Some nice friendly ladies were running the place, and found pamphlets for the areas I was interested in right away. Route 66 ran along the I-40 route, so there's a lot of "Historic Route 66" stuff along the way.
Mesquite, Juniper, and Cholla are the three large bushy things found dotting the arid lands. Sagebush is a much smaller plant, gray-green, shaped rather like rosemary gone wild. I described Mesquite in the previous entry; it's found all over the lowlands. Juniper likes the hills and mesas, and can be rather dense. Cholla cactus is also a lowland plant, and can be found sharing the range with mesquite.
Cholla
Cholla Close-up
Juniper
Grass, mesquite, cholla, prickly pear, and what's that on the horizon?
From the vistor center in San Jon, NM, not far from the border for a ways down the road, it's very rugged country with hills of fractured red rock. Very dry, just mesquite, juniper and tufts of sagebush all over. South of San Jon, NM, the pylons of another wind farm can be seen on top of a distant mesa. They run for miles along the horizon. Welome to the New West.
Here's what was on the ridge in the picture above!
Tucumcari is nestled in the hills; all the buildings are low, one story or so. Except for the business signs sticking up, you could miss the whole town if you didn't look carefully, even though it is a sizable town. There's this one mountain that overlooks the highway and the town: Mt. Tucumcari. New West look: the top is covered with antennae.
New Mexico is proud of its scenic highways, except for the part where they don't provide rest stops or scenic overlooks so you can stop and take pictures. They could learn something from Texas and the Natchez Trace. However, they do decorate their overpasses--instead of raw concrete, they are decoratively molded and painted with petroglyph and other images of New Mexico. Alas, I have no pictures because of the lack of safe places to pull over and take them.
Eventually the mesalands give way to less arid prairie--now its straw-colored grass, and the usual triad of bushes. Junipers prefer the hills and mesquite the flatlands, by the way. And in the rare places where there's water, either above ground part of the year, and below ground all of the year--such as an intermittant stream--there's cottonwoods. They graze cattle out this way.
Yes, they do!
As I've driven west, the land has slowly risen quite high--then, coming into Albequerque, I lose all that altitude. There's a long downhill plunge through miles of steep mountains of fractured rock, going down thousands of feet. Lots of "watch out for falling rocks" signs--apparently that fractured rock comes loose now and then. The New Mexico DOT has decided to fix that--they are in the process of putting mesh over rock faces of the highway cuts and plastering it with concrete, I guess to hold the rocks in place. The NM DOT is also gracing I-40 with about 50% of its length tied up in construction projects. Yes, the highway needs repaving, but did you have to neck it down to one lane on each side during 4th of July week??
Sprawl, thy name is Albequerque. There are bedroom communities 60 miles from Albequerque, and Albequerque itself sprawls for miles and miles and miles along the highway. It has like 17 exits to itself. They don't build up in New Mexico; the buildings are low, hug the hills, and spread out. Suburban houses look almost like normal--but they are all stuccoed. No wood or vinyl siding.
Immediately west of Albequerque, it's high plateau with lots of grass and cattle--then we get into more arid terrain, and the various Indian reservations: Pueblo, Zuni, Navajo. I saw lots of lovely cliffs and mesas. Even got pictures of some.
One of my mesa pictures
I also crossed the Malpais, which is an area of old weathered lava flows that forms a nasty maze of holes and razor-sharp lava ridges. That excited me when I realized what it was, because one of Louis L'Amour's novels had some of the action taking place in the maze of the Malpais. The story emphasized how impassible it was on foot or on horse, because a horse would break legs and the sharp lava would tear up boots--as well as being lethally hot under the daylight sun. (Black rock, New Mexico heat--can we say 'outdoor oven'?)
Those black ridges? Are old lava flows
The closer you get...
The nastier it looks.
Imagine trying to walk over this!
And if you did, look at the surprises you can fall into!
Nowadays I-40 runs right through the middle of the Malpais. 'Impassible' doesn't apply if you have blasting powder, giant earthmovers, and pavement.
Thunderstorm over the mountains that I drove right up into. I could see it from miles away. It rained on me as I crossed the Divide. Very gusty, too. Gusts and rain followed me into Gallup. The wind is constant here, even without the storm.
The Olympic Kitchen, off exit 16 in Gallup, makes a really excellent Gyro sandwich. The Red Roof Inn has really crappy wireless internet.
Estimated distance travelled: 426 miles
Tomorrow's destination: Kingman, Arizona
Amarillo, Texas to border of new Mexico
Flat, flat, flat. Wind farm to the north of the highway for several miles. Huge pylons supporting three-bladed props, with each blade nearly as long as the pylon was high. Painted white and can be seen for many miles. They farm something up here. Terrain is deceptive; it appears flat, but close-up, there are depressions and low hills. It's mostly farmland, interspersed with some cattle range. Passed three wind generators close by the highway, not far from a ranch where they had cattle corralled, and cowboys on horses tending to them.
This is flat, yo.
From green plains I went up over some sandhills and all of a sudden it's arid on the other side. Mesquite, juniper and sagebrush, sere dry grass. Then over another bunch of sandhills, and poof!--it's green again. Eventually the hills became rockier and ruggeder, and I was in the Mesalands... and across the border into New Mexico.
Visitor Center is hidden away in the hamlet of San Jon, New Mexico. Some nice friendly ladies were running the place, and found pamphlets for the areas I was interested in right away. Route 66 ran along the I-40 route, so there's a lot of "Historic Route 66" stuff along the way.
The Drylands Triad
Mesquite, Juniper, and Cholla are the three large bushy things found dotting the arid lands. Sagebush is a much smaller plant, gray-green, shaped rather like rosemary gone wild. I described Mesquite in the previous entry; it's found all over the lowlands. Juniper likes the hills and mesas, and can be rather dense. Cholla cactus is also a lowland plant, and can be found sharing the range with mesquite.
Cholla
Cholla Close-up
Juniper
Grass, mesquite, cholla, prickly pear, and what's that on the horizon?
The Mesalands
From the vistor center in San Jon, NM, not far from the border for a ways down the road, it's very rugged country with hills of fractured red rock. Very dry, just mesquite, juniper and tufts of sagebush all over. South of San Jon, NM, the pylons of another wind farm can be seen on top of a distant mesa. They run for miles along the horizon. Welome to the New West.
Here's what was on the ridge in the picture above!
Tucumcari is nestled in the hills; all the buildings are low, one story or so. Except for the business signs sticking up, you could miss the whole town if you didn't look carefully, even though it is a sizable town. There's this one mountain that overlooks the highway and the town: Mt. Tucumcari. New West look: the top is covered with antennae.
New Mexico is proud of its scenic highways, except for the part where they don't provide rest stops or scenic overlooks so you can stop and take pictures. They could learn something from Texas and the Natchez Trace. However, they do decorate their overpasses--instead of raw concrete, they are decoratively molded and painted with petroglyph and other images of New Mexico. Alas, I have no pictures because of the lack of safe places to pull over and take them.
East of Albequerque
Eventually the mesalands give way to less arid prairie--now its straw-colored grass, and the usual triad of bushes. Junipers prefer the hills and mesquite the flatlands, by the way. And in the rare places where there's water, either above ground part of the year, and below ground all of the year--such as an intermittant stream--there's cottonwoods. They graze cattle out this way.
Yes, they do!
As I've driven west, the land has slowly risen quite high--then, coming into Albequerque, I lose all that altitude. There's a long downhill plunge through miles of steep mountains of fractured rock, going down thousands of feet. Lots of "watch out for falling rocks" signs--apparently that fractured rock comes loose now and then. The New Mexico DOT has decided to fix that--they are in the process of putting mesh over rock faces of the highway cuts and plastering it with concrete, I guess to hold the rocks in place. The NM DOT is also gracing I-40 with about 50% of its length tied up in construction projects. Yes, the highway needs repaving, but did you have to neck it down to one lane on each side during 4th of July week??
Albequerque
Sprawl, thy name is Albequerque. There are bedroom communities 60 miles from Albequerque, and Albequerque itself sprawls for miles and miles and miles along the highway. It has like 17 exits to itself. They don't build up in New Mexico; the buildings are low, hug the hills, and spread out. Suburban houses look almost like normal--but they are all stuccoed. No wood or vinyl siding.
West to the Continental Divide
Immediately west of Albequerque, it's high plateau with lots of grass and cattle--then we get into more arid terrain, and the various Indian reservations: Pueblo, Zuni, Navajo. I saw lots of lovely cliffs and mesas. Even got pictures of some.
One of my mesa pictures
I also crossed the Malpais, which is an area of old weathered lava flows that forms a nasty maze of holes and razor-sharp lava ridges. That excited me when I realized what it was, because one of Louis L'Amour's novels had some of the action taking place in the maze of the Malpais. The story emphasized how impassible it was on foot or on horse, because a horse would break legs and the sharp lava would tear up boots--as well as being lethally hot under the daylight sun. (Black rock, New Mexico heat--can we say 'outdoor oven'?)
Those black ridges? Are old lava flows
The closer you get...
The nastier it looks.
Imagine trying to walk over this!
And if you did, look at the surprises you can fall into!
Nowadays I-40 runs right through the middle of the Malpais. 'Impassible' doesn't apply if you have blasting powder, giant earthmovers, and pavement.
Continental Divide to Gallup, NM
Thunderstorm over the mountains that I drove right up into. I could see it from miles away. It rained on me as I crossed the Divide. Very gusty, too. Gusts and rain followed me into Gallup. The wind is constant here, even without the storm.
The Olympic Kitchen, off exit 16 in Gallup, makes a really excellent Gyro sandwich. The Red Roof Inn has really crappy wireless internet.
Estimated distance travelled: 426 miles
Tomorrow's destination: Kingman, Arizona
