It’s that point in our snowbird journey when it’s time to start pointing Usain toward home. Our points of interests will become fewer, not because they aren’t interesting, but rather they become more familiar as we will be overlapping past journeys (there are only so many ways to get back to Iowa). For now, though, we still want to keep our travel time per day to less than 3 hours, so we still may find something of interest to stop and see.
We learn lots of things while traveling, and we had a good example today. There were piles of black rock with little vegetation along I-40 between Gallup and Albuquerque. After seeing Craters of the Moon in Idaho, we know exactly what a lava field looks like. Lisa had to look this area up and report the details as I drove.
Petroglyph National Monument
Looking ahead from Petrified Forest National Park, we chose a brewery Harvest Hosts business to stop at for the night. Needing to take a break from driving before heading to the brewery, we stopped at the Petroglyph National Monument on the west side of Albuquerque. We pulled into the Volcanoes Day Use Area for lunch and a hike. However, there was a sketchy-looking, white-paneled van parked there with a couple of men sitting in the front seats smoking. They continued sitting in the van while we ate lunch. Given that this was the middle of a Tuesday afternoon in the desert put our spidey senses on high alert. We decided to forego the hike at this area and try a different part of the park.
We drove around to the busier east side of the park and stopped at the Rinconada Canyon trail. There were other vehicles parked here (and no sketchy-looking van) so out we headed out for a hike. This one took us on a very sandy trail along a canyon of remnants of volcanic eruptions from 200,000 years ago. We saw a variety of petroglyphs along the mile-long trail. The entire park is one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America with over 24,000 images. We were most surprised that, in addition to Native American petroglyphs, it has been discovered that Spanish settlers also carved designs and symbols onto the volcanic rocks some 400 to 700 years ago. Archeologists have determined this because images of sheep were discovered, and it was the Spaniards that brought sheep to the Americas.
Sierra Blanca Brewing Company
We chose the furthest Harvest Hosts business east of Albuquerque for our overnight stay, and it was a good one. The Sierra Blanca Brewing Company was very busy with other Harvest Hosts travelers. The only seats available were at the bar. We ended up sitting next to a fellow Harvest Host member. Kevin was traveling alone from Florida to his home in California after picking up a new-to-him class C RV. He had recently sold his Winnebago Solis campervan, and he and his wife were looking forward to traveling in a slightly larger vehicle. We discussed our various travels and RV experiences over some beers, then headed back out to Usain for the night.
Leave a Comment