Day 3: Part 2 – Rocky Road and Snow Caps

Today, I fell in love…twice.

Traveling west on I-40 through New Mexico, the terrain turned dry and rocky. Hills turned into flat top mounds and short pebbled peaks. I have never been west of Tallahassee before today, so these tiny landforms were very exciting! (Um, mountains to me!) Little did I know…

As we entered the Sandia Wilderness of the Cibola National Forest, just outside Albuquerque, the stubby knolls became a green bush covered range! Mountains! The interstate pulled us through the rolling Sandias and I was in complete awe. We rose and dipped and curved with green speckled hills emerging and melting at every turn. It was beautiful and exhilarating.

We made a short stop in Albuquerque to stretch our legs and hunt for coffee. The mountains we had just sailed through crowned the fancy outdoor shopping center we found there. In the distance, I could see the faint silhouette of the southernmost Rockies.

Back on the road, the earth transformed again before we reached Arizona. This time to layered rocks painted deep orange and red. Railroad tracks paralleled the road and trains flowed along like beaded jewelry. I saw real cowboys roping and riding and wild horses running free in the noon sun.

Somehow after this amazing morning, my heart was stolen again. After a few hours of driving through red Arizona desert, a glittering white peak suddenly smiled on the horizon. Snow. Real snow. I took a few pictures of the too distant range and gazed with curiosity and longing. The summit towered among the clouds! I wanted to feel the kiss of icy mountain air on my cheeks. Then the San Francisco peaks slid out of sight and into memory as the road curved.

We went to a rest stop and I took the wheel. I raced against the setting sun, blinding me as we approached Flagstaff. As I drove up a steady incline, trees began to fill the landscape. Another turn and like a dream, the snowy zeniths swelled into view again. We were heading directly into them! It was magical. The air crisp and cool made my skin tingle. I imagined bears and mountain lions prowling among the trees. We arrived at the hotel - altitude 6,000ft on the mountainside - and the view was filled with forest skirted snowcapped peaks.

Flagstaff is crazy beautiful.