SOLO ROADTRIP II: PETRIFIED FOREST & ALBUQUERQUE [DAYS 1-3]

so this was a long trip coming. originally, i started planning in the fall of 2019 to do a road trip throughout tennessee in the fall of 2020, but we know what happened in 2020. in the spring of 2020, i changed plans due to airlines being wonky & the fear that small museums would be closed. i then thought i would go to new mexico as i would not need to fly, but in the fall of 2020, there were more closures due to the pandemic. i scrapped my plans & ended up going out locally to the forest & desert of san diego county (i still plan to post about that sometime). i then pushed new mexico to the fall of 2021 - that is what this series will be about. 

not flying meant i could try out car camping in my subcompact hatchback. i decided this because i wanted to save money (even motels are very expensive, especially by yourself) & i had no idea what was going on with hostels. i ended up going on a practice run of car camping in july (i am also hoping to do a post on that some time), as i have never been tent camping. overall, i really enjoy car camping & plan to pursue more in the future. next challenge is getting adjusted to colder climates (as i am from socal) so i am not limited to where i can go during the off seasons - when i generally travel the most. i like the freedom & even though it is a lot of work to stay organized & constantly reconfigure my car, i think it is worth it. my car has quite a bit of cargo room, especially height, so i never felt claustrophobic. i never felt scared about where i was, but every once in a while the dark would scare me if i stepped outside at night. during this trip i did stay in motels for half the time (for convenience regarding location, a place to shower & clean my clothes, & just be spoiled). i car camped in state parks, a rest area, & hip-camps (a camp site equivalent to airbnb).

the first 2 days were quite a bit of driving. the first day i drove from socal to flagstaff, arizona. by the time i reached the mojave desert, it was hot & 90+ degrees, but when i hit arizona, there was a rain storm & it was cold. the rain was pretty overwelling. there really was no where to pull over, so i ended up driving through & holding my breath. overall it was a 7+ hour drive. i made a quick stop to williams (a small stop town near the grand canyon), ate at a cracker barrel, & then stayed in my motel. it was dumb of me, but i had no idea that i might be dealing with the cold. most of new mexico (and flagstaff, AZ) are high elevations & my dummy did not know that. i brought a warm jacket, but did not even think to bring a rain jacket or umbrella. i ended up having to buy one during my trip. spoiler alert, new mexico was wetter & colder than normal for the time of year. it was not monsoon rain, it was cold rain.

the oh so lovely cracker barrel, shamelessly one of my favorite places.

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the next day i left for the petrified forest. the national park is mostly a scenic drive with stops along the way. some of the highlights include the painted desert (pinkish badlands), petroglyphs, conical hills, & the petrified forest (trees that were pushed over, buried with sediment & ash, & overtime quartz replaced the wood). so many crazy things i learned. the petrified logs are almost entirely quartz, not wood. there is less time between today & when the dinosaurs became extinct than when these "trees" were standing (225 million years ago) & when the dinosaurs became extinct. also on a side note, i did watch the movie petrified forest with bette davis & bogie before my trip. it's research?

the petrified forest can look a bit lackluster from a distance, but the magic is when you get close...

oh so shiny rock!

it was a cloudy & rainy, so the painted desert was not so pink

the forest was the only place i got to eat one of my favorite foods in the world, fry bread. i never was able to find another place :( after all, the forest is surrounded by the navajo nation. driving through the navajo nation, i was able to listen to the language on the radio. it was pretty cool because i am so unfamiliar with it. 

i then made my way to alburquerque. i was planning to make a stop in gallup, but realized the day before that i would lose an hour when going over the border to new mexico. i also wanted to make sure i was in the area during daylight as i was camping in by car & would benefit with having daylight during set-up. once arriving in the city, i stopped in a panera for a bite & drove to the hip-camp i was staying at. it was a larger property off the road. the campsite was nice & spacious (there were 3), but the listing failed to mention there were rental properties too. i did not mind as i was sleeping in my car, but for someone who wanted to tent-camp, it would be a surprise. it was a bit cold (it the 40s at night) & rainy, but i slept better than in the motel the night before.

my hip-camp site for the next 2 nights.

my view from my hip-camp site. the site is not the most beautiful, but this was easily the prettiest sunset during my trip.

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the next morning i left for petroglyphs national monument, literally a mile away from the city itself. you would think this is a remote area, but it really is not. there are residences nearby where people could see the trails from their backyard. the 3 combined trails in boca negra canyon are pretty short & you get real close to the petroglyphs; close enough to touch. i really did enjoy this much more than i thought.

the petrogplyphs are symbols carved by the ancestral pueblo peoples & early spanish settlers. many of them are animals & the spanish petroglpyhs involve christian symbolism, like crosses.

macaw trail

after stopping at the visitor center (and picking up a basket weaving kit!), i made my way back to the main area of the city & stopped at the indian pueblo cultural center to learn more about the indigenous peoples from the area. because of covid & due to the indigenous nations being sovereign states, most cultural sites on indigenous land in both arizona & new mexico are closed to the public, & the pueblos are no acception. so this was really the only museum open to learn a little more. i intended to visit taos peublo on a later day & kept it in my itenerary (with a back-up plan), but spoiler alert, it was still closed. more on that in a later post. 

i originally planned to eat in the restaurant, but it was fancier than i thought so i just picked up a couple of pueblo pies to-go (pumpkin & peach) to keep in my ice chest. it is kind of like a pie sandwich. both were very good.

a mural at the cultural center

next i went to the albuquerque museum, an art museum. i was hoping for more museums in the city, but there weren't really any (i am much more of a history person, but do enjoy the occasional art museum). 

the museum is located near the old town area, so it was easy to walk to my next destination which was just a stroll through the old town. unpopular opinion, but i enjoyed this old town more than santa fe. is a little run down? yes, but santa fe is way too touristy & fancy for my taste. 

my favorite piece in the museum. 'karl' by andrew wyeth. it made sense why i was drawn to it as he also painted 'christina's world.'

by this time it had been a pretty muggy & warm day, but it started to rain (fast & hard). it continued like this for the rest of the day. unfortunately, i got bit by mosquitoes even though multiple local said there were none this time of year. if there are mosquitoes, they will find them. my blood is their favorite flavor. 

while in old town, i tried a hatch pepper iced mocha at a local coffee place. it was pretty good. did not taste like pepper; it just had a little bite to it. 

a pretty & pretty massive cactus

albuquerque is known for the annual balloon festival. i left the city a few days before it started.

before leaving to new mexico, i rewatched roswell, new mexico & looked into filming locations as i knew it was filmed in the state. most of the show is filmed in santa fe with exterior shots in las vegas (which i did also visit later coincidently - the show was not the reason), but the pilot was filmed in albuquerque.

the crashdown diner in the show's pilot (this is also a diner, though closed when i went to visit).

i ended up eating at a local little diner from the 1970s called frontier restaurant to try some new mexican food. i had chicken enchiladas with green sauce, french fries, & fresh tortillas. it was very good. not my favorite cuisine, but still delicious. 

this is cheating, but this was my view the next morning. i was not prepared for 40s weather, but my blankets were enough )i did not bring a sleeping bag. next post will be about santa fe.