Monday, October 21, 2024
We have a long drive ahead of us today, so we were up at eight and after a trip to the breakfast buffet we were ready to leave by nine. Last night it rained very hard and at one point there was thunder, lightning and hale, but this morning the skies were clear without a cloud in sight. It was only 35 degrees outside, but it felt really good to see the sun.
Just as we were getting ready to leave Val said, “where’s my purse?”. We looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. We had put a tracker in it, and that showed it was in the hotel, but it's not accurate enough to pinpoint the exact location.
We went through our luggage and every nook and cranny in the room, but it just wasn’t there. I went down and checked in the car but still no luck. I went back in and asked the front desk if anyone had found a purse and they said no, but the restaurant might have it since we ate dinner there last night. I went into the restaurant, and they had finished serving the breakfast buffet and there was only one lady cleaning up. She didn’t understand what I was asking very well because she didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish, but she looked through some drawers, but no purse.
I went back to our room, and went through everything again and then Val decided to check the car herself and still no luck. I had already loaded up all of our luggage, so we proceeded to completely take everything out of the car and go through it all but still no purse. The tracker showed it was still in the area and being seen regularly by other devices, but we just couldn’t find it.
Just as we got everything back in the car, the front desk clerk came out and she had Val’s purse. Val had left it in the restaurant last night and they turned it into the lost and found. When I asked her about it, I had told her it was a gray purse, but it turns out it was more of a green color than gray so the clerk was looking for the wrong purse. When she saw us taking everything out of the car she looked again and decided to see if the purse they had was the one. Thank goodness, Val and I both were both very relieved and thankful for the help of the desk clerk.
We finally hit the road around ten happy that Val had her purse, but disappointed in losing an hour of the long day of driving ahead of us. The hotel we stayed at was the Best Western Plus Raton and it was very nice. It was huge and the rooms were very nice. The restaurant was quite good for a hotel restaurant and they had an excellent complimentary breakfast buffet.
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| Our route for the day was to drive east out of Raton on Scenic Drive #1 and then drive back to Raton and trace yesterday's route back through Cimarron and Cimarron Canyon to Eagle's Nest where we would continue south on Scenic Drive #2. At Angel's Fire we would go south on Scenic Drive #11 and then west out of Mora on Scenic Drive #10. We weren't done with the scenic drives yet as we finished our drive to Santa Fe on Scenic Drive #3. A long day, but a lot of interesting scenic byways. |
We started our drive heading east on Utah 72 that was Scenic Drive #1 called Johnson Mesa and Capulin Volcano. It was a 45-mile drive through a pretty remote area; we hardly saw any other vehicles on this portion of our drive. As we drove east of Raton, we climbed through a beautiful canyon up to Johnson Mesa. Unlike the canyon we had climbed up in, the mesa was treeless with just a few ranches. Our guidebook said that most of the residents had left because of drought and the very harsh winters.
Despite the bareness of the landscape, it was still a very beautiful drive. This was a volcanic area and there were quite a few volcanic cones left from the ancient volcanoes. We came back down off the mesa into an area of ranch land until we reached the town of Folsom. I had read about the discovery of the Folsom Man, but didn’t realize this was the Folsom where he was found. They have a museum in Folsom about this, but we had lost too much time and didn’t have time to stop.
From Folsom we turned south on Utah 325 and continued to the small town of Capulin. Along the way we passed through the Capulin Volcano National Monument, but once again, we had a long drive ahead of us and couldn’t stop even though it looked very interesting.
From Capulin we headed back west on US 87 that was a much better and more traveled highway, and ended up just a few miles south of Raton where we started this morning. From there we traced the drive we took yesterday back through Cimarron and Cimarron Canyon following US 64. Yesterday when we drove through the canyon, it was rainy and cloudy, but today we got to see it under blue sky and sun.
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| We start our drive back through Cimarron Canyon. |
When we got to Eagles Nest, we turned south and completed the Enchanted Circle drive and then turned south onto Utah 434, Scenic Drive #11 called Angel Fire. It was an interesting drive, but not nearly as scenic as Cimarron Canyon. As we drove south traffic thinned and the road became narrow. At one point the road was in terrible shape and there was construction going on as they were rebuilding it, another delay as the going was slow.
When we reached the town of Mora, Scenic Drive #11 ended, and we turned west on Utah 518 and started Scenic Drive #10 called Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Mora Valley. This was another lonely road, but as we neared the turnoff north to Taos, traffic picked up. We weren’t going to Taos though, we were heading south to Santa Fe, so we turned south on Utah 518 that was yet another scenic byway, this one was Scenic Drive #3, the High Road Taos to Santa Fe. We had been on this before, but we still enjoyed the drive as it is very scenic.
As we neared the town of Vadito, we turned onto Utah 76 and followed in down to Chimayo where we turned onto Utah 503 that finally took us to US285, the main highway into Santa Fe from the north.
As we neared Santa Fe traffic picked up, but we easily found our way to the rental condo that Val had arranged for us. We stopped first for some groceries and then found our way to our abode for the next five nights. We are staying at The Lincoln is one of the Santuario Vacation Rentals. We thought it would be nice, but we were blown away at just how nice it was. There is a full kitchen, living room and dining area and a separate bedroom with a very large bathroom. One of the best things about this is that it is in the historic old Santa Fe area and only a short walk to the Santa Fe Plaza. Val outdid herself finding this place, well done.
We didn’t arrive until just before five, and it had been a long day of driving, and we were both pretty tired, but we did check four more scenic drives off of our list. There are much faster ways to get to Santa Fe, but they wouldn’t have been nearly as scenic, so it was well worth it.
We unpacked and settled in and then after a light dinner, we relaxed for the rest of the evening. Val found a Tom Hanks movie to watch, and I updated the blog with one eye on the movie. Tomorrow our plan is to stay out of the car and explore the area on foot and have a relaxing day.
Scenic Drives Completed: 9 of 35
Scenic Drives Missed: 1
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