New Mexico Road Trip - Grants

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

We woke up to clear skies this morning, but the temperature was only 36 degrees.  Today we are heading to El Moro National Monument and the Zuni Pueblo.  We originally were going to take this route on our way west and home, but they are predicting more rain and snow tomorrow, so we’ll do it today.  The route from Grants to El Moro National Monument is Scenic Byway #13, the last scenic drive from the book we'll take on this trip. 

Scenic Byway 13, the last one of our trip.

We were up around eight and ready to go around at nine but decided to wait until ten as it was still very cold.  We got on the road and headed southwest on Utah 53 out of Grants.  The road started out through some grasslands, but the altitude began to go up above 7000 feet and we started to see more trees.

The drive started out through flat grassy ranch land.

As we gained in elevation we drove into more forested area.

We passed through another section of the Malpais National Monument, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting looking as what we drove through yesterday.  We had planned on stopping at the visitor’s center, but it was closed so we drove on.

As we moved on the land became more mountainous and we began to see mesas with steep cliffs near the road.  Our next stop was El Morro National Monument, but we were thwarted again as it was closed.  We did see a ranger driving out and he said this was the off-season and they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  We did take a few pictures, but we couldn’t get close or visit the visitor’s center.

One of the problems of traveling late in the fall, El Moro National Monument is closed.

We drove on and left the rock formations behind us and went into another checkerboard area. It is called checkerboard because when you look at a map it looks like a checkerboard as there are various sections of reservations, federal and private land.  We drove through the Ramah Navajo Reservation and reached our goal for the day, the Zuni Pueblo.

The town of Ramah on the Navajo Reservation.

The Zuni Pueblo is the largest of the nineteen pueblos in New Mexico and has a population of 6800.  We have been here previously, but that was quite a few years ago and we wanted to revisit it.  Our first stop was the visitors center as there are certain restrictions for visitors including photography.  Today there were no restrictions as there were no ceremonies going on. But we were reminded to respect the  residents’ privacy .

From the visitor’s center we drove to a museum celebrating Zuni history.  The museum was quite interesting, and we talked to the young man who was in charge there for quite a while.  He was very knowledgeable and obviously very proud of his culture.

We drive into Zuni on the Zuni Reservation

A stop at the museum was well worth as it was very interesting.

Driving through Zuni.

Val wanted to look at some of the shops so after the museum we checked out several of them.  The Zunis are known for their silver and turquoise inlaid jewelry and animal fetishes.  The first shop was almost strictly jewelry and the raw stones that the jewelry is made from.  Another shop was called All Tribe as they had art and craftworks from many different tribes in the area including the Navajo pottery and rugs.  Val found a pendant and earrings that she liked so her shopping was successful. 

 

I really liked this rug, but we have quite a few Navajo rugs and are trying to downsize so I resisted the urge to buy it, although the shop owner tried very hard to convince me I should.

We were getting hungry and started looking for a place to eat, but there wasn’t any place open we could find, but on the way out of town we found Chu Chu's Restaurant was open, and we had lunch there.  They had a large and diverse menu, but we opted for Mexican food and it was quite good.   

We found Chu Chu's on the outskirts of Zuni.

After lunch it was time to head back to Grants, so we drove back the way we came. 

We were back at our hotel just after four and since it was election day, we spent the rest of the evening watching the election results.  This is sounding like a broken record, but we ate another late lunch today so dinner was again things out of our lunch supplies.

Today when we reached the El Morro National Monument, we finished the last of the scenic drives form the book.  We finished 31 of the 35 so we are pretty proud of ourselves.  There were two we definitely were not going to take as they would have taken us too far out of our way, and we had already done them on a previous trip.  Another of the scenic byways was Chaco Canyon that we have also visited before but planned on visiting it again even though it added three or four days to the trip.  However, the recent rains have damaged the roads into Chaco Canyon and it is in a very isolated area.  I believe the roads are now open, but it just wasn’t worth it to extend our trip and try dirt roads that may or may not be passable.  The only byway we missed that we had intended to take was the one early in the trip that didn’t appear safe to take due to the heavy rains and flash flood warnings.  All and all we are very happy and feel that we have completed our quest.

Tomorrow, we head for home and make the relatively short drive to Flagstaff, Arizona.  Even though it will be a short drive tomorrow, it is the best way to go as it balances out the rest of the trip home, so we won’t have too long of a day elsewhere.  The prediction for tomorrow in this area is for more rain and snow so hopefully we’ll get out before that moves in.  Flagstaff is supposed to be clear and we hope that prediction is correct.

Scenic Drives Completed: 31 of 35

Scenic Drives Missed: 3

New Mexico Road Trip - Silver City to Grants, New Mexico

Monday, November 4, 2024

It’s time to hit the road again and move on to our last stop in New Mexico.  We are headed to Grants on I-40, completing our loop of New Mexico.

Today we'll be doing Scenic Drives 20 and 14 as we travel to Grants, New Mexico.

When we woke up this morning the sky was dark and it was snowing outside, not heavy, but it was snowing.  We had done most of our packing last night so after getting ready and having breakfast we were on the road just after nine.  The snow had turned into light rain, but it was still very cold in the mid-thirties.

The first part of our route today will be the same as we took to go to Mogollon on Saturday.  We’ll be taking US 180 out of Silver City up through Glenwood, but instead of turning off and going to Mogollon, we’ll be continuing north on 180.  We thought there might be snow, but evidently any snow that fell had already melted and the rain had stopped, and the clouds were breaking up.

We started out under dark skies with a light rain falling, ...

... but the clouds started breaking up and we had blue skies ahead.

 

Just past the turnoff for Mogollon we passed through the very small town of Alma that was the start of Scenic Byway #20 that continued up 180 through some very desolate country.  This area is part of the huge, sparsely populated Catron County that I talked about before.  We had the Gila National Forest and the Mogollon Range to the east and the Apache National Forest and Arizona to the west of us.  Even though the land was barren and stark, it was quite scenic to drive through.  

We leave Highway 180 and turn off onto 12.

As we continued to drive north, we started to see snow in the mountains ahead.  We turned northeast on Utah 12 and went through the larger town (relatively for the area) of Reserve and then through the barely there town of Apache Creek.  When we visited the Very Large Array, if we had continued west on that road (Scenic Byway #19) we would have ended up in Apache Creek.

After Apache Creek we started to see snow on the ground, and the further north we drove the thicker it got, but the roads were clear.  From Apache Creek, the drive was pretty much unpopulated until we reached the town of Quemado where we stopped for lunch.  Very few of the towns we have driven through today have gas stations let alone a place to eat, so when we saw the Largo Café, we decided we’d better eat while we had the chance.  Quemado is the end of Scenic Byway #20 and the start of Scenic Byway #14.

Time for lunch at the Largo Cafe as we enter Quemado.

It was very cold outside, and we could see a wood stove blazing through the door, so we expected a warm and cozy café, but when we walked in it was pretty cold.  The tables around the stove were all taken and the rest of the restaurant was very cold.  After we were seated, we saw a table open up close to the stove, so we moved there, but it still wasn’t very warm so we quickly had our lunch and returned to the warmth of the car heater.  There is very little traffic and not many outsiders in this area, so the restaurants and cafes are very basic and mostly serving the locals, but the people are friendly, and the food is generally good.  I just wish the Largo Café had been warmer.

We tuned north on Utah 36 in Quemado and the elevation began to rise to over 7000 feet and the snow became quite heavy along the road.  This road all the way to Grants is Scenic Byway #14, our second of the day and second to last of the trip.  The road was still clear, but as we neared an 8000-foot pass there was a little ice and snow in the road, so we switched to high range 4-wheel drive just to be safe.  The temperature was down to 27 and we felt like we were really in winter.  The snow in the mountains and trees was very beautiful, but there was no shoulder to stop and take pictures, so I took a lot of pictures through the windows, so we’ll see how that goes plus I was taking a lot of video with my GoPro on the roof of the car.

 

We turn onto Highway 117 that will take the rest of the way to Grants.

As we progressed further north, we turned northwest on Utah 117 and the altitude started to drop a bit, but there was still quite a bit of accumulated snow along the road.  We entered the El Malpais National Monument that is part of the larger El Malpais National Conservation Area that turned out to be very interesting and beautiful.  It was an ancient volcanic area with cliffs and rock formations to the east and a rugged, almost impassable area of volcanic rock to the west.  One section of the drive was called The Narrows that had cliffs right beside the road on the east side and a plain of volcanic rock rubble to the west.  This was a real treat, as I had seen this area on the map, but had no idea what it was.  It was made all the more scenic with the snow.

The Ventana Arch is ahead.

We pull into the parking area of the Ventana Arch.

We stopped at a Ventana Arch and took a short hike to view the arch.  To be honest, it looked more like a large hollowed out place in the side of the cliff, but then you realize there is an actual arch there.  We didn’t walk all the way to the arch as it was very cold and had started to spit snow.  The arch and the surrounding area was all the more interesting because of the snow on the rocks and trees in the area.  The only thing missing was the sun shining on the cliffs to accentuate the color, but we couldn’t have everything.

As we left the El Malpais area, the snow began to become sparser and eventually disappeared as we neared Grants, NM, our destination for the night.  Grants is basically just an overnight stop on I-40, but we will spend an extra day here to drive our last scenic byway from the book and hopefully, visit a couple of pueblos in the area.

We're back on I-40 for the short 5 mile drive to Grants.

Grants is at 6500 altitude so it was very cold and rainy when we arrived.  I should have known, but it has surprised me that almost everywhere we have visited in New Mexico is around 6000 feet or higher.  We got checked into our hotel and settled in and as has happened so many times on the trip, we had a late lunch today and are not hungry for dinner.  We had some lunch supplies left over that we hadn’t used so we ate those tonight in the hotel room.  I did my usual thing of writing the blog for the day and downloading our pictures and then relaxed for the rest of the night.  We are not quite sure what we are going to do tomorrow as we have several options, so we’ll decide in the morning.

Scenic Drives Completed: 30 of 35

Scenic Drives Missed: 3