TOaS n FaRmington------------------>Grand Canyon

The drive to Taos was breathtaking. Completely worth it.

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There was one thing we miscalculated. Farmington, where we planned to stay that evening, wasn't 1 hour away like we had thought; it was actually 5 hours away. This was an error that we discovered as the sun began to set over Taos.

Unfortunately, I can't really see past 7 pm, so Sarah had to drive the whole 5 hours through a patchwork of Navajo and Apache reservations in the pitch dark.

I got a little scared in the car; Sarah was on edge and I in no capacity could help look out for loose coyotes and deer on the road. I also felt pretty bad dozing off as Sarah described her eyes as "burning." Eventually, we did make it to the Quality Inn and we did catch some Quality Z's.

The following day we headed south. Our first destination was the De Za Nin Wilderness-- home to the purple hills. Oh man, all I wanted that day was to cup some purple soil, turns out, it just wasn't meant to be. We must have drove right by it because before we knew it, we were at our 2nd destination: Choco Canyon. We did get to see some pretty great things along the way though--

I just love these telephone poles. they look like men with the shortest arms hangin.

 Now, although I do highly recommend visiting this ancient, sacred spot--a spot the Adobe people claim as their origin-- only drive to Choco Canyon if you have 4-wheel drive. We got down the 20 mile "road" OK, but seriously, it was terrifying. There were rocks, dips, and uneven surfaces each and every moment--not exactly the terrain you take your Volvo sedan down.  I never even got above 25 miles per hour which meant our little ole 20 mile drive down to Choco took nearly an hour! All the same it was pretty spectacular and almost eery. It's one of those locations like The White Sands where the silence is so strangely still and present that your ears ring.

Look at that face!

I know this road looks pleasant; this is a deception.

We've arrived!

A couple eats their lunch sandwiches in front of the very rock formation 

many migrating tribes used as a marker, a burning beacon in the night. 

faces!

More faces.

Instead of face the ghastly 20-mile uncertainty of a road that lay behind us, we chose another route that essentially had us retrace our steps all the way back to Farmington. Although that kind of felt like a bummer, it was pretty interesting to see what we had missed in the pitch black night our first drive through. What I thought were fields turned out to be canyons. 

After Farmington, we headed to Arizona, to the Grand Canyon!

until we meet again, aj