Our tent was pitched upon a patch of red dirt that was sure to turn into the most perfect sinkhole of mud if given the chance. And since neither of us was in the mood for a mud bath, we thought we might just tuck everything back into the car while it was still dry. As for breakfast, Matt made a valiant attempt to make oatmeal and finally managed to succeed. (Although being nearly 7,000 feet up made it a bit difficult to boil the water.) While we waited, the Miata crew kept us vastly entertained as they emerged from their tents in their Miata wear. *hysterical laughter* I was able to sneak a picture of their cars through the trees while they weren’t looking. *feeling vaguely Paparazzi-ish* Matt kept telling me to walk right up to them and ask them to pose with their cars. AS IF!
We parked our packed up car back at Parking Lot D and caught the shuttle up to Pima point. It was a little harder to see today because of the haze but it was still beautiful. We hiked up to Hermit’s rest before catching the shuttle back down. (It seemed that a group of senior citizens were stalking us but I guess it could have just been that they were miraculously on every shuttle we got on. *glancing suspiciously at them out of the corner of my eye* I mean, really…EVERY shuttle?) We had lunch at the Bright Angel Lodge where the food was mediocre and the staff was downright angry. We tried to get out of there with a quickness. The only highlight of lunch being the root vegetable chips which were not only colorful but YUM! *drool*
Our timing was perfect. It started to rain just as we got back to the car. We did discover on our way to the exit that they had shower facilities and thought it would be nice to hose off before packing ourselves in a car again. We each grabbed three dollars in quarters and headed off thinking it would be sufficient. HAH! $1.75 for FIVE MINUTES?!? *incredulous* I was not about to run out to the car to get more change. Especially since Matt had the car keys and I didn’t want to holler into the men’s locker room in case it startled him into slipping on the wet floor and cracking his head open. (I have a vivid imagination…) So I had a five minute shower. *cries*
We made a brief pit stop in Flagstaff for groceries. (I also needed a potty break.) I found out the hard way that the lock on my stall didn’t work very well when someone walked right in. Hmm… Some small part of my mind was amazed at my ability to calmly ask her leave even as the other part of my brain was scrambling to forget this incident already. *face so red it was numb* Then Matt laughed at me as I skulked around the store trying not to make eye contact with her until she finally left the store. Then there was the issue with the $13 bag of cherries but let’s not gets into that. I think I’ve already sufficiently met my embarrassment quota for the day.
The landscape took a distinctly flat feel as we continued on towards the east. There were small rolling hills here and there but for the most part, we could see for miles. The ground was more of that red dirt interspersed with small shrubs and a scattering of long grass. Up close, we could differentiate between the three but if we looked far into the distance, all we could see was the grass. It was blond in color and gleamed like a vast expanse of white gold in the sunlight.
At some point, we came upon a billboard for a petrified forest. Cool! I wanted to go see. Matt didn’t seem all that excited but since he wasn’t about to go hunting for America’s largest ball of twine, I think he figured that this would be an ok compromise. We cut through town and I was completely bowled over by the Wigwam Motel that actually featured individual wigwams for guests to stay in. I wanted to take a picture SO bad but the light turned green at that moment and I missed my opportunity. *utter disappointment* (Luckily, the internet is a handy place to get pictures...)
The park was a number of miles from that small town we had just passed through. The road kind of creeped us out. At first we didn’t think anything of it. It was just a paved back road with one lane going in each direction. Then I noticed a rusty red color. My first thought was that an animal had been hit and had bled out onto the road. But then I came to the realization that it couldn’t have been otherwise the carnage on this road was equivalent to a slaughterhouse’s. Matt and I conversed for a few minutes as we contemplated the road and came to the conclusion that perhaps the red dirt had blown across the road when it was tarred and thus the asphalt had gotten stained. Yeah…that was our story and we were sticking to it. *nods emphatically*
And at last, we were at the Petrified Forest! But where the heck was the forest? Oh my god, Matt had a good laugh about that one. His response was, “You actually thought there was going to be a FOREST?” Uh, yes? It has forest in its name. How was I to know there wasn’t actually a forest?!? *hmph* We pulled up to the little ranger hut or whatever it’s called in order to flash our National Park pass (handy little thing, isn’t it?) and were then confounded by the next question.
“Do you have any wood?”
Excuse me??? We glanced at each other in bewilderment and hesitantly replied, “No?” The reply was hearty. “Good! Make sure you leave without any as well.” *light bulb clicks on suddenly* (Note to self: no stealing pieces of the petrified forest.) Then the nice ranger man informed us that closing time was 7pm and although we didn’t have to leave at that time, we did have to be “driving towards the exit without stopping.” (Weird!) Nodding our assent since we had no intention of staying that long, we pulled away. We stopped once to view the bits of wood up close and it was interesting to see how it had completely crystallized. We stopped again to view some petroglyphs and were amazed to find MORE miatas! FROM TEXAS!! It was like an invasion. *wondering if I should be worried*
Our next stop, the Painted Teepees. We weren’t quite sure what to expect and were delighted to find…STRIPEY MOUNTAIN THINGS! *air high-fiving myself because Matt was too cool for that* And then there were the pueblo ruins. *brief pause* PUHAHAHAHAHA. Let’s just say, Matt didn’t realize they were ruins. In any case, it was still cool even though there was a man who demanded that we hand over our camera so that he could take a picture for us. (Nice people can be so bizarre.) Soon after, we exited the park and continued on through the rest of Arizona.
The rest of the afternoon was spent driving through Indian territory, looking at the masses of billboard dotting the Indian territory and realizing we were in the land of tractor trailers. I can’t say it wasn’t intimidating (BECAUSE IT WAS!!) to have semis hauling butt past our little car (on BOTH sides) and coming to the conclusion that we might be the only passenger vehicle for miles and miles. *biting nails anxiously* And to top it off, all the casinos were advertising big rigs as their major giveaway! *about to laugh until I realized I was the minority…*
It was starting to get dark when we entered New Mexico: The Land of Enchantment. *not particularly enchanted* It had been a long day. Since starting the road trip, we had tried not to drive more than six hours and to make sure that we got out and saw something cool every day. But after looking at our calendar whilst lounging about the Grand Canyon, we decided that we would have to drive straight on through some of the middle states in order to get to where we needed to be in a timely manner. And since we didn’t really have anything spectacular planned between the Grand Canyon and the Ozarks, that was the part we were going to madly race through. *hoping those states didn’t feel too neglected*
We had reached Gallup when our stomachs reminded us that we hadn’t had dinner yet, which in turn reminded us that we had no idea where we were planning to sleep. *suddenly extremely ravenous, utterly famished and even feeling a bit emaciated all at the same time* Matt asked if I wanted to camp. Hmm. In retrospect, I should have said no. *say no! say no!* But since I was trying to be “super nature girl,” I said yes. (Kids, don’t try to be someone you’re not. You might end up almost dying in the backwoods of New Mexico.) Wait, did I just ruin the story?!? DARN IT!!!
In any case, this is what happened. Here is Jen: “Sure! I would love to camp this lovely dark evening!!” *beaming good will to nature and all its inhabitants* Then, there’s Matt: “Great! I found a camping symbol here on the map just outside of Gallup!!” *super gung-ho about camping and all the goodness it implies* We pulled off the highway and began looking for the campgrounds. May I pause here and let the dear readers know that I was the unfortunate one driving…
We drove up into the hills. And lo and behold, no campsite. We did manage to find this small gas station in the middle of nowhere and Matt jumped out of the car to get directions. Here is Jen again: Huh. This feels familiar. Kind of like that scary movie where you stop to get directions from the only gas station for miles and the nice lady tells you that the place you want to be is just over the hill and people jump out the woods and KILL YOU. Hah. Ok, that’s not funny… Then Matt is back: “Hey! The nice lady inside said that the campground is just up the hill on the right where the wood fence starts.” (Is anyone else getting that creepy feeling?!?)
Meanwhile, I am still trying valiantly to convince myself I WANT to camp as I backed the car out of the gas station parking lot to continue on up the hill. It was dark. There were lots of trees. There was NO campground. As we got even further from civilization, I tried to express my doubts but Matt’s blinding optimism was hard to combat. Out of nowhere, Matt yelled, “Here! Turn right!!” Against my better judgment, I quickly turned off onto a little dirt road that led into even deeper, darker woods. *horrified* My already overactive imagination went into overdrive and I had a gut instinct that if the car stopped at all, horrible fiends would leap from the darkness to rip us from our car and kill us alive! (I know that doesn’t make sense I was so scared I couldn’t even think straight.)
Finally, I convinced Matt that it was highly unlikely that this was the road to the campground since there had been no sign posted where we had turned off onto the dirt road. We agreed that we would get back on the main road and try once again. If we couldn’t find the campground by the next right turn then we would head back into town and get a motel. (Please god, let there be no campground. *silently yet fervently pleading*) Then I had to turn the car around. *had internal fits of terror* Since it was a tiny dirt road, I had to turn then back up and turn then back up and turn then back up… I think that was about the time I started crying.
I had just managed to compose myself when we found the campground. *joy…* It was dark. There were lots of trees. And there were NO people.
None.
At all.
I think Matt was under the impression that my hysterics were due to lack of food. So his solution was to have us park (in the furthest lot from the entrance), pee (because he needs to mark his territory) and to try and unload the car so that I can have some dinner (awww…). It was very thoughtful of him. I was ok with everything until he asked me to turn off the car. (Oops. Did I forget to mention that I was still in the driver’s seat with the car on and both hands clutching the steering wheel in a death grip?) *deep breath* I switched off the car and instantly burst into hysterical wailing that went well with the waterfall of tears cascading down my face as I still refused to let go of the steering wheel with the hand that wasn’t occupied with the keys.
Maybe camping this evening was not such a good idea. Needless to say, we left. Although as soon as I felt I was out of danger, I had an attack of guilty conscious. Had I been overreacting? Finally after deep contemplation and reassessment, I did offer to go back and camp there as long as Matt felt it was perfectly safe. Do you have any idea what his response was?!? “Oh, sure. It was safe. I mean, I was still going to bring our big knife into the tent with us…” Oh HEEEELLLLLLL no! And in my haste to get us to a motel, I pulled into the first one I found - The Roadrunner Motel. But that’s a story for tomorrow.
Mileage: 322
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