Road Trip Day 14 - Wednesday, 8th May, 2019

One of the signs that I have travelled quite a way west! This is pozole which was described to me as being a kind of chile. It is made with corn and tomatoes and is spicy. You pour it on stuff just like grits - which makes it grits, basically.








Gallup is a railroad town, the line running from Santa Fe, and trains pass every ten or fifteen minutes. I took a stroll around downtown, which comprises small businesses, some more out than in, but also has this gem.

 One of the nicest things about Gallup (apart from the good coffee at the originally named Gallup Coffee Lounge) are the decorated litter bins.

Gallup also has the El Rancho Hotel, where the rooms commemorate movie stars, and a number of other Route 66 motels, still operating and with their signs intact.

 

Many of the Trading Posts have been in operation since 66 ran through the area - hence the non-PC references to "Indians". No-one seems phased by this, nor the use of the word Pow Wow, which would send some SJWs into paroxysms.

This is Ortega's, one of the oldest Trading Posts, still in the Ortega family, and this is Emma Bitsilly. Emma is Navajo, and a sales associate at the Post. She is also a gifted craftsman whose jewellery was on sale. She explained that the traditional jewellery makers buy their supplies - minerals, semi-precious stones, silver - from one of the wholesale Trading Posts in the area and then cut and polish the stones before setting them in worked silver.





From a high bluff, you can look across into Arizona, where the Interstate, railroad and old 66 cut through a gap in the mesa.

 The Arizona border has no sign, but is heralded by the "encampment" of Chief Yellowhorse, who clearly has a sense of humour.

 A detour from Route 66 take you 28 miles north through the Painted Desert and then south through the Petrified Forest National Parks.

Foothill Death Camas toxicoscordion paniculatum. A frightful name for a pretty flower!

 The 1924 Painted Desert Inn. Route 66 ran though part of the park.

Creosote bush or chaparral Larrea tridentata

The strata of the Painted Desert

 This Ford marks the route of 66 as it headed west, now replaced by I40. The line of telegraph poles follows the line of the road. This is the place that put the idea of driving the route in my head some years back when we took a family trip to the area.

This is not snow (although it felt cold enough!), but a carpet of tufted evening primrose oenothera cespitosa

 These buttes occur all over the petrified forest.

Desert princesplume Stanleya pinnata

There was a sudden rain storm followed by bright sunshine and a double rainbow. In the foreground is the "Agate Bridge", a large petrified tree trunk which spans a small stream. These trees were once part of a forest where Costa Rica is now, but before the dinosaurs. When the continents split and drifted apart, this area moved north.The trees died and over millenia their soft tissue was replaced by minerals leaching from the soil. The concrete bridge supporting the tree is a (futile) attempt to stop it falling into the gully. 

Possibly Alpine bluebells Mertensia alpina. This is the only specimen I saw.

Petrified tree trunks seen on the Crystal Forest trail.

 In this area, the predominant flower was not the white evening primrose, but the golden mariposa lily Calochortus aureus.

 The cacti are just coming into bloom.

Opuntia species

Leaving the Petrified Forest on Highway 180, I headed to Holbrook for the night, where the I40 and 66 rejoin.