Dear Maia, Isaac and Virtual Wanderers,

When I planned this trip 3 weeks ago, I didn’t know we would be launching into a late winter storm. I’m not sure I grasped reality until last night when I saw the storm predictions.

We took the long, lower elevation route over Lizard Head Pass vs the straight rout over Red Mountain Pass. I’ve driven Red Mountain many times but not it sets off my positional vertigo about 59% of the time. It’s not immediate, but lasts a few days.

Even with the lower altitude route, there was a lot of fog, soupy wet roads, and snow flurries once we got past Ridgway and began our assent. What I could see was gorgeous. A forest of flocked trees. I didn’t stop for many photos because I wanted to get to the low country before the storm intensified.

We stopped briefly in Dolores. The girls were ready for a break and so was I. It was still snowing some at that point. By the time we got to Cortez, the moisture had all but stopped. We continued south on Highway 491 to Shiprock.

The sky was pregnant, but holding on to the moisture as we cruised into New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. I apologize for the poor quality cell shots. I was hoping for a breath of spring. It was decidedly cold and I didn’t want to get out of the car.

In Shiprock, we took Highway 64 to Farmington. I’m bummed that we couldn’t eat on a dog friendly porch and walk the Riverwalk. Nature had other plans this time. We had door dash delivered.

Tomorrow looks like more cold, wet weather. I mean down to 19 degrees tomorrow night. (I put a little extra air in the tires this AM.) We were going to do Bisti tomorrow, but may swing to El Morrow instead. Either way looks cold and wet, but the National Monument is less remote. The only time we visited we got there 10 minutes before close. I’ve wanted to go back.

Follow my blog for updates!

Love ya’ll, Cathy H