Goodbye New Mexico, Hello Arizona

It’s hard to believe, but we pulled away from Albuquerque and New Mexico this morning.  We had an uneventful 250 mile drive across I-40 to Petrified Forest. Uneventful that is except for the many stops to torque the trailer wheels.  It turned into an all day drive.

Although we’re still in desert, the landscape is quite striking.  As we drove west out of New Mexico, we saw the mesas with their multicolored layers of soil so typical of this area.

Road conditions were good today.  We drove through several construction zones on I-40, but the road surface was excellent in all but one.  The worst construction zone was inside Petrified Forest.  We entered at the north end and drove the 28-mile Park road to the south end.  At about mile 15 we encountered major resurfacing.  We even had a lead car reminiscent of our trip across the Alcan.  After we passed through the south gate, the last half mile of park road had no surface at all.

Tonight, we are parked at Crystal Forest Gift shop which offers free camping.  It is more than just a gravel parking lot.  There are lots of pieces of petrified wood scattered around and picnic tables at every site, some of which are covered.  Even has a few teepees.  They used to provide electricity for $10, but have discontinued that practice.

Tomorrow we will explore Petrified Forest and Painted Desert then drive to Williams, AZ near Grand Canyon.