the drive north of santa fe on us-85 was spectacular. i took more pictures of rock formations and distant snow capped mountains than you could shake a stick at.

i love the red rocks.

the drive across the top of the state on us-64 (hmm, is that the same us-64 that goes to pittsboro and raleigh?) is at times spectacular and at times just a bunch of natural gas collection fields. and towns dedicated to the collection, compression, and distribution of natural gas. i think. but it afforded several exceptional views of some snow-capped mountains to the north, which i guess are the rocky’s in colorado?

i left santa fe at 10:20 and arrived at the four corners just after 4pm. holy hell was that a long drive. but worth it. just incredible. per christy’s excellent suggestion, i stopped at a grocery store around noon and picked up some things to eat when i got hungry. found a spot with snow capped mountains in the distance and mesas all around and had my impromptu picnic. with mountains in the background. the american west is just wild.

oh, and did i get a picture of myself at four corners? you betcha.

around 6:45pm i stopped in tuba city for gas, which i mention as it’s the namesake of tim ross’s blog. and it wasn’t until after 7pm that i made it to the grand canyon, just after the sun had set. sort of. actually i stopped for a while at one of the scenic overlooks along the way, and later realized i wasn’t even officially in the park yet. so technically this is just a canyon.

the grand canyon is, well, grander.

it turns out coming to the south rim from the east is pretty much coming in the back door, so i had to drive all the way through the park to get to the hotels south of the park. i made it there at 9:30pm. that’s ok i thought, i’ve just got find a room. which would have been perfect, had there been any. no vacancies anywhere in the grand canyon villiage tusayan, the town just south of the park. due in part to it being a weekend i suppose. this happens to be the downside of spontaneity. if you want to show up at your leisure, sometimes you have to drive yet another hour south to find a hotel in williams, arizona. a small town west of flagstaff on my old friend, i-40.

ha, of course every hotel down there was booked too, except apparently the grand canyon country inn. which will do me very well as a place to sleep tonight. and a place to blog. downstairs in the breakfast area. completely exhausted.

next leg: tata grand canyon is bangala