Southwest Sojourn

September 26, 2012


We continued our journey from Santa Fe, NM to Sedona, AZ.  We drove due west on Route 40 (Route 66).  After passing through Albuquerque we took a slight detour at Grants, NM.

We went south for a little bit to visit the land of Fire & Ice.  Situated on the Continental Divide, this location contains the remains of a large volcanic eruption from 10,000 years ago.  It is one of the finest examples of an erupted volcano in the country, and also one of the most accessible.  Down the trail from the volcanic crater is a natural Ice cave.   Located in part of a collapsed lava tube, the ice cave's temperature never rises above 31 F.  The natural layers of perpetual ice glisten blue-green in the reflected rays of sunlight. 

After that, we stopped in Ramah, NM for lunch at the Stagecoach Cafe.  A touch of Americana in a time warp kind of way.  We were too full from our BLT sandwiches to enjoy a piece of homemade pie.  The food was good and it was like being in a restaurant from the 1930's.  I don't think they have changed much.  It did look like it might have once been a stagecoach stop.

After lunch we continued on our way towards Sedona.  Once we crossed over into Arizona, not only did the time change, but the land scape and vistas were quite different.  It started out very flat and desolate looking until we got closer to Flagstaff and it turned more mountainous.

Of course we stopped in Winslow Arizona!!  We stood on the "CORNER"!!  Nice way to remember part of Route 66.

It was getting late and we still wanted to stop at the Meteor Crater Museum.

The most well known, best preserved meteorite crater on Earth!  Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago.  It was quite spectacular.  Several astronauts have trained here as well.

We finally arrived in Sedona around 7:30pm - found some dinner and crashed!!