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Driving to Santa Fe

Today we traveled from Monument Valley north into Utah, then down past Four Corners into New Mexico. This route covered remote stretches of the Navajo Nation and Apache Nation before crossing the Continental Divide at 7380 feet elevation and then wandering through the Santa Fe National Forest, where we took Highway  Cerro Pedernal, the "private mountain" of Georgia O'Keeffe, and then turned south and crossed the Rio Grande on at Española before arriving in Santa Fe just after sunset.

Monument Valley 2020
Fri 1/24/20Phoenix to Monument Valley
Sat 1/25/20A Day at Monument Valley
Fri 1/26/20Driving to Santa Fe
Fri 1/27/20Santa Fe & Albuquerque

The day started early, when I woke up at 1:30AM and noticed a bit of light coming through the gap in the window shades. Could it be? After 24 hours of almost non-stop fog, were the stars shining through?

I got up and check it out, and it was clear outside! You could see the three famous buttes in the darkness: East, West, and Mitten. Then I saw that there was fog swirling around, and I knew from previous experience that conditions could change rapidly, sometimes in seconds. So I grabbed the camera and tripod, rush out to the icy balcony in my bare feet and underwear, and managed to get one 20-second exposure before the fog started obscuring the view. Within a few minutes, all you could see was fog again.

My one and only unobstructed night shot from our balcony.

I went back to bed for a few hours, and at 6:30 I got up and found that it was once again clear.

A few photos in the hour before sunrise.

We went to breakfast a little after 7:00, and it turned out that the sunrise was most colorful while we were at breakfast. I just had my iPhone then, but snapped a couple of pictures.

iPhone photos of the sunrise.
Sunrise from back at our room.
The view from the parking lot.
This was the only time we had a view to the north of Sentinel Mesa.
The fog started drifting back in just after sunrise, and by the time we left an hour later there was no longer any visibility at all.
A few more photos taken before the fog returned.
A Navajo woman (the black silhouette to the left) setting up a souvenir stand along the Valley Loop Road, which would open at 8AM to allow tourists to drive through the valley.
A few photos taken while we were leaving. The rez dogs worked every car that left, walking up to see if anything would be offered.
Want to know which way the prevailing winds blow in rural areas around the western US? Find a fence and note which side of it is catching tumbleweeds.
On the way out of Monument Valley to the north, we got our first unobstructed view from Forest Gump Hill.

A brief stop at Four Corners. Megan's left hand is in New Mexico, right hand in Arizona, left foot in Colorado, and right foot in Utah.
Ship Rock is an iconic sight in northwestern New Mexico. It's the 1800 foot tall remnants of a volcanic eruption that took place 30 million years ago.
Farmington, New Mexico
The drive through the high mountains of Santa Fe National Forest, and then crossing the Rio Grande at Espanola as we approached Santa Fe.
The view from our hotel when we arrived in Santa Fe just after sunset.