A year with my sister, a lesson in survival, sanity and/or stupidity: We stand on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

Had a wander through Albuquerque and found some interesting architecture and some interesting places. These 2 gems are side by side – one labelled a bug house, the other a spaceship. Lots of sculptures at the front of the properties including a couple of guard dinosaurs.

Spaceship house

Bug house

These guard dinosaurs won't require much feeding

The giant books above The Library Bar & Grill have titles that include Lord of the Onion Rings, Tequila Mockingbird and Gone With the Gin. Shame it was a bit too early in the morning to go in and check them out, although perhaps that’s a good thing. If they have real books on the inside that would be me gone for the rest of the day … and then some.

Some eclectic book titles atop The Library Bar & Grill

Continued south of Albuquerque and made our way to the Very Large Array, west of Socorro. For those not familiar with what the Very Large Array is (i.e. most of us), it is a series of antennae linked in a Y configuration to make one Very Large radio telescope. This in turn picks up radio light that creates images such as black holes and star formation. Most of the detail went right over my head but I was impressed all the same.

4 of the 27 antennae

They really are quite large - two of the yellow school buses would fit end to end across the diameter

The red VLA data is superimposed on a yellow visible light image taken from the Hubble telescope

Just prior to leaving Albuquerque we took a trip up Sandia Peak via the aerial tramway. What a ride. There are only 2 towers in the 2.7 mile journey and we climb from 6,559’ to the top of Sandia Peak at 10,378’. At one point it is over 900 feet straight down, or if that number is too hard to comprehend – about 7 seconds. Not a trip for the faint hearted and the views from the top are amazing.

Our carriage for the 2.7 mile journey to the top of the mountain

Going up

Going down

At over 10,000' it's not surprising there is snow and a ski field up top

Couldn’t help ourselves at Gallup – we just had to go for a short drive on The Devil’s Highway – Route 666. It was an offshoot of Route 66 and has subsequently been renamed Highway 491 but there is the occasional sign to remind you of what it used to be.

Took a detour off our westward journeying on the I-40 and visited the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. This turned out to be another of those places where we planned to spend no more than an hour but ended up all day. The colour of the hills here have to be seen to be believed. Simply stunning. As far as Badlands go, this one is just as speccy as the one in South Dakota. Never thought I’d find a landscape devoid of trees so interesting.

Painted Desert

The Petrified Forest National Park was the only National Park that had Route 66 running through it. This Studebaker and some telephone poles are all that remain.

Is it just me or is this petroglyph a spaceship?

Petrified logs are strewn across the landscape

Including giant logs like this one

Made our way up to Holbrook. They were smack dab on the old Route 66 and many of the old tourist attractions are still around, including the Wigwam Motel. Chester Lewis, who built this one, had 6 Wigwam Villages put up, 3 of which have survived and are still in operation. They are far from luxurious but apparently have cable TV and air con.

Walking the world's longest map of Route 66 was thirsty work ...

... so, what else could we do ...

... when you're thirsty you're gotta drink - when you're outside a bar you may as well have a drink there

The vintage cars add a nice touch

Also on Route 66 in Arizona is the town of Winslow, made famous by The Eagles with the opening line in “Taking it Easy”. So we did. A family donated their corner section, the artwork went up and the tourists come in their droves.

Headed northwards to Page. Our first visit was to Horseshoe Bend. Another Wow! moment. Made all the more special by no barricades – just a sign at the start of the hiking trail pointing out the dangers of standing too close to sandstone edges that are prone to collapse. It’s only about 1000 feet to the Colorado River below.

No New Zealander's were harmed in the taking of this photo

Took the scenic drive to Zion National Park in south Utah. Sure, it added another 100 miles to the days travel but it was so worth it. We had to drive south from Page quite a ways before turning north once again in the direction of the Vermillion Cliffs. 50 miles out they are impressive, more so once we were driving along the base. The colour was so deep with the morning sun shining on them.

Vermillion Cliffs

Vermillion Cliffs - sadly my camera doesn't see them as well as my eyes - the red in the cliffs was much more vibrant

Then it was into Zion National Park itself. Some may say it’s just a bunch of rocks. But Wow!, what rocks. The colours, the size, the grandeur. It also helps that it was a lovely warm sunny winters day. It was a good thing we didn’t bring the RV for this drive – it’s quite an exercise getting large vehicles through the tunnel at Mt Carmel. It’s only 13’1 at its high point and has a couple of bends in it which has caused several crashes in the past as the large vehicles try to negotiate the bends. Nowadays there is a ranger stationed at both ends of the tunnel who co-ordinate one way traffic when the large vehicles come through. There is a fee involved and they can only travel at certain times of the day.