Being in Arizona made me feel like a fish out of water and I was slowly shriveling up. The weather in Tucson and Phoenix was in the 90s and I was questioning my plan to stay in the Southwest and travel to New Mexico. I had to move to a cooler place or else my truck home would be rendered useless. Nevertheless, I found myself traveling to Albuquerque, NM early one Saturday morning to meet up with Yasmin.
It turned out that Yasmin (my Couchsurfing host from Tucson) had lived in Albuquerque prior to moving to Tucson and had a house there she needed to paint. She invited me to tag along for the weekend and told me that New Mexico was far more beautiful than Arizona and would be much cooler due to the higher elevations. So, without a second thought, I said, “yes”, and made the 8 hour drive out.
There are no major interstates that connect Phoenix and I-40, so you get to drive on some smaller roads through a surprisingly scenic portion of Arizona. There are two towns along this route that have photo enforced speed limits, which completely caught me off guard. Interstate 40 heading east of Flagstaff towards the New Mexico border is still probably one of the most boring drives I’ve done so far, but as soon as you reach the New Mexico border, everything changes.
Prior to my current travels, I thought I knew about mountains. I’d seen plenty photographs of mountains and even hiked up and skied down a few. In planning this trip, I often joked with my friends wondering how many mountains I’d have to see before I got bored. Now I wonder how I could ever get bored of seeing the mountains.
What I didn’t understand was that mountains are infinitely unique just as each human is a little different. They vary in color, shape, size, texture, composition, etc. Some are jagged with sheer cliffs, some are smooth and rolling. Some exist together in massive ranges, some stand alone. Honestly, I can’t even begin to describe the differences between the mountains I’ve seen and I’ve only traveled through a few states thus far. New Mexico has mountains and I immediately had a feeling I was going to enjoy exploring the state.
To combat the heat at lower elevations, I started exclusively camping in the mountains. Here are some views from places I stayed the night.
Only person camped here!
Lincoln National Forest, NM
Rio Grande National Forest, CO
BLM near Archest National Park
Los Padres National Forest, CA
And one morning, I woke up surrounded by a herd of curious calves...
