New Mexico

Dan has to go out of town on occasion for work and I always tell him it's not fair that he gets to get out of Vernal and leave me behind to grind it out with the kids.  I get going stir crazy sometimes because, let's face it, I like Vernal but sometimes there just isn't anything to do or anywhere to go.  It isn't exactly a thriving metropolis.  Dan loves it, I sometimes struggle with it.  Well, my lovely, inspired husband decided to take me on one of his trips with him.  Not only did he take me with him, he solved that teeny weeny problem of what to do with the kids all by himself.  He called his mom and worked it out and she and Ron came all the way down to Vernal and watched the kids and got them to school and all the other things they require.  Kudos to Dan, he won major brownie points on this one.  The trip was fun even though most of the time we spent in the car driving and I had to just sit in the car and wait while he did his work stuff.  I haven't been to New Mexico since I was a little kid and I don't remember a whole lot about it.  We headed down south through the Moab region.  We stopped frequently to see the sights.  

Obviously anyone who's been to southern Utah and even further south know how unique and interesting the landscape is with the most amazing rock formations.  

Down near Moab it's amazing to see the arches as you drive down the interstate.  

We stopped to check out the Monticello temple.  

Monticello is a small town, but the temple is really pretty, tucked away in the middle of a cute little neighborhood.  

Come to find out New Mexico was like Yellowstone millions of years ago and there is a huge magma chamber just seven miles down below the surface.  It hasn't been active for over 10,000 years, but the rock formations left from that time period and the seas of lava rocks left from ancient lava flows is amazing.  Apparently the volcanoes there were not explosive, but more like those found in Hawaii today, with slow moving lava oozing out.  The tall pillars of rock are where the volcanoes funnels were and the lava hardened over time leaving behind a pretty cool landscape.  See, I learned a lot from my phone while driving endless hours.  

We came home through Colorado and saw this ram just meandering across the road.  We weren't close enough to get good pictures and all I had was my phone so this was the best I could get.  I've never seen one in the wild before.  

Once we got through Durango we came to a small town called Silverton.  When I say small I mean tiny.  Nothing but an old mine and a handful of houses.  Well, at this point the road was closed.  Our only way home, unless we wanted to back track 300 miles, was closed.  Apparently a hiker found a car at the bottom of the ravine with the dead driver inside.  He had been reported missing a week before by his wife.  They had to shut down the entire highway to pull him and his car back up.  So we sat in Silverton, Colorado for more than three hours. Again, not much to do but we did find this little gem of a place in the picture below.  An old-town bar with delicious food and awesome ambiance.  You felt like you were in the old west.  I had to stoop down in the bathroom because the ceilings were so short.  We had a fun trip and it was good to get away for a couple of days.