We woke up in the apartment we stayed in last night and quietly gathered our things and packed up our sleeping bags before saying goodbye and heading out. We didn't get to know Candice and Orlando at all like we did with Jeff but it was still great of them to let us crash on their couches.
We hit the road from Albuquerque and drove north toward the National Park states. The road was mostly long and straight without a lot to look at along the way.
We did get to stop at a scenic overlook area that welcomed us to the southwest region. I didn't even know what to take a shot of since I could see so far in every direction and there were really interesting mountains all around.
I took my shoes off and walked down into the sand. It felt really good and the sand would swell up under my feet and slowly cascade down the side of the hill like water.
We started to see interesting and strange rock formations all along the highway, which spiced up the ride a little bit. This one looks like a castle. It's true. It was also really far away but we could see it for a long time as we drove.
Also, we saw horses on the side of the road on a narrow edge of a cliff. They're canoodling. All of the animals in this area were free range so there were signs warning us that they might walk out into the road at any moment.
We found Lion's Wilderness disc golf course in northwest New Mexico and it seemed like a good one to play for the day. I'm glad we chose it.
The course is built on rocks and desert land, making it a unique and certainly different course than I've ever played. This hole shot straight down off the side of the hill to a basket across the street.
While the front nine were mainly on the rocks and mostly short holes, the middle nine and back nine played long and through the desert area, requiring a lot of long drives. The wind wasn't helping make those any easier.
The best part of the course were the basket placements. They were tucked behind rock walls or set on the edge of an outcropping to make them challenging and really cool to play.
Some of the later holes were a bit repetitive because of the basically straight, long shots, but the environment alone is enough to make me want to play it again. There are plenty of fun holes and the course is broken up well enough that you could play any combination of lengths you wanted with ease.
We had lunch at the pavilion at the park and then headed north into Arizona.
Shortly after crossing back into New Mexico, we got to Four Corners. Apparently the corners of these states are closed for repairs. Lame. I know I didn't miss much, but it seems odd that they would close something like that.
Not too long after leaving the closed monument we crossed into Colorado....
...and then Utah. So I was basically in the corner of all of those states anyway, just not at the same time. Oh well.
Along the highway we encountered the first arch in Utah: Wilson's Arch. It looked nice from the road so we climbed up into it.
It as a pretty nice view from the top and there were some trails to walk on the top as well. I walked to the far end to get some shots of cactus and then we walked down a long, narrow area of rock on the other side of the arch. It was a good mini-adventure.
We got to Moab after it was getting dark so we couldn't go to any parks today. We looked around for a campsite for a while. After looking at quite a few that were completely booked (I guess there's something going on here this weekend), we found one with empty spots so we took it.
Total distance today: 440.9. Not a bad number. We crossed the 4,000 mile mark this afternoon so we're moving along pretty well!
We woke up in the apartment we stayed in last night and quietly gathered our things and packed up our sleeping bags before saying goodbye and heading out. We didn't get to know Candice and Orlando at all like we did with Jeff but it was still great of them to let us crash on their couches.
We hit the road from Albuquerque and drove north toward the National Park states. The road was mostly long and straight without a lot to look at along the way.
We did get to stop at a scenic overlook area that welcomed us to the southwest region. I didn't even know what to take a shot of since I could see so far in every direction and there were really interesting mountains all around.
I took my shoes off and walked down into the sand. It felt really good and the sand would swell up under my feet and slowly cascade down the side of the hill like water.
We started to see interesting and strange rock formations all along the highway, which spiced up the ride a little bit. This one looks like a castle. It's true. It was also really far away but we could see it for a long time as we drove.
Also, we saw horses on the side of the road on a narrow edge of a cliff. They're canoodling. All of the animals in this area were free range so there were signs warning us that they might walk out into the road at any moment.
We found Lion's Wilderness disc golf course in northwest New Mexico and it seemed like a good one to play for the day. I'm glad we chose it.
The course is built on rocks and desert land, making it a unique and certainly different course than I've ever played. This hole shot straight down off the side of the hill to a basket across the street.
While the front nine were mainly on the rocks and mostly short holes, the middle nine and back nine played long and through the desert area, requiring a lot of long drives. The wind wasn't helping make those any easier.
The best part of the course were the basket placements. They were tucked behind rock walls or set on the edge of an outcropping to make them challenging and really cool to play.
Some of the later holes were a bit repetitive because of the basically straight, long shots, but the environment alone is enough to make me want to play it again. There are plenty of fun holes and the course is broken up well enough that you could play any combination of lengths you wanted with ease.
We had lunch at the pavilion at the park and then headed north into Arizona.
Shortly after crossing back into New Mexico, we got to Four Corners. Apparently the corners of these states are closed for repairs. Lame. I know I didn't miss much, but it seems odd that they would close something like that.
Not too long after leaving the closed monument we crossed into Colorado....
...and then Utah. So I was basically in the corner of all of those states anyway, just not at the same time. Oh well.
Along the highway we encountered the first arch in Utah: Wilson's Arch. It looked nice from the road so we climbed up into it.
It as a pretty nice view from the top and there were some trails to walk on the top as well. I walked to the far end to get some shots of cactus and then we walked down a long, narrow area of rock on the other side of the arch. It was a good mini-adventure.
We got to Moab after it was getting dark so we couldn't go to any parks today. We looked around for a campsite for a while. After looking at quite a few that were completely booked (I guess there's something going on here this weekend), we found one with empty spots so we took it.
Total distance today: 440.9. Not a bad number. We crossed the 4,000 mile mark this afternoon so we're moving along pretty well!
1 comment:
Birthday hint for Mom...I want the castle picture..probably a lot more when the adventure is over.
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