Fall in Flagstaff

We drove to Flagstaff to see the fall leaves today. There were also two breweries/taprooms in Flagstaff on our Pubpass that were hadn't used yet. Both were dog friendly, so our dog got to come with us. Our first stop was Grand Canyon Brewing for a drink and lunch. The prickly pear beer was quite tasty.

After lunch, we drove the road to Arizona Snowball, 

and admired the aspens along the drive.

We parked in the lot for the Aspen Nature Loop trail. Parking is much easier on a Tuesday than a weekend!

This is a 1.8 mile, fairly flat, easy to walk trail, which is more of a lollipop than true loop. The only thing that makes it slightly challenging is the high elevation (9271 ft / 2825 m).

You start by walking towards the aspens near the base of the ski lifts, with the San Francisco peaks in view.

Once we reached the loop, we decided to go counter clockwise, and soon saw Sasquatch.

As we continued down the trail, we entered the aspen grove. A lot of these trees had already dropped their leaves.

After exiting that grove, we entered a prairie zone. The big white cloud in the top right section of the picture is smoke from a wild fire southwest of Flagstaff.

This gave us a great view of the valley below.

We then headed to another aspen grove.

Many of the trees here still had their leaves.

From here, it was a short walk back to the stick of the lollipop and back to the parking lot.

On the drive back down to town, we saw three elk (no pictures), then headed to Hops on Birch to use our other PubPass (the tart cherry cider was delicious).

Apache Trail drive to Tortilla Flats AZ

We took advantage of a break in the rain to drive the Apache Trail to Tortilla Flats this afternoon. 

We drove through a few giant puddles,

 saw Canyon Lake 

and even saw a few waterfalls! 

The road was closed after Tortilla Flats due to flooding 

(so was the saloon/restaurant). 

So we had an ice cream 

and turned back towards home.

Summer Roadtrip Day 1: Phoenix to Tucumcari NM

The car's all packed, we are gassing up, and are ready to go.

Getting into the pine trees outside of Payson.

We intended to go directly to Holbrook from Payson but rerouted to Winslow to avoid an accident and construction delays. We saw a brewery advertised in Winslow, so that made the decision easier, since we would be there for lunch 

Unfortunatly, this was only a taphouse and they didn't brew any of their own beers.

Just down the alley from the restaurant, I saw these murals.

Just past Holbrook we stopped at a "trading post" to see the world's largest kachina. It was defunct and missing its face, so we didn't bother with a picture of that. We did get these pictures while in the area:

Around Gallup NM, the car started rattling and shaking, so we pulled over to check the tires. We saw these wild horses in the area by the gas station.

On the way towards Albuquerque, the check tires warning came on, we checked the tires, they looked "ok" and we headed onward. Then it happens about 30 miles later. We added a quick stop at Discount Tire, arriving less than 10 minutes before closing.

Three new tires later, and we were back on the road.

We arrived in Tucumcari around 10 pm, and we were tired, so I didn't take pictures of neon signs in town like I planned to do. Here's a picture of part of our room at the Roadrunner Lodge.

Summer Roadtrip Day 13: Return home

This morning Steve got up early to further inspect the car while we were waiting for transmission shops to open. The hope was to be able to find a shop that could do the work as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

We ultimately decided it made more financial sense to rent a U-Haul and towing dolly and tow it home ourselves, tmrather than spending 3+ more nights in the area 

We took an Uber into Santa Fe, picked up the truck and trailer, and left Pojoaque shortly after noon.

We took the interstate through the outskirts of Santa Fe and then also through Albuquerque (so we didn't really get to visit either), since our goal for today was just to make it home, and night sightsee.

As we drove through Albuquerque, we were hit with a deluge of rain!

Once we were outside of Albuquerque, we stopped at a gas station for a late breakfast/lunch. These burritos were not as easy on the stomach as those in Cheyenne!!!

We drove in and out of rain for most of the way through NM, with a dark cloud seeming to stay over us.

We were happy to enter AZ and return to sunny weather.

We were about 100 miles from home and I needed a bathroom break (thanks to the gas station burritos!!).

When Steve tried to start the van (to keep the battery charged while the hazard lights were on for towing) he discoved the van's battery was completely dead. Then he urgently needed the bathroom, so locked the U-Haul and ran inside.

After returning to the U-Haul, I asked him to open my door. He started looking for the keys when I spotted them inside the truck

One locksmith later....

And one stop to install a new battery in my minivan...

We finally arrived home around 10:30 pm (and to a very happy dog!) 🐕 

Sedona

We had hoped to see fall color in Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon  today. When we got there, we realized that not many leaves had changed yet.

On the way home, traffic on I-17 was all backed up and it took twice as long as it should to get home.

Prescott

We decided to take a quick road trip to Prescott to get out of the heat.

Our dog packed his compass so we didn't get lost.

We spent a few hours at Goldwater Lake.

We also saw javelins near Lynx Lake.

Salt Mines

We were out jeeping near Camp Verde and decided to check out the salt mines. From a distance, it looked like a big pile of snow.

Colorado - Last Dollar Road

The next morning, we started heading toward home, driving from Ouray to Telluride.

We decided to take the Last Dollar Road, next to the San Miguel River, to Telluride and then continue to Cortez.

We stopped in Cortez/Mesa Verde for dinner at a local brewery. I couldn't resist ordering the Schnorzenboomer Amber Doppelbock, simply because I liked the name of the beer. It was also tasty!

 

We then spent the night in Room 1977 at the Retro Inn in Mesa Verde. Each room number corresponded to the decor of the room.

The next morning we started our drive back to Phoenix.

We stopped in Flagstaff for a picnic lunch before finishing the drive home.