YOLO hits the road towards Mexico Nov 2022

 We headed from Michigan back to Colorado to swap out some things we'd left at brother Tom's place.  We stayed at Mom's and here is Jason and Mom enjoying the nice weather still available in Colorado in November.  You can see Tom's handiwork on the pallet furniture and artistic panels.  Nevermind our laundry hanging out to dry.

Jason and Mom on the bench in her back yard.

Dad's not really flipping off his phone, he's just using his middle finger to scroll through his photos trying to find one he wanted us to see.

My high school pal, Annette, helping her stepdad, Dick, fill out an application for a foster dog.

The first snow in Aurora.  Sunrise is pretty here.

Sean, Linda, Dad and Jason at Dad's

Mom showing off the sarong she made for her cruise to Mexico over Thanksgiving with Jim and Holly and the kids. She never used it, but she made me a couple to take with me, too.

A magnifying glass with a horn handle from her grandfather.  Uncle George sent it to her after her youngest sister died last year.  

A pipe my great grandfather made and used.  My aunt Nancy had it and her husband sent it on to Mom after she died.  Quite elaborate and a lot smaller than I expected.  A piece of art.

Jason and Mom in her living room.

Jason and Karen in the same living room.

Mom and Karen the night before we left Aurora.

We left the nice weather and got into the cold as we headed into southern Colorado.  We were headed to a camping spot we had used before and spotted these camels along the side of the road.  Camels in Colorado?  Who knew?

Yep, it got cold that night and the trees all had a coating of ice and frost the next morning as we drove through a canyon.  Gorgeous, though.

The road, too, was coated in a layer of ice and Jason stopped the van to check out how slick the road was.  He glided along the slippery surface so we had to crawl along the road until we got out of the Cimarron Canyon.

Every needle on the pine tree had its own coating of frost.

The walls of the canyon are known as the Palisades Sill, a spectacular formation of extruded igneous rock that formed a cliff along the Cimarron River between Taos and Raton in the Cimarron Canyon along Route 64 in northern New Mexico.

Clear ice is edging along a pond along the canyon road

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, the second highest suspension bridge in the US is here in northern New Mexico in the middle of nowhere not far from Taos.  

The bridge had the second highest incidence of suicide, too.  This grafitti could be someone´s last words.  We stayed overnight at the rest area at the end of the bridge, which had a 24x7 guard posted to keep people from committing suicide by jumping off the bridge

It`s a long ways down to the river from the bridge!

This guy Jimmy, is a vendor who sells his stuff at the rest area at the end of the bridge.  He was quite a character and had some really unusual stuff.  His driftwood "guitar" was interesting.  He had some fossilized dinosaur egg sack that was really cool and some different crystals from a salt mine area.  He gave me a handful of the crystals and a block of shells cemented together as a glob.  He was very engaging to listen to and had some wild tales to tell.  Claims he`s been struck by lightning three times.  He is a mechanic for a traveling circus most times but is a freelance vendor and artist in his off season.

In the middle of the desert not too far from the bridge is the Earthship community.  It`s a group of homes built into the earth in totally ecological ways.  Lots of solar and natural insulation and heating/cooling.  The glass bottles make up a wall of this home and the windows create a solarium where the plants grow indoors.  

The visitor info place here was closed, so we could just look at the various homes from afar as we drove by them.  I think they are fabulous and they are all unique and rather whimsical in design.  You can see a cool cloud formation coming in from the right of this photo, too.

More Earthship homes in the desert near Taos, NM.

All unique designs.

They all make use of berm buildings and solar heating.

Commanding views they all have, too.

Amazing!  I`d heard of Earthship homes years ago, but had no idea there were now so many of them.

Quite the vista from on high as we drove over the pass.

A cute train now surrounded by planters.  We`d stopped at this intersection before to see this welcome center in Chama, NM, just below the state line from Colorado. 

We carried on to Farmington, NM to see my nephew Brian and his family.

It was a crowded house with family visiting for the holidays and to spend time with Megan`s mom who was living with them during hospice.

Jason and Brian lounging in the living room in Farmington.

Ship Rock formation in the distance.

We went to the Four Corners, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet.  It`s the only place in the US where four states share a common point.  The Native Americans have now taken over the monument and charge to come in and see the place.  Jason is bending over to take a photo of the survey marker denoting the place where the four corners of the states meet.

Karen with an appendage in each of four states simultaneously.  A common pose here.

We wandered around the area inside the Four Corners Monument and Jason climbed this rocky hill.

Not far down the road was this outstanding red rock formation.  Hoodoos in the making in a small patch, but pretty cool looking, we thought.

Another view of the red rock formations along the road.

I love the unusual rock formations in this part of the country. This one is Church Rock, I believe.

Many of them have names, but we just see them as we drive by most times.

A huge logging wheel on display outside the Flagstaff, AZ visitor center.  They used them to drag huge trees over the terrain to reach a railyard.  Interesting how they were used.

Some of the pretty red rock formations startting to show up on our way to Sedona.

A cool partial reflection in YOLO of a cathedral-shaped rock near Sedona, AZ as we drive along.

We visited another friend from high school, Randy and Pennie, in Peoria, AZ.  They are always fun to yak with.  We got caught up on the liberal conspiracy theories out there, too.

We stopped in Goodyear, AZ to visit some rock hounding friends, Shirley and Dee in their winter home there.  Yummy soup for lunch and we hit the road again.  We stayed in Yuma for a weekend and then got our Mexican auto insurance (required) and headed across the border at Los Algodones.

We got nailed for some duty on 3 cartons of beer (the Customs guy claimed a case was just a six pack), and I had to pay for a second tourist card because I couldn`t produce the receipt for the one I had.  What a scam!  We finally cleared the border and headed to San Felipe for our first night in a Mexican desert. A gorgeous bloom on an ocatillo cactus at one of our desert stops for the night.

Down an arroyo from where we parked above a beach, I stumbled into this decomposing carcass of a dolphin.  Someone probably couldn`t stand the stench and dragged it up into the arroyo so the smell wouldn`t hit the beach campers.  An unusual sight, to say the least

The beach had a spit that dried out at low tide and Jason and I walked all the way out to the end of it.  Along the way, we found some delicate sand dollars of various sizes.

And some other big, beautiful shells, too.

A stunning sunset over the beach bleeds deep orange into the sky.

Jason scanning the scenery with binoculars.

Sea urchins, shells, starfish, sea fans, and a lump of golden pumice were some of the finds along the beach.  Such variety and so easy to gather.

A cool little barrel cactus with red new growth sprouting out of it.

Jason next to a `boojim`cactus.  We had never heard of these, or seen them before.  They sort of look like an upside down hairy carrrot, but the spines are there between the leaves.

When you look closely, you can see that the spines and leaves grow around the trunk in a spiral.  Cool.

Karen next to a huge saguaro cactus near where we parked one night.  There are a lot of saguaro cacti in the Baja.

Seems all this cactus` spines were at the top.  Reminded me of Cousin It from The Addams Family.

A battered yellow butterfly was a bright spot in the sand and rock.

Near Playa Esmeralda, we hiked to an inlet that formed a natural pool.  Jason tested the waters for temp...

And decided to have a swim.  He took the plunge in the salty water but was back out and dried off in minutes.

A pretty abalone shell I found on the beach.  Rare to find one this big still in one piece.  I love the irridescence in their shells.

The sun setting over the ocean from our camping stop near Playa Esmeralda.  The cactus is pointing at the setting orb.