{"id":1227,"date":"2009-08-12T22:03:12","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T03:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2009-08-12T22:06:02","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T03:06:02","slug":"day-2-kingman-az-to-santa-rosa-nm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/2009\/08\/12\/day-2-kingman-az-to-santa-rosa-nm\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2: Kingman AZ to Santa Rosa NM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary: A sweet 580 miles. <\/p>\n

From Kingman, I-40 climbs up into the Arizona high country past the Arizona Divide and brushes the edge of Flagstaff, which has an impressive mountain range next door. Countless must-visit sites — Sedona, Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater — had to wait for another vacation. <\/p>\n

It’s long and mostly flat for a couple hundred miles till the New Mexico border, where the terrain shifts rapidly and starts looking much like the Escalante region of southern Utah: Layered red cliffs with flats on top. <\/p>\n

The drive from Flagstaff to Albuquerque is one of the best in the United States, hands down. Not quite as spectacular as California 1 (the Coast Highway) or I-70 through the Front Range of the Rockies at Denver, but in the same neighborhood, vistawise. <\/p>\n

Oh, and we stopped for gas in Winslow, Arizona, and saw no girls in flatbed Fords or lame singer-songwriter types with longing looks on their faces. The guys in the mini-mart definitely had a Native American look about them (though the next-to-the-highway attempts to capitalize in the area’s Navajo\/Hopi heritage were embarrassing. Somehow I suspect they did not camp out in shelters favored by the Cheyenne of the Northern Plains.) <\/p>\n

But anyway, let’s see some pictures. <\/p>\n

\"Rest<\/a><\/p>\n

The Arizona high country west of Flagstaff is simply amazing. Looks nothing like the saguaro-dotted Arizona desert of the public imagination.<\/p>\n

\"Cool<\/a><\/p>\n

The terrain change at the Arizona-New Mexico border is as enchanting as the state’s motto promises. This big stone wall along the highway was just one example. <\/p>\n

\"I-40<\/a><\/p>\n

Highway sign near the Continental Divide. The sky got cooler as the day progressed. <\/p>\n

\"Rain!\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh yeah, it rained a couple times. <\/p>\n

\"Cool<\/a><\/p>\n

Swell rock formation. <\/p>\n

\"Desert<\/a><\/p>\n

Easy to see why so many artists flocked to New Mexico. High desert sky is priceless.<\/p>\n

\"Right<\/a><\/p>\n

Could not resist: yes, this is a right turn at Albuquerque (somehow I think the right turn options were narrower when Bugs Bunny introduced this gem into our culture.) <\/p>\n

Well, that’s enough for today. It was painful to drive through two hikers’ paradises in the same day without getting out to do some walking on dirt; nice thing is, those mountains aren’t going anywhere. <\/p>\n

Next stop: East of Fort Smith, Arkansas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: A sweet 580 miles. From Kingman, I-40 climbs up into the Arizona high country past the Arizona Divide and brushes the edge of Flagstaff, which has an impressive mountain range next door. Countless must-visit sites — Sedona, Grand Canyon,…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}