After I left Chaco canyon and reached the main highway, I headed east. My plan was to reach Capulin National Monument in northeast New Mexico and find a campground for the night. The landscape through the northern section of New Mexico was spectacular.

It was around 3:30 p.m. when I reached the outskirts of Santa Fe and there was a lot of rush hour traffic. Even though people were speeding and tailgating, I kept around the speed limit to avoid a ticket.

Along the way I saw this view and had to stop. There was a turnoff at this location but the shoulder had a severe dip and I did not want to risk bottoming out the car. Besides, there was a line of cars behind running almost bumper-to-bumper. I drove for another 3 to 4 miles until I found a safe spot to turnaround and drive back to the turnout. The photo does not the beauty of this scene. This is a section of the Rio Grande River Gorge.

I pulled into the rest area and sprinted across the road to avoid taking photographs of some signs along the road. While returning to my car I noticed a small blue car slowing down and entering the rest area. A cute girl drove the car, probably in her early 20’s. A guy was on the passenger side with the seat reclined and his feet on the dash. The girl was looking in my direction with a wide grin on her face but I knew instinctually that she was not looking at me. I instantly surmised that she was probably a geology student and had also stopped to look at the Rio Grande gorge. Sure enough, she popped out of the car with camera in hand and impatiently waited while the guy slowly disentangled himself and emerged from the car. The girl and I simply nodded our heads to each other. No words needed to be spoken as we acknowledge our good fortune of discovery. As I was pulled out and enter the highway, I caught a glimpse of the pair running across the road.

I drove partially pass Taos and entered Taos Canyon with the sun at my back, dipping into the horizon.

Most of my trip through this canyon was in low cloud cover, with occasional rain.

There are a lot of nice looking homes built along this road. Two times I almost ran into a deer that was standing in the road, camouflaged by its coloration and the fading light. It was scary thinking about all the deer guts and car damage if I had hit Bambi. Blood. Later on I came upon a herd of Elk that were feeding in a field. By the time I got ton the road the sun had set and I could not see the landscape. At night this highway seemed to travel in a straight line for eternity until finally merging with Interstate 25 near the town of Raton. I thought that Capulin Volcano might have a campground I thought I saw a rest stop between Raton and Capulin so I proceeded on through the night.

The trip between Raton and Capulin at night was long and boring. The highway is a two-lane road and there were a lot of semi trucks passing me traveling west. It was so dark that I could not discern the surrounding landscape. There were long straight stretches of road and I could tell that I was gaining elevation. I sensed that I had traveled up a gentle alluvial plain and entered a forested canyon. The “town” of Capulin extends for about 200 yards along the side of highway 64/87. I saw a RV/trailer park on the right of the road and slowed down to see if there place was open and up pops a the sign for Capulin Volcano National Monument with an arrow pointing to the left. By the time I look to the left, it was already too late to slow down and make the turn. This is really poor sign placement, giving the driver very little notice of the turnoff. I strained my eyes trying to determine whether it was safe to turn off onto the shoulder of the road so I could make a u-turn. I was uncertain whether my car could clear the drop off from the shoulder of the highway or the condition of the dirt along the side of the road so I proceeded on until a found what seemed like a long stretch of straight road and made a 3-point u-turn in the middle of the highway. I drove back to the intersection and another 3 miles to the entrance of the NM. I found that Capulin Volcano NM did not have a campground. I was tempted to stay in the visitor center parking lot but I choose to backtrack to I-25 and stay at a rest stop. I retraced the route back to Raton and traveled about 25 miles south on I-25, past the southbound rest stop, exited at the next offramp and got back on the Interstate and traveled north to the northbound rest stop.

This was another great day.