Today was devoted to pure dumb luck exploration. We pulled out of Storrie Lake campground and turned left up NM-518. Just a few miles had passed under Charlotte when we had a mutual brain fart and turned west on NM-94 headed for a place called St. Ignacio. We had no rational nor clearly definable reason for doing this. NM-94 is almost paved with only some terrible, tire-wrecking potholes cleverly concealed throughout the road surface because they know you will be looking elsewhere and will drive right into them.
The trip up this road takes you through some gorgeous pastures, forests and unique geology. The rocks around here remind me of what I remember in Monument Valley but that was long ago and my memory is easily tricked at my age. Up on 94, the gigantic rock formations are cloaked in forests and/or parts of some magnificent palisades. After being foiled by a few dirt roads that scrambled our careful lack of planning, we drove back down 94 from St. Ignacio to Las Tusas where we turned north on NM-105 headed for a place called Mora.
More good scenery presented itself as we covered the stretch from Las Tusas to Mora. In Mora, we got back on another section of NM-518, turned east on NM-422 back to I-25 for the run back to Las Vegas. Peggy and I both noted that this was an excellent sightseeing tour and we were both underwhelmed to discover that neither of us expected what we were fortunate enough to see as we passed through this gorgeous state.
The sections covered by prairie are very….uhhh….prairie-like. There are loads of antelope grazing along the road, just out of rifle range. There are loads of very colorful birds everywhere. The sections of forest we drove through were lush and bright green. The rock formations that constitute the terrain are spectacular and of rarely-seen colors. I don’t know what this state looks like most of the time but since we have been here we have been dazzled by the scenery.
We pulled back into Storrie Lake SP and were deprived by being forced to eat steak for dinner. It was tragic.