Grants, NM to Sedona, AZ – Friday, August 8
We started off fairly early this morning after a comfortable night at the Holiday Inn Express in Grants, NM. Our first stop was a gas station and gift shop at the Continental Divide at 7,245 Ft. Lots of Indian jewelry and trinkets were available as well as more Rt. 66 items. We bought gas, took photos and moved on through Gallup, NM – where we originally tried to stay but couldn’t find a Holiday Inn. Once we drove through we understood why. The town is filled with stores offering Indian jewelry and according to the AAA book, is a major trading area. We saw a few hotels, but nothing significant.
Gassing up at the Continental Divide
Route 66 at the Continental Divide
The lady at the NM Visitors Center gave us a brochure on the Petrified Forest National Park, which also included the Painted Desert on one side of the road and the Petrified Forest on the other. We spent a few hours admiring the beauty of the area and pulled off at most of the overlooks for photo ops. Gayle finally drove the car — only at 20MPH — but that was the posted speed on that particular road.
Gayle's first drive in Flash
The Bad Lands of the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest
We decided to pass up the meteor crater and push on to Sedona for the night. We drove down the winding roads of Hwy 89 into gorgeous Sedona, took a few photos of the famous red rocks along the way and arrived at the Best Western way out on 89A, unpacked the car, and got into the room just as a huge thunderstorm hit the area. We haven’t seen storms like that since we lived in Texas. Once the storm passed, we walked down the hill from the hotel to have dinner at a little restaurant in a nearby shopping center. Dinner was very nice accompanied by a bottle of wine (since we were walking home). We slept well that night in one of the prettiest places in Arizona – not counting the Grand Canyon.
Lots to see at the Painted Desert
Some fellow Crows seemed to follow us through the park
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