Take It Easy

The penultimate day of our drive back home to California put us back into familiar territory, for the most part. We've driven this stretch of I-40 before, except for the section between Grants, NM and Sanders, AZ, when we took a slight detour to visit El Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument in 2016.

385 miles, 6.5 hours

After finishing breakfast downstairs, we noticed this interesting display in the hotel lobby about the 19 pueblo nations of New Mexico. We will have to visit the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center the next time we are in Albuquerque.

We headed over to Petroglyph National Monument to pick up the passport stamp from the information center, arriving just as it opened at 8:30AM. But there would be no hiking to see petroglyphs today, 'cuz we have places to be.

Cane cholla

Then we drove about an hour west to the visitor center for El Malpais National Monument, which is just off I-40 in Grants, NM. After getting two passport stamps here, we watched the park movie and went through the exhibits before continuing on our route.

We arrived in Gallup, NM around 11:30AM. The Navajo Code Talkers Museum in the Gallup Cultural Center was closed for the holiday, so we just took a pic outside. 

A block or so further down on Route 66 was this cool mural on the side of the Visit Gallup tourist info building...

  

Fun photo op!

About 70 miles later, we reached Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert Visitor Center around 11:45AM MST. Yep, no time passed because we gained an hour back crossing into Arizona which does not observe daylight savings time! Here's our then-and-now pic in front of the entrance sign...

The same "petrified" pose 🤣

After getting my stamps and picking up some souvenirs from the bookstore, we grabbed Navajo tacos for lunch from the restaurant inside the Painted Desert Oasis.

Yum!

Since we had some time, we decided to drive through the park (our annual pass covered the $25 entrance fee) instead of getting right back on I-40, stopping at few scenic viewpoints along the way...

Painted Desert Inn - passport stamps and ice cream here!

Kachina Point

Blue Mesa

Before exiting the park, we stopped by the Rainbow Forest Museum (more stamps!) and hiked a bit of the Giant Logs trail to see the colorful petrified wood.

We took US-180 into Holbrook (we stayed here at the Wigwam Motel in 2010!), where we tried to stop by the Navajo County Historical Society in the Historic Courthouse, but they were also closed for Memorial Day. 

(Update 6/18: got the stamps by SASE!) 

So we continued on to Winslow, AZ and found the corner paying homage to the Eagles' song Take It Easy.

🎶 Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

Such a fine sight to see 🎵

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me

Our final destination for the day was Walnut Canyon National Monument. We pulled up to the visitor center with 15 minutes to spare before it closed at 5:00PM. I felt a little bad about the stamp-and-run, but even the ranger said that nothing new had been added since the last time we were here in 2016.

We're staying in a different hotel in Williams than we did on our last trip (free night with IHG points!), but we enjoyed dinner at the same place as before - Pine Country Restaurant. Still very good!

Today's progress towards our 2024 Silver Master Traveler Award*:

 

    Units: 33

    Stamps: 83

    Regions: 4

*updated to include the stamps received by mail