Valley of Fire, Albuquerque, and Colorado: Days 1-2

After we left Roswell, we drove to Albuquerque.  Although it wasn't a terribly long drive, we made a side stop at a place called the Valley of Fire.  It wasn't nearly as scary-sounding as it sounds.  The Valley of Fire is a place in New Mexico where a huge basaltic lava-flow drastically changed the landscape.  There are huge, black, lava flows for miles and miles.  At one time, I suppose the valley did actually look like it was on fire.  But, today, it just looks burnt!  It was another really cool accident that we never would have heard of.  I think that most of the fun in a road trip is discovering new things while travelling to the ones we have planned.

 

After finishing our drive, we arrived in Albuquerque a bit later than we had expected.  We checked into the Rt. 66 hostel, which was really more like a B&B.  Eric was really excited to be on historic Rt. 66, mostly because of the song, "get your kicks on Rt. 66."  We went out for some Mexican food, because if we didn't, I'm sure you'd all kill us.  Surprisingly, the food was kind of bland.  However, I will say it was definitely different than the Mexican food we are used to.  We were served sopapillas and potatoes with our food instead of tortilla chips and rice.  It was a nice change.

In the morning, we visited Petroglyphs National Monument.  Again, the black, volcanic rocks, dominated the landscape.  Fortunately, we had time to do a couple of hikes before heading out to Colorado.  The first was a hike up a hill to view some petroglyphs.  Petroglyphs are basically ancient Native American carvings in rock.  Our second hike was up two of the volcanoes that created the rock.  Neither one of us had ever climbed a volcano before, so it was a new experience.  The view from the top was amazing! On one side, there were mountains in the distance.  On the other side, it was completely flat.

The petroglyphs tell stories, but only the descendants of the artists know what they mean!

Volcanoes: they are bigger than they look.

After a great morning at the Petroglyphs, we made our way to Colorado to see my cousins.  After a long drive, we were warmly welcomed with washers, dinner, and fun!  It's been really awesome to make our way around the country and visit family that we don't get to see as much as we would like to.  

Yesterday afternoon, we took my cousin Beau with us on a hike through Castlewood Canyon State Park.  We were able to see the canyon from the top, as well as hike down into the canyon.  It was a lot of fun.  We did get caught in the rain, but it cooled us off after all that climbing!

Last night, my awesome cousins got us all tickets to see Ray Lamontagne at the Red Rock Amphitheater.  The venue itself is absolutely gorgeous.  It is set high up in the mountains.  You can even see Denver in the distance!  The concert was really, really good, even the opening acts were great.  Thanks guys!!