What a huge day yesterday was. ! Started out with 36 degree F temperatures and got up to about 90 depending on which sign was right. The morning ride through the “baby Rockies” in NM was beautiful with lots of twisties and elevation changes. Saw more Pronghorns (18 plus a herd of 30-50!) along the first section of road. One of them ran along beside me while trying to find a hole in the fence but eventually gave up and cut across the road in front of me – but I was only in 2nd gear and was anticipating this.
Once I got into Arizona the land flattened out again for a bit and then changed as I got into “canyon country”. Went up in elevation many times only to drop down into another canyon. I believe 6000 was the highest yesterday. It was awesome seeing the way the glaciers must have carved and deposited the various types and colors of earth and stone. Did have one “close-ish” encounter with a herd of sheep as they came out of the tall sagebrush and darted across the road. I got stopped with plenty of room to spare but the car following me pulled out to go around me and came within inches of providing mutton for supper!
If someone could come up with a use for all that “sagebrush” a lot of people would become rich. There must be thousands if not millions of acres of that stuff – sometimes it was all I could see from horizon to horizon for 360 degrees! As the sun set it was neat to see all,of the shadows on the rocks and walls of the small canyons I was in but there sure was a lot of haze around all day from Raton, NM to Flagstaff, Az.
I am headed to the Grand Canyon this morning and have a helicopter flight booked at 1500. I am very excited and will leave here in soon and go do some of the other stuff.
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