By Scott Shephard

Deb and I left Albuquerque at 7:30 am yesterday, drove south on Insterstate 25 to a town called Socorro, New Mexico, and then drove the rest of the day on US Highway 60 to Globe, Arizona. This 300 mile drive from Socorro to Globe took us through some amazing scenery on a good road that was mostly empty, as this photo attests. Of course when you drive on a road that you know gains significant altitude just after a major winter storm and see no other cars, you start to wonder if others know more that you do. I didn’t pass my insecurities about this on to Deb. The recent snow had generally melted from the road, though there was slush in some places. And we did see New Mexico DOT snow plows at work. But in truth it was the snow that made this drive so special. Everything but the road was coated in pristine white. In some places it looked like there was as much as 8” of new snow.

Another thing that made this drive striking is that we were flying pretty high. I’m talking about the altitude, of course. In this particular location we were close to a 1 1/2 miles above sea level - 7292’ to be exact. I don’t think I have driven on a road surrounded by miles of flat “prairie” at such high altitude as we were on this 20 mile stretch. Frankly, the photo of this road reminds me of one I took of what some South Dakotans know as the “Polo Road” in the east central part of our state This road is flat, straight and generally lightly traveled. But it’s about 6000’ lower.

The last hour of our drive yesterday took us through the Salt River Canyon, which is a spectacularly sculpted part of Arizona. Sorry, but I don’t have a single photo to show you. Deb was driving, the traffic had picked up and I thought I needed to focus on helping her, though she didn’t need it. Unfortunately, most of the scenic overlooks were off the east bound side of the highway and so we didn’t stop.

We have a short drive to the Phoenix area today and will meet up with Scott and Sandy, who have been our travel companions many times. We look forward to seeing them, of course, and we will welcome the good weather. I also look forward to not being in an automobile. Since leaving Watertown on Friday, we have spent close to 28 hours inside our truck. But I’m not complaining . . . .

Canon R5 1/500 sec f/11 ISO 200