Las Vegas, Petrified Forest, & Santa Fe

Las Vegas, Petrified Forest, and Santa Fe

April 19-23

April 19: After five days of being stranded in Quartzite, AZ, we arrived in Las Vegas around 3 PM, stopped at a tire store to pick up a spare tire to replace the bum tire we still had, and then headed to  the Las Vegas RV Resort to plug in and take showers, before heading into downtown Vegas via Lyft. After walking around Vegas for a bit, we purchased a cheap Modela that you can drink on the street. Then we walked around the Bellagio and then the downtown area some more before heading to The Sphere for a Dead & Company show. The show was AMAZING!!! We arrived back at the campsite after midnight becuase waiting for an Uber to pick us up  took a long time. But we are thrilled to be out of Quartzsite just in time to see the concert. We went from desolation and poverty in Quartzsite to opulence and extreme displays of wealth in Las Vegas. The vast difference was a bit surreal. 

April 20: We slept in a bit and left around 10:30 AM, heading toward New Mexico. We stopped on the way at Lake Mead where we took an easy 2 1/2 mile hike on the Historic Railroad Trail where we walked through big tunnels and saw five big horn sheep. Then drove over to Hoover Dam, stopping in the parking lot long enough to see the dam. Given the large crowds of people, we chose not to walk over the dam. Our final destination for the day was  our Harvest Host at the Crystal Forest Museum and Gift Shop just south of Petrified Forest National Park.  The drive took a longer than we expected so we stopped on the side of the road in Williams, AZ to cook and eat a homemade pizza for dinner. Wiliams is like a really cute town, but we did not visit long as the day was already getting late. As it was, we didn’t get to the museum until close to 9 PM. The road was dark, lacking any street lights or houses or stores nearby. But we found a place to park and were thankful for a good and uneventful day. 

April 21: Petrified Forest National Park is really amazing, starting with trees that turned into a stone long before dinosaurs even roamed the Earth and ending in the Painted Desert. The landscape is beautiful. Starting from the southern end of the park at the Visitors Center near Rainbow Forest Museum, we took several hikes, totaling about 4.5 miles, including to the Giant Logs, Agate  House, Long Logs, Crystal Forest, Agate Bridge, Blue Mesa, Newspaper Rock, Puerco Pueblo, Whipple Point, and the Painted Desert Inn. We left Petrified Forest around 1:30 PM, heading toward to Santa Fe.

April 22: We spent two full days in Santa Fe, staying at the KOA just outside of town. On the first day, we drove into town to meet family and friends. Together we hiked the Dale Ball Trail off of Artist Road, covering about 2 miles of the trail where we could see views of Santa Fe. After driving back into town, we walked around, hoping to visit the Farmers Market, only to find that it is only open on Saturdays. Then we walked through town, stopping into many of the shops along the way. Had lunch at Bumblebees Baja Grill, continued our stroll ending at the historic La Fontaine Hotel where we enjoyed a beer while sitting outside. Later, we had dinner at The Shed, which is always fun with really good Mexican fare. At this point, because it was pretty late, rather than driving back to the campground we stealth camped on the street outside of our family‘s house. This was our first stealth camping experience. But because we had a parking permit on the van, we hoped it would be okay. 

April 23: Thankful for no midnight knocks, we woke up, had breakfast, and then drove to Nambe Flats. There we took a beautiful hike through an area that looks very much like The Badlands. Then we drove to the town of Chimayo to see the sacred church and purchase chili pepper powder. Driving back into town we had lunch at our relative's house and then drove up to Canyon Road area stopping at the wonderful chocolate shop, Kakawa Chocolate House where we drank a spicy chili chocolate drink. Visiting the many art galleries on Canyon Road was a lot of fun. We were impressed by how many cute shops there are in Santa Fe. You could spend several weeks and still not hit all of them. Then we went back to the house, did some laundry and showered, had some drinks outside, and went out to Paloma for dinner where we had really delicious roasted cauliflower, a mushroom dish, Brussel, sprouts, and carrots. A yummy meal but very expensive! We drove back to the campground for the night so that we could get an early start the next morning when we would be heading toward Little Rock, AK. We really enjoyed Santa Fe and will definitely be returning there for another visit!