Arizona Trip; Day 3 (Santa Rosa, NM to Holbrook, AZ)

We departed our motel in Santa Rosa, NM at 8:45am under cloudy skies with a temperature of 39 degrees. Our route was I-40 westbound. Rain and possibly snow were expected down the road.

Somewhere between Santa Rosa and Albuquerque it started raining and the temperature dropped. Eventually it was 31 degrees with heavy snow. I felt sorry for Carl and Marge on their Goldwing. I was a little nervous for them too but, fortunately, the roads did not get slick.
At Albuquerque the rain and snow stopped and the temperature increased to 40. Later, however, from around Grants, NM to Gallup, NM there was more rain (some of it hard) and snow but the temperature never dropped to freezing. After lunch in Gallup we continued west on I-40 and experienced more rain. We were pleased to finally see some blue sky and a little sun a ways into Arizona.

Since the weather was finally cooperating we stopped at the Petrified National Forest National Park, which includes the Painted Desert. It was mostly sunny and temperatures were in the 50's. It was a pretty area and a nice ending to the day.



Chris and I were walking in the "Crystal Forest" of the Petrified National Park. A lady took this picture of us.


colorful petrified wood

polished petrified wood

We stopped for the day in Holbrook, AZ, which is a short distance from the national park. Since our vehicles were nasty dirty from the rain and snow we cleaned them. Later that night they got rained on. You just can't trust a weather report.

                       mileage today:    386
              trip mileage to date: 1,156

To see all the photos taken today click on the following link: Day 3 Photos

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