Today's crack of dawn occurred at a much more civilized 9am. Mind you, travelling westward makes you lose an hour every day or so, so actual crack of dawn and our body equivalent seem to be going in opposite directions.
It was raining pretty hard when we left Denning, and continued to rain for a hundred miles or so. One of the side benefits was that we had this fantastic rainbow keep pace with us. Joan managed to make this photo out of the car window. Pretty awesome.
Keep in mind that we were driving through a desert, complete with road signs warning about reduced visibility due to dust storms, sand storms, and other desert nasties. It was unexpected to be able to make this next picture of the rainbow reflected in a rain-made lake that will likely be gone tomorrow. Pretty flat land isn't it.
This next shot is aimed just to the left of the previous one. Note the large mountains in the background.
This is a view from the other side of the highway: lots of water here too.
Further along during the day, we made a little side trip south of Wilmot Texas and a further side trip to the Pikachu National Monument. Serendipity always bring surprises, this one being a very pleasant one. All the pictures that follow were made on this unexpected jewel.
The boulders are huge, and are the result of land upheaval eons ago. The rocks have broken into large boulders that are precariously balanced atop one another, making pretty shaky looking pillars. Our car adds some scale to measure the size of these boulders.
The canyon drive climbed up to 6800' where the view was even more spectacular. As we gained altitude, the temperature went from 12ºF to 5ºF and the wind increased quite a bit.
Here's another view at the 6800" lookout. There were skiffs of snow left from previous snow removal, and the clouds were starting to look threatening.
We had to double back through the National Monument and the risk of a wet road possibly freezing over encouraged a fast return [25mph max].
Some areas had no guard rails and drops of a thousand feet or more. No time to stay to gawk at the scenery.
After we left the Park, a neighbouring farm had this playful sculpture of three snowmen, decked out in Christmas garb. Considering the very high winds, this may be the only option the farmer had to decorate for the festive season.
Speaking of festive, our holiday Inn has a very pleasant restaurant, and roast beef was on the New Year's Eve menu. Not only were the servings large, they were delicious! ... and we each had a desert!
It's only 9:45pm and Joan's already sawing logs. When this is finished, I think I'll join her. Here's wishing you all a very happy, prosperous and healthy New Year. May 2017 be your best year so far.
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