It was a long drive through the mountains on the less direct route in order to avoid the snow at Monarch Pass in Colorado. The “lower” pass I drove through on the longer route was still around 10,000 feet but grades were gradual and managed with relatively low stress. Once out of the mountains I headed south on 285 through the lonely desert in the dark of night, at times not seeing another car for hours. Desolate but also peaceful; I had all the stars in the universe to keep me company along the way. Shortly before midnight I reached my destination in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was greeted by a…petrified bison?
Lows tonight in the high desert were well below freezing so I snagged a last-minute room at the Cities of Gold Casino & Hotel. As much as I wanted to camp and continue stargazing this was a welcome place to rest my head.
Just one rushed potato phone image of the room itself, sorry nothing too exciting on this post. Tomorrow I have one stop planned then it’s on to Las Cruces where I finally get to see my family. Excited for one day of downtime before the elk hunt.
Author’s note: I am revisiting old posts from my 2016 road trip because I posted all of them from my cell phone and some of them are a bit of a mess. Main reason is to properly edit photos rather than just having what came out of my phone camera, and to include higher res photos from my mirrorless camera that never got published. Additionally some of the locations on the Geomap are wrong or often have multiple locations in a single post. OG text should be captured in a summary field when available.
Text from the original post in 2016
Made it to my hotel in Sata Fe in one piece! Drive through the mountains wasn't so bad after the first 100 white-knuckle miles down the mountains. Believe the pass I drove through was approaching 10,000 feet but grades were fairly gradual. Got lucky once again and split the green & blue on the radar. Super glad I chose not to do Monarch Pass - from a distance they appeared to get blasted! After coming down the mountain I drove through the night in the middle of the desert. I only saw about 5 cars the whole time, the blacktop was perfectly flat, and the road was dead straight. Oddly enough this was one of my most peaceful drives. Also another drive I wish to have done in daylight as the vistas had been described to me as amazing. My hotel is also a casino, however this may be one of the nicest rooms I have had. Still a bit upset it's too cold to camp. Lows tonight below freezing in the high desert. Light pollution also sucks here so no astrophotography for now. However the bartender was super cool and served me minutes after last call - my first drink in a week! Tomorrow I have one stop planned then it's on to Las Cruces where I finally get to see the family. Excited for at least one day of downtime before the elk hunt.
Lat = 35.8887397405 , Long = -106.019478841 -- Show at Google Maps
Thank goodness!!