Just like that, 10% of my journey west is complete. I’ve already traveled 2700 miles and camped for a week, and this is still only the front end. There are still 100 days (at minimum) to go before I decide if I want to settle or stay on the road.
My path changed slightly from the original plan, as I took a more northernly route through texts versus the southern route, which allowed me to revisit some places from my past…
Let’s get to it. Here’s where I’ve been. The longest parts of the trip are behind me, and now I’m hopping place to place, taking it slow, and preparing for more of what’s on the road ahead.
Monday, May 19th
I left Florida fairly late in the day on May 19th, just after noon, and arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi around 9:15pm local time.
Tuesday, May 20th
Following that brief stay with friends, I drove up through Louisiana and across northern Texas, ending the night in Vernon after visiting oil fields and capturing wind turbines at sunset.
Then the camping began.
Wednesday, May 21st
I visited Philmont Scout Ranch on the afternoon of the 21st, where in 2007 and 2010, I completed two treks of 2-3 weeks each, hiking deep in the mountains of northeast New Mexico. That night, instead of driving to Albuquerque like I originally intended, I stayed in Cimarron Canyon State Park. I set up my tent next to the stream running down the canyon, then went to take some pictures as the Sun set behind the mountains, leaving the canyon hazy and darker in its own blue hour well before the Sun dropped below the horizon.
During this time, I flew my drone a few times up and down the stream, but upon returning to me, the sensors must have thought a rock in the stream was in the way, and shunted the drone into a branch, causing it to fall in the water. While the drone still works, the camera is now blurry from water residue, so I’ve now had to send it in to get the camera replaced.
Thursday, May 22nd
I woke up the next morning, packed up my tent, and continued on my way, stopping, of course, to grab coffee before leaving the area. On my way out, I spotted a golden eagle standing in the road, but when I turned around, it had already flown off.
Two hours later I found myself driving down an unpaved road (which I later discovered I could have avoided by turning 20 minutes earlier) and made my way to the car road up Sandia Peak, just outside Albuquerque. I’m glad I didn’t go all the way to the tram, because as it turns out, it wasn’t operating that day! An hour up top, then I drove back down and visited the Albuquerque Volcanoes on the western side of Petroglyph National Monument, once again hitting up locations I’d visited 15 years earlier prior to my second trip to Philmont in scouts.
As the Sun began to drop, I drove further west and ended up camping at Joe Skeen Campground on the edge of El Malpais National Conservation Area.
Friday, May 23rd
The next morning, I traveled up and down the road visiting the lava flows, sandstone bluffs, and 135-foot wide sandstone arch in the southern portion of the area.
After hitting the sights I wanted to see, I finally traveled further west into Arizona and came to Petrified Forest National Park (my favorite National Park!) where I backcountry camped in June 2024 and wanted to explore even more. A quick jaunt to the renovated visitor center, and I was on my way again, parking on the side of the road at mile marker 24. I gathered my camping gear and dinner for the night, then set out, passing by my camping site from the previous year as I wound my way through the purple hills and hoodoos and toppled petrified logs protruding from the grassy hills and dried hill faces.
Sunset burned across the desert, transforming the purples, reds, and grays into golds and oranges. I fought to set up my tent as heavy gusts of wind kept blowing up the tarp and tent, but I finally got it set down and weighted, allowing me to head out for a short sunset photo shoot in the heart of this immaculate area.
When I got up to stargaze about two hours after sunset, the very first thing I saw in the sky was Starlink satellites. I used to find them impressive – and they are certainly a cool sight to see – but it also shows how bright these are, that 20-odd lights in a row traveling past Arcturus to the northeast would outshine the other stars in the sky. It’s an unfortunate reality of stargazing even in our darkest parks.
At some point in the night, I heard fireworks. Given the remote locale, I can’t fathom how I would have heard them. My only assumption is that the other people I saw also camping (from a distance, as I was unloading my car). While I didn’t see the fireworks, it was odd that I could hear them well since the nearest border of the park was more than three miles away, and the nearest town was more than 15 miles away.
Saturday, May 24th & Sunday May 25th
In the morning, I packed up camp and went on a three-hour hike around the zone I camped in, encircling a large swath and coming across numerous petrified trees and chips of mineralized wood littered everywhere. At one point, I had to climb up the side of a hill to get over a dried waterfall, and in another, I scaled boulders triple my size to get down to the bottom of the wash on the other side. Walking amongst the purple hills, and later, caprocked bluffs, gave a sense of scale, like walking within a city built by nature.
Once I left the backcountry, I traveled down to the Mogollon Rim and met my college friends and their other friends for a weekend of camping at 7500 feet elevation. My Kia Soul somehow managed to traverse the 15 miles of unpaved roads to the campsite, and I considered it a win that I didn’t get a check engine light, punctured undercarriage, or popped tires. At camp, starry skies topped off the cold nights. Every evening, we went to lookout points along the rim to watch sunset. We saw a few elk (but only one stood still long enough to capture a photo!) and on the second evening, my friend and I hiked down into one of the canyons within the rim, and as we climbed back out, we came across two elk antlers! Pretty cool stuff.
Monday, May 26th
We left the Mogollon Rim on the afternoon of Memorial Day and ran into traffic a few miles outside of Payson. It was standstill to the point where I was able to get out of my car and fly the drone up and down the line of traffic, seeing no end in sight. Nearly an hour after coming to a stop, traffic got going again.
A quick coffee break in Payson, and I continued driving toward Phoenix, passing through Tonto National Forest. I pulled over on the side of the road before sunset and put up the drone one more time to capture the glow on the red rocks on the western edge of the Superstitions.
Tuesday May 27th – Thursday, May 29th
Since arriving in Phoenix, I’ve slowed down a bit to rest and relax, editing pictures and preparing for the next phase of this trip in Sedona at the end of the week, where my primary work will be sidewalk astronomy every evening, just like I did last year for a single evening when I passed through on June 15, 2024.
This sums up how the first 10% of the trip has gone. Despite the temporary issue with the drone, I’m looking forward to the days ahead with all their journeys and adventures to be had.
This world is beautiful.
Alex
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