Mexican Hat to Flagstaff

So we'd ended up in Mexican Hat, Utah by accident, which meant today's main goal was to get back to Arizona where we were supposed to be headed. So we dug out our maps and colouring pencils and set about making a plan. The proprietor of the motel saw us and got chatting; she was quite jealous and wanted to be able to travel again. She suggested a few places we could try along the way that we might find interesting.

As soon as we stepped outside I had one of those moments; we'd arrived in the middle of the night to a tiny little backwater town in deepest darkest southern Utah, with little idea what was actually here. So when I stepped out and found myself surrounded by red cliffs and brilliant blue skies it was quite something. Just to add to the surrealism, something very black, very fast and very low screamed overhead in a giant lazy circle, no doubt off to some top secret military installation! Not the first time we've had flyovers either; seems to be something that happens in the States. Dept of Homeland Insecurity? (As I heard one lady call them!) Who knows.

As we drove off I was scanning the horizon for the actual Mexican Hat the town is named after, and soon found it. It's a rock formation that looks very much like an upside down sombrero, sitting guard over the town. As we drove we started to enter Monument Valley again from the North, this time in daylight!

After Monument Valley we passed back through Kayenta; still the same, still a barren wasteland. Got some more shots there for my upcoming "only in America" series :-) Onwards we pressed, passed a sign for Black Mesa which I loved, having played a computer game set at the top secret fictional Black Mesa Research Labs. So here you go Sammi, Black Mesa thattaway…

We then arrived at Tuba City, where our Mexican Hat motellier had suggested we could stay. Noooo way José!

Great clouds of dust billowing over the township.

If I thought Kayenta was rough, this was the absolute pits. An almighty dust storm seemed centred on the town, showering everything in fine grit. On top of that it was swelteringly hot, and security fences were everywhere. Tuba City is utterly horrible. There were even houses with open windows, in a dust storm!

Wow. We headed off on a slight detour towards the Hopi reservations to try and find a "secret" canyon. Took a bit of hunting and some careful map work, but found it. Really cool, very hard to photograph or get any sense of scale from.

Edge of the canyon. All sorts of amazing colours.

 
Old abandoned mine building / "eagle rock" as Angela called it.

The canyon itself.

At the edge, note the clever arm work my shadow it doing :-)

Mine buildings again / surrounding desert and windmill in the distance.

Then it was back towards Flagstaff. Passed a "farm" near Tuba City; wow, it's amazing they can grow anything here. The field of crops looked like little dead stumps in a field of sand. No irrigation or water to be seen.

The little dots are plants. Obviously the conditions are so poor here they have to plant the plants well apart.

Onwards we drove. Entered a "Use headlights day & night" zone, was pretty obvious why…

Driving was a real battle, constantly fighting the massive wind gusts. Meanwhile the outside of the car was getting a good sandblasting, literally. Arizona was certainly proving interesting ! Oh and we were following a school bus which means people live out here. Now remember the headlights sign? That means the dust storms here are frequent enough to warrant special road signs. And people live here..!

So it was with great relief that the dust cleared and an occasional tree started to appear; pretty much as soon as we left the Reservation actually. On the horizon we could now see the San Francisco Peaks, our eventual destination.

Rolled into Flagstaff some time later and found a KOA campsite within minutes. What a beautiful location; set amongst towering pines nestled at the base of the mountain, and only a few minutes from Flagstaff proper. This was just the tip of the ice berg. We drove into town down Santa Fe Ave (yes, named after the railway that parallels it) which is better known as Route 66. Yes that road! Parked at the National Bank (of Arizona, not NZ sadly) and walked down to Big Foot BBQ. Took a while to find; it's in a small mall, in the basement, surrounded by a clothes shop. But it was good food, I had a half rack of ribs which were good (but not quite Aspen BBQ good). They had whole unshelled peanuts that you could help yourself to, so grabbed a handful of them and worked out how to open them.

Then we walked the block to the railway station and before we'd even got there a massive 'stack train' thundered through, 4 locos on the head and several minutes of double stack container wagons. Double stack container wagons are special well-deck wagons with two containers stacked on top of each other; these are humongous and doubly so when you're mere feet from them and they're travelling somewhere on the order of 90kmh! And then there are the great waves of hot air that get sucked along with the train. Quite an experience, I loved it!

There was a very sizeable crowd at the station so I guessed the train was near. It was actually a bit late, and the group were some kind of tour group (a few of them had "Country Train 2008" tops on). They all had instruments and they all had time to kill, so as we stood there on the platform they started singing and strumming; one lady was on the violin, there were several guitars, and one guy sang. A few couples danced quietly away. It was a really cool experience. How many people can say they've been to an impromptu concert on the Flagstaff station platform!? When the train finally arrived they all cheered; gather they'd been waiting quite a while. The luggage trolleys came out; they had a modern Husqvarna thing pulling the traditional 100+ year old luggage trolleys, still with cart-style wheels. Oh and the station building is absolutely lovely, a big old three story building with tile roof, (proper) stucco walls, and brick lower.

We watched the train depart with its four private carriages on the rear, then strolled back to the car and back to the tent. Even though I'd only been in Flagstaff for a few hours I had a really good feeling about this place. Lots of trains, nice size city, simple roads, lots of trains, nice station, friendly people, beautiful cool temperatures. Yup, I like Flagstaff!