July Vacation
July 1, 2011
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This was the first day of our vacation in 2011. Our first stop was the Gloss Mountains in western Oklahoma.
We’ve stopped here before, but we are still amazed by this little oasis of beauty in the middle of nowhere.
These mesas rise 500 feet above the plains and have a cap that is something like quartz.
When you walk on the top you can hear it echoing under your feet. Very strange.
July 2, 2011
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On our second day we traveled from Woodward, OK to Farmington, NM.
On the way we stopped on US 64 for lunch just north of the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch.
Because of fires in MN and AZ most of the state parks in NM were closed.
We stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge just west of Taos, NM. It was very impressive.
July 3, 2011
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On our third day we traveled from Farmington, NM to Blythe, CA.
We went south from Shiprock, NM to Window Rock, NM, then on I-40 to Ash Fork, AZ.
We stopped for lunch somewhere off the highway west of Flagstaff, but if you asked me to find it again
I’m not sure that I could. From Ash Fork, we headed south through Prescott,
and connected with I-10 just east of Blythe, CA, where we spent the night.
July 4, 2011
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On the fourth day we left Blythe, CA and ended our trip at my parents house in the San Fernando Valley.
We stopped at the Salton Sea and a place called the Devil’s Punchbowl.
We went from I-10 (in a roundabout way) to I-15 and got off at highway 138.
From there we drove through Wrightwood, and took the Big Pines highway along the mountains
all the way to where highway 14 leaves Palmdale heading to LA.
Devil’s Punchbowl is along the Big Pines highway.