Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona

Day 5     July 14, 2016       Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona

I’ve made a concerted effort to experience as many of our National Parks as possible along the way. During my travels I have grown eternally grateful for the thoughtfulness of our forefathers in setting these precious lands aside for future generations to enjoy in their most natural state. Can you imagine casinos along the rim of the Grand Canyon, a shopping mall at the base of Half Dome in Yosemite, or subdivisions working their way up the Teton Mountains?  I can, which makes me all the more grateful. 

It’s not hard to tell how this park got its name! The landscape was littered with jutting boulders, scrubs and lots of Joshua Trees! The park is actually divided into two habitats; the western half is Mojave Desert with elevations above 3,000 feet and the eastern half is Colorado Desert with elevations below 3,000 feet. I would discover the following morning just how different these two habitats were.

One of the grandest vistas in the park is the San Bernardino Mountains from Keys View, at 5185′ elevation. I traveled past the area I wanted to camp to see this vista as I was told it was worth the drive. I was there along with several other people early in the evening before I set up camp. Before sunset I made my way back the few miles through the park to Jumbo Rocks, where I scaled to the top of one of the large rocks with a young couple I met there. We enjoyed light conversation and a colorful sunset together, and I was thankful for their help in getting myself safely back down to the desert floor! I set up camp and settled in for the night. 

I have been looking forward to this day for several weeks and have debated with my friend Russ whether or not to take a detour on my journey too travel a half day off my original route to make this trek to the desert. It really was a no brainer but I think I needed a sounding board for validation that it was not a crazy thing to do.

Waking up in the vast desert of Joshua Tree National Park is a unique experience in its vastness, desolation, any distinct beauty.  Rock formations are everywhere, some small boulders while others formations are bigger than large multistory buildings.  There are those you admire from afar while others you can climb up on for a different vantage point in an elevated position.  The park terrain varies from some mountainous regions to high desert and rolling hills.  The distance between rock formations or other landmarks is very deceiving as it is very much like Alaska where depth perception is skewed in the vastness of things.  What looks like it may be a mile away is maybe four or five maybe even twenty or more but still looks like it is a short walk or drive to it.  You could easily hike for an hour and not be close to what you thought was just up ahead.  That is part of the beauty of this place. It changes with the time of day, light conditions, heat off the tundra (not sure if that is the right terminology for this area) creating mirages in the distance.  It is big, it is vast and the vegetation and wildlife have to endure harsh conditions to survive.  For me, hydration on my hike was the main thing to endure the heat of 100° at daybreak and climbing as the early morning and the light of the sun heated up everything around me. I made my way past Skull Rock which looked like a skull semi-buried within the other rocks around it. 

I made a light breakfast, some coffee and loaded my vehicle to depart for vast and distant horizons before me.  I was on the road before nine in the morning heading out of the park at the Twentynine palms entrance and headed toward Lake Havasu Arizona.

I came into an area south of Lake Havasu where there were vast farm fields.  I do not know what they were growing but it was small green bushes about a foot to eighteen inches high.  What struck me before I really noticed the fields was this area was full of yellow butterflies.  Literally there were thousands and thousands of them along the road hitting my windshield causing me to use the windshield wiper fluid to clean off the yellow stains on the windshield.  After a couple of cleanings I took the time to look into the fields and all the green bushes were covered in butterflies. The vastness of miles of green with a yellow hue was amazing.  The roadway was covered in butterflies flying around working the fields on both sides of the highway. I drove along this area for about thirty minutes hoping I would not run out of wiper fluid before exiting the area.

I went through Havasu City and could see Lake Havasu with many boaters having an early start to the weekend even at this early hour.  The tourist attraction “The London Bridge” was just off the highway and led over to a small island. It was not inviting enough for me to stop and with no cowboy in sight I continued on my way.  It was not long before I hit Interstate 40 just north of town and headed east toward Flagstaff.

Going across the high desert of Arizona I was continually climbing as I approached Williams and Flagstaff. I saw another lone bicyclist just stopping at the top of a good incline so I once again stopped and gave him a cold bottle of water.  He was very appreciative and surprised that someone would stop with the offer.  I talked for a few minutes while we both hydrated and wished him well on his journey from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon then to Flagstaff.  I climbed to the Arizona Divide at an elevation of 7375 feet above sea level.  The vegetation just before Flagstaff changed from the desert scrub bushes to small trees at first then full size cedar and evergreen type trees.  The light browns in the landscape slowly turned to green as I approached the city.  It was a welcome change as the last few days had seen little in the form of green vegetation except farm fields as most of the terrain was sandy and void of anything with size other than the scrub trees.  Joshua Tree had some as well as tall cactus but still had the distinct light brown and sandy hue tones to everything set against a blue sky.

I stopped for fuel and lunch in Flagstaff and found the first sign of southern cooking in a long time, a Cracker Barrel so naturally I had to stop in for some sweet tea and good home cooking. My waiter was named Joshua and we talked about my being from Alaska traveling to the southeast.  He was very polite and a local boy getting ready to go to college soon. After my lunch I asked the manager, Amy if they could go outside for a photo with Placido Flamingo in front of the sign and they agreed. Outside we talked a bit and they were wonderful snapping photos and talking about my adventure so far.  They wished us well and went back inside so I continued my journey to Winslow Arizona.

The purpose of my detour and the excitement of the day was to visit the Standing on the Corner Park in Winslow Arizona made famous by Jackson Browne and Glen Frey (The Eagles) in the song Take it Easy. “Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see 

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me”

There is a park in Winslow with a statue of Jackson Browne, standing on the corner and a mural behind him of a girl in a flatbed Ford.  There was also a real red Flatbed Ford parked on the street and in the street intersection an emblem of the old Route 66 highway marker logo.  

It was pretty cool how the city had put this together and it was a no brainer for me to go to such an iconic place.  It would be like going to London donning the clothes and walking the crosswalk across Abby Road like the Beatles picture.  It would be a half day transition off I-10 to I-40 then driving diagonally across Arizona southeast to El Paso Texas.  By the time I was headed off the interstate highway I-40 and turned onto Highway 180 it was five in the afternoon.  I knew it would be a long day as in a few hours the sun would go down nighttime filling the horizon and another five or six hours driving time to reach El Paso.

I was again in the high desert near Edgar Arizona when I hit the Alpine Divide 7006’ above sea level and the mountains with the sun getting low on the horizon.  There were several fields with herds of elk eating late in the afternoon.  There were two fields that had over 200 elk either eating or sitting in those several hundred acres.  

The sky and clouds were starting to change colors from the deep blue of the daytime to the orange and pink in the clouds with the sky hues slowly changing as darkness set in.  In the low light as total darkness set in I found myself coming around a curve to find a large elk running out across the road in front of me.  I hit the brakes, swerved to the right at first as the elk appeared to attempt to stop only to continue to dart in front of me.  Visions of the moose encounter near White Horse, Yukon flashed before me.  I heavily braked and several items in the rear of my vehicle made a beeline over the seats and into my lap, the floor, or onto the cooler in the passenger seat. I barely missed the elk and for the next 40 miles kept thinking I was seeing something else run out in front of me.

About an hour later in the darkness another elk ran out in front of me which again I was able to slow down swerve and miss the animal but it made me mentally tired thinking other animals would be darting out in my path over the next few hours.  It was nerve racking for a time but eventually I made my way into Silver City, New Mexico to stop for fuel.  It was about 9:15 PM and I took a few minutes to reorganize things after the two elk incidents.  I was not in a hurry to get on the road but I knew I wanted to continue on so I could stop for the night soon as it had been a very long day.

I drove a few blocks leaving Silver City when I saw the red/blue lights of a patrol car across the street turn on and I was the only vehicle on the road so I knew I was about to be stopped.  It looked like the same patrol car that passed me as I turned into the gas station a few minutes earlier.  I pulled over as he made his U-turn to pull in behind me.  I had my windows down as he approached from the passenger side shining his flashlight on Placido Flamingo in the passenger seat on top of the cooler.  He shined his light all around the front trying to figure things out before he peeked in and asked me for my driver’s license and vehicle registration.  He asked if I knew why I was being stopped and I jokingly said Alaska plates and he laughingly replied I was doing 39 in a 35 mph zone.  I said Ah, I knew I was coasting down the hill but did not realize I was over the limit.  He took my items back to his car and ran me through his data base.  I felt like I was in a rerun of Alice’s Restaurant as I waited for him to return.  Oddly on my playlist while sitting there was the Keith Urban song, “Fell in Love in the back of a cop car” which was still playing when he returned my license to me.  He laughed at the song and told me to watch my speed, be safe and to have a good night.  I told him to be safe and thanks.  I asked about a picture with Placido Flamingo and he quickly said NO and returned to his cop car. I slowly pulled away and into the night as I drove out of town.

I continued to drive and just a few miles before I was back on I-10 I hit a stretch of highway where there were hundreds of jack rabbits either along the road, standing in the road, or running across the road.  Flashbacks of the two elk incidents flashed through my brain as I tried to swerve to miss the rabbits.  This stretch lasted about ten miles with rabbit after rabbit being narrowly missed as we both tried to make our way through the night.  In the end I missed most of the rabbits but in the end I hit two rabbits. 

I finally made my way to I-10 once again and approached the lights of El Paso in the distance.  The drive through town was a mixture of modern and old west Texas with the highway having neon lights as art along the drive.  The road construction slowed things down but with the light traffic it was a breeze to make it across town.  I knew there was a rest area on the east side of El Paso and that was where I planned to stop for the night.  I finally pulled off the highway at 1:20 in the morning, rolled the windows down to let in any breeze while I tried to sleep for a couple hours.  The temperature was still 102 degrees.

It was not a very sound sleep but eventually I dozed off for a bit.

Somewhere on West Texas Highway good night . . .

Ice