Great Western Road Trip Day 9

Progress: Grants, NM to Cortez, CO via the “Hwy 666” from the movie Natural Born Killers (through Navajo Nation)

Mileage: 240

Stopped at Bandera Volcano, a private hike in the “land of fire and ice” where one can see an 800 foot deep volcanic caldera and a cave that has been filled with ice for 3400 years.

El Morro National Monument is an oasis with names carved into the sandstone from the expeditions that stopped here, from American Indian to Spanish to American settlers.

Long stretch of road through the Navajo lands from Gallup to Cortez, before settling in at the Retro Inn

Caldera 500 feet down from the lookout
Ice cave, always 31 degrees
an 1859 settler
Spanish settler from 1709
Sandstone bluff over the oasis