Tuesday found us leaving Albuquerque, NM, for Flafstaff, AZ. Another tough day of 370 miles with many planned stops. An aggressive plan that ultimately gave way to a little spontaneity and change. And somewhere along the way we crossed the Continental Divide.

Ice Cave And Bandera Volcano

The first stop of the day was a side trip veering us off course about 25 miles South of Grants, NM at the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano.

A mile hike up and back to a volcano crater followed by a 46 stair descent into an ice cave where it’s always 31 degrees. Talk about a dichotomy of environments.

We did the Volcano hike first at the place’s recommendation. It was a cool morning but that hot sun quickly warms up a body.

It was a perfect walk after spending so many days in the car.

Even better was cooling off in a 31 degree cave.

And if that weren’t enough, the place had rocks, “gems”, and arrowheads available for panning. They even had a place for Ben to do his panning.

This place was just what we needed on our trip. Fantastically fun!

El Morro National Monument

Our next stop was not actually on our agenda but Tom had been reading about it and was highly interested in seeing the petroglyphs at El Morro National Monument.

Another half mile walk to put in our books and the heat of the day was starting to beat down. We definitely weren’t in Kansas anymore.

The walk was fascinating and the park does a nice job with handing out a self guided tour booklet for you to borrow and return. It describes everything you are seeing on the walls of rocks including the writings of Spanish Conquistadors and other travelers.

Of course we had to walk fast, read even faster and condense the visit to fit into our itinerary. As Tom would say, “…and we’re walking”.

We may have also picked up some new plushie friends in the gift shop while stamping our National Park Passport Books.

But, no time to linger folks, get back in the car there are a LOT more miles to go in this day.

It was near here that we actually crossed the Continental Divide.

Lunch at El Rancho

Sooo, another unscheduled stop in the day was the El Rancho hotel. Famous for the famous faces that have stayed there like Ronald Reagan in his acting days. We planned to just take a picture or two and be on our way, but we were hungry and decided to stay for lunch.

I think the atmosphere is mostly the reason to stop here.

Painted Desert and Petrified National Forest

There is just too much to do in this stretch of Route 66. The Painted Desert And Petrified National Forest can be found along the way. And boy we wish we had more time everywhere we go.

It may be time to mention the cactus flowers that all seem to be in bloom on this trip. Some very stunning colors have been encountered along the way.

Ben even got to meet a Park Ranger on a horse!

Jack Rabbit Trading Post

Our final stop for the day was at the famed Jack Rabbit Trading Post. Featured in the Disney Cars movie, it’s one of our favorite things on that list to see.

Plus there’s some great souvenir shopping here. Or as Ben likes to call it “artifact” hunting.

But first, everyone needed a photo op with the Jack Rabbit.

One of our new treasured pieces is a sign they did up for us depicting how many miles we are from home to the reading post. It’s hard to see in the picture but we’ve traveled 2,073 miles already!

So that’s it. Somehow my phone says we walked about 6 miles, our Jack Rabbit sign says we’ve driven 2,073 miles. What’s next?

Carving routes