Winslow to Albuquerque

After we passed Flagstaff the drive became quite easy.  All the way to Winslow and beyond toward Gallup the road was straight, downhill, well paved with light traffic.  

As with some of the posts I made about travelling West last fall and seeing the constant train traffic headed East - this section of the I-40 parallels a twin line that has almost non-stop traffic heading West.  There were a few trains we saw headed East, but most were heading West.  In fact, there was one long train a day we saw go through Williams that was just comprised of container cars with no containers on them. So I may have found in part how the railways get their empty cars back to the shipping terminals on the West coast.  There were some trains with just oil cars, and some with just coal cars, but most were mixed container and automobile traffic.

By the time we got to our planned rest stop near Gallup, the topography had started to look more like the Badlands.  The cliffs were well rounded and some looked like spires that had been carved that way.  The road was still relatively straight but the difference between the I-40 in Arizona and New Mexico was immediately evident as we crossed the border.  There were long sections of the New Mexico portion that were quite rough, while other areas said Rough Road Conditions but had obviously been worked on recently.  In some spots it was easier to straddle the middle line so you were out of the bad spots.  We took advantage of that when able and saw a number of transport drivers doing the same thing.

Shortly after we left Gallup we passed by the Continental Divide.  Unfortunately I was not even thinking about this and did not have the camera ready.  I find it interesting we passed by the divide with still another mountain pass to go through but I guess the topography evens out somewhere further south.  The final two hours to Albuquerque were easy and we arrived at the campground in plenty of time to relax a bit before dinner.  The RV Park was clean and tidy, and as with a lot of the campgrounds we have seen in the US, about half or more of the sites are taken up by seasonal people.  These campgrounds really exist for the seasonal traffic and it seems most of the trailers we see are set up to not move.  They have large external propane tanks instead of 20 or 30 pound units, some have skirting around the bottom of the rig and most have some form of fencing for their pets or areas for all their toys.

As this was a short overnight stop for us we did not disconnect the car and were all set for our departure the next morning.

Thanks for stopping by to read.