It was barely 1 degree when we got up this morning but with lots of sunshine. Got a few things done on the Internet and then off we went.
We decided last night that we would return to Valle which we had driven by yesterday afternoon and take Highway 180. It had a very good write-up in the book on Arizona that my friend Josiane had lent us.
By 8 am, it is 10 degrees. We are driving with the Kaibab National Forest on our right and the Cococino Natl For. on our left. We stopped at Kendrick Mountain Wilderness Area for a short trail walk. The area is dominated by 10,418-foot Kendrick Mountain (see photo).
The highway runs south alongside the western slope of the San Francisco Peaks, passing through thick stands of ponderosa pine. This mountain is actually the centerpiece of the San Francisco Volcanic Field, a 2-million-acre area covered with lava flows. The mountain was once a massive symmetrical stratovolcanoe that looked like Mount Fuji in Japan. But events that began 2.8 million years ago and ended 200,000 years ago transformed it into 4 peaks.
We took the Snow Bowl Road up to see how far we could get to Humphrey's Peak (12,670 ft) - Arizona's highest point, and Agassiz Peak (12,523 ft) but the road was closed because of snow and unfortunately they were hidden in the clouds. On the way down, we happen to see the deer in the 2nd photo.
Back on Highway 180, we reached Flagstaff and decided to visit the Museum of Northern Arizona. It was started in 1928 and contains an impressive number of artifacts from the different indian tribes living in Arizona and a lot of geology dating back to when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. We could have spent a lot more time...
We had lunch in their parking lot and then we headed off looking for Historic Route 66. Route 66 was the first completely paved transcontinental highway in the USA, linking hundreds of towns and cities between Chicago and Los Angeles. We had a lovely drive (see photo) through flat lands reaching out as far as you could see.
Tonight we are in Kingman and enjoyed having dinner outside with 25 degrees temperature. We certainly hope that we have left the cold and snow behind. Tomorrow....Vegas!!!
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