Uh oh, whose dumb idea was it to tune in to the Weather Channel here in our concrete teepee? Now, instead of driving into ignorance, we see that New Mexico was hammered by a powerful snowstorm overnight.

Our destination was/is Santa Fe, New Mexico, but Interstate 40, east of Grants at mile marker 85, is closed all the way to the Texas border. In addition, the I-25 north and south of Albuquerque are closed due to nearly 15 inches (38cm) of snowfall. With plenty of time ahead of us and doubtful that we’ll get far today, we stopped for a leisurely visit at Petrified Forest National Park.

Sure, I caught Caroline with her eyes closed, but the smiles shared between mother and daughter were so nice I had to share the photo.

Into the Petrified Forest with a light dusting of snow to decorate an already beautiful environment.

You’d think it was cold out here the way my mother-in-law is bundled up.

Yep, petrified forest implies we’d be seeing petrified trees, and that’s just what this is, but is a forest still a forest if it has all fallen down?

I don’t think I can ever tire of seeing minerals where wood used to be and bark frozen in time as though the tree was just standing yesterday.

If I’ve not written this in a previous post, I’ll surely be writing it again at some point in the future, but trying to imagine this somewhat barren part of the high desert covered in a heavy forest is truly difficult.

One wonders if early humans moving through this area thought this would make some good kindling for their fire before realizing they were looking at stones.

Leaving the National Park, we enquired about road conditions, traveling east with the idea that we might at least reach somewhere to position ourselves to visit the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for New Year’s Eve. We were given the great news that the road to Albuquerque was once again open.

We really should have made a u-turn there in the Petrified Forest and returned to the I-40 as this long detour down the 180 through St. Johns and up the 191, taking us 90 miles to reconnect with the freeway, was substantially longer than driving the 22 miles back through the park, but then we would have missed this amazing sight of Witch Well, Arizona, at the intersection of the 191 and highway 61.

A quick stop in Lupton, Arizona near the New Mexico Stateline for a couple of photos before we continued our drive into that state east of us.

In Gallup, we learned that the I-25 was cleared with a narrow path cut for those of us heading to Santa Fe, but from there to Colorado, the road would remain closed through the following day.

We wanted to visit Acoma Pueblo today, but the poor weather only offered us views of this Native American village off the highway.

There is a lot of snow off the road, but sure enough, our way is clear. All the same, I’m a nervous driver when it comes to snow and ice, as Phoenix sees neither. Now we just have to hope it doesn’t start snowing again because the way it looks right now, we won’t be getting into Santa Fe until it’s good and dark.

Sure enough, it’s late, and the roads into old town are icy, which kiboshes our plans for a gourmet New Mexican dinner and leaves us with lukewarm pizza delivery here at Days Inn – well, it beats sitting at home in Phoenix watching TV, not that we have one.

Icicles, snow, and a frozen-over pool are sights unfamiliar to us desert dwellers. Hopefully, tomorrow, the clearing trend will continue as we move south.