Drive to New Mexico

On my trip to the states, I went to visit my mother in New Mexico. The drive is about six hours from my Utah home. My daughter and her two kids went with me. My DD thought I should take a few pictures of the drive to The Land of Enchantment."

This is on the outskirts of Shiprock, NM
This is the Navajo Reservation.

Their homes are quite humble.
I love that there is this spot of blue amongst all the brown.

It is actually quite green for this time of year.

Here is the actual Shiprock. Named by pioneers traveling through the area, they thought they saw a clipper ship in the distance. The rock stands 1800 feet tall. Bud and his family used to picnic at the base of the rock in the spring, Easter I think. It is a beautiful site to me.

Here is a modern Hogan, the traditional Navajo home. It is generally hexagonal or octagonal with the door always facing the east to welcome the rising sun for good wealth and fortune. We noticed that there are not many left standing along our route. We were hard pressed to find one to take a picture of.

This is really quite desolate looking scenery.
This is what the reservation looks like for miles upon miles.

This is Hogback, New Mexico. This is the edge of the reservation. Reaching this point in the trip meant Mom's was just down the road - about 1/2 hour down the road. Bud grew up only a few miles further down the road from the Hogback. His father had a dairy farm in Waterflow.

I just wanted to show you a small portion of our drive to and from New Mexico. This tends to be the most tedious part of the trip because the scenery doesn't change much.