My Santa Fe Trail

It would be more symmetrical if I were going from Santa Fe, Texas to Santa Fe, New Mexico but in fact I went to Quemado, New Mexico. 


I've driven a thousand miles, and that's a lot of scenery. Here I am heading into the Texas hill country, with Houston behind me. This is gently rolling prairie with plenty of greenery. Somewhere around Hearne i think.

There are no hills around Houston, it's dead flat. The ground is made of mud and gumbo clay. Inland, the roads are getting longer and the sky is getting bigger.

This is the River Leon which must be dammed because all the other rivers I crossed were dry.

I have driven this route before, I've got friends near Abilene, so I stopped to visit and then proceeded to Snyder, where I stayed the night.
 The terrain was gently changing and the elevation rising. At the top of the rise the view was incredible. Pictures don't give you the sheer scale. It's Big Country all right, and lots of lovely farmland.

 Took a lot of pictures which all look the same. I held the camera toward the window and snapped without looking. 

 Sand dunes.

This is where Texas turns into New Mexico on the map.

The road comes down into a vast basin which used to be a sea. It's r

inged by mountains. The geology here is very interesting, sediments, volcanoes, you name it. 

Coming over the top.

Out here in the west it came upon me just how Large this country is and outside of city areas, still sparsely populated. There's Plenty of room. I have been living in urban places for a long time and I'm really appreciating the lack of light and noise at night and the scarcity of traffic.