Day 10: Santa Fe to Gallup, NM

Today's drive took us further through the mountains of New Mexico and we got some amazing views along the way.


From Santa Fe, we took the route south down to Albuquerque. Soon after we left, we hit the stage of the road where we went from one plateau to a lower one, a place called La Bajada Hill.

The Santa Fe River at the foothill
of La Bajada Hill

La Bajada Hill

Today, the interstate takes this pass straight down along a steep grade but this was not the case in the early 30's. Interested in how things must have looked back then, we exited the interstate and drove about 4 miles inland at the base of the hill to take a look. As we got closer to La Bajada Village, we saw the 1928 bridge crossing the small Santa Fe river at the foothill.

View from La Bajda Hill - Route 66 in the background

After we crossed the bridge, we saw where the road started winding up the hill but it was far to broken up and washed away. So we parked the car and started hiking up old road 66. Consisting of many hairpin turns, we wondered how cars ever made it up or down this road. While it was probably in much better condition back then, it could not have stayed looking that way for very long - especially with rain washing the road away.

Ruins near Algodones, NM

Afterwards, we walked down to the Santa Fe river to feel the nice crisp freshness of the clear river.

Narrow walkway in old town
Albuquerque

From there, we drove through the villages of Algodones and Bernalillo to end up in Albuquerque. We found very few signs of the old road - barely a couple motels.

Fountain in a courtyard in old town Albuquerque

You can obviously spend a lot of time in Albuquerque but we figured the best way to see the "true" city, given the era that we were driving, we should visit the old town. About a mile away from the current city center, we got to the old town streets.

Plaza in old town Albuquerque

Stone near the San Felipe church
in old town Albuquerque

Some of the buildings were dated back to 1706, including the church that is there. The plaza in the middle of the old town reminded me very much of the plaza downtown Santa Fe. The neat thing about the old town is that there were some small streets leading to other small plazas or courtyards making it feel like you discovered a treasure.

An old stretch of Route 66

I wish we could have spend more time here, but the road was calling us again.

As we drove through Albuquerque, we followed the pre-1937 route heading south and then west to rejoin the post-1937 route. Prior to this happening, we did find a stretch of old Route 66 cutting through the Indian Laguna Pueblo land. While we could not cross into their land on one side, we were able to follow the partly paved, partly dirt road on the other side.

Mustangs roaming free in New Mexico

As we drove down this stretch, we came across some mustangs roaming free in the pastures right next to the road (no fence). It was nice to see how free these animals could roam around in this area.

Dead man's curve

From there, we drove through several villages through the mountains, at one point passing dead man's curve looping tight around a narrow point of rock. Most of the towns had a combination of people living there next to other houses left in ruins from quite a while ago.

Lava rock near McCartys, NM

Around McCartys, we were surprised to find lava rock around us. This comes from the Zuni-Bandera volcanic flow, the newest being 3000 year old. As we drove further towards Grants, we would encounter other parts in the landscape where lava came through.

The Grants Cafe in Grants, NM

The Roarin' 20's - just the sign remains
in Grants, NM

When we got to Grants, we saw several old motels coming into the city - some of them still in business, others with just the sign remaining.

Our last stop before getting to Gallup was at an Indian Trading post at Contintental Divide, often claimed to be the highest point on Route 66 at 7275 feet - even though there are other points that are higher on the route.



Miles driven today: 236
Time driven today: 7hrs 5min

Total miles driven: 1,532
Total time driven: 49hrs 40min