Day two from Bernalillo NM, 743 miles through the gorgeous red rock country of New Mexico and southern Utah, and finally zipping up I15 to Pocatello.
We headed north out of Bernalillo early in the morning to watch the sunrise and made our first stop for breakfast in Cuba New Mexico at at the Cuban Cafe (6333 US-550 ) which is really a diner. It was perfect. I’m going to remember it for future voyages. I also highly recommend the clean and spacious Ute Mountain Travel Center (1 E Mike Wash Rd, Towaoc, CO). We stopped at Thunderbird Trading near Cortez CO to look at the art, jewelry, & pottery. I love this store with it’s wood stove and friendly owner. I ended up buying two rings, one turquoise, one coral both hand made using the tufa casting method (for more on that see: https://www.garlandsjewelry.com/blogs/news/70547139-tufa-casting). Shanna and I both purchased horse shoe dream-catchers too. I like that I am supporting native artists.
Taking to the road again we drove and drove and drove. There were so many miles to cover that I didn’t pull over often to take pictures. I did stop and turn around to take pictures of these adorable donkeys.
I have seen this mountain many times and it always reminds me of a stupa. According to Google a stupa is “a dome-shaped structure erected as a Buddhist shrine.” I learned about them first when I was studying Indian Art back in 1990.
The stupa below is the Kiri Vihara dagaba, located at Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. The image was taken by Bernard Gagnon and taken from Wikicommons. I think the similarity in the shapes between the mountain and the stupa is amazing!
We stopped for a really late lunch at Balance Rock Eatery (148 S Main St.) in Helper UT. Good food, decent price, awesome decor/ambiance. The pass between Price and Spanish fork was a bit scary, huge blasts of wind kept hitting the car and then the rain started. I was very glad when we got to I15, and even happier when we pulled into the driveway at home.
— Jenny
BlueRavenBirders 