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Navigation + Home + About + Budgeting Basics + Essentials + Resources + Contact ::: Quercus The Xeric Zone Copyright © Quercus Creative Director: David Cristiani Usage Policy		Home > Essentials :: Travel On seemingly empty roads, the sun can light up the entrance to a canyon or a tree has never been found at that location. There are miles of terrain that many people, who hold nature at a great distance, might want their properties to embrace. When travelling and stopping at one of the many places out there, true rest and revitalization can be found. Also, one never knows what inspiration exists just for their own garden...when one's imagination is embraced and concern about others' disapproval is erased.

The Four Corners Region: Land of Wile E Four Corners: US-666 Moab: Arches N.P. in morning | Arches N.P. in afternoon Lonely highways cutting through buttes, mesas, and canyons is typical of the Colorado Plateau region, with it's spectacular terrain punctuating the broad sky. The romance of the Great American Southwest often begins for travellers in this southwestern corner of Colorado, along with the canyonlands of Utah and northern Arizona, after the roads have departed the Rocky Mountains to the east.

Central New Mexico Sandia Foothills: Embudito Canyon area Claunch Area: church | warehouse | Yucca elata 1 | Yucca elata 2 Soccoro, hills W: Soc Bx Rd 1 | Soc Bx Rd 2 | sotol / Magdelena Mtns | me / sotol | plants / rocks 1 plants / rocks 2 | sotol / juniper | sotols / sky Carrizozo Area: Blue Sotol growing in lava flow The transition between different environments is very appealing, whether in nature or in a garden. In central New Mexico, more plant-climate communities (ecoregions) can be reached in a 30 minute drive than anywhere else in the state. The upper margins of the Chihuahuan Desert meet the edges of the High Plains, and the Colorado Plateau, interrupted in places by the Arizona-New Mexico Mountains. Just open spaces with few cars, plus grassy plains, dotted with juniper, yucca, or creosote.

NE New Mexico, SE Colorado, and NW Oklahoma Rest areas: desert / plains plants | yucca Places to Eat: Santa Clara Cafe, Wagon Mound NM Roy NM: View from 1 mile N Village park | New Mexico Yucca: E of Branson CO near Folsom NM Mosquero NM: downtown shelterbelt 1 mile E mesquite 1 mile S Ludlow CO Ghost Town: storefronts store-plains between stores store-outhouse Dry Cimarron Valley: far NE NM | Picture Canyon CO: natural arch | stone house | pictograph | campsite | Unusual plants, CO: fragrant mimosa | soapberry | TX honey mesquite | Unusual plants, NM: gallinas p. pear, SE Anton Chico | NM High Plains: high plains storm | Sabinoso NM: pines to cacti | mariola and mimosa | church | thornscrub 1 | thornscrub 2 | At first glance from I-25, the high plains of northeastern New Mexico seem featureless. If you agree, try your trip from another vantage point. Not only are the roads open and some of the small towns quite friendly, but where the land breaks, many plants more typical further south reach their northernmost ranges. This is where the Southern Plains meet the Central / Northern High Plains, locally called the New Mexico Highlands.

Eastern Colorado: The Stix Bridge at Kiowa Creek | Windmill | "The Tunnel Bridge" (from Ron Smith, Jr.) Far beyond the busy, sometimes insanely frantic suburban world, true solitude can be found (to some that means absolute desolation). Within the semiarid high plains of eastern Colorado, table flat wheatfields and rolling hills meet, far from the troubles of the Denver area. Not surprisingly, music from artists such as Pink Floyd seems to reflect the eeriely quiet mood. One may even enjoy a large hamburger and fries in the shadow of a grain elevator when their trip is all finished!

Southern New Mexico and El Paso TX El Paso: Valley Burger at the Cincinnati Bar UTEP Chihuahuan Desert Garden: entry | penstemon and yucca | tower Las Cruces: pecan groves When you are here, there is no doubt you are in the middle of a desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, that is. Valleys filled with olive-green creosote bush, hills dotted with towering yuccas and ocotillos reaching into a blue sky, and endless views. Craggy mountains that reveal incredible botanical interest only upon a close look. Probably the best green chile in the world, plus shady groves of pecans, fields of cotton, and friendly people. While Las Cruces has a college town-in-the-desert feel, Mesilla and El Paso seem to retain interesting building styles, with a feel more like the old west. And let's not forget the border with Mexico: Ay Chihuahua!

Keeping Your Cool in SE New Mexico UFO Museum: front | sculpture | tourista Carlsbad: courthouse | court close-up | doorway White's City: historic motel | front office | hillside 1 | hillside 2 | tower Hard to imagine being cool in the hottest place in New Mexico, but it is possible, especially between November and March, unless you hang out in the depths of Carlsbad Caverns. The transition between the Southwest Plains and Plateaus and the Chihuahuan Desert happens west of the Pecos along with tales of UFO's, but it is different to the east...mostly oil wells, sandhills with stunted mesquites, or flatter land with some of the richest farmland in the state, including a great nursery I know right before you reach the Texas line. Very warm people, towns, and weather!

Around Albuquerque: Did I Miss That Left Turn? UNM campus: Zim. Library 1 | Zim. Library 2 I must have watched too many Warner Brothers cartoons as a kid! Who would have known I would live where coyotes and roadrunners abound? Well, apart from the high desert fauna, a drive through the Duke City can be quite interesting, giving rise to my term, Al-blah-quirky. Lack of planning results in neighborhoods that could be Anywhere USA (blah) or ones with southwestern flavor such as UNM or Old Town. But right nearby, you guessed it, more Anywhere USA (quirky). I tried to seek out more good than bad or ugly. Just take it in, and follow it with some tasty green chile enchiladas at Ron's Camino Real, El Patio, or Charlie's Front Door...compadre!

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