Wednesday Nov 27 Clifton, AZ

Called into a really nice Safeways store in town this morning before we left and got a few supplies. Everyone is busy shopping for Thanksgiving tomorrow, the shelves are full of traditional foods including pumpkin pies, pecan pies and turkeys - it all seems so foreign to us…we will look forward to Xmas day in New Zealand and enjoying all the goodies then.

Today has been a really great driving day that we have both thoroughly enjoyed. The first leg was up into the Arizona Mountains and the town of Alpine at 8500 feet. Before long we were in picture perfect snow country and the road was great as it had been ploughed. It was breathtaking beautiful with snow dripping off the trees and the little bits of sun coming through and making the snow sparkle. The mountains had received a good fall over the weekend. Ended up taking most of the photos through the window as we couldn’t  pull over, the side of the road was piled high with snow from the plough, although did find a rest area that had been cleared and was able to get out, but with only a pair of sneakers I didn’t venture into the snow.

We continued south on 180, back into New Mexico for a short distance and even though we dropped in elevation the snow covered hills continued for quite some distance.

Finally dropped down into open ranch country before turning west on 78, another great windy road through canyons and impressive rocky faces before reaching the valley.

Staying at a municipal camp in Clifton, a copper mining town beside the San Francisco River. Copper has been mined here for a very long time, and the town has a lot of old buildings, keen to have a look around tomorrow.

A great view of the valley near the end of todays trip.