It has been an exciting week at Taos Court. Adventures have been piling up and getting accomplished at a dizzying rate. Joni had to work on a groundwater report for Northgate and I think she gets a little freaked out when I just sit and stare at her all day while she works. So … I soloed it to one of the 4 wd trips that is on the list on a cloudy but relatively warm day with very little wind at the JTNP.
The Geology Tour Road is a relatively easy 17.1-mile unpaved road that heads south through the park from the main east-west road (Park Blvd.). The small but powerful CMAX could have made the first 5-miles. After that we probably would have left the exhaust system on the road.
I’ve written about the geology of JTNP in other posts to the blog. Suffice to say that Park Blvd. is the most scenic single road in JTNP. It was routed so that folks driving through the park would have the best scenic views of vegetation, wildlife and geology, access to camping and picnicking and stunning camera vistas to take home. The tour road serves a different purpose. It is a tour through time and the geologic history of the park.
This was a reconnaissance trip. In the future, we will take the road and make focused stops with hikes to enjoy the vistas and the geologic history of the area of the park. There is in fact a more challenging jeep route that starts at the south end of the Geology tour road and crosses the Little San Bernardino Mountains ending up in the vicinity of Thousand Palms…. Hmmm.
