It got a bit chilly last night, but not nearly as cold as the place we were headed back to... Colorado. We spent most of the day driving, opting to take a longer yet more scenic Route 191 back.
Sunrise from the tent
Waitin' for the train
What's this odd bare mountain?...
We were apparently about to pass through the largest copper mining operation in North America. The Morenci Mine, owned by Freeport-McMoRan, employs some 2,000 people who work 8 or 12-hour shift rotations. In 2011, production was 614 million pounds.
Copper was first identified here by a regiment of California Volunteers back in 1865. Underground mining began in 1872 but was converted to an open-cut operation with rail haulage in 1937. The topography prevented development as a single pit, so today the working area is in three giant pits.
Any guess where the mining area is?
In spite of how enormous this looks, it isn't even rated among the top ten largest open pit mines in the world. Kinda scary to think what the other ones must look like!
The mining operation seemed to go on for miles and miles and miles, but eventually we were past it and back into unscathed mountains.
Snow!
We left the mountains and cut across on Highway 60... stumbling across a place called Pie Town. I was so excited at the thought of having some pie!... but unfortunately everything was closed. There was not a piece of pie to be had in Pie Town.
Apparently we missed the big festival
The Pie-O-Neer
The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is an observatory composed of 27 radio telescopes (each with a diameter of 82 feet and weighing 230 tons). Astronomers have observed black holes and young stars, discovered magnetic filaments, traced complex gas motions, and gained new knowledge about radio emissions.
Um, that seems to be just the head of an elk or deer strapped to the roof of the car!
After 8 hours on the road, we pulled into the Route 66 Hostel in Albuquerque. The place was quite charming! We strolled down a few blocks to grab a lovely dinner of pizza and calzone.
Have you been noticing a theme?
