... please wait
On my way back from Las Vegas I decided to detour south into Arizona and have a look around. I enjoy just pointing at the map and seeing what's there. I finally decide it was time to go home. I selected "Home" on Google maps and the navigation lady told me where to go. After several hours of driving on a freeway the path took my off the freeway and and on to a small road that was apparently Route 66 or near it. I didn't think much of it. You pick up route 66 all over the place in Arizona and California north of Los Angeles. I followed the sketchy looking road that was surrounded by loose sand and looked and felt like it hadn't been surfaced in decades. I figured despite the desolation it should be fine. There were several other cars taking the same route.
I followed the traffic on the two lane road for quite awhile and I guess that's why I didn't notice that all of the other cars had turned off on other roads. Eventually there were no other cars around to speak of. No street signs, no houses...and no gas stations. But I had plenty of gas so it should be fine. I drove on.
The landscape was beautiful despite the desolation so I decided to stop and take a few photos. It was 110 degrees. I have experienced this before so it wasn't that unusual. Regardless any time you experience that high of a temperature, you remember it. And it wasn't even as hot as it was going to get.
I saw in the distance fields of black. My initial assumption was that this was the result of wild fires. California had way more rain this last year than on record for a decade or so and so my reasoning was that flowers and grass had grown , dried and then caught fire and of course being way out here was just left to burn. I stopped on the side of the road to get a closer view but as I approached I noticed that this was not burnt grass. It was volcanic basalt rock. Miles of it. In this short documentary this guy lays out the geology and history of this phenomena. https://youtu.be/Ui1Ly6HmryA?si=dOoBBo4XZdG0IXiq
It was other worldly. On the one hand it was like walking on the moon but it was also like walking on a giant black top highway. It was HOT! The rock crunched under my feet in a way that felt less like rock and more like glass.
