Windy in New Mexico

We're in Holbrook, Arizona. I'm guessing it will be pretty low key visit, other than a trip to the nearby Petrified Forest National Park.  But let me tell you about yesterday.

In the morning we hiked part way to Church Rock, a prominent formation near Gallup, New Mexico's Red Rock Park, where we were staying. About a mile in, the wind picked up so we turned around.

By the time we got back to the trail head Jim guesstimated the gusts to be about 50 mph. We'd planned to go to a Native American center in Gallup after our hike; instead we sat in the rig all afternoon and watched sand blow straight at us.  It had been projected that gusts would get up to 60 mph -- and they did until about 7 p.m. when the wind let up a bit but still blew hard much of the night.

Red rock near the beginning of our morning hike, when all 
was reasonably calm.

That's Church Rock in the upper middle of the photo. I 
looked up Church Rock on Wikipedia and found out 
there was a uranium spill nearby in 1979  that released 
more radiation than the Three Mile Island spill just four 
months earlier.  Per Wikipedia "The event received less 
media coverage than that of Three Mile Island, likely 
because it occurred in a lightly populated, rural area.  
Some scholars suggest there were class and racial 
aspects to the neglect as well, since it affected primarily 
poor Native Americans."

We passed this hitching post on the way up the trail.  Coming back down we could see if from way at the top of the rocks and realized we'd turned the wrong way.  We didn't have Cooper with us; he and his nose would have never let that happen. 

We thought our windows were tight, but the storm blew sand and dust through the frames.  We vacuumed them twice during he afternoon. I did some video but can't post it for reasons unknown.

A cold front was behind the wind. We woke up this morning to snow and lighter winds.