Highway 104, New Mexico: The Cliffhanger

Highway 104 between Las Vegas and Tucumcari, New Mexico. 2007.

I've been down this road before - Highway 104 between Las Vegas and Tucumcari.

Surprised me the first time in 2007 and again the second time, August 2013.

From Las Vegas, you're tooling along a flat, not-unpleasant track, then bang, there it is, one of those vast scenic New Mexican panoramas.

Highway 104 between Las Vegas and Tucumcari, New Mexico. 2013.

A 1985 story about this road, by Jon Mark: New Mexico Highway 104: 110 Lovely, Lonely Miles. An excerpt:

Heading west from Conchas, the landscape is virtually unmarked by man's presence. You'll find traffic so light that only one car every 20 or 30 minutes may pass a given spot. This part of New Mexico is a high, vast, rocky, sagebrush-covered plain at the foot of the Rockies' eastern slope. Here, Highway 104, a shoulderless two-lane strip of asphalt, traverses hills and red rock mesas.

The land rolls up and down. A car rides the slopes as a ship rides the waves in the sea. The sea changes constantly as the sun moves in the sky and the car moves on the ground.

Here's a 2012 paean to Highway 104 from Ramblings From a Road-a-Holic: New Mexico 104: A Delightful Excursion.

And another 2012 entry: Of New Mexico 104, Josh Beckett and Six-Game Lead.

The Sacrifice One Makes for One's Art

Dilemma --> Turn around and get the photo? Or keep going so I can get to a toilet faster?

Get a pic of vultures feeding on a dead deer while a cow watched? Or relieve my bladder?

Cow and vulture

Vultures on fence after I interrupted their meal

Cow watching me watching deer

Vulture waiting for me to leave so it can recommence eating deer

Deer with vulture off to the right on fence

There really wasn't much doubt about what I'd do.

As I left, the cow scared one of the vultures off and walked away herself.

Highway 104 between Las Vegas and Conchas Lake State Park.