Despite being a road walk this was one of my favorite mellow parts of this trail.
Zuni Canyon (across the middle-right of the image) cuts northeast through mesas south of Grants NM. The mesas around us were sea floor 259 – 290 Ma ago, (reddish-salmon colored) and as such are limestone and dolomite. These were such a contrast against all of the igneous rock we passed through in the last 2 weeks. And yet, a massive lava flow no older than 700 thousand years ago cuts through the floor of the canyon (yellow) and a few cinder cones are still in view.
There were also two windmills along this route pumping perfectly clear water into a cow trough from above, allowing us to catch it before it fell into the green pool. When we reached Zuni Canyon Road, the hiking was pretty dusty when vehicles passed, but the drivers were usually courteous and some offered water if we needed it. We stealth camped in the mouth of a converging canyon by the roadside and woke to an easy road walk into Grants where town food and sodas were waiting!