Llano Estacado

It is only 172 miles from Amarillo, Texas to Santa Rosa, New Mexico but crossing the Llano Estacado is about like crossing the panhandle of Florida. For people who have made the drive from Pensacola to Jacksonville, you understand. It’s long. The Llano Estacado it is part of what was once called the Great American Desert. The Llano Estacado or Staked Plains, is a region in the southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, This geographic area is larger than all of New England. It covers all or part of thirty-three Texas counties and four New Mexico counties. Spanish conquistador Francisco Coronado, the first European to traverse this "sea of grass" in 1541, has these things to say about this area: "I reached some plains so vast, that I did not find their limit anywhere I went, although I travelled over them for more than 300 leagues ... with no more land marks than if we had been swallowed up by the sea ... there was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, nor anything to go by” Fortunately I had Interstate 40 to guide my way. Three hours after we left Amarillo I eased the car off on Route 66 at Santa Rosa, New Mexico for the night.