Closing out 2023 (01-20-24)

 The months of October, November and December flew by in a blur.  We had to make several trips back and forth from Arizona to El Paso, as Paul’s mom was declining rapidly.

On the way to and from we broke up the long drive by stopping to do some hiking and visit friends.

Our friends Tom and Dianne live about halfway, so we usually stopped to visit with them. On one visit we explored Ramsey Canyon Preserve, where we spent an enjoyable few hours hiking and watching the hummingbirds.

On one of our visits we got out the black light and went hunting for scorpions- and even found a couple! For those who don’t know, scorpions light up at night under a black light.

Thanksgiving was also spent at Tom and Dianne’s, on our way to El Paso.

After a few days with his mom after Thanksgiving , we backtracked and headed to Los Angeles to see our daughter Jess. We had booked a spot at a county park on the beach, one of my favorite places to stay.

I miss living near the ocean, and as soon as we arrived I went for a walk- as my daughter, the stalker, figured out haha.

Originally our trip was planned because Jess bought tickets for her and I to see a live show of Mamma Mia at the historic Pantages Theater. The show was awesome!

As it turned out, it happened to coincide with Jess and Justin’s move into their new apartment. They had hired movers, but it was still great that we were able to be there and help them organize and get settled in.

Once we left Los Angeles, we took a deep breath, enjoying the ambiance of Lake Havasu. It wasn’t long though, before we felt we needed to be in El Paso.

We knew this was likely to be our last trip, and we were not wrong.  On December 16, about a week after we arrived in El Paso, Gerry Porter, Paul’s mom,  passed away.

She had an incredible 93 year run, and just months before her passing, was enjoying life, and playing bingo-her favorite thing to do . We were very glad we were able to be there for her.

Taking care of everything that needed to be done didn’t take as long as we thought it might, and we made it home just in time for Christmas. It’s always nice to see London Bridge all decked out.

 Our friends Brad and Marilyn were there ahead of us, and Liz and Randy arrived before New Years. It was a quiet year, but we still had fun!

Cloudcroft NM (10/10/23)

 Who knew that a mere 2 hour drive from the sweltering heat of El Paso (95*) lies the small town of Cloudcroft, with daytime temperatures topping out in the low 70s?  Once we felt Gerry was stable enough, we elected to head to the higher elevations to do some hiking.

First up on the hiking agenda was the 2.5 mile long Osha Loop. There was nothing particularly exciting or memorable about this hike, although the company we had along the trail made it mildly interesting. In fact, each hike we did this week included some kind of wildlife encounter.

Next up was the 3 mile Zinker Canyon Trail.  The reviews of this trail said it was boring, but we really enjoyed it. It meandered through several meadows, interspersed with sections of forest.

We didn’t see any live wildlife on this trail, but we did see a group of feral horses on the way to it. They were gorgeous.

Since the first two hikes were short, we elected to hike a third day in a row- the 3.5 mile Cathey Canyon trail. This trail had a couple of viewpoints we could stop at to see Tularosa Valley and White Sands National Park.

Needing a day off, we spent the following day lazing around the campground.  It was so odd that it was so much colder here. In fact, it was too cold to sit outside without the firepit going, but it felt great!

Well rested, our final hike was a bit longer than the others. We chose an “out and back” hike because there is a lot of elevation gain on the trail and we wanted to be able to turn around. Our wildlife encounter on this hike was a hawk, who seemed to be watching us …..like a hawk, haha.

This trail also had several pretty meadows- a little disappointing because, I don’t know, If I were an elk, this is where I would be hanging out but there were none to be seen.

So, after 9 miles and 1400 ft of gain, we were satisfied that we deserved to be tired. Although each trail had some things of interest to see, the trails themselves tended to be frustrating. A good portion of the trails are rocky- really rocky. And this type of rock is really hard to walk on for a long distance.

Our last day was spent at Sunspot Solar Observatory. We had stopped in at the observatory a few days before, and decided it warranted more time so we left without checking it out.

The observatory houses the Richard Dunn Telescope, which studies the sun. This particular week they have a special project going on- this is one of several telescopes contracted by NASA to observe the Parker Solar Probe.  The probe  was launched in 2018 with a mission to get as close to the sun as possible and nothing has ever gotten this close before. In fact, the analogy they use is a football field.  If Earth is at one end zone and the sun is at the other, the Parker Probe is at the 4 yard line (3.83 million miles, lol), in the suns territory. The second closest probe only got to the 30 yard line, so, impressive advances have been made.

It’s too hot to have a camera mounted on the probe, so this is where the telescopes come in. Each telescope is focused on the area where the probe is, and are gathering information and photographs.  One of the goal, one that has been being worked on since the end of World War II, is to try and learn how to predict sunspots.

Tours  are available during short periods, several times a week. We knew when to show up, so we got to take the tour.

The telescope itself stands 138 feet tall- but that is less than half of it’s height. It continues an impressive 193 feet underground as well. State of the art when it was built in 1969, there have been many more advanced telescopes built since then. What this particular one offers though, is old school technology, keeping it very user friendly. Scientists and students come here from all over the world to test their equipment and ideas.

Keeping the telescope in focus is the job of the observation floor.  The platform floats on 120 gallons of liquid mercury. Most adjustments of the floor are barely noticeable, and when major movements are required, an alarm sounds ahead of time.

After a week, we headed back to El Paso. Soon after we arrived, we had a hail storm with the biggest hail I have ever seen.

Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Sue stopped by for a couple of days on their way to Big Bend National Park- always a fun time with them.

While they were here we were treated to a spectacular sunset:

Happy 93rd Birthday! (08-12-23)

 In our planning for our summer adventures, we took into consideration that August 10th is Paul’s mom’s 93rd birthday.  Our hope was to be there for it, and we were.

We also try to schedule her doctor and dentist appointments for when we can be there, so, she had a very busy 3 days when we were in town.

Her party was scheduled for mid afternoon on a day that had lots of activities for the residents, so I was a little nervous about the attendance- but when we arrived, the room was full!

One of the attendees was a woman who used to be one of her main caregivers. She has since moved on, but comes back to visit periodically.

El Paso is sort of a turning point in our summer travels- an intermission of sorts. We had all our RV parks before August 10th  booked in advance, and nothing booked for after the 10th. In late July we sat down and re-looked at our calendar. I still had to book a trip to Massachusetts, since the one I had booked for June was canceled due to my broken foot. We also needed at least a loose game for September and October.

Back in early 2020, Paul and I managed to score permits for a campground on a reservation, to visit Havasupai Falls.  Getting the permits is difficult, as is the actual trip to Havasupai Falls. Reservations for the entire year open at 8 am on February 1, and sell out within minutes.

Our “original” dates were for March of 2020, for 4 people because two friends were going to join us. We all know what happened in March of 2020. So, we rescheduled our dates for October of 2021, then October of 2022, and now, since they are finally open again post Covid, October of 2023. Our friends have since dropped out, so it is just Paul and I now.

The trip is for 3 nights. In order to get to the campground, you have to hike 12 miles, 2200 ft down into a canyon. There are 3 restrooms in the campground, which is 2 miles long. Everything else, you need to bring yourself. All the food, tent, sleeping bags, clothes, shoes, cooking utensils- everything. Lucky for us, since we aren’t backpackers, we were able to hire a mule to carry our heavy things- although lately people have been saying that there aren’t always enough mules.

 If we don’t get a mule, we can’t go.

Once you are in the canyon, there are trails to hike to different waterfalls. This is why its worth the effort to get there.

Will we make it? We will see. This hike is the reason we have been working so hard this summer to build up our stamina. Especially me, since breaking bones in my foot really set me back. Although I am happy with my progress, it isn’t enough. We will have to ramp it up more in Sept and Oct for me to feel comfortable making the trek. There is a possibility that we might be able to take a helicopter out of the canyon, but it doesn’t run every day, can’t be booked in advance, and doesn’t run if it’s windy. So, you need to be able to hike out.

We are lucky that our reservations are for after monsoon season because flash flooding is reasonably common, and has a drastic effect on the waterfalls…

Our tentative plan for before then: the rig, and Paul, will be in Fresno, CA, so he can spend time with friends while I fly to Boston for 12 days. When I get back, we will head a little further north, near Yosemite National Park, which has gobs of hiking. We will spend about a month there, getting in the best condition we can, and then head back to Arizona, mid October.

Havasupai Falls Trailhead is about 4 hours from our house, so we will give ourselves a week at the house to pack up our gear and buy whatever we don’t have. Mostly everything has been bought, since we expected to do this trip years ago. Our reservations are for October 26-29th.

Adventures in Creede (7-22-22)

 

We have been to Creede, CO only once before, and we didn’t have the Jeep with us, so some of the scenic drives were off limits so to speak, because we were in a dually.  We do love the town though so we wanted to spend more time here.

Back in its heyday, the late 1800s, the town grew in population from just 600, to over 10,000 in the span of just two years, with silver mining as the draw.  It’s said that the fires burned all night so that housing construction could take place 24 hours a day.  The town has a small museum, which we meandered through for a little bit. This piano was shipped here during that time- in a covered wagon.

Day 1 we went to visitor center to get information, and develop a plan. This area is full of scenic drives and 4 wheel drive Jeep Trails, and we needed to choose which ones we want to do.

 From the visitor center  we drove Lost Willow Creek Rd. with the intention of hiking To Phoenix Park waterfall. There was no true parking at the trailhead, so we had to make do.  Unfortunately we didn't get an early enough start, and we heard the rumble of thunder soon after starting up the trail. Even the brochures for the local areas mention the almost daily thunderstorms.

 

Plan B was to drive the part of Bachelor Loop that we didn’t get to last time we were here.

This dirt road passes by some interesting mining ruins, and also by this “empty” meadow.

 

It is hard to believe that in the late 1800s this, and other nearby meadows were home to more than 1200 people, and was called  “Bachelor City”. There were 12 saloons, 4 hotels, and 5 grocery stores.

There was a nice birds eye view of Creede as we made our way back into town.

Also on this day, Paul decided that the strange noise the Jeep is making is, indeed, the rear brakes. The nearest town with an auto parts store is Del Norte, about 45 minutes away, so off we went to buy all the parts he needed to replace them.

We started the following day taking care of chores.... I cleaned the camper and Paul changed the brakes on the Jeep.  Silly me, even though I walked outside to check his progress, I forgot to take a picture.  It was so nice, several men came over to see if he needed any help, or tools. 

That took care of the morning but we needed a plan for after lunch.

We elected to drive up the Silver Thread scenic byway. We stopped at some of the turnouts, including the one for the Slumgullion Earth flow. About 700 years ago this mesa slid into the valley below. It continues to slide about 20 feet a year.

As with much of Colorado, the scenery in this area is spectacular.

We stopped in the small, picturesque town of Lake City, where we walked the historic downtown and treated ourselves to an ice cream. The town is almost completely surrounded by steep mountains.

Continuing on our way, we drove the first few miles of the Alpine Loop backcountry scenic byway, to the oldest mine in Hinsdale County. We intend to drive the entire Alpine loop but it takes about 7 hours, so we will need an early start on another day.

On the way back home we made a brief stop to see yet another waterfall- this one is South Clear Creek Falls. It was a short walk to the falls but it had just rained, so the trail was a muddy mess.  So muddy that I should have brought my trekking pole.  At least when I fell, I landed on my knees, and not my butt!

If you want to see my husband's eyes light up, tell him there is a nearby Jeep trail that goes to a fascinating geologic area. He was pretty stoked about making the trek out to Wheeler Geologic Area,

There are two ways to get there, and they both start at Hanson's Mill campground. You can hike the 17 miles roundtrip, or you can drive the 14 mile "4x4, high clearance vehicle MANDATORY " road. They say its faster to hike, which is an indication of the condition of the road. Oh, and the road is impassable when wet, so you have to keep an eye on the sky. We, of course, took the road.

We gassed up the Jeep before heading out, and since it dawned on me that the only food we had with us was our sandwiches, I went into the convenience store and bought some emergency rations.

The first few miles of the road were pretty easy, and then it deteriorated. 

We drove through forests, fields, and streams.

There were several places we had to stop and reconnoiter, determine a path and speed to take, and one particular area that sort of made me wish we had turned around.

We could see the tracks of the people who had gone before us, so that helped-sometimes.

Most of the other vehicles we saw were side by sides or ATVs. There were no other Jeeps. We arrived two hours after we set out, so it was a bone jarring 7 mph trip.

Once there we chatted with the other travelers- I was happy to note that there were about 8 other vehicles. You can bet your sweet bippy I had no intention of being the last vehicle there.

The hike to the view was a half mile, straight up hill, at 11,000 ft. I was huffing pretty good. We were trying to make good time because the view at the top included dark clouds, along with some thunder.

The rock formations were really cool though- the rock is made of volcanic tuff, formed when the tuff was blown into the air through volcanic vents.  With more time we would have wandered more. But, we needed to beat the rain.

As we scrambled back down, we assured the others climbing the hill that the view was worth it. The drive back felt like it went much faster, probably because we knew what to expect, since we only actually shaved 15 minutes off the return trip.

In between all these bone jarring trips, we took some down time to enjoy our awesome campsite.  Our site was right on the banks of the Rio Grande river.

I spent a fair amount of time watching hummingbirds:

On what turned out to be our last day, we headed out on the “back road” to Silverton, where we were planning on having lunch and then driving home. The scenery was gorgeous along the way, but then the “road” turned into little more than a wide pathway.  After 1.5 hours we were not even halfway there, so we abandoned the idea and turned around.

Although we planned on being in this area of Colorado much longer, we got a call from Paul’s mom’s caregiver that his mom was not feeling well, so we drove down to El Paso.  Turns out she has Covid, but luckily has few serious symptoms.  We have been here for a week, and she is now just about well enough for us to leave again.