The Last of New Mexico (07-23-17)

Well, although I said we were ready to move further north to escape some of the heat, we didn’t go that far, and we certainly didn’t go far enough.

We stopped in Farmington, NM for a few days. Like the name suggests, this is farm country.  Navajo farm country to be exact.  There are quite a few Indian Reservations in this area and Navajo Nation is the biggest.

Our goal is to combine some hiking with exploring more of the National Monuments dedicated to early Native American life. There is lots of history in this area and it can be a little overwhelming.


Our first full day here, we weren’t in the mood for a long drive, so we drove out to Bisti Badlands to do some hiking.

The badlands are comprised of very strange rock formations, and hill after hill to hike over and around.

There is no specific trail, and with temps yet again in the 90s, we made sure to bring a lot of water.  I also downloaded the map, with someone else’s tracks,onto my phone, and brought my portable battery charger, to be sure my GPS didn’t run out of juice. No way was I gonna get lost in the desert!

We had a hard time following the tracks, but we still managed to see some neat stuff-












Including a fair amount of petrified wood.
After almost 5 miles of hiking, we made it back to the parking lot.









The following day we were up for more adventure. Chaco Canyon  was quite a hub of early American life, in its day.  It is also about 70 miles from where we are staying so we got up quite early to head in that direction.

Thousands of Ancestral Chacoans lived here from about 850 AD until about 1250. In 1980 it moved from being a National Monument to the Chaco Culture National Historic Park.

There are quite a few complexes still available to walk through and explore.




We weren’t all that impressed with the information available, although we really were focused on hiking anyway.



One of the things we did learn about was the progression of their building ability.  When they first started building, they used flat stones of varying sizes.

















By the time they left, they had learned to make bricks and the buildings had a totally different look.











Anyway, on to the hiking trail.  Although it was, once again, in the mid 90s, we chose one of the longest trails- about 5.5 miles.

The trail started off by taking us up a steep slot canyon, until we reached a plateau.













Once atop the ridge, we had great views of the surrounding area and the buildings down in the canyon.








There were also several structures on top of the ridge, and remnants of ancient roads that led to other settlements in the area.




One of the interesting features on this trail is the ancient staircase, built in about the year 1000. You can see the steps, carved into the stone.















Although we didn’t see any hikers on the long loop portion of this trail, we certainly weren’t alone!

I really enjoyed this trail- a lot of the trail was on slick rock, which I really like.

We were done a lot earlier than we thought we would be, and left the canyon by mid afternoon.

I was ambivalent about our plans for our final day in Farmington.  Paul wanted to check out nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument.  I was feeling a little done with ruins.  But, as we like to say “ hey, we’re here.”  So we figured we might as well take a look.

I learned two pieces of interesting information right off the bat.  1st, I thought it was strange that this place is called Aztec Ruins. Turns out, the Spaniards lazily and erroneously named it that, and the name stuck.

Current day Puebloans do not consider this place “ruins” nor abandoned.  They feel that it is inhabited by their ancestors and should be treated with utmost respect.

We were given a binder for our self guided tour, so we could read about the points of interest as we stood in front of them. 

The Kiva, which is a large building used for ceremonial purposes, has been restored.

The roof of the Kiva weighs 95 tons. Materials, such as the wood for the roof, were brought from as far as 80 miles away. It was a very intelligent and organized workforce that built this small “city”.

Several of the “houses” have also been restored, which gave us a better glimpse into what their homes might have looked like.

I was so glad we made the effort.  This is a small National Monument, space wise, but I was really impressed with the whole set up. I mentioned that to the ranger, and he agreed that they did a great job of making the information “digestible”.

Back again to….Yep, New Mexico (07-20-17)

After the July 4th holiday Paul and I headed back to El Paso for another 10 days or so, to finish up some projects for his mom. The 3 of us had one last outing, up to Las Cruces for lunch.












Our first stop after leaving there was Albuquerque New Mexico, where we had a date for dinner with our friend Teresa.  Of course, I forgot to take a picture. We didn’t hang around long, just one night- before heading to our destination- Cochiti Lake.

We used this COE campground as our base to do a little hiking and exploring. First up was Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. We had tried to hike here before but it was barricaded when we tried- during the federal shut down in 2013. 

There was a lot to like about this hike.  The tents, or hoodoos, are mostly comprised of tuff, or volcanic ash, spewed from numerous volcanos that erupted regularly 7 million years ago.

The tent-like shapes were really cool to see. Many of them started out as over 1000 feet thick.

We love hiking slot canyons and this trail features a little bit of that as we worked our way through the hoodoos and up to the ridge above them.














The view at the top was pretty nice- this picture doesn’t do it justice.
The trail was only about 3.5 miles long, with 750 ft of elevation gain.











In general, that would be pretty easy for us, however, it was 98* outside, and there was very little breeze, and very few clouds (whine, whine, whine).

By the time we were done, I wasn’t feeling that well, and I wasn’t at all surprised to see the buzzards circling!

Our exhaustion after that hike resulted in what we call a “down day”- a day when we don’t do anything exciting or physical.  What we did do is get out the maps and try to do some long range planning.  It’s not our favorite thing to do, but its necessary.  Actually, its more necessary now that we have the house, because we already have a “bookend”- a date when we want to be back in Havasu- so we need to decide where we want to explore in the meantime.

I also took advantage of the free time to get out my good camera and get in some practice using it again. I believe this is a black chinned hummingbird, a variety that is common here, but one that we don’t see in Havasu.

After a full day of rest, we were totally ready for a long day of adventuring.  Bandelier National Monument is about an hour or so from Cochiti Lake.  There are two ways to get there- the highway, and the back way. Of course, Paul chose the back way.

Up and over the ridges we went, wending our way through the Santa Fe National Forest.

There was lots of evidence of previous forest fires, and the ranger confirmed that there was one as recently as last week.  Still, you could see the new growth in some areas.

Bandelier National Monument protects some of the homes built here by the Ancestral Pueblo people.    Built in about 1150 AD, they only lived here about 300 years before moving on to other locations.

Although some of the buildings seem typical of that time period, such as this one, which was built on the ground, using blocks of Tuff (hardened volcanic ash), others were more unique:

Many of the “rooms” are Cavates- rooms that are carved into the rock.

Although some of the cavates are at floor level, many of them are up high enough to require a ladder.

Once inside, you could explore several of the rooms.

We hiked the extra mile to get to Alcove House, which sits 140 above the ground and is reached by a series of ladders and stairs. Paul made the trip all the way up the ladders, but I got caught up talking to several  college students who were on a week long photography field trip.

Once we got back to the visitor center, we saw that there were some telescopes set up.  This not so great picture is of the sun, taken with a hydrogen filter.  Pretty cool.
















With temperatures still in the mid 90s, we decided it was time to continue our trek north.

New Mexico (07-05-17)

For those who aren’t familiar with New Mexico, here’s an overall map to give you an idea of where we spent our week: It’s not too far from El Paso, because we are headed back there on July 5th.

Capitan

Capitan, NM was home to my favorite bear- Smokey!  I am not sure if young people know who he is, but anyone my age certainly grew up with him.

There is a Smokey Bear Historic Park here that teaches about forest fires- what’s good about them, and what isn’t, and also has quite a few displays about Smokey.

The original public service campaign using a bear to teach about the prevention of human ignited forest fires started in the mid 1940s.  There was no actual bear, just the cartoon rendition.






In the early 50’s a small, badly burned bear cub was found clinging to a tree in the aftermath of the Capitan Gap wildfire.

He was eventually named Smokey, and became the real life symbol for the public service campaign.  Once he recovered his health, he lived out his life- 26 years- in the National Zoo.

After his death in 1976 he was brought back to be buried here, in Capitan NM.

Ruidoso Downs

After two days of sweltering weather in Alamogordo, we started hunting for a place to stay higher up the mountain, where it would be considerably cooler.  Unfortunately, it was July 1, and we could only find a spot for 3 nights.  Eh, we figured no big deal, we’d just wing it on the night of the 4th. Who knows, maybe the RV park would get a cancelation.

So we moved up the hill, and were much happier!  Now we could sit outside and enjoy the rain and hail. I’m not kidding either- we both like a good storm.  The neighbors thought we were a little nuts though.

The weather was much cooler up here- in the 70s and 80s.  We were able to do a longer hike- this time it was 6.5 miles, 1400 ft of gain,  up the hill to Argentina Peak.

There are lots of trails up here.  We debated doing a shorter route- taking the crossover trail instead of going all the way to the peak- but we pushed on, and were rewarded with awesome views:

At the peak we took our lunch break, and I was feeling pretty accomplished until I saw this:




We met this family of 6 at the trailhead as we all started on the same trail.  The dad said they’d see how far they could get, with their 4 pre-teen children. Well dang if they didn’t make it all the way to the top!  Very Impressive!  They reminded me of The Von Trapp family!

Carrizozo

Valley of Fires National Recreation area features  a 45 mile long lava field.

The lava here didn’t come from an erupting volcano, but instead it bubbled up from underground vents.

There is a paved interpretive trail that details the history of the area and showcases the flora and fauna. Technically you can hike anywhere you want on the lava bed but there were several reasons we didn’t.

We did stroll the interpretive trail, and very soon realized that we had disturbed one of the inhabitants.  I now know what a rattlesnake sounds like!

I have seen one before, but never heard one.  I didn’t realize what I had heard – it sounded like a cicada to me!  Paul realized immediately what it was and sure enough, we found him curled up near the side of the trail.

He was sticking his tongue out at me.

In this zoomed in picture you can clearly see his rattle and if you look- the rattle is pointed at his head.

I tried to get a video of him rattling but couldn’t quite do it.  We didn’t want to antagonize him just to hear him rattle. And actually, later, I googled rattlesnake and Valley of Fires NRA and saw a video of a man throwing pebbles at a snake, on the same trail we were on, just to hear him rattle.  Not Cool. I also found out that the lava bed is full of snakes- one of the several reasons we did not go off trail!

One of the perks to checking out this park was discovering that there is a great, nearly empty campground. So, this is where we moved to on July 4th, and this was our view at sunset:

No party and no fireworks this year- we just wanted a quiet night to relax before heading back to El Paso.