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:

Finishing off Summer (09-20-23)

 After visiting Paul’s mom in Texas in August, we needed to get our rig to Fresno, CA.  I am flying to Boston to see family and Paul is going to wait for me with friends in CA. 

Tired of taking the same roads back and forth across the southwest, we detoured and headed to northern AZ, trying to stay somewhat out of the heat. It’s monsoon season in Arizona and we drove right into a storm.

We stopped for a couple of days to visit friends, north of Phoenix, where we did a lot of eating, a little bit of hiking, and spent a couple of hours at a small bar, listening to great music.

A few days later I was on my way to Massachusetts. Being on the red eye, I didn’t get much sleep, but I flew first class, so at least I was comfortable.

I spent the first couple of days at my brothers, celebrating my sister in laws birthday-which included lunch at a restaurant on the water in Gloucester MA.  

We liked the drink at the restaurant so much we bought the ingredients to make it at their house.

The following day, after lunching with some childhood friends, who I have known since I was two, I moved on to an Airbnb close to my son Stephen.

Having the Airbnb gave us a place to hang out, cook dinner, and relax. Of course, we also explored, and drove up to Gloucester for lunch. Without a reservation it was supposed to be over an hour wait, but to our surprise, they called us in 20 minutes and led us to one of the best tables in the house!

Reminiscing about his childhood and mine, we talked about our almost yearly vacations at the beach in New Hampshire. I started coming here when I was about 9, and the tradition continued until my kids were that age- Lots of great memories. We ended up booking a couple of rooms near the beach, so we could have two days to enjoy it.

Of course we had to buy books to read at the beach!

After spending a week with him it was time to move back to my brothers for a couple of days before flying back to CA. Along the way I met up with an old neighbor friend, her daughter, and her granddaughter.

The last hurrah before flying out was an afternoon with all my siblings.

One of my layovers on the way back to California was in Salt Lake City, which we flew into at sunset:

I thought it was hilarious that on the way to Boston, because of the time table, there were no meals served on either plane- but on the way back, for the same reason- we were served dinner on two different flights.

After spending another couple of days with our friends,  our plan was to move further north in California, to do some hiking, but Paul’s mom started having some health issues, so we turned around and went back to El Paso.

Spoiler alert- she improved and stabilized, allowing us to do some exploring- but not too far away. 

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.

S '23, Episode 7, Manitou Springs, CO (08-11-23)

 For the past few weeks we have been staying for a week at each destination we had. That part of our summer is over. At this point we are headed towards El Paso to spend time with Paul’s mom for her 93rd birthday. We have time to stop a few places along the way, but not for a week, and we have no reservations.

We discovered that with the heatwave that has hit most of the country, RV spots in cooler areas are hard to come by. We finally found an RV spot in Manitou Springs- it was recommended by a park that had no availability (“they are so expensive, they might have a spot open still”) –and so they did.

It seems like whenever we look at a map of Colorado, our eyes skim over Florrisant Fossil Beds National Monument, and we say some day we need to go there. Well, today was that day. We realized our rig would fit in the parking lot and it was on our way to Manitou Springs. Perfect.

This is one of the largest fossil beds in the world. They were created when nearby volcanoes erupted, covering the entire area with massive mudflows.

Our original intent was to just walk one of the short trails and check out the most impressive fossils, but we arrived just as a tour was starting, so we joined it.

The fossils in this area are all permineralized- created when an animal or tree is buried quickly. Over time, water seeps into the dead organism, and leaves minerals behind- essentially making a stone replica of whatever was there.

After an hour or so, we were on our way again.

The Manitou Springs/Colorado Springs area has an incredible amount of hiking available, and that's what we were focused on.

We first headed to Red Rock Canyon Open Space area- a place where we have never hiked.

We chose the Red Rock Canyon trail (very original) and ended up hiking almost 4 miles.

Since our hike was reasonably short, we felt fine looking for another hike the following day. This time we headed back to Garden of the Gods Park. We have hiked here before, but we took a different trail this time.

Along the way we passed by, among other things,  the Siamese Twins Rock formation. 

 

The bright green foliage against the red rock is a really spectacular sight.

This park is very popular so you are never really alone. We ended up hiking about 3 miles.

Our final day in the area we went a slightly different way. We drove to Seven Falls, which is a privately owned park, and therefore, has a cost associated with it.

There are two ways to get to the top- the stairs….

…and the elevator. Yes, elevator. We originally took the elevator up, but realized it didn’t go where we wanted,  which was the top of the waterfall.  Turns out there are TWO sets of stairs.

So we came back down and headed up the other stairs- 224 stairs up to the top.

Once there, there are a couple of hiking trails that lead to other waterfalls and some viewpoints. 

 

We hiked both of them. They aren’t very long trails.

Once we were done, we felt like we deserved some ice cream, so that’s what we had for lunch.

We could easily spend a month in this area, but 3 days is all we had, and then it was time to move on, closer to El Paso. At the pace we are moving at, it took us a few days more to get there.

After the success we had visiting Florrisant while towing the rig, we looked at doing the same thing at Pecos Pueblo National Historic Park, which was along our route to El Paso. It worked out very well.

The site of Pecos Pueblo was settled in the 1400s, and was inhabited until the mid 1800s when the last of the Pecos people relocated to nearby Jemez. 

In the 1600s the Spanish arrived, looking to convert the natives to their religion. In the process, their treatment of the Pecos people got worse and worse (oh, the irony) and in 1680 the people in several of the surrounding pueblos banded together to take their lives back. They planned a successful revolt, pushing the Spaniards out of the area. This is what is left of the church that was built.

We took a one hour tour of the ruins, and one of the things the ranger talked about was different ways of viewing “trash”. We, as modern people, view trash as things that have no value, that aren’t needed anymore. The Pecos people say that the piles of “discarded” items are halfway along their journey back to dust, and so, didn’t necessarily bury their loved ones separately from anything else.

A few days later we were hiking a trail somewhere else, and came across a rotting tree that really reminded me of that idea. You can clearly see that the top part of the tree trunk is essentially dissolving.

Soon enough, we were in El Paso.