From East To West (10/22/22)

 Paul and I have driven across the United States literally more times than we can remember- and since we weren’t in a rush this particular time, we got out the maps and plotted a course that took us through areas we had not spent much time in.

The first part of our journey took us down the Natchez Trace Scenic Byway.  This road is 444 miles long- it starts near Nashville, TN and continues south to Natchez Mississippi. We have driven it once before, but it rained the entire time, so we didn’t stop much and didn’t see much.  This time the weather was great.

We drove all the way up to the northern terminus, to start there, because we wanted to check out the Loveless Cafe restaurant for breakfast. It gets great reviews, and it was extremely busy, with a 45 minute wait to be seated, but we felt it was more of a tourist attraction, so we wouldn’t bother going there again.

Once we were on the parkway, we stopped when anything caught our interest. The brochure suggests that you take a couple of days to drive the road, enjoying the history, and the fact that there are no houses, billboards, or anything else to detract from the scenery, and that’s what we did.

There are many short hiking trails, and a few long ones, along the parkway- there are also 3 free campgrounds.  This byway has been a road for so long that the original travelers, native Americans and early European settlers, either walked it, or rode it on horseback.  Several of the hiking trails are along the original “Trace”.

We spent our first night at the Meriwether Lewis ( of the famed “Lewis and Clark expeditions) Campground. It is named for him because he died here, under mysterious circumstances, and is buried here.

It’s an interesting story, which I “googled” when I had time. Short Version: After his expeditions, Lewis became governor of Louisiana- during the course of which, he fronted the War Dept money for some projects.  Before he could be repaid, his rival sent letters to Lewis’s superiors, accusing Lewis of fraud.  The mail being what it was, Lewis’s correspondence was too slow reaching his superiors, and he was denied the funds for the projects.  Once his creditors heard, they called in his notes, leaving him essentially penniless.

That’s the background to why he was buried here.  He was on his way to Washington DC with his journals, proving he was not a fraud. The night he stayed at the Griner Inn at this location, the innkeeper heard gunshots, investigated, and found Lewis, dying from gunshot wounds.  It was unclear if he was murdered, or he committed suicide.

Two years after his death, his estate was reimbursed for the expenses he was owed.

As we headed south into Mississippi, the scenery changed from northern woodlands to southern wetlands. One of our walks took us through a swamp.  Instead of pine trees, there were cypress trees.

 

Although they look like normal woods, the leaves are floating on water.

For our final night along the trace, we stayed in a state park In Tishomingo, MS.  There we hiked a 2 mile loop that started at a swinging bridge.  It was just one more example of the excellent work done by the CCC in the 1930s.

Moving westward off the Trace, our next major stop was Poverty Point World Heritage Site. Based on archeology, the first inhabitants lived here about 2000 BC. There are a series of “mounds”. They were built in a specific pattern, and were probably used as residences, and for rituals.   

 

What amazed me was the amount of “trinkets” (circa 2000 BC)that were discovered when they excavated.

Looking for another stop along our route to El Paso, we decided to stop in Carlsbad, NM to explore above ground in the area of Carlsbad Caverns.  We spent one night at the Elks lodge, where, during a conversation with locals, we learned about a nearby hiking trail that leads to a waterfall.  We decided to spend a second night so we could hike to Sitting Bull Falls.  It ended up being a very short walk, but the waterfall was awesome.  There are actually quite a few waterfalls here, fed by a spring. The whole area was gorgeous.

The following day we headed to the National Park. Our plan was to drive the scenic drive and do some short hikes along the way but we learned that the scenic drive, as well as most of the hiking trails, are closed due to flood damage.  Ah well.  Our back up plan was to drive further south and hike to Smith Spring.  Along the way, we came across some bighorn sheep.  This is the most bighorns we have ever seen in one group.  I counted, and there are at least 40 just in this picture.

Smith Spring is actually located in nearby Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  It is a short 2 mile loop, with a spring about halfway through the hike.  The shade was welcome after hiking in the sun.

I was going to finish this post by saying our “final stop” before getting home was…… and then I realized we had 3 final stops.

The first final stop was a 2 day stay in El Paso to check on Paul’s mom, who is doing pretty well for her age…

The second final stop, after we left there, was Hatch New Mexico, where we have been trying to visit because Hatch Chiles are the only ones we will use for our chile Rellenos, and they happen to be in season.  We left with a bunch of fresh chiles.  We actually watched them being roasted.

Our Final final stop was in Casa Grande to see some friends before we got home.  The rain was nonstop, but it was warm out, so we caved in and didn’t worry about getting wet.

And then we were home.  For a few days.

Guadalupe Peak (09-24-13)

The last time we came through Guadalupe Mountain National Park, I was still recovering from foot surgery, so we elected to do a shorter, easier hike.  




This time- we came for the peak.  Guadalupe peak is the highest mountain peak in the state of Texas. The trail is 9 miles long, with 2900 feet of elevation gain.

 

We found out that the same storm that caused all the massive flooding in Colorado, dumped 13 inches of rain here at Guadalupe- all in a 24 hour span. In the picture above, you can see the dry riverbed. Usually there’s no water in it.  Paul said he would have loved to have been here to see the water gushing down the mountain.  To give perspective- on the right side of the picture there is a parking lot.  You can see our trailer in that lot.

Of the 85 miles of trails in the park, only 11 miles remain open, and luckily for us, the one we wanted was one of them!  There were quite a few areas of the trail that were almost washed out, which made for difficult walking.

We haven’t done much hiking lately so we were a little apprehensive about the elevation gain, but in the end, we did fine.  Every corner we turned, the view got better (and we groaned as we realized the peak we were climbing was not the peak.

Once we arrived at the top, we stayed for a bit, chatting with some of the others who had made the trek up the mountain. The lake in the background is actually the salt basin dunes.  It’s very rare that there is water there, but the recent flooding has completely changed the look of them.

Eventually though, we had to begin the descent.  This is where the washouts were more noticeable. With all the loose gravel and steep inclines, it took us longer than it usually does to come down the mountain. 

El Paso, TX (12-15-10)

    Well, we left Guadalupe Mountains a couple of days ago and arrived in El Paso and since we've been here, life has been a whirlwind of activity.  We actually had a list of things that needed to get done, so that we could do the most time sensitive things first.  We wanted to order several things online and since we'll only be here for 2 weeks, we had to do that early to make sure we get them in time.  Then of course we had to buy the kids' Christmas gifts so we could get them shipped.  We did that and shipped them yesterday.  My passport expired, so I renewed that today.   There is a lot of paperwork stuff that we have been working on, since we have great (and secure) internet.  Plus, Paul has started on the list of projects that his mother had ready for him.  He's working through the list at a pretty good clip.
   The day we got here was the most stressful. Although we got here early in the day, we are storing the Everest, so we had to empty the refrigerator, and take everything with us that we'll need for the next 2 weeks.  The trailer is having an issue, which is what stressed Paul the most.  In August, Keystone, the trailer manufacturer added some struts to one side of the trailer  because the floor was sagging, and we began to notice the same thing happening to the other side now- and its near the refrigerator, so that is sagging, as well as our main slide.  Hopefully it's a reasonably easy fix, and Keystone has said that they will work with us on it.
   We'll be here for Christmas and will head for Arizona a few days afterwards.

Guadalupe National Park, TX (12-11-10)

December 11, 2010




         We have passed by Guadalupe National Park, TX several times in our travels and this time I wanted to stop in and check it out. The “campground” is interesting- it’s essentially a parking lot with wide spaces. We filled our tank with water and we are running on battery while we are here. The ranger suggested that we take it one night at a time because the winds kick up pretty fierce here, up to 70 mph and he said that when they do, its pretty uncomfortable. Our first night here was pretty nasty, but luckily the winds calmed down by morning, and have been fine ever since.
       Since we got here early in the day Friday, we did a 4.5 mile hike to a place called Devil’s Hall. It was in a canyon, and there was one part that’s called the hiker’s natural staircase that was pretty cool. Other than that it was good exercise with some nice views. We found out after the fact that had we kept going a little further, we would have entered into the territory of the local mountain lion. Although we didn’t catch a glimpse of him, we have seen some elk, Javelina, and some mule deer- one of which had the biggest set of antlers I’ve ever seen on a deer.



sea shell fossil



We were using that hike to sort of gear up for Saturday’s hike, which was 8.5 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain, and was challenging for a variety of reasons. First, the trail was loose rocks almost all the way up the trail, which is the most difficult terrain for my foot right now. Luckily I had pumped myself full of my prescription pain killer, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I am still ramping back up with the hiking, so I’m not in the shape I was before the surgery. On top of that, we forgot that we are at an elevation of 5000 ft- plus the 2000, so we ended up at 7000 ft by the end of the day. Our bodies are not acclimated to that so we were huffing and puffing a bit by the end. All in all we did ok though.

      Guadalupe National Park is home to a Permian Reef. The seashore was here 250 million years ago, and as it disappeared, it left behind a lot of fossils. We saw quite a few of them along the trail. It’s always nicer to do a hike if there is something of interest to see along the way.

      Today’s hike was 4.5 miles to an old lodge that was built in the 1930s. I can’t even imagine having such a remote cabin, but to each his own I guess. A park ranger happened to arrive just after we did, and he opened up the cabin and let us in so we could look around. He told us that in it’s day it was state of the art, and the owner used it as his “party house”. We had lunch on the back porch and were joined by another couple. While chatting, we discovered that they are full time Rv’ers as well, and have been for 9 years. It’s always interesting to hear people’s stories- if they full time, how they travel etc. Some people spend a long time in one place, some people move quite a bit, like we do.

        One of the things that Paul and I enjoy are the people we meet along the way. This morning we met up with “the guy from Wisconsin”. Paul met him in the campground yesterday. He is staying in his SUV- no tent, just the car. He has a small cook stove and a sleeping bag. He has some interesting theories about vapor trails from planes actually being something being sprayed down to earth. Anyway, this morning he had his binoculars out, and we stopped to ask what he was watching. It turned out he was watching some elk, so we spent a few minutes chatting with him and watching elk. The people next to us are also from Michigan, but they only travel a few months of the year.

       When we were in Monahan Sandhills we met a neat couple from Alaska. They were both young, and retired from public service jobs. She was a police officer, but I am not sure what he did. They were the kind of people that you click with right away and the conversation just keeps going. They travel about 8 months a year, to escape the long winters in Alaska. They are also avid hikers and she has a cool saying- “motion is lotion”- she likes to keep her body moving. While at that campground we also met the campground host- or should I say hostess. Her rig is bigger than ours and her story is sadder than ours. She and her husband were fulfilling his dream of full timing, but his cancer had returned so he has been back in Kansas undergoing treatment for months, and she is doing all the traveling, hosting, and driving, while she waits for him to return to her. She hopes that will happen in January. Everyone has their own unique story, but the common idea seems to be that they are all trying to live their lives to the fullest. Not a bad idea.




Hiking the Permian  Reef trail