Home Again

This is the concluding blog for this trip. A trip which has been spectacular for the scenery, but also enjoyable for the new friends we have made and the old friends we have visited and still remember. We have driven 5800 miles in the van, and towed the trailer for 2800 of those miles. As well as our lovely week with friends in Florida, we have explored parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and California. The highlights are all mentioned in previous blogs.
Well, it's Friday and we have now arrived home, had a shower, sleep and got ourselves turned around.
The journey home was largely uneventful, though long. The most impressive thing was the view from the plane as we flew across Utah. The sun was low and cast stark shadows of all the mountains. This made the ground relief stand out dramatically. Red cliffs and canyons were amazing. We could see the long line of National Reef and what looked like Zion Canyon.
The long distances between terminals and train stations, the poor directions and signposting, the cattle market of Kings Cross (no seats), no where to buy a meal and sit was appalling after the relative peace and comfort of American air terminals will keep us as fully paid up members of the Grumpy Old Club for months.
We are about to leave to collect our caravan and spend the holiday weekend in Yorkshire.
We are planning our next trip to the States, probably in September, but don't yet have a clear idea of our itinerary, which is quite exciting really. We have a blog address, but it is still almost empty: http://roadblog61.blogspot.com

In Banning

Although we have reached our final destination for this trip we have not left the country yet, so although for the last few days we have been cleaning the trailer and truck, we have also been finding a bit of time for looking around the place. Yesterday we took an evening tour round the San Bernadino Mountains, to a place called Idyllwild and watched the sunset, We climbed to over 6000 feet on tortuous mountain roads, with breathtaking views. It made for a lovely evening.
A piece of good news, California State Parks provide a Disability Pass, so we thougth we would try and get one, so armed with Sally's Blue Badge we went to a local State Park. After a lot of discussion between a very friendly Ranger, her immediate boss (who said no) and her top boss (who said yes), Sally and I have been able to get a 50% discount pass for California State Parks. This will mean a very considerable saving when we return in the Fall, as S.P. campgrounds cost anything up to $45 p.n. normally!

Au Revoir à Nouveau

We have travelled quickly from Oak Creek Canyon to our final destination. Travelling through Arizona was spectacular, especially the drop from Prescott to Congress, which was similar to the Mokee Dugway, but at least the road was paved. We drove on through Quartzite (ate there, but the poor woman could not cook a steak) and then dropped into California and found a lovely County Park on the banks of the Colorado, in Blythe (Mayflower County Park). After an overnight stay we got permission to wash the trailer, ashing it with the muddy waters of the Colorado. We then set out on the last leg to get to the KOA in Banning. We will stay here for a week and then put the trailer into storage here.
The gas prices went from $3.69 to $4.29 when we changed state and the weather has been abysmal, storm on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday (very windy, some rain, but temperature below 60 all the time.
No More pictures I am afraid as I knocked the camera off the table and it seems to have stopped working - permanently.

Oak Creek canyon

After leaving the Painted Desert we travelled West on the I 40 (ex route 66) to Winslow (made famous by the Eagles song) and camped at the Homoluvi Ruins State Park (they do have some strange names). This was a very basic, no facility, windy, open and expensive campground, which we do not recommend.
From Winslow we travelled about 30 miles to Meteor Crater, one of the wonderful natural features that I have wanted to visit for many years. 50,000 years ago a meteor 150 feet across crashed into Arizona making a crater nearly a mile wide and 350 feet deep. We climbed to the rim and looked down on a very impressive sight. We also had the chance to find out more about meteors and meteorites. It was a fascinating morning.
We drove on through the desert to Flagstaff. We were impressed by the number of volcanic cones that could be seen, straight ahead was the bulk of the San Francisco Mountains, near Flagstaff. There we turned south towards Sedona. Following the advice of our friends Dorothy and John we took the 89 South. This runs quite normally until it hits Oak Creek Canyon. The road goes into it from the top, north end, as a nice flat normal road, then via a switchback it drops 800ft over 1000yards (as the crow files) into a narrow canyon, no more that 200yards wide, with 800ft walls. The amazing thing is that the canyon is full of ponderosa pine trees, it is a forest in the middle of a desert. It has a lovely winding stream which becomes a river and alongside the river, it the middle of the forest is a lovely campground. As soon as we arrived we found all sorts of new birds flying around the place. We have seen Acorn Woodpeckers, Bullocks Orioles, Redstart, Robins, Stellar Jay, Cow Birds, to name a few. I have even managed to get some good photos of many of these birds. We even hung out our Hummingbird feeder and lo and behold within minutes we had hummingbirds feeding. Needless to say we have stayed here for four days, instead of our original two and had a lovely time, we have also met a few really nice people as well. Today, Saturday, we took a short trip down the canyon, only to be surprised by the scale and beauty of the rock walls on either side, as well as the large number of people out for the day (This place is one of the few places in Arizona that you can picnic in the trees and swim in a river). We are now preparing to make the last leg of our journey, from here to Banning in California, which we think will take us three days.

The Painted Desert

On Sunday we left the Canyon De Chelly and drove south to visit The Painted Desert and The Petrified Forest National Park. The only way to get to the nearby campground was to enter the North end of the park, drive through the park , along the scnic route and out the South end of the Park, where there is a free campground. So we stopped and saw some of the attractions there. We were amazed at the rock forms and colours of The Painted Desert, mostly soft strata of many diferent colours, white, bluish, red, pink and purple could be seen. We were surprised to learn that much of the white/grey layer was bentonite, which is what they make cat litter from.
We camped in the somewhat exposed free campground, and were surprised to find that the next door trailer was owned by a very nice English couple, who had also bought their own trailer and truck and were doing the same thing as us. Except they tour for six months at a time and having explored the West Coast are now moving towards the East Coast. So we had a fair old chin wag in the evening. They actually come from York, just down the road from us!

The weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was very windy (gusts up to 57m.ph.), which was not very nice. However, after another coffee time with our English neighbours, we set out to look at the Petrified Forest bit of the National Park. It was amazing to see lots of tree trunks that had been growing 225 million years ago just lying round on the ground. The trees having grown, fallen down, been buried in mud, which has turned to rock, come back to the surface and been laid bare in our time. We also saw some more bizarre rock formations.


After travelling through the park we moved further west to Winslow and camped at the Homoluvi Ruins State Park, a very open, but pleasant, if pricy, campground.

Canyon De Chelly

Because the valley itself is sacred you can only go with Indian Guides, however there are couple of Rim Drives, which take you on a tour of a number of overlooks. It is about a 40 mile drive, but you can look down over the cliffs into the valleys and see the cliff dwellings as well as the nice flat valley floor up to 1000ft below. The most dramatic of the overlooks is at Spider rock, which is an 800ft spire, which stands alone on the valley floor. Quite an amazing sight.

The Road to Canyon De Chelly

The problem with seeing all these wonderful sights is that words fail you, so descriptions on the blog are a) difficult but unworthy of the visual experience, so the blog appears a little thin on description.
However on Saturday we bade farewell to Monument Valley and took the shortish journey to Canyon De Chelly (pronounce d'shay) across some more amazing countryside, through desert and past mountains. We actually passed 5 stumps of volcanic plugs, where the lava/basalt which filled the centre of a volcano had been left when the surrounding rock (probably ash) had been eroded away. These plugs rise up to 250 feet above the rest of the area and are quite impressive. The largest we passed was Church Rock, which does look like a church. We drove down through some narrow passages through the rocks and round the edge of sand dunes, finally descending into a valley which was at the entrance to Canyon De Chelly National Park. There is a campground here which is free, no hook ups, but then you can't expect everything. We stayed here a couple of nights so that we could visit the Canyon De Chelly.

Touring Monument Valley

I got up early to photograph the valley at dawn. There was a spectacular view of the dawn from our trailer. I sat out and drank my morning coffee and watched the sun come up, it was fabulous.


We got an early breakfast and decided to do the 17mile drive as early as possible, so that the light was better and it was not as crowded. We set off, and boy was the road bumpy! We could only go very slowly. It is an unpaved road, but with huge rocks stuck in it, often we had to pick a way on the road using the wrong side to try and find a smoother path (little luck with that though). The views are spectacular and awesome and huge and grand and mostly indescribable, as indeed the pictures will not be able to show adequately what there is to see, we sort of drove round in a daze, just trying to take it all in. We took about three hours and were back at the trailer in time for lunch. But it was worth the wait (only about 54 years in my case).
In the afternoon we relaxed, then went for a meal to Gouldings, a trading post in Monument Valley. It was where many of the film stars stayed when they were filming in Monument Valley.
John Ford directed 9 films there, many with John Wayne, including his first - Stagecoach, others included The Searchers, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Monument Valley was also used to film The Eiger Sanction and Thelma and Louise.
We went along with some people we had met at the campground. They are all members of RV Forum.Net and they were very welcoming towards us.
The meal was so so, but the place was great.

Arriving in Monument Valley

On Wednesday morning we decided to travel the 25 miles to Monument Valley, so that we could get set up there in order to see the sunset and the dawn actually in the valley. The campground(?) is a flatish piece of land overlooking many of the famous buttes and you park anywhere, but there is no water or electricity. We chose a site quite near the edge of the park, so that we could nicely see Monument Valley from our trailer window, it was perfect until an RV pulls up, squeezes between us and the edge, completely obscuring our view. There was of course plenty of space elsewhere, but this couple had chosen to park in front of us, about 10feet away! Before they could set up we asked them if they would move back a little, quite politely. They said this was the only flat bit (untrue) and would not move. We pointed out that they could move along just a few feet and we could all see the view. They said that they could not understand what we were saying as they were foreign (German). Well we got so angry, Sally called them something quite rude. We decided that we would move, so we re hitched the trailer and moved a few feet up, re-levelled the trailer and set up again, boy were we fuming! They thought this quite funny and made several remarks that were not helpful. We then ignored them. Bah! There are some very selfish people in this world!
Anyway that evening I spent some time taking photos of the sunset. We were at last here in Monument Valley, really the main goal of this road trip.

Gooseneck, The Mokee Dugway, Muley Point and the Natural Bridges Park

By a stange quirk of fate we were forced to move on from the Cadilac Ranch, i.e. we had not booked an extension to our stay and they were full up. So we uprooted ourselves and moved on to The Gooseneck State Park. The name gooseneck refers to the encised meanders in the San Juan River, which has spectacularly cut down through many layers of sandstone. We camped on the cliff top, above the meanders, 1200 feet above the river! From where we were you could see several meanders and at the bottom the, by now, green San Juan River. Sally has real difficulites with heights, so had great trouble going to the edge, but was quite confident when there was a wall or railings between her and the drop, so she was able to enjoy the view as well. She was reasonably happy even though we were camped only a few feet from the drop.

As we had arrived there in plenty of time we decided that we would attempt some other items on our tourist agenda:
Moki Dugway.
Before we could visit elsewhere we had to climb the Moki Dugway.
Part of the backdrop to our local scenery is a massive mesa, called Cedar Edge Mesa. It runs for perhaps 30 miles and is 1200 feet high. It has almost sheer cliff sides. However in the 1950's Uranium Ore was mined on the Mesa top, and had to be taken to Mexican Hat (at the bottom) for initial processing, so they built a road. It is paved along the top of the mesa, it is paved at the bottom of the mesa, but they dug a narrow, unpaved, twisty road out of the side of the 1200ft cliff to carry the ore down. It twists and turns through a series of switchbacks, there are no guard rails, it has a gravel surface and is steep. What an adventure! I was really impressed by Sally as she grittted her teeth and stuck in there as we ascended this mammoth cliff. I tried where possible to drive on the cliff face side, rather than the correct side of the road, but when a car came down we had to go to the correct place on the road, which even made me feel worried. But the view was amazing.
Muley Point
We eventually got to the top and stopped to enjoy the view which extended Eastwards over the Valley of The Gods and you could see the Durango mountains away in Colorado. Well done Sally. Once we had got to the top of the Mesa we took a little side road to the southern most tip of the Mesa to Muley Point. From here, 1200 feet above the landscape we could see the meanders of the San Juan, a further 1200 ft. just below us and away in the distance the buttes of Monument Valley. What a stupendous view.
Natural Bridge National Park.
From Muley point we rejoined the road and sped along the top of the mesa to a small National Park called Natural Bridge N.P. Here in the steep canyons cut by streams were a number of incised meanders which had cut deep into the rocks. The meanders had cut back and worn away at the little bit of land on the inside of the loop, until they had cut their way through, taking a short cut for the water, but leaving a bridge of rock. The end result was imilar to Arches, but made in a different way. We saw three of the natural bridges by following a 9 mile scenic tour. Two of them are over 200 feet wide. I walked down to one of them, it was quite spectacular.
After our visit there we returned to our trailer, this time coming back down the Moki Dugway. This time we were dry camping, no water, no electricty. Fortunately no problems, just great and breathtaking scenery. What a fabulous day of sightseeing.

Valley Of The Gods

Just up the road from Bluff is an unpaved road which travels for about 17 miles round a valley. It is called the Valley of The Gods, also known as The Little Monument Valley. It runs through a whole area of buttes, mesas and needles. Many of them have a name, some don't, our favourites were the Stting Hen and The Rooster, hopefully you will be able to see them in the photos. The trip left us with an overpowering sense of awe as we picked our way through the valley, looking at great heights and vertiginous drops. Along the way we saw a lot of desert plants, some of them known at home, the Daisy and Allysum, being two.
We returned to the trailer tired out, so had to go and eat at the local Twin Rocks Trading Post, which was OK, but meant I didn't have to cook.

Downhill - Gathering Pace

There is a sort of feeling that you get as you ride up to the start of a roller coaster - tension, anticipation, holding of breath. There is the sound of clanking chains as the car is ratcheted up the track, you can look down and see where you are going to go. But it is not until you reach the top and hurtle down the other side that you know that all the slow drag up to the top was a prelude to something more tense, more exciting, more breathtaking. So it has been with our adventure this spring. We have been travelling through the Mid West - Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico and we have really enjoyed ourselves. But all the time, in the back of our minds, growing with every mile we drew nearer, has been the anticipation of The Big Country - the scenery of the the Colorado Plateau, the buttes, the mesas, the red rock, the canyons, the cloudless skies and starlit nights. That tension reached its max as we drove across the Continental Divide and we started downhill, slowly at first, through the badlands of North West New Mexico. We held the anticipation by resting in Farmington. But today we let go and raced down into that vast expanse of land that is the Four Corners Area. Within minutes of leaving the campground we could see the tall elegance of Ship Rock, a Volcanic plug that stands by the entrance to that wonderful scenery, like the Princess Castle stands over the Enchanted Kingdom at Disney. Even at our closest approach (7 miles away) it stood massively towering above the plains. From nowhere it reaches 1550 feet in the air, taller than the Empire Sate Building. Having passed that (though we could see it for another 40 miles) we rushed on down through unexpected turns and switchbacks of the approaches to Patora Peak. One moment driving on level ground, the next plunging into canyons and ravines that only revealed themselves seconds before. Past rock faces of infinite variety, with strata at every possible angle. We had been to The Garden of The Gods (Colorado Springs), we are going to visit The Valley of The Gods, but this must surely be the Sandpit of the Gods. Driving on for about an hour, with a growing sense of excitement, we arrived at The Four Corners Monument. This was the place we didn't visit in 2003 and wished we had. We had 8 years of anticipation to release as we wandered round the new installation (you can't call it a building) which screams "This is the Heartland, Soul and Centre Of America". The place where the great mass of people who inhabit, and have inhabited, America have reached for - even if they did not know of its existence, the immigrant nature of it's peoples which aspires to be somewhere better. All those to the East of it live with the tension that it is the place to go to. Those to the West have conquered it and relax in the confidence of having gone beyond it. We were just happy to have been able to have experienced being there, as we played in the sun and the cold wind, on the little metal plate that signifies the spot where four states meet.
From there, we dropped down to the San Juan River, which like the Rio Grande in New Mexico, will be our guide through this area of The Four Corners. It is difficult to define it by State, as already we had passed from New Mexico to Arizona, back into New Mexico to get to the Four Corners Monument, then into Colorado to cross the San Juan. Following the San Juan River we drove into Utah. For a while we crossed level plains, with cattle and sagebrush. On the horizon we could see behind us, to the East, the great Mesa Verde, beyond that the snow covered tops of the mountains behind Durango. To the North East the Ute Mountains, to the North we could see the snow covered mountains above Monticello. To the South, Patora Peak was dropping below the horizon. To the West the horizon appeared level, but again, as we travelled we drove past great, long, barriers of rock with weird outcroppings and needles with cap stones. We passed shallow caves, some with remains of dwellings inside. Our goal for today was Bluff, we knew that it had a nice small campground. It is a small village built on the banks of the San Juan River, behind it, to the North, is a protective wall of red rock, hence the name, Bluff. We arrived at about 4.00. There was a lady there to greet us, ask us if we had a reservation (no!). She said that she had just had a cancellation and could take us, giving us a spot where we have a view over the river valley. As it happens if we had called ahead we would have been told that it was full, so there you are.
We parked and set up and sat and relaxed. My first thought was, we have at last arrived, this campground feels like home, we are now in the Monument Valley area, we can relax and enjoy it.
Strangely the tension of traveling to somewhere had lifted. As though we were at the bottom of our roller coaster ride, just gliding smoothly to a stop. Ready now to see and enjoy this fabulous part of America. We had a quick kip, went for a great steak in the local (and only) steakhouse, had a game of Rummikub in the evening and went to bed contented, having as yet, made no decision about what we would do tomorrow. That is another day.

A special Day

In honour of the Newlyweds we show the flag and have a special celebration. Everywhere we have been people have been asking about the royal couple. Well now they are married perhaps we can get some peace.
Many people have told us that they have got up at 4.30 in the morning to watch the wedding (They really are crazy over here you know).

To Chama and beyond!

On Wednesday we packed up reasonably early, only to decide that now was the time to have new tyres put on to the vehicles. The Van needed 2 tyres and the trailer needed two tyres as well.
After considerable thought we decided to put some Goodyear Wrangler Authority tyres on the Van. Although we do not do cross country (only 2W drive) the aggressive tread of the Wranglers will enable us to get out of tight spots in snow and mud. I thought they may be noisy, but not so. So the back end of the truck now looks very chunky. The other reason being that they were the only tires that Walmart had that fitted. (they still look very chunky).
After that we now had a late start, so we set out south again to Antonito, but turned West there to travel over the Chumbra Pass. This is a beautiful journey which took us high up again into snow (so that we could try the new tires) of the Rio Grande Mountains, then down the other side into the small town of Chama, where we stayed the night.

Next day (Thursday) we set out late again, as we had taken the time to catch up with Helen and Stu (actually Sally wanted to make sure that Helen recorded the Royal Wedding).
From Chama we set out Westward again, about 2 miles up the road we reached the marker which signified that we had reached the Great Divide that we have based our trip on (Across The Great Divide). The Great Divide in question is the Continental Divide, signify hing that all the rain water that falls on to the side to the East of the sign will drain away and eventually end up in the Gulf of Mexico. While all the rain that falls to the West of the sign will drain away to the Pacific Ocean. In reality it was an almost flat piece of land, nothing dramatic at all, not like the Hoosier Pass into Breckenridge. Still it marked a significant point in our journey, as now we were running downhill to the Pacific Ocean. As we drove on we started to find the sedimentary geology of the Mesas, and Buttes. High ,flat plains, with deep narrow gorges, or wide flat areas which stepped down from one sandstone layer to the next. Soon the forests of the high mountains gave way to the desert scrub of Morman tea plants. At one point we could see far away in the North West the Mountains behind Durango, Pagosa Springs and to the North East the Wolf Creek Pass, all covered in snow. The land was by now quite level, but with frequent cliffs that stretched into the distance. One thing we noticed was the large number of oil wells in the area, Farmington is a real Oil Town.
By late afternoon we found a little RV Park in Farmington called 'Dad's RV Park'. We are planning to stay here for a couple of days to recuperate and gather ourselves for the next major excursion - Into the deserts of the Colorado Plateau, seeing places like Monument Valley. We think that Farmington is really the last place you can find an RV park at a reasonable price, from here on we think that we will have to be self sufficient for water and electricity - should be fun

The Great Sand Dune National Park

One of the pluses of our visit north is to visit the Great Sand Dune National Park, to the North East of Alamosa. We had figured that we could go and look at the dunes and then go back in a couple of hours, as we could easily see them from out trailer as a beigey patch of ground at the foot of the mountains. The weather had deteriorated and the wind was quite strong. As Sally and I were just getting out of our trailer a sudden gust turned into a vortex, which is a mini tornado, blew up a load of sand all over us. I had to hold on to Sally and on to the trailer as we literally stopped ourselves from being blown away. When the vortex passed we spent some time brushing sand from our clothes and our hair, not a particularly pleasant experience.
It took the best part of an hour just to drive there. Of course the weather didn't help, it was very stormy, with snow storms blowing across the broad plain. As we drove the van was buffeted by the wind and we were enveloped in snow flurries. However on arrival the sun came out for a while and everything looked fine. As we approached, the true scale of the dunes became apparent. At the visitor center we learned that the dunes we could see were up to 650ft high, rising to 750ft further into the dunes. We took some time to explore the edge of the dunes, appreciating their beauty, but not wising to climb 650 feet of sand dune. We had our lunch then explored some more, I took a walk across the flat sand to the base of the dunes (about 400 yards away). We could see that the weather was closing in again , so we took to the car and explored some of the land around the dunes. At this point it started snowing again, covering the dunes with a thin layer of snow. The effect was remarkable as the snow outlined the dunes, like gauche on a painting. Quite surreal in its effect. We just sat amazed and watched as the scenery changed before our eyes. When the snow storm had cleared the snow melted very rapidly, returning the dunes to their original sandy colour.
We left feeling once more that America can produce some of the most amazing and stunning scenery.
The reason for the sand dunes being there and how they were made is a fascinating story, which can be read about better than I can tell it. See Wiki

Back to the warm(!)

On Monday morning we said sad farewells to Sarah, Carl and Brianna and drove back to Alamosa. Our route took us through Fairplay, otherwise known as South Park (yes the cartoon of the same name was based here). We also took the opportunity to take a side trip to The Royal Gorge, just outside Canon (pronounced Canyon) City. Royal Gorge is a deep, deep gorge which has been cut by the Alabama River. Only a few hundred feet wide it is up to 1250 feet deep. At its deepest it is crossed by a small suspension bridge, making a very dramatic scene.
We continue to be bombarded by the beauty and sheer scale of the mountains and valleys of Colorado, knowing that no photo can do justice to the reality of the place. We drove back to the trailer, through the Alabama River valley, stopping for a lunch at Patties Patio Pancake restaurant in Salida, which we could recommend to anyone travelling through.
As we moved south, the Saguache Basin opened out and the snow receded up the mountain tops. We dropped by 3000 feet and arrived safely at Alamosa, where is should have been warmer, not so. The weather this time of year can be very changeable. We were OK Monday night, but Tuesday night was really cold. Overnight the temperature plummeted to 20 degrees F, freezing the water supply to the trailer, so we had to flush the loo with bottled water (now that's posh).
Still we felt reasonably snug in our little trailer home, probably because we had both heaters blasting away.

Fun in the Sun and Snow

We had a lovely reunion with Carl and Sarah and Brianna, as we had not seen them for nearly two years. They made us very welcome and we had a great evening chatting.
On Saturday, w woke to find that it was snowing again (abut 6 inches fell), but we braved the weather and went over the Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge to join in the celebrations marking the end of the ski season. We rode up the mountain to Peak 8 in the Gondola lift. Sally was very brave and made the journey as well (she actually enjoyed the views, but not the height).
The gondola took us right to the bottom of the ski slopes, so people were whizzing around us on their snowboards and skis. Sally and I sat on the big patio and had a hot drink, where we could see the antics of the Mascot Winter Olympics. All the local mascots came together for a bit of fun. There was the ski school mascot - Ripperoo, the Denver Broncos mascot - Miles, Dora the explorer (no ones mascot, but everyones friend), Beaver from Beaver resort, The Bird, from the airforce, The Easter Bunny and Bison, the local university mascot (?).
Well they all had fun running round the snowy slopes, showing off and high fiving and hugging lots of kids. It was a fun occasion, and you could watch lots of skiiers as well.
After this we had a wander round Breckenridge before a meal in Erics, downstairs.
Sunday we just hung out at the house, looked at photos, then Carl cooked a great Lamb roast, and we had Yorkshire Puds (no mean feat at 10700 feet).
We have had a great time.

Driving back into Winter

Our purpose in coming this far north is to visit our niece Sarah and her family, who live just South of Breckenridge. They live high in the mountains, where winter is still in full swing even at the end of April. Because of this we plan to leave the trailer at Alamosa and drive north with just the van to see them, stay for the weekend, then drive back down again, to continue our journey Westwards.
Travelling north from Alamosa we are still travelling through Volcano Country. The huge flat plain we are driving on is the Saguache Basin, part of the Rio Grande Rift Valley, a huge chunk of ground that has been made when the mountains to either side separated and opened up this wide crack in the ground, which is some 500 miles long and up to 50 miles wide. It is surrounded by mountains, much of which is igneous in origin and there are many calderas, volcanoes, igneous extrusions and exposed igneous intrusions. We have already talked about the huge lava flow at Carrizozo (Valley Of Fires), the revealed Basalt Intrusions of Heuco Tanks, the supervolcano of Valle Caldera and the Mount San Antonio volcano. Now we are driving on this great plain which is basically a giant outpouring of lava, ash and tuff (a combination of stuff thrown out of a volcano). Much of it comes from one supervolcano called the La Garita Caldera, which is to the west of
The La Garita Caldera was active about 40 million years ago. It has been named by geologists as the largest single pyrocalstic event (explosion and outpouring) so far identified.
Many may remember the eruption of Mt St Helen in 1980, which poured inches of ash onto the land for many miles. Its estimated volume of ash was 0.8 cubic miles. The La Garita Caldera is estimated to have put out 5000 cubic miles of materials, in one explosion. The only trouble is because of many other volcanic explosions the original caldera is not easily identifiable, the Valle Caldera is if you check it out on Google Earth.
Well against this backdrop of mountains we drove north, getting higher and higher, until we reached the snowline and Sarah's house.

To Alamosa

Alamo seems to appear quite a bit in town names: The Alamo, Alamogorda, Los Alamos to name but three that we have been to.
It is a Spanish word whic means either: Cootowood Tree, Aspen, or just little tree. Take your pick.
Today we packed up and drove notrth to Alamosa, a toen which we have been to before, in 2003 we rendevoused with our niece at the DQ (Dairy Queen) when we went with them to visti their cabin in the San Juan Mountains.
We drove north through some spectacular countryside. As we drove round the West side of Taos we could see back to the Valle Caldera above Los ALamos, the photpograph clearly shows its volcanic cone shape. It is classed as a Super Volcano becasue of its size, of course there is only the stump of it left now. We were also impressed with San Antonia Mountain, which is also a large extinct volcano over 10,000ft high. The slopes were covered in Tuf and Lava, some of it a peculiarly disinctive Red Lava.
We arrived in Alamosa, set up the trailer and had a well earned nap. After tea we went in search of the DQ we had visited 8 years ago, only to find that it has been knocked down and replaced by a bank. Never mind.

Return to Santa Fe

Because we enjoyed our time in Santa Fe we returned there today.
We visited the Capitol, which was interesting, had our lunch in nice public garden behind the visitors center and then had a good wander round the Old Plaza.
Spying a Hagen Daaz ice cream shop we were royally ripped off by being charged $8.40 for two single ice creams. The Plaza is the start of the Santa Fe Trail, so I suggested that there were still robbers on the Santa Fe Trail.
We came home and had a good kip, then ate another good meal at Chili's.
Now we are ready to move on up into Colorado as we make a brief excursion to see our niece and her family near Breckenridge.

Return to Los Alamos

Tuesday would be a rest day, so Sally went to get her hair done, we cleaned and did the laundry! Surprisingly we awoke to the sound of rain - only the second time on this trip and it lasted about half an hour. However it was enough to put snow back onto the mountain tops and by the evening the Rio Grande had swollen to at least twice the size of the previous day.
I had picked up on the Internet that there would be a meeting of the Los Alamos Historical Society tonight. They had the historian from Y12 Building at Oak Ridge TN, D Ray Smith coming to talk about the other Secret City: Oak Ridge. Sally and I had visited Oak Ridge in October of 2009 when we stayed at Raccoon Valley, with George and Kay.
It was a fascinating evening, about 100 people turned up, as Los Alamos is very proud of its short but dramatic history. There were many in the audience who had worked on the Manhattan Project, either at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos or Hanford. We listened as Ray Smith talked about the Oak Ridge site, the buildings, what happened there and what its future is. Oak Ridge was where all of USA's weapons grade uranium and plutonium were refined using massive cyclotrons call Calutrons. They were constructed during, or soon after, the war. However no weapons grade materials have been produced since 1964 and although the site was used to recycle fission material from all over the world its role is now diminishing and much of it will be demolished.
I also found time before the meeting to drive up into the mountain above Los Alamos to see the Valle Caldera, which is the third largest Caldera in the world (so the visitor center says, not sure myself). The view from the edge was quite spectacular, as were the views back across the Rio Grande Valley.

Santa Fe

On Monday we visited Santa Fe. Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico, which became the 47th State in 1912, after Oklahoma and before Arizona. It has the disitinction (all capitals have to be distinctive in some way) of being the highest capital and also having the only round Capitol building.
It is a fascinating mix of Administration, Pueblan culture and Art.
To get a good feel for the city we had a cup of coffee/tea in a pavement cafe then took a trolley ride, this took us round the Plaza, with its Indian street sellers, also passing the little office at 109 East Palace Avenue, which was used, literally, as the gateway to Los Alamos. New Los Alamos residents arriving would go in through the front door and out through the back door, where they were whisked away to the secret town of Los Alamos. Then round the unique circular Capitol and Admin buildings, including the Bata'an Memorial, which was very moving. Then up Canyon Drive past the 240 Art Galleries!, many of which displayed some pieces in an outdoor setting, mostly sculptures, as a non-artist I found that really interesting. Then out past the museum section to the famous sculpture of a wagon arriving at the end of the Santa Fe Trail, from Missouri.
Following this we had a lovely lunch in the famous La Hondo Hotel, where we were able to have a Mexican Buffet; this allowed us to explore Mexican food a bit more.
After lunch we strolled round the Plaza, looking at the Indian crafts for sale, some nice jewellery and pottery (no did not succumb to it). We enjoyed visiting the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi and tried to see another couple of churches, but they had limited access, so that was not so good.
All in all we really enjoyed Santa Fe, it has a lovely feel of being a cultural and artistic center, which I suppose neatly balances Los Alamos 20 miles away which is definitely science oriented. We have decided to return here on Thursday, so we shall add more then, maybe.

Los Alamos

Los Alamos! The last part of the jigsaw for the first atomic bomb. The Ranch Schoolhouse in Los Alamos is the last destination in the trail. It was here that the USA set up a 'hothouse' of American, British and European physicists to design and make a usable weapon. The Manhatton Project was directed from, and Uranium and Plutonium were made at, Oak Ridge,TN. The bomb was assembled and tested at Trinity Site, 20o miles to the south. But here in Los Alamos were the theoroticians, mathematians and designers who fashioned the bomb from a theory to reality.
Los Alamos itself was an almost deserted mesa (flat plateau) over 7,000ft up in the mountains near Santa Fe. There was only a dirt road up to it. A mall number of native americans and a private outdoors school were the only inhabitants. This was considered to be the place to build the second secret town (Oak Ridge being the first). Within months the flat mesa becasme home to 10,000 people, scientists, builders, security, machinists, logistics, teachers and families.
Los Alamos was so secret that its existence was not even known about in detail by the locals. In Santa Fe (25 miles away) it was known just as 'The Hill' by anyone who worked for them. Every piece of mail had to go through a single Post Office box with the address P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe. Birth certificates, marriage, certs and driving licences were issued to that address - driving licences did not have names, merely numbers. (see History of Los Alamos)
On Sunday we drove up to Los Alamos. This is a most spectacular drive amongst lava flows, cliffs, buttes and on up the side of the mesa. There are stopping places which enabled us to get out and be amazed at the breathtaking views (which of course mere photos cannot begin to describe) of the mesas, the valleys, the Rio Grande Rift Valley and the mountains beyond. We could easily see the Ski Valley Mountains behind Taos, more than 70 miles away (I checked on the map). We drove on into the town, which was very quiet. Stopped at the visitor center and laid our plans. There is a simple walking tour which we took, stopping first to have a cuppa at Ruby's Bagels, (alright - I had an apricot croissant as well). The tour took us to the Fuller Lodge, the only part of the original Ranch School still standing, past the Ashley Pond, punningly named after Ashley Pond II, one of the directors of the original Ranch School. We could also see the house where J Robert Oppeheimer lived for the duration. Unfortunately the original laboratories and school had all been demolished in the 60,s. We had our lunch in the garden infront of the Fuller Lodge, very pretty, with lots of blossom (yes our move north and upwards means that we are still in early spring, we even saw daffodils in bloom). From there we went to the local Bradbury Museum. The whole community is dominated by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which does a lot of basic research for the government, but those areas are still not open to the public.
By the time we had done all this we were both ready to come back, once again enjoying the views as we came back down the mountain.

Northern New Mexico

New Mexico is dominated by deserts and mountains. In the south it is deserts with mountains at the edges, but in the north it is mountains with deserts in the valleys.
On Thursday we moved to the north of Albuquerque and are staying in a small town called Espanola, we chose this because of its location.
Espanola is in the Rio Grande Valley, with Santa Fe to the South, Los Alamos to the West and Taos to the north.

Espanola
So on Friday we set out to explore Espanola. We found that the town is split by the Rio Grande, with the old town on the West bank and the new town business section and a pueblo called Santa Cruz on the East side. The main features of the Old Town was a plaza which had several nice buildings, a replica, built in the traditional adobe way, of a local church which is used as a community centre, a plaza, and a museum based in the local home of a tradesman called Bond. We enjoyed both of these buildings as it gave a good insight into the local history. We then enjoyed our lunch in the Plaza before coming home, via the Santa Cruz Pueblo, to relax for the afternoon.

Taos


Saturday was to be our adventure to Taos. Taos has been a beacon to us for some time as it incorporates a lot of things that we wish to see.
First is the scenery itself. To get to Taos we had to drive up the Rio Grande River valley, as we approached Taos the scenery became more and more spectacular as the mountains closed in, now high enough to have snow on their tops. The geology of the areas seemed to have a level layer of very hard rock, either volcanic or limestone (need to check), when the road was below that level it provided Mesas (high flat areas) with long ridges. As the road climbed it left the Rio Grande Valley, suddenly we reached the top and drove out onto the mesa, which stretched away into the distance. You could see Taos nestling under the heights of the snow capped Pueblo, Wheelers and Lobo Peaks which make up the Taos Ski Valley area. Across the flat mesa to the West you should see the huge gash in the ground which is the Rio Grande River Gorge disappearing into the distance to the North. we stopped to take photos, but as usual there is no way that you can capture the scope of this scenery on film.
We drove on into Taos and parked near the Old Town Plaza which was really a bit of a tourist trap, still we got our and had a wander. From there we went to the Taos Pueblo for a tour round this fascinating place.


Taos Pueblo.
First another short word about Pueblos, because as we travel we are learning more. From around the 10th Century a peaceful, agricultural peoples 'arrived' in the area of New Mexico/Southern Colorado. for four hundred years they lived peacefully in small communities (about 40 of them) from El Paso in the south right up to Taos in the North. They used adobe bricks to build villages. Adobe bricks are a sun baked mix of mud and straw. This is then covered with a layer of mud (see our visit to Albuquerque Old Town). A flat roof of timber poles with mud to seal it means that they are great as long as it doesn't rain! The mud layer is renewed annually, making the walls thicker and thicker and giving them a sort of rounded, melted look. These people lived quite happily until the arrival of the Spanish, who, as mentioned before, took advantage of them until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when they were kicked out. The revolt was led and organised by the Taos Pueblans (so they say anyway). To this day there are 19 Pueblos remaining. As a native American People they have fought for the return of their land, with some success. However each Pueblo is autonomous
so success has varied, Taos Pueblo has been able to reclaim some 200,000 acres of its original land.
Taos also has one of the most complete Pueblos, its original adobe buildings are still intact and are quite impressive as they are three stories high, the whole village is surrounded by a wall and it still looks like it was 600 years ago. (No electricity, water or TV). most of the Pueblans now live outside the village, but retain their property in the village. We had a fascinating tour given to us by a young lady who is studying conservation at the local North New Mexico University. This has really helped us to understand the importance of these people to this area of the south west USA.

Rio Grande Gorge and Bridge
After our visit to the Pueblo we drove about 10 miles out of Taos to the Rio Grande Gorge. Route 64 crosses the gorge and it is one of the most spectacular sights. There is a single span bridge 650 feet above the river, which just serves to put the gorge into perspective. As I have started to look at this area it has become obvious that there are some very interesting and unique aspects at play. The Rio Grande Gorge is part of the Rio Grande Rift Valley. The Rift Valley is a line down the Earth's crust where two land masses are being pulled apart, leaving a gap between them. The Rift Valley has also been subject to massive volcanic activity and there are various volcanoes, lava fields and igneous intrusions. dating back a mere 50,000 years. It is fascinating to drive through this countryside and see the raw forces of nature tat have been at work.

Earthship
Anyway, when we had looked enough at the gorge we wandered a couple of miles up the road to a small community called 'Earthship', which is a large number of houses which are built on sustainability principles, with adobe walls with bottles or cans as the 'bricks', lots of solar power and hydroponics. Very interesting, if a bit bizarre.
We decided to go home 'a different way', on the map there was a small road which ran down the west side of the gorge, this would save going back to Taos, so we went for it. It was a very good paved road. We could see the edge of the gorge to our left, slowly getting closer. Then two things happened; The road turned to a rough gravel track, wide enough but lots of loose stones and dust; the road turned left and nose dived into the gorge. We went with it! and eased our way down the side of the gorge, as the road twisted and turned down to the bottom of the gorge (650ft, remember?). Then when we reached the bottom we crossed a bridge and returned to paved road and we now travelling down the beautiful Rio Grande river, with high canyon walls, once again we were astounded by the grandure of the scenery. As we moved south the canyon opened out and became less high, eventually we met the Taos road and returned to the trailer tired but astounded by the scenery we had encountered.

Albuquerque

Albuquerque is the main city of New Mexico. It has grown a lot in the last 50 years as many people have realised that it has an almost ideal climate.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we drove into the city and sorted what we would do today. We then went to the local Whole Food Market for Sally to stock up on Soy Yogurt.
Today we travelled back into ABQ to the museum, which is just by the Old Town. They have a guided walk from the museum, which was very good value. The tour guide was an English woman, which was interesting. The history was fascinating. Starts with the Pueblo Indians, which just means Village People (No they didn't have a YMCA then). In 1539 the Spanish wandered in, coming back in 1590 to settle the place. In 1680 the Peublo had a revolution and kicked the Spanish out, but after 12 years they both realised that they needed each other (aah!)
The architecture is all adobe, which is mud and straw bricks. Because the material is weak you can only have a single story building (unless you make the walls several feet thick, like for a church). As wood was quite difficult to obtain and bricks need wood/coal to make then adobe was the best stuff. It was also a good insulator.
Things really changed with the coming of the railway in 1881. They brought tin sheets (rain proof roofs) and wood. They also brought ideas. So we see the architecture change dramatically - 2 story houses! roofs that didn't leak! building designs that owed more to East Coast fashion than practical desert dwellings. Unfortunately for Old Town ABQ the railway passed about 1 1/2 miles to the East, so the people moved, so Old Town stayed Old Town, while ABQ grew and grew.

A word on the weather. ABQ is at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert and is about 4000 feet up. It has much cooler summers than even 100 miles south. 340 days of sun per year and built on the banks of the Rio Grande, so plenty of greenery. If you go 100 miles north there are ski resorts, 100 miles south just desert. ABQ is built in a valley. If you want it cooler, buy a house in the hills. No wonder people are moving here by the thousand.
A fascinating city, with a great history. we have rally enjoyed our few days here. Tomorrow we move 90 miles further North, by-passing Santa Fe for the moment and stopping in Espanola.
Another word about the weather. Not only is it dry but we are still getting strong winds. Gusts up to 60 m.p.h. are predicted for tomorrow, hope we are OK travelling.

Driving Through The Deserts by the Rio Grande

As we left Heuco Tanks it was like emerging from a mystic oasis as we had immersed ourselves in stories of ancient peoples, Pueblans, Indians, Stage coaches and wagon trains. We now drove hard across to El Paso, which was an interesting place.

It's image is well known in cowboy films and books, quintessentially portrayed in the Marty Robbins Song of 'El Paso', which is of a dusty main street with tumbleweed rolling, with gunmen and cowmen moving from Rosa's Cantina to the Saloon and back.
Unfortunately, what we saw burst the bubble; we saw it as the following. On a dead straight 10 mile road into El Paso we passed mile after mile of scrap/salvage yards full of cars. No idea why, but this must be the salvage car capital of U.S.A. (on reflection it is a good place to keep them as they never rust in this climate.) El Paso itself was much bigger than we thought as it sprawls over 30 miles of the Northern Bank Rio Grande Valley (the south is in Mexico). We had a good view of Mexico over the River Grande - that's as close as we wished to get as there are gun wars taking place between the drug cartels in this area.Fortunately Interstate 10 ran right through it, so we we able to move quite quickly. I 25 branched off to the North and we reached the other side, only to find that there was now mile after mile of cattle pens, with literally tens of thousands of cattle crammed into them. We figured at first that they had been rounded up for slaughter, but no these appeared to be dairy cattle, living their life in pens about 50 yards square, feeding from conveyor belts and when the pen was full of droppings the cows were rotated to another pen so that the dung could be removed. Frankly it was disgusting, as was the smell. It was factory farming on a huge scale, but outdoors.
Eventually we cleared El Paso altogether, frankly I would rather remember the song than the place.
We now travelled North on I25, parallel to The White Sands Missile Range, but this time to the West of it. We were travelling north up the Rio Grande Rift Valley - mile after mile of desert with huge mountain ranges on either side, with the Rio Grande first to the west then to the east of us. You could see it easily, not because it was large, but because wherever it was, people had used the water for irrigation and there was a strip of green perhaps a mile or two wide. As soon as the irrigation stopped the desert closed in.
About half an hour up the I25 the road was blocked ahead. All vehicles had to leave the road and pass through Border Control (even though we were 30 miles form the border). We stopped and chatted pleasantly to the guard, showed out passports and were just about to drive on when he beckoned for us to move to a side lane. While he was talking to us a sniffer dog had been round our trailer and had found something suspicious. No problem at this point as we knew that we were not carrying Mexicans. However it became more serious as they asked for the keys to the trailer, asking me to step away from the vehicle. By now there were half a dozen guards, a dog handler, someone in charge, a couple of people searching, someone guarding me, standing between me and the trailer, and a woman near watching Sally, who was still in the van. They then asked Sally to get out, asking if we were carrying any cash, on enquiry he meant anything over $10,000. We would have laughed, but now it was becoming serious. We were asked to wait in room nearby. After half an hour, during which we worried if someone had planted something on us, or if somehow we had something which we had forgotten about, the man who had guarded me came back with our keys and said OK we could go, as simple as that. On enquiry it seemed that the dog had smelled something in the rear of our trailer, but nothing could be identified. They were of course pleasant and polite at all times. However we went on out way slightly more stressed than before.
That evening we spent in one of those places that have no meaning whatsoever, but you just have to go there. The place is known locally (anywhere in New Mexico) as 'T or C', its original name was Palomas Springs, in 1914 it was changed to Hot Springs, but in 1950 it voted to change its name to Truth or Consequences, which was the name of a popular Radio Quiz of the time. The name has stuck ever since. Although it is also famous for its spas and hot springs, it was not a particularly attractive town. We stayed at Elephant Butte State Park which overlooks a large lake - with the water level well below normal due to the prolonged drought.
On Monday we moved on to Albuquerque, following the the Rio Grande Valley. To our right (East) we could see the San Andres Mountains, where ten days before we had stood on the site of the first atomic bomb. We had now come full circle in a trip round the southern half of New Mexico. We had our packed lunch in the old town of Socorro. After lunch, spotting a Thrift (Junk) Shop and wanting some new books, we had a bit of an explore only to find that Socorro had a small but fascinating town square which dates back to 1598 (now that is old, even to us Brits). Apparently when the Spanish had conquisterdored Mexico they started to migrate north along the Rio Grande Valley starting a large number of missions and communities, more or less running the locals simply because they were organised. Socorro was one of those villages. New Mexico was part of Mexico until 1846, when there was a revolt similar to Texas, but more of that in our visit to Albuquerque.
We eventually made it to Albuquerque and arrived at our chosen RV Park - Enchanted Trails. We were now back on to Route 66. This park had been one of the original trading posts when Route 66 first opened, changing later to an RV Park. It is full of Route 66 memorabilia, there are 1950's cars and trailers outside as well, quite interesting.
Asking where to eat we find that there is as casino 6 miles down the road which has a buffet dinner special at $7.99 and it was very good. As we came back we could see the city of Albuquerque laid out below in the Rio Grand Valley.

Hueco Tanks State Park

After considerable administrative confusion we managed to get a site at the enigmatically named Hueco Tanks State Park.
We only expected to use it as a stopover between Carlsbad and Albuquerque, however as we entered the park we became ensnared in the timeless beauty that is Huego Tanks.
The S.P. is small. It is centred on an igneous intrusion/pluton, that is a huge lump of magma that rose almost to the surface, cooled and then the softer rocks were eroded away leaving it as a big lump above the surface of the desert. (a bit like Eyres Rock). One of its unique features, apart from the jumble of big rocks, with nooks and crannies and caves, is that when it does rain here (14" per year) the impervious rocks collect water in those spaces and hold it for many months. This in turn enables a wide variety of life to survive. It is like an oasis. The availability of food and water also made Hueco Tanks a magnet for people. So remains of habitation from 6000 years have been found. Part of the evidence for this is a large number of wall/cave paintings which date from 1000 years ago.
Boy did we enjoy wandering round.
Saturday the wind got up again (it is the windy month) and we had another White Out (like at Lee Oliver last Sunday).
I found a permanently dripping tap at one campsite and sat and watched as birds and a rabbit came and drank from it.
On Sunday Morning we took part in a guided tour of one part of the rock. It was fascinating to hear about all the different peoples that have inhabited the place and to see some of the rock art they left behind.

We pay our respects to El Capitan

We have now been in the Chihuahuan High Desert for 12 days, from Tacumcari, to The Valley Of Fires (lavea beds), then Lee Oliver S.P. (Alamogorda and The White Sands), Lake Brantley S.P. (Carlsbad) and here at Hueco Tanks S.P. In that time we have come to respect the desert as a harsh environment, yet one that is fascinating and complex. We are also appreciating not only the climate, but also the effect that the geology has had on the landscape. The whole area of central New Mexico has been subject to some intense land movement which has revealed rocks which are 350 million years old. The land has been shaped by water erosion as it has been desert for less than 10,000 years. Interestingly the major movements, which produced the Colorado Plateau (5,000 foot uplift from Utah down to Arizona, which produced the Grand Canyon) and the Rio Grande Rift Valley all happened about 65 million years ago (the time when dinosaurs died out). So although the dominant rocks are limestone (they form the major material for the big mountain ranges right up the Rockies) the valleys and basins in between are covered with aluvial sand of a variety of types. Limestone varies in hardness dependent on how it was formed. This with the major upthrusts and volcanic/igneous activity has led to some pretty awesome rock/mountain formations. The characteristic of these mountains is that they seem to rise abruptly from flat, valley floors. We have seen this time and again in our travels.
On Friday we planned to camp at Hueco Tanks State Park near El Paso, to do this we had to make our way even further south in order to get around the Guadaloupe Mountains. Almost the whole route (140miles) was dominated by driving round this most southern outcrop of The Rockies. The most dominant feature being a huge outcrop of limestone at its southernmost tip called El Capitan. From there the desert stretches all the way to Mexico in the south. El Capitan came into view within 30 miles of leaving Lake Brantley, we drove through its foothills to the Visitor Center and it stayed in view until we were about 20 mies from Hueco Tanks S.P. We stopped at the Visitor Center and enjoyed the scenery.
When we were stuck in Hickory Creek a couple of weeks ago we visited Denton Old Town, where we discovered that the Butterfield Stage coach line passed through on its way from St Louis to San Francisco. Well, we again found ourselves on the Butterfield Stage Route as we explored the Pinon Station, right under El Capitan. Because of the mountains and deserts further north the stage was forced to come this far south to provide a reliable route to carry mail to and from the West.
As we left El Capitan behind we crossed more desolate desert, including salt flats. Although this was a very good road we only saw a handful of cars on this stretch. One problem not mentioned was the wind, it was strong and against us. With a good wind and gentle driving our rig can cover 250 miles on a tank of gas. With a head wind that can be easily cut to 180 miles. However not only did we have a head wind we had to climb 2500 feet to get through the pass at El Capitan, go down the over side then climb steadily again for the next 50 miles. We could almost see the fuel gauge needle dropping. Oh by the way there are NO GAS STATIONS BETWEEN CARLSBAD AND EL PASO - 160 MILES! We arived at Hueco Tanks S.P. with barely a quarter tank left, and we still have to travel another 20 miles to El Paso, but I think we will be OK.
Although I have not described it adequately we were very impressed with the grand scenery of our trip from Carlsbad to Hueco Tanks S.P.

Carlsbad Caverns

Today we have visited what I think are the most famous and best caverns in the world. Carlsbad Caverns.
Known for thousands of years but only explored since 1898 and opened to the public in 1933.
They are still exploring the system, some parts are more than 100 miles long.
The part that we were able to explore is more than half a mile long, with a path 1 1/4 miles long, all in one cavern.
To get to it you can either walk in the natural entrance or ride the elevator 750 foot down to the reception area the bottom. It has a restaurant, gift shop and restrooms. Once we had oriented ourselves and got used to the 56 degrees F we set off. What a fabulous walk amongst the many rock features, stalactites, stalagmites, rock curtains, pools, high ceilings, huge drops, masssive features and tiny little cameos of rock formations.
Well we took three hours to get round the loop of the big room and had a great time.
We took many pictures, not all of them came out, but I expected that in the low light conditions. However the ones that I have published do not really give any idea of the scale of the caverns, but at least we ahve tried.

The Solar Laboratory at Sacremento Peak

After visiting the White Sands and feeling OK, we stopped in Alamogordo at the Golden Corral for lunch and then decided we would take a look at the Sacramento Mountains, which form the East edge of the Tularosa Basin. There were three reasons for this,

1. It was there and it would be interesting to explore the very different environment up in the mountains.
2. The National Solar Laboratory has its main observatory in a place called Sunspot, on Sacramento Peak and can be visited.
3. Our route with the trailer would take us across the Sacramento Mountains and we would be able to check out the steep climb to Cloudcroft, 16 Miles from Alamogordo.

in hindsight we should probably have taken a whole day for this, but we felt that we wanted to move on, so up we went.
The road to Cloudcroft is 16 miles long and climbs over 4000 feet not too bad in a car, but we were worried that the Chevy would overheat with the trailer on the back (in the event we had no trouble with the rig in going through Cloudcroft). The drive up was very beautiful and when we reached Cloudcroft we branched off to follow the mountain range south to where the Solar Laboratory is. We were now in dense pine forest, on a road which stitched back all over the place, evey now and a gain you could see down to the Tularosa Basin below, or rather you could have if it was not full of sand blowing in the wind. Even though we were in southern New Mexico we were now high enough that there was snow at the side of the road.
We eventually reached the Solar Observatory and took a tour.
The Observatory has a number of telescopes, all of them for looking at our sun.
Although the astronomers there do look directly a the sun and have done a lot of valuable research into the way the sun behaves, its atmosphere (Chronoshpere) and sunspots, much of the work is done using spectroscopes, where the sunlight is passed through a prism and broken up into the separate colours which make up it spectrum. This is extremely valuable for finding the composition of the sun, the fluctuations in temperature and what is happening on its surface. The big (I mean huge) Dunn Telescope can revolve the surface of he sun down to an area of about the size of a Continent! This means that it can record spectroscopic data of the edges of sunspots and the centre of sunspots and use it to find out more about the sun. Pretty clever. On our visit we were allowed on to the viewing floor of the telescope, unfortunately the telescope had to be shut down because of the wind blowing sand particles around. (yes the same sand that we had seen in the morning was blowing up onto the mountain, 5000 feet below and 2o miles away).
As well as the variety of telescopes there it also has a fabulous view over the high Desert Plains, just above Lee Oliver State Park, unfortunately the view was restricted to about 2 miles because of the blowing sand.
So although it was fun it was a little disappointing not to have done everything we wanted to.
On the way back though we did see a herd of deer, and for the first time a herd of Female Elk (no male in sight though).