2009 – Week 4



May 7, 2009, Thursday:
We had a good night, and Daisy seemed better when I took her for her walk, but she wasn’t well enough to eat her breakfast. We gave her some meds and let her rest. We cleaned the RV and left the RV Park at 11:00am. By that time, Daisy was well enough to eat her breakfast. We stopped at a pet shop and bought more meds, then on to the gas station for a refill and finally to Cid’s, a small grocery store to buy lunch to take to Ham Brown’s and Martha Worthington’s house in Arroyo Seco (near Taos NM) where we’ll be spending the next 2 nights. We had lunch and then took their four dogs and Daisy on a walk. All the dogs were well behaved and had a good time. Returning home we just gabbed and learned more about the area. The road leading to their house has apple trees along it, and the bears come to pick fruit during the fall. One day, they were in the house, and a small bear poked his head through the dog door to find 3 dogs. The bear pulled back and that was the end. More excitement than I’d want. Ham has become an ardent geologist and has been able to increase our knowledge of the mountains. He has also made several hikes in the Grand Canyon into areas not well traveled. He made spaghetti for dinner, and then we went back to the RV. The full moon rose over Taos Mountain to the east and the few city lights came on in the west.

May 8, 2009 Friday:
Another beautiful day and as I was walking Daisy we heard a group of coyotes singing up in the mountains. Their good morning call lasted about 2 minutes. Ham’s dogs are inside the fence, barking and waging their tails at the RV and Daisy. Daisy is acting as if she is over the altitude sickness, and we have our fingers crossed. We went up and through the Taos Ski area in an attempt to hike the Williams Lake Trail (top elevation 11,087 feet) but were either 2 weeks too early or 2 weeks too late as snowmelt had undermined the remaining snow. I, being the heaviest, fell through the snow up to my knees several times. Susie, being the lightest, had the easiest time, and Ham was in the middle. Susie and I wore long pants, but Ham, being much tougher, wore shorts. Ham, taking pity on Susie and me, decided that we were not going to be able to complete the hike so we turned around. On the way down we saw 2 women trying the same trail but don’t know the results. We also saw a young man who had climbed to the top of Kachina Peak and skied down. We came back to Ham’s, had power naps, and then Susie and Martha went into Arroyo Seco to walk the shops while Ham and I reviewed the maps to show me placesnot listed in the guide books, to visit. We had dinner, and Susie requested that Ham tell us about his hikes through the Grand Canyon since 1965 or 1966. He has done numerous hikes over the years, some taking as long as 8 days. The stories were fascinating, and we enjoyed the entire evening.

May 9, 2009 Saturday:
A few low clouds obscured the tops of the mountains behind Ham’s house, but they were a nice touch. We talked, had breakfast, walked the dogs and then realized that there was really no time to dive to the top of the mountain behind their house and hike to the falls. The streams are flowing full as the snow continues to melt. We took our leave at 12:30pm and as we headed north from Taos towards the Great Sand Dunes NP, we were in the Punche Valley, crossed into Colorado and entered the San Luis Valley. We received a phone call from Diana who told us that she would not be able to get away from home until Monday due to pressures of her thesis and grading of student papers. We’ll meet them in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park instead. The San Luis Valley is between the Sangre de Cristo (named by a priest severely wounded by the Indians or a severely wounded priest who saw a bright red sunset, take your choice) Mountains and the San Juan Mountains and is the result of many millennia of erosion of the mountains carried by rivers and streams as they flowed down the mountains. Beneath the surface is a giant aquifer that supplies the area with water. As we were driving to the Park, we noticed several dust devils and dust from a plowing and planting operation. This valley must be irrigated from the aquifer. We came across a road information kiosk that I will try to summarize. Just to the northeast of the intersection of US160 and CO150 (leads into the Park) is Mount Sierra Blanc with a top elevation of 14,345 feet. This mountain is one of four sacred Navajo mountains through which the life spirits enter and leave this world. The others are Mt Hesperius (CO), Mount Taylor (NM) and the San Francisco Peaks (AZ). Dinetah, the home of the Navajo, t is almost centered on the area that is now ‘The Four Corners’. It was home until the Utes chased them to the west. In 1598, the Spanish arrived with horses, and the Utes became excellent horsemen, making them even more dangerous. There were no permanent settlements in this area until after 1851, and the Utes managed to keep the area in turmoil until Geronimo finally surrendered in 1886. A few other key dates: 1000-1200AD the Athabaskan and a bit later the Shoshonean Indians moved from the north into this area; 1300AD the people from Chaco (remember them?) visited the San Luis Valley; 1400AD there were Ancestral Pueblo (remember them from Bandelier?) villages along the Rio Grande River. All this history is starting to pull together. As we approached the Park, we could see the sand dunes, and while they looked big from the distance, it wasn’t until we reached the edge of the Park that we realized the real magnitude. We were able to take some pictures as the sun went down, and they highlight the size of the waves of sand. We attempted to camp in the Park, but the campground was full so we moved to a near-by commercial facility. We were a bit surprised, but after all it is Saturday. The sun has gone down, and the horizon was full of dust as the winds blew from the southwest, blowing more particles on to the dunes and moving them against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

May 10, 2009 Sunday:
I had hoped to take more pictures as the sun rose, but there were clouds and the light was just not strong enough to highlight the shapes of the dunes and the snow-capped mountains behind. Susie drew, and we eventually departed the RV Park and headed to the Visitor Center. We were told that the Park was full because many scout troops and school groups that usually came to the Park in April had been delayed by 2 feet of snow, plus this was Mother’s Day weekend. We selected a wonderful campsite. As Susie was preparing for lunch, she saw a big German Shepard walking around loose. Before she could catch him, he had disappeared. We started up the RV and drove around the campground, eventually finding him. After asking a few questions, people that that he came from a handicap-designated site a bit away. We walked down and after searching, found a chain leash wrapped around a bush with the collar attached. We secured the dog. The collar had a phone number. I called, hoping it was a cellphone left a message. We moved on to the parking area nearest the dunes and had lunch. Daisy was so excited because between the parking area and the dunes was water. Medano Creek runs down the east side of the dunes and carries sand and small stones from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It is snow fed and very cold. Daisy wanted to go swimming, but the creek was very broad and less 6 inches deep. Off we went and climbed up about 350 feet in elevation in 3/4-mile. Once we left the creek bed, the sand was as nice as we have experienced. Several times Daisy dug holes trying to bury a stick without any success. There were lots of ups and downs, some severe, but it was fun. Kids of all ages were sliding down the dunes and then scrambling up to do it again. Often they slide on pieces of cardboard brought with them. There were even some snowboards. The winds were blowing hard from the east, and there were signs of rain. NOAA weather had forecast rain in late afternoon and evening. We headed back, but Daisy had to have her last run in the water. When we returned to the campsite, she was dried off and Vaseline was put on her feet. They seem to be very sore, maybe dried out from the low humidity over the last weeks. She fell asleep immediately. She still doesn’t seem to be fully acclimated to the altitude. We stopped to check on the lost dog, and the people in the campsite had no idea that he had been lost. Oh, well. We took a rest, the winds died, and we thought we’d take a bike ride. However, as soon as I had the bikes ready to take from the rack, the winds restarted and the temperature dropped. Cancel that idea. We tucked in the RV and read for a while. Daisy still slept. We have a beautiful view of the dunes and the mountains behind. It would make a beautiful picture if the sun came out. The winds rocked the RV. Finally it looked like the clouds were clearing, but it fooled us. I guess that this area, trapped between 2 mountain ranges, can be fickle.
Susie went out to take a picture of the sunset, and it came out well. It appears that several of the tent campers around us have gone to town for dinner. As Ham Brown said to us, if you want to be a real tenter, you must expect some discomfort.

May 11, 2009 Monday:
This morning was beautiful. All the clouds had gone away, and the sun was peaking over the mountains. Daisy and I had such a good time that she told Susie that we should take a bicycle ride along the trail to the ‘Point of No Return’. This trail was actually a road suitable for 2-wheel drive vehicles, but when they reached the ‘Point of No Return’ the 2-wheel drives must turn around and the 4-wheel drives can continue with the recommendation that they have shovels and reduce the tire pressure to 15 psi. We though our new fat tired bikes would be great, and while they were better than our old hybrid tires, it was still difficult going uphill. When we got to the Point of No Return, we climbed a small hill and were able to see a great view of the Dunes and the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains beyond. There was also a very old and damaged Ponderosa Pine towering above the other trees. Ponderosas are one of our most favorite trees. The ride down was much easier, and we packed up to leave the park and take showers. We headed west and stopped at an information kiosk that detailed the travels of Lt Zebulan Pike who was exploring the area to determine the new boundary with New Spain. He discovered Pike’s Peak in December 1806 and the Great Sand Dunes in 1807. When we reached CO17 we turned north up the San Luis Valley before entering the Sawatch Mountains. At Maysville CO we turned west on US50 and started to climb, eventually crossing the Monarch Pass at 11,342 feet. This was also the Continental Divide. It was then downhill for many miles eventually arriving in the town of Gunnison where we had lunch and filled the gas tank. We also received a phone message from the lady who owned the German Shepard thanking us very much for our efforts. The ride along US50 was wonderful with terrific scenery including cattle pastures, overflowing streams, mountains and valleys. West of Gunnison US50 was on the north side the Blue Mesa Reservoir that is actually the route of the Gunnison River. US50 crossed to the south side of Blue Mesa Reservoir, and at that point we saw the Dillon Pinnacles. 30 to 35 million years ago significant volcanic activity occurred in the area forming West Elk Mountains to the north and the San Juan Mountains to the south. Later volcano activity in West Elk Mountains laid down a 600-foot deep layer of West Elk breccia on the older sedimentary rocks in the area. The West Elk activity was followed by eruptions of hot incandescent ash from the San Juan Mountains that formed ‘welded tuff’ and created a caprock protecting the breccia. Erosion eventually created the Dillon Pinnacles. There was a small sailboat in the Blue Mesa Reservoir, part of the Gunnison River.
We continued on to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP and checked into the Campground. While talking to a neighboring family who are home-schooling their children as they travel around the country, a sage grouse flow to the top of our RV then to the ground and walked away. Unfortunately we couldn’t act fast enough to get a picture. It wasn’t afraid of humans at all. AI took Daisy or her last walk of the day as the sun set. The sky was clear and the sky dark so many stars were visible. Only in the west do we get to see these wonderful sky views. Diana and Paul arrived at 11:45pm after an 8-hour drive from Sedalia CO. They spread a blue tarp on the ground, unrolled their sleeping bags and quickly went to sleep with Conrad, their German Shepherd, under the moon. We’ll see them in the morning.

May 12, 2009 Tuesday:
Conrad woke Diana at 6:00am as the sun rose, and they took a walk. When they returned I was up and ready to take Daisy for her walk, they return and the four of us took another walk. This was the first time they had seen each other, and there was lots of dog talk, probably waking some of the other campers. By they time we came back, they were pretty good friends, and everyone at our site was up. We talked, and Diana made breakfast. We prepared the bikes and started our biking tour of the Park. Susie and I did his in 2003, and it darn near killed me then because I was on a heavy beta-blocker regimen. I thought this year would be a snap. Wrong! We rode 7.5 miles from the Campground (elev 8,320 ft) to the Visitor Center and then to High Point (elev 8,289 ft) at the western end. It may appear to be a relatively flat route, but Diana’s GPS said there was a total 2,400 foot vertical rise by the time we returned to the Campground.




Susie and I walked quite a bit of the last section from the Visitor Center to the Campground, including a shortcut through the sage trees. The trip was wonderful. There were 10 viewpoints along the South Rime Trail, and we viewed all of them, just as overwhelming as they were in 2003. The viewpoints took us to the edge of the canyon, and we were able to see both ways. The view from Gunnison Point, just behind the Visitor Center, was one of the best, probably why the Visitor Center is located there. The trip took us approximately 5 hours and when we returned to the Campground, I took a nap. When I awoke from my nap, we talked as Susie prepared dinner. After dinner we walked the dogs and played cards. Closing quickly at the end, I managed to win. A bit after 9:00pm, Paul, Diana and Conrad headed to their sleeping bags, read a bit and fell asleep. So did we!

May 13, 2009 Wednesday:
A beautiful morning! Diana and Conrad took a run this morning towards the Visitor Center and return. It was about 2 miles, uphill and down. Ah, the energy of youth! We had decided last night that we travel the East Portal Road down to the Gunnison River at East Portal, a drop of 1,793 feet from the Campground. This time we used Paul’s Honda Pilot. We stopped at location of the Gunnison Diversion Tunnel that was opened in 1909. This tunnel is 5.8 miles long and drops just 8 feet. The tunnel still provides irrigation water to the Uncompahgre Valley, just south of US50. We were lucky enough to find a group of new National Park employees who were being given a familiarization tour. One year ago, a large rock fell from the cliffs above, missing the equipment and house of the person who maintains the diversion equipment. That’s Susie, Paul and Diana standing next to it.Returning from there, we returned to High Point hiking out to the end of Warner Point. We had a great view to the east of the entire canyon and to the west to the green fields irrigated by the diverted Gunnison River water. We returned to the campsite. While Susie, Paul and Diana took the dogs for a walk, I took a nap and was awakened by on old hippie motorcyclist on tri-wheeler touring through Campground with the golden oldie ‘Great Pretender’ playing full blast. The perfect end to a wonderful day. After dark we played cards again, and while I was leading Paul won on the last hand. Everyone went to bed!

2009 – Week 3

April 30, 2009, Thursday:
Without having a cup of coffee, we were at the Rocky Mountain RV and Marine store at 8:05am, but we managed to sneak in a shower. It was 9:00am before they were able to start the repair, and 11:00am when we left. The solenoid that switched the current (flow of electricity) from the car battery to the house battery had corroded and while there was a temporary fix possible, we opted for a new part. Susie worked on her blog, and I was able to do some computer stuff and identify grocery stores, vets (buy Daisy more altitude food) and gas station. We left Albuquerque at 2:00pm. We took the Turquoise Trail (NM14), the scenic route, and headed north towards Santa Fe and Bandelier National Monument. The color of the earth was a light tan and whatever rocks were poking through were the same color. The only vegetation were green juniper trees that didn’t look fit for any animal. We traveled through the town of Golden, and it sure seemed like a ghost town to us. We then came to Madrid, and I though this was going to be a minimal town. The first few structures we saw were railroad boxcars that had been turned into homes. Next we came upon a very active arts colony. There were metal sculptors, painters, fabric weavers and potters plus restaurants. Susie had pulled off to the side of the road to let some motorcyclists pass us by, and we saw them again as they were preparing to enter one of the three restaurants we saw. The railroad cars were part of the ambiance. We didn’t stop due to time and continued north, passing by Santa Fe, leaving it to starboard. As we had noted on our earlier trips, the highway departments have a great tendency to make many highway bridges and retaining walls interesting through use of paint and textured relief, unlike the dull and stogy structures in the east. We passed just south of Los Alamos, the home of the atomic bomb, and as we continued on NM4 saw numerous buildings and high capacity power lines crossing the lands. All these buildings were identified as LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) followed by a number. Goodness knows what goes on in these buildings, but if the sky glows tonight we’ll be sure to tell you. We finally entered Bandelier NM and pulled into a typical, but appropriate, National Park Service Campground. There is potable water, running water for toilets and a dump station. This is the first place in the last 2 weeks where we have not had electricity and showers. I mentioned to Susie that I finally felt like we were doing what we should be doing. We’re not really roughing it as the tenters are, but it feels comfortable. There is not much of a moon, so we should be able to get a good look at the sky, unless Santa Fe throws too much light. We are camped at 6,600 feet tonight, and tomorrow we’ll tour some of the Ancestral Pueblo structures in this site. The odometer of the RV read exactly 85,000 miles when we turned off the engine.

May 1, 2009 Friday:
I’ll skip all the usual stuff and cut to the chase. We had a terrific day in Bandelier National Monument and the Frijoles Canyon. We rode our bikes down to the Visitor Center and coasted most of the way. Bandelier NM has 33,750 acres of land but only 3 miles of paved roads. Bandelier is in the Pajarito Plateau that was created more than 1,000,000 years ago when the Jemez Volcano located 14 miles to the northwest erupted twice and ejected enough material to cover 400 square miles with volcanic ash up to a depth of 1,000 feet. The power of both of these eruptions was 600 times greater than Mt St Helens. We were pretty impressed with Mt St Helens last year, but 600 times greater? Overwhelming! Over the years the volcanic ash consolidated, but it is still softer than sandstone and has its own name “tuff”. Tuff erodes easily and the walls of the Frijoles Canyon have the appearance of Swiss cheese. There are indications that people have lived here for more than 11,000 years. The Ancestral Pueblo group in this area existed from 600AD to 1600AD and then disappeared. These people originally lived in cliff dwellings in the Swiss cheese walls of the canyon. As the Ancestral Pueblo became more sophisticated, they learned how to build 2 and 3 story additions against the cliff walls and finally to independent pueblos in bottom of Frijoles Canyon. There are also kivas, rooms built below grade that acted as ceremonial rooms and teaching centers. We saw the remnants of the Tyuonyi pueblo that had 400 hundred rooms and housed about 100 people. There are several large pueblos in Bandelier NM but are in the backcountry. The high point of the hike was Alcove House. As we were walking there we heard rumors of a bear in the area. Many of the children on a school trip had a chance to see it. A bit further on, we saw a US Park Ranger carrying a rifle that shot rubber bullets. Evidently this was a young bear and did not understand that wandering in the Frijoles Canyon was not acceptable behavior. Alcove House is a large room in the cliff face with a kiva meeting room. It is 140 feet about the canyon floor and reached by climbing 4 wooden ladders. We returned to the Visitor Center and visited the small museum and the gift shop. I tried to by ice cream but the store didn’t have any. We had delayed enough and started to return to the campground. Since we had coasted most of the way down, we paid going back. It was a 3-mile trip and the first 3/4-mile climbed 600 feet. We arrived at the campsite and had to wake Daisy. She probably slept all day. We took sponge baths and washed our hair to get rid of the dust. Did I say it blew out here, and there was always dust in the air? Susie made dinner, and we went to bed. I’m sure we’ll sleep well. There is some concern about the weather tomorrow, but we’ll adapt as needed.

May 2, 2009 Saturday:
The weather was OK, and we decided to visit a separate section of Bandelier NM, Tsankawi. There is another pueblo there, but it has not been excavated. The pueblo sits on the Parajito Plateau, a higher elevation than where farming took place. Once again this material below is tuff and not very durable, as shown by the deep ruts in the path. While the Ancestral Pueblo People had worn some of the tracks, the later inhabitants with hard boots have certainly done much more. Some of the trails were deep enough to cover half my calves. The pueblo had one or two stories and 275 ground-floor rooms. There was no water at the level of the pueblo, but there was in a stream that has become intermittent now that the town of Los Alamos exists. In the area of the pueblo, we found numerous potshards and left them where they were. We saw the remnants of a rock structure that is believed to have been a reservoir for runoff capture from roof drainage. As we went to the lower level of the south and west sides, we found many caves that had been lived in. When it started to rain, we were prepared to use them as shelter also. Luckily for us, but not for the locals, it never rained hard. The area receives an average of 15” per year. It is hard to explain the wonder of this place, and it was great that we visited the main section of the monument and learned about the area before coming here.

From here we went to the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos. This museum relates the history of the LANL and the development of nuclear science since before the start of WWII. Recently, the LANL has taken on other non-defense projects, but the focus is still nuclear weaponry and defense. As we tried to return to the campground, we found that NM502 went directly through the LANL main campus and was secured by a number of gates with armed guards. We thought we had made a mistake, turned around and tried again only to return to the same gates. We were supposed to go through them, but since we were a large vehicle that could have carried a bomb, we were stopped and searched. Daisy didn’t like the guard in his camo’s and wanted to eat him. The guard was fully armed and wore bulletproof vest (if there really is such a thing). We eventually were released and returned to the campground. Dark clouds have come and gone, leaving some moisture, but nothing like we get at home. However, the winds continue to blow, and we are full of dust again. We have prepared the RV to move on tomorrow and will visit the Apache Ruins National Monument over the next few days.

May 3, 2009 Sunday:
It was a beautiful morning, and we took the opportunity to catch up on stuff while sitting outside in the beautiful weather. We left the NM Juniper Campground at Bandelier at 11:00am and headed southwest on NM4. We noticed all the damage from the three major forest fires over the last 15 years, including the ‘2000 controlled burn’ started in Bandelier NM and spread to Los Alamos destroying 253 homes. There is still a partially burned road sign on NM4 pointing to the town of Los Alamos. We continued on NM4 and were able to view the 15+-mile diameter caldera of the volcano that spread ash over the entire area (previously described). A more detailed history of the area is as follows. 13 million years ago the Jemez Mountains were formed and a sluggish lava flow covered the area; 1.6 million years ago, the Toledo eruption blew the top off the top of the mountain; 1.2 million years ago the Valles eruption occurred removing 50 million cubic miles of material (the ash has been found as far away as Lubbock TX). The caldera today has a bottom consisting of 5,000 feet of ash and debris. These numbers seem overwhelming to me, but they came from information boards on the rim of the caldera. The numbers also differ from others we have seen, and I have talked about so I need to do some more research. The Valles Caldera National Preserve was established in 2000 and is run by Valles Caldera Trust with seven members appointed by the President of the US, five of whom must be residents of New Mexico. It seems a bit convoluted, but the owner of the 89,000-acre Baca Ranch in the caldera wanted to preserve the land but was unwilling to let the government operate it as a typical National Park. Today the area is still a ranch and a place with limited public access to keep it as natural as possible. We saw a herd of elk, but surely there are more species out there. The caldera is at elevation 9,000 feet, and the aspen trees have not yet started to leaf, whereas we saw aspen trees fully leafed out at 7,000 feet. We continued on NM4 through the Jemez Mountains and came upon a very different rock structure that had been named Battleship Rock. It caught us by surprise, and we had to make a u-turn and approach it from the southwest to really appreciate its mass and difference. This part of the trip was through the Santa Fe National Forest Recreation Area where there are numerous pull-offs for hiking trailheads and river access for fishing. Everyone seems to love fishing here. Next we stopped at the Hemez State Monument in the town of Jemez Springs. This small town is the location of the ruins of a Catholic Church complex created by the Franciscans in 1621. It is also the site of an operating monastery. As we toured the ruins, we noticed a sign that said ‘Please respect the privacy of the rattlesnakes, stay on the path’. That said it all! We continue through ????Pueblo, and then turned right (northwest) on US550, a 4 lane undivided highway that continues to Durango CO and beyond. This highway was beautiful and gave us the opportunity to see the colors of the rocks and soil change from brown to red to tan to black and often all of the above at one time. Continuing northwest to Bloomfield NM, we by-passed Chaco National Historic Park (previously visited 2003). We passed a NM State Trooper who had pulled over a car. If this car was speeding, it must have been almost flying, as the limit was 70mph. We had hoped to stop at Angels Peak NRA to camp, but discovered that it would require driving 15 miles on a dirt road in and then 15 miles on the same road out. No thanks, been there and done that in previous years. The area around Bloomfield is active with oil field and natural gas exploration and production and all the associated suppliers. We found a RV Park in Bloomfield. Susie cut my hair, and we washed clothes while we had the opportunity. It seems easier to wash 3 loads than wait and wash 6 at a time.

May 4, 2009 Monday:
We had good wifi at the RV Park if we walked up near the office. Susie finished her blog and posted the results. I washed some of Daisy’s sheets and pads, and now all the laundry is done for the time. We left the RV Park at 11:00am and drove 8 miles to the Aztec Ruins National Monument. After these ruins took this name, it was discovered that the Aztec people had nothing to do with the construction. Current thinking is that the Ancestral Pueblo People from Chaco Canyon, 55 miles south, were instrumental in the construction of this pueblo in the late 11th century. The stone masonry patterns are definitely from Chaco Canyon.
This pueblo was abandoned late in the 13th century with the people moving towards the Rio Grande River for a more sustainable source of water. After a while more Ancestral Pueblo people came south from Mesa Verde, and repaired and expanded the construction with their distinctive masonry pattern. The large kiva has been restored so that for the first time we have seen actual construction, not just drawings. The Aztec Ruin National Monument is a World Heritage Site.

We had lunch and then headed south to the Salmon Ruins, so named for the family who lived here for many years, starting in the 1890’s. This family protected the Ancestral Pueblo site known as the Salmon Ruins. People from Chaco Canyon, beginning in the late 11th century, constructed this site. The site was abandoned in the late 13th central for the final time. This facility is a great source of information, and we finally have come to believe that the people from Chaco Canyon had the greatest influence on the Ancestral Pueblo People in what is now called ‘The Four Corners’. By the way, we read in the newspaper about a week ago that the monument marking the intersection of AZ, NM, CO and UT is off by about 1,800 feet. We left Salmon Ruins and headed east to Navaho Lake SP.
Unfortunately, there appeared to be some sort of confusion with both the NM State Road Map and the Garmin GPS. We crossed the dam creating the lake and found a campground. We were able to talk to some other campers, and so I feel reasonably confident that we’ll be able to get back on track towards Arroyo Seco NM. The views from the campsite were wonderful, but the sun went down over the hills too quickly.


May 5, 2009 Tuesday:
We decided last night to get an early, but not too early to talk to stop by the Visitor Center to get our route straight. We had wondered yesterday why there was a large area right in the middle of the campground surrounded by a pipe rail fence and then chain-link fence with green plastic slats to prevent people from viewing the inside. I thought I heard a railroad in the way distance last night, but when I was taking Daisy for a morning walk I notice a few signs indicating a buried natural gas pipeline and so I think there is some sort of equipment associated with the pipeline inside the fence. Another mystery solved! We left at 9:00am and verified the directions and confirmed that Gabby Garmin was wrong! Another message to Garmin is in the works. We drove over the dam on a very narrow 2-lane road without any guardrails on either side. If we One mistake and we would either drown or be crushed as the RV went down the back face of the dam. I decided that I would take my half of the road out of the middle. There was no water flowing over the spillway, but Susie thought it would make a great waterslide! Yesterday and today we noticed that all the oil service trucks carried flags on whip poles and wondered what they signified. We were told that the red flag was a warning flag because there have been numerous head-on crashes on the dirt roads servicing the fields. The grey flag was an indicator that the truck had permission to be on private land. These flags weren’t very big so we’re not sure how effective they are. The road (US64) we traveled was a good road and had very scenic views on both sides. Unfortunately there were no place to pull over to take photos of the buttes and mountains beyond (to north). The San Juan Mountains top out at about 12,500 feet and we estimate that the snow level is at 9,000 feet. It will eventually melt, but after we are gone. We are headed towards Taos and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that top out at 12,000 feet. A few days ago, when we were in Bandelier, we had a bit a rain, but these two ranges had snow. We stopped for breakfast in the Morningstar Café, just east of Dulce and outside the Apache Indian Reservation. It was a great place, and we were treated as royalty. We guessed they don’t get too many out-of-towners. We continued east towards Chama, the terminus of a steam drive tourist train. We would have taken it, but they don’t start operating until Memorial Day. We turned south through Brazos and then into Los Ojos (probably not on your map) to visit Tierra Wools. This is a local company that makes beautiful woven blankets, but we were not buying. We finished the day by settling in at Heron Lake SP at 1:00pm after driving 104 miles. I took Daisy for two swims and then gave her a bath. Susie’s altitude sickness has kicked in again so she is a bit slow. We are at elevation 7,200 feet. She has restarted taking her med’s.

May 6, 2009 Wednesday:
Beautiful morning here on Heron Lake. Not a cloud in the sky and just a gentle breeze. We had coffee at the picnic table overlooking the lake and tried to take pictures of the waterfowl. We’ll see how that effort turns out. We took Daisy for a walk at the edge of lake without her being on a lease. She was good for a time, but soon the pull of the water was more than she could take so in she went. Since Susie was in control she had the honor of washing Daisy when we returned to the RV. We had breakfast, took showers and serviced the RV before heading west on US64 through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on our way to Taos. There was snow on all the mountaintops. We knew we were in for an interesting trip when a road sign said ‘Chains required beyond this point’. Up we went from 7,200 feet all the way to 10,550 feet. At 10,000 feet there were still patches of snow, and by the time we reached 10,550 feet, the snow covered more than there was bare. We stopped at a wonderful overlook where we were able to read a very faded sign identifying the terrain. In front of us were the Brazos Cliffs (top elevation 10,500 feet) that form the western edge of the Tusas Mountains.
The 1.7 billion year old rock is pre-Cambrian quartz. It was at this point that Daisy aversion to altitude caused her to lose her breakfast, even though we thought we had been very careful with what she ate. We had planned to camp at Hopewell Lake at 9,800 feet, but decided that we needed to push on for Taos at 7,000 feet. As we headed down, the snow began to melt, and the rushing water flooded the fields as it headed east towards the Rio Grande. I think the earth beneath the surface was still frozen because there was much standing water in areas. We passed an area west of Taos where there are numerous houses built into the ground. None of them appeared to be connected to the electric grid, but we didn’t see any solar panels and only one small wind turbine. We then passed over the fast flowing Rio Grande River.
I read that the bridge is 650 feet above the water, and looking down, that is not hard to believe. We pulled into the RV Park and completed washing the laundry. It took Daisy a while, but she began to look better around 7:00pm, so we hope she’ll be OK. The sky is clear and the moon almost full. It should be a great night for sleeping!