Allspice Westward

 2/28- Three Rivers TX    We didn’t have far to go today so we took a detour to the Hill Country Natural Area. This is a Texas state park. We went on a nice hike and climbed to the top of this lookout from where I think you could see most of Texas. Well a good sized chunk of it was visible anyway.     The hill country slowly faded away as we headed southward with the land becoming more rolly. We saw large tracts of prickly pear cactus. Some of these parcels were just completely covered with prickly pears.      We had intended to camp at a state park near Choke Canyon but it was full. Choke Canyon is a dammed up rather large lake. Apparently they have been having problems here with alligators. They are being overrun with the large lizards and don’t know how to stop it. Maybe some of them have taken over the campsites?? You would have to be mighty careful swimming in this lake.     Interestingly when we stopped the other day at A...

 2/27- Bandera TX    The drive today started under mostly cloudy skies. It looked like rain but it never came about. A few miles up the road we took a left and headed east. The desert here was mostly sage brush and mesquite. We drove by lots of gates to the ranches with overhead metal signs and stone entrance ways.      After a while we noticed a change as there were more trees but the sage brush kept getting thicker. Finally entering the Texas hill country we saw trees taller than I was. Unfortunately none of the streams and rivers we crossed had any water in them. The ground was still rocks only they were a little bigger than before.      I notice on the map that the further east we go in Texas the more roads there are. Driving from Marathon there is one road and the towns along the way are spaced about the distance that the trains needed water. Now the towns are much closer together and also they look less seedy. The towns in the desert al...

 2/26- Del Rio TX, Governor’s Landing campground, Amistad National recreation area    From Marathon it was 160 miles of a whole lot of nothing. While it wasn’t flat it was just desert for as far as you could see and that was a very long way. We did wind through some hills so at least there were curves in the road but that did little to disrupt the flow of sage brush past our windows.      However around mile 165 we pulled off at a rest area which was on the crest of a hill. The view was a full 360 of desert for maybe 20 miles. Again not a whole lot to look at other than the sheer vastness of this place. We did stop to read a couple of historical plaques which talked about the railroad having to cross the Pecos River and how hard it was. I was finding that hard to believe after wading across the Rio Grande.       A couple of more miles down the road and we saw the big deal. The Pecos was at the bottom of a 300 foot gorge that the bridge w...

 2/25- Marathon TX   You would have thought the way out this morning would be a bit boring as we have driven this same road 5 times in the last two days. Yet it was interesting as I seem to see new things every time I drive. Today it was all about colors. The light in the morning has a way of bringing out the different colors. There was the dark red of the basalt rock contrasting nicely with the bright gray of the old ash piles. Then there is the blue green of the malachite and the yellow of some other mineral.  They all stood out and  blended together to make the ride a kaleidoscope.      We stopped to do a hike which like yesterday led us down into a canyon. We walked down a river bed which wound through a canyon. The walls towered over us as we twisted and turned. The end was having to drop down into a hole which opened to a large cavern. They call it a pour because if there happened to be water in the stream it would pour right through the smallish...

2/24- Big Bend NP, TX      Today we drove over to the Chisos Basin for a hike. This was not an easy thing to do. Everything here in the park is a long ways away. It was a 40 mile drive and we never left the park. I have put over 100 miles on the rv and are still inside the park. In order to get out of the park tomorrow it will take another 50 miles. Good thing I filled up before we got here because they do not sell gas inside the park.       The scary part of the drive was yet to come. The last 6 miles wound up to the Chisos basin but the park service said no rv’s over 24 feet on the road. Well we are 24 feet so here goes. The road was fine until mile 5 and after that there were 3 or 4 hairpin turns in a row. Now we have driven this van on some pretty scary roads and these were some of the tightest turns I’d seen yet. We did get through with no trouble but I think one of the cars coming the other way may need to have their seats cleaned after encounter...

  2/23- Big Bend NP, TX      This morning the temps only got down to the low 30’s so it was nice. We headed out to Santa Elena Canyon.        The mountains on the other side of the river are just shear cliffs almost 2000 feet high. Santa Elena is a canyon that just slices right through this seemingly impenetrable barrier. The Rio Grande is what made this slash in this wall. The hike takes you into the canyon and it is very impressive looking up sheer walls for 2000 feet. One side of the canyon is the US and the other is Mexico. The path goes about 3/4 of a mile into the canyon where it was very cool and out of the sun. The water is so shallow that you can wade across.        It was a very impressive place. We saw one kid who was about 9 or ten exclaim to his parents that he had never seen anything as beautiful in his life.        Once outside the canyon the river takes a long right hand turn and leaves a lar...

  2/22- Big Bend National Park, Castelon TX      We lifted off this morning and headed the 100 miles down to Big Bend National Park. The vistas were spectacular. At one point we drove to a look out and as we crested the hill we both said wow!! at the same time. It felt like you could see forever. There were so many incredible vistas that we eventually said we’d never get to the campsite. We finally settled on a 4 mile hike into the desert.        This was a hike to Mule Ears spring. Mule Ears is a large rock formation that kind of looks like two ears sticking up. These have been used for navigation inside the park for years as they are so distinctive. It was a typical desert hike through all the cacti and rocks. The trail sometimes would be just loose sand which was like walking on the beach. The spring at the end was particularly underwhelming. The trail just kind of ended in a jungle of bushes.        The campsite was the Cot...

 2/21- Alpine TX    Well we had some fun today by golly. We attended a Cowboy Poetry gathering. This is the largest cowboy poetry gathering of the year. I’m not a big fan of poetry in general but this was more like storytelling and music. In order to perform you had to be an actual working cowboy.  A lot of the poems and songs were all about cowboy life. It was all very interesting and fun. We saw quite a few good guitar players and some really good storytellers.      We also saw a ton of cowboy hats. I think we were about the only ones without a Stetson. People used this event to break out all their cowboy paraphernalia. We saw many multicolored boots, huge belt buckles and plenty of fringe. Even the kids were decked out  I saw a small boy with a belt buckle that he could have used as a skateboard.     We ended up spending the whole day at this event and it continued on into the evening. It also continues on all day tomorrow. Who would ...

 2/20- Alpine TX    We had to thaw out from the new ice age that is sweeping western Texas. Then we headed out into the desert again. This road went close to Fifty miles without a curve. We did start to see these white fluffy things all over the sides of the road. This went on for miles and we were wondering if it was some kind of flowering plant. We finally stopped to check it out— it was cotton. Apparently the fields we had been driving by had at one time held cotton. Once we got by the acres of pecan trees and the source of water the desert returned.       We drove into some mountains and there started to be some junipers mixed in and the road got twisted. We drove down into a large high plateau into the town of Alpine. We are again a little over 5000 feet above sea level.      We parked tonight at the Lost Alaskan rv park. When we called yesterday to make a reservation she said they were all full because of some cowboy thing. About 5...

 2/19- Van Horn Texas    After we thawed out a bit this morning we headed out into the Chihuahuan desert. I think this is Mexican for a whole lot of nothing. There is the occasional mesquite tree and yucca but mostly it’s a lot of dirt and rocks. It’s amazing that they try to graze cattle out here.     We did stop off in the oasis of Carlsbad where A’s folks lived for 30 years. We both have spent plenty of time in Carlsbad so it was fun trying to find their old houses. It took some u turns and backtracking but we eventually found their places and sent pics back to her mom.     Then off into the desert until we came to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We had been here many years ago stopping by on our way to Carlsbad. When we were in Carlsbad they had a huge forest fire that burned some 7000 acres. Thing of it was on our way back through it was hard to tell that anything had burned there being so little out there. The visitor center which th...

 2/18- Carlsbad NM Brantley Lake State Park    The day commenced with a ride through Lincoln National Forest. This was a really pretty trip with the junipers and cedars scattered across the rolling hills. The road wound up to the mountain pass and we crossed the Indian Divide. I have no idea what this means but they had a sign declaring it so…     We came into the little hamlet of Capita where we stopped at the Smokey Bear State Park. I was expecting this big park with camping etc but it turns out that it was just a single building in the middle of town. This park is near where they found the half burned cub they turned into Smokey the Bear. They have a nice garden walk which leads to the place where they buried the bear after 25 years of service to the National Park service.     We then headed down from the 6500 feet we were at until we hit the town of Lincoln. This is a town that is a recreated western town.  All the buildings are true to w...

 2/17- Carrizozo NM Valley of Fire BLM    We went from brilliant white to the darkest black all in one day. From the shimmering dunes of White Sands we drove further up the valley to find one of the newest lava flows in the US. The lava boiled up from a hole in the earth’s crust and flowed down this valley about 5000 years ago. The hill we are camped on was an island in this river of molten lava. You can still see the flow marks where it started to cool. There are big caves where bubbles of gas blew out. We did hike out onto the lava on a trail and the ranger encouraged us to step off the trail. They even suggested we hike to the mountain where it all started. Well first off it was so filled with giant holes and pressure ridges that it would have been impossible to walk in anything like a straight line. The lava is really hard and very black and a lot is covered with all kinds of prickly plants. It did not seem like a great idea. Maybe they are trying to Darwin some of th...

 2/16- Alamogordo NM    We found out today what it was like to try bike riding over 5000 feet. Alamogordo is built on the sloping side of a mountain in the Lincoln National Forest. So while traversing from north to south the roads are fairly level but go east and west and you run into some steepness. It didn’t take much of an uphill to suck the air out of my lungs. Fortunately the other half of the trip was down but even pedaling on the flat roads was deflating.      The section of town we rode through was higher up and thus higher priced homes also. The houses here while still only single story were bigger and mostly made of brick or adobe. There were plenty of churches, seemingly one on every other street corner.  There was also a spectacular view of the entire White Sands area from up on the hill. It was cool to see the strip of bright white contrasting with the dark silhouettes of the mountains.    Tomorrow we get on the move again. ...

 2/15- Alamogordo NM    I started the day with an urban hiking experience. The woman at the campground told me there was a grocery store just a couple of blocks away. Well the blocks here are huge. I guess I should have been alerted when she said it’s on 10th Street and we were on 24th street.     It was a walk through an area with small one floor houses. It’s very rare to see a two story house and a lot of these houses are built Pueblo style. A lot of the yards are crushed stone or just plain old dirt. Some yards are covered in concrete which is nice when it is 100+ degrees in the summer. Almost all the yards are fenced some with bricks and others with chain link. There are dogs in almost every one and sometimes 3 or 4 barking dogs. As I would walk down the street a wave of barking dog would flow along with me peaking as I hiked past.   In the afternoon we walked to a model train museum. We had no idea what to expect but we got a personal guided tour ...

 2/14- Alamogordo NM    We stopped and visited White Sands National Park this morning. We wanted to get there early in the day before the forecasted wind picked up. We drove in through these brilliant white dunes. The pavement eventually ended and we continued on this packed surface. We hiked out onto the dunes. It was partly cloudy and the clouds matched the dunes and with no plants or anything it was a complete white out. We hiked up and down some gigantic dunes. It was a trail in only a marginal sense as all we had to follow were stakes driven into the sand every so often. The wind started picking up and it was easy to see how you could get lost out there. There were signs saying it was illegal to remove any sand. I hope they didn’t check my shoes as I dumped out  a fair bit back at the campsite.      The dunes are not actually made of sand but gypsum like Sheetrock. So they are actually kind of soft and cool. They will even rent you sleds to use on...

 2/13- Los Cruces NM   We hung around the campsite this morning as check out time was 2:00pm. This park does things a backwards from the way we usually do things. Normally we are up early and get in to our site early afternoon. This campground won’t let you check in until 4:00. We only had a short distance to go today so we went for a long hike and then just killed time.     The City of Rocks is a truly amazing place. I do not have enough words to give it justice. I walked amongst these smooth rocks and could easily lose myself in the twists and turns. It’s kind like walking through an underground river after all the water is long gone.     The reason we had to wait was we were visiting an old friend who lived here and she didn’t get home until 4:30. We pulled in on time and had a very nice visit with Rick and Barbara who used to work with Alayne.     We are camped in their driveway which is right on a busy street so it may be a noisy ni...

 2/12- City of Rocks New Mexico     We pretty much used up this day. We started in Tombstone as we tried to visit the Boot Hill cemetery. Wouldn’t you know it costs money to get in. I don’t think most of the permanent residents paid the $6 fee. As it wasn’t open yet we decided to spend our money elsewhere.      On we drove to Bisbee Arizona. Now this is a bizarre little town. It is built right on the side of a steep canyon. It was primarily a mining town so almost everyone who lived here worked in the mines. Houses are literally carved out of the hillside. We tried walking around and got lost in the maze of narrow streets and walkways. There are stairways going every direction.      The main focus of the town is the mines which we found had a tour. We had to put our hard hats on and wore a lantern as we sat on this little train. Down into the mine we went with the tour guide driving us through the narrow passage. It was a great tour and ...

 2/11- Tombstone AZ We didn’t have far to travel today so we did some chores around the rv. When we finally did get moving we buzzed on through Tucson and headed southeast. I noticed a big change in the desert as there were considerably less saguaros on this side of Tucson. The further away we got the less of these gentle giants we saw. The desert was now filled with creosote bushes and mesquite trees. There were even pecan trees near the water.      One thing I’ve noticed about the desert is that damn near everything has thorns or prickers of some kind. I guess if you live in a tough climate you have to get tough right back. I talked to a guy heading out mountain biking and he gets nailed all the time driving by the cacti. You don’t just brush up against these things without paying the price.    We pulled into a “campground “ in Tombstone. I use the term loosely because it is just an empty dirt lot but it is only $10 for the night and it is within walking ...

 2/10- Tucson AZ   We spent almost the whole day at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. This is not your ordinary museum. They recommended taking no fewer than 2 hours to see the place. We were there for 5 hours and I would have spent more. They have live animal exhibits featuring a mountain lion, Mexican Grey Wolves, javalinas etc. They have displays of live snakes and lizards. There are large cactus gardens with many unusual kinds of cacti. There is a cave section where you actually go underground and they have exhibits on mining and rocks and gems. In addition there were random volunteers giving little lectures and answering questions. It was a really great experience.     We did move out of the campground in downtown Tucson and parked at an rv park just outside the Tucson Mountain park which is where the museum is located. One neat feature of this park is a large mound in the middle with a walkway that goes to a kind of lookout at the top. It was a spectacula...

 2/9- Tucson AZ    We started out this morning with a little off roading. We took a 20 mile loop drive within the park which was mostly dirt road. It drove through the desert up into the Ajo mountains ( pronounced Ah ho). It was winding and steep in places but nothing worse than we’ve seen already. It led up to an incredible canyon with steep sides and in the morning light it was quite beautiful.      Then off we go across the desert and an Indian reservation. There was basically nothing but creosote for 70 miles. We came around a corner and saw the Kitt Peak National Observatory perched way up atop a rocky crag. We would have loved to have visited but I’m not sure I would make that drive in this rig.      We pulled into Tucson and plopped ourselves back into luxury once more. We got a site at  a KOA campground reputed to be the best KOA in America. It is a pretty amazing place with several pools and hot tubs and even a chip and putt gol...

 2/8- Organ Pipe National Monument     As I ranted the other day about desert sunsets this morning showed me that sunrises deserve mention. When I poked my head out the window the entire sky was a deep orange which slowly brightened. Some blue sky started to poke through and finally the sun tossed a few rays out and it deepened to a nice red. When it finally peeked over the mountain it lit up the clouds to beautiful yellow and then we got back to our normal day. Whew! All that was before I got out from under the covers.      There were actually clouds in the sky today and it was predicted to be partly cloudy!! The clouds never became real clouds but it was just sort of a haze over the sun all day.      We hiked up to the visitor center and listened to a talk on pack rats. Pack rats can be a real problem around here as they will climb under your vehicle and chew wires to bring them back to their nest. I had always wondered why folks have ...

 2/7- Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument     We took a hike out into the desert this morning. It was fun walking amongst these giant cacti with their arms twisted into all kinds of interesting shapes. We walked until we came to an old silver mine. Copper mining is big around here and silver was a close second. You could see the big quartz vein that they must of thought would lead them to riches. We picked through the pile of tailings to see if we could make some gas money.      The sunsets here in the desert have been just amazing. Today there were actually clouds in the sky which made the colors more impressive. The sunsets seem to last forever as the horizon glows with teds and oranges for at least an hour after the sun has set.       We had intended to head north from here but it seems like the weather is conspiring to lead us southward. We can’t go much further south here but maybe eastward a bit. Even here next week they are t...

 2/6- Lukeville AZ   We putzed around for a while in the morning. It’s taking some time getting used to the new time zone so we slept in a bit.     The road went straight for like 30 miles. It was just miles of creosote bushes and not much else. This is desert here as well as a military training site.  They warned us at the campground last night that the ground may shake and you could hear some big booms. She told me this on the phone and also that it was on a heavy truck route, the trains would go by all night, and the was an airport next door. Then she threw in the part about the ground shaking. None of it was a big deal.     Anyway we headed through this military bombing zone. We did see a bunch of tanks but it was an exhibit of some kind.       We started to see a lot of these saguaro cacti. In fact we drove past what can only be described as forests of them. These are the big tall cactus with the arms that stick out. ...

 2/5- Gila Bend AZ    We stopped in Yuma this morning to pick up a few things and an hour or so later and a hundred dollars poorer were on our way. It took a few twists and turns to find a grocery store. Siri was desperately trying to get us back on track while Siri number two was leading us in the opposite direction. After the grocery store we saw a Goodwill across the street. You can’t not stop there as you won’t know what you need if you don’t look for it. Finally we saw a ubiquitous Dollar Tree around the corner and we couldn’t pass that up.    We finally let Siri one have her way and down the road we went. It was wild to be passing through miles of desert only to come over the rise and see green fields of lettuce and broccoli. There were many groves of oranges also. A lot of the landscape is just fields of volcanic ejected rocks with tufts of grass in between.      We pulled into the Sonoran Desert rv park. This is another nice though slightl...

  2/4- Imperial Dam, Yuma Az      Well I’ve been told that it’s been 140 days since any appreciable rain has fallen here. It looks like none will fall in the foreseeable future either. I’m not really very sad about that.        We took a walk today along the top of this mesa. There are rv’s everywhere. There are sections for the ones staying for 3 months or longer and then sections for the 14 day stays. Then there is us. This is like a small town as there must be over a thousand people living here now.       I also got on my bike and rode around. The terrain is more suited for a better mountain bike than I have. There trails and roads going all over the place. Of course it is so wide open that you can see where you have come from but getting there may not be easy. There are all kinds of dips and climbs and trails disappear from view only to pop up somewhere else.        The lake is a beautiful aquamarine col...

 2/ 3- Imperial Dam BLM site, Yuma AZ/CA      After partaking in enough luxury we pried ourselves away from the Fountain of Youth. The area around here is devoid of life. I mean even the plants that do manage to scrub out an existence seem to have given up. The salt from the where the lake had been has made this area a true desert. It is just flat and brown.       As we passed the town of Niland we decided to try to look up a place called Slab City. Slab City is quasi village set on top of some old concrete slabs left over from a military base. It is a kind of counter culture community. People who are not interested in societal norms are the main inhabitants. Unfortunately we couldn’t seem to find it. Siri directed us to an empty lot on some back road. So after chasing this down for a while we gave up and headed on our way.       The landscape changed here from nothing living to vibrant farm land. We drove by miles of hay field...

 2/2- Fountain of Youth Rv Park   This place is so big it should probably have its own zip code. We spent the day here today wallowing in luxury. Well it’s not quite that luxurious.     We decided to head out for a bike ride on some of the 27 miles of trails they have here. We thought we would get out early to beat the heat. We got as far as crossing the road and getting on the trail before we discovered that we simply could not do this. The trail was all loose gravel and narrow. Our bikes are not the mountain bikes that would be preferred for this terrain. So we tucked our tails between our legs and rode back to camp. Now we said let’s just hike it. The hiking was fine but again the terrain was all rough gravel and the scenery was not very exciting. After about 15 minutes of this we had seen all we were going to see scenery wise. Exercise is exercise I guess so we trudged along and got back to camp tired at least.     This afternoon we indulged o...

 2/1- Niland CA    We didn’t have very far to go today so we took our time rolling up camp. It was cool waking up in the middle of the desert with these huge mountains surrounding you.     We stopped in town and did some grocery shopping and then headed down the highway. That is no lie. We went down to around 240 feet below sea level and stopped for lunch on the shore of the Salton Sea. This is a huge lake, the largest in CA , but it is so salty that nothing lives there. It is twice as salty as the ocean. Because it is so far below sea level water does not drain out and when it evaporates it leaves salts and minerals behind. It now relies almost entirely on agricultural runoff to keep water in it. It keeps shrinking and more and more shore is exposed all the time.      We also drove by plantations of palm trees. Most of these are dates and this is where almost all the dates in the country are grown. The other palm trees we saw are California...