Petroglyphs & Volcanoes

Still following our plan to head north, we left Kiva RV Park and moved to the KOA at Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque.   We had a nice site and were somewhat amazed to see we had what looked like a lawn.

 

It was actually astro turf, but it made a nice change from dust.   We also had a reasonably good view of the Sandia Mountains, and enjoyed watching the mountains as they changed colour at sunset.

One of our first trips was to Petroglyph National Monument.

We hiked several trails the first of which was Boca Negra Canyon, which is considered the birthplace of the Monument.   We hiked to the top of the rocks, which although not far was surprisingly steep and very windy.

There were some interesting petroglyphs, including one that resembles a historic Latin cross.   The crosses are thought to have been made by Spanish shepherds in 18th or 19th century.

The macaw petroglyph.

From there we drove over to Piedras Marcadas Canyon, this is the most remote section of the park, the trail is 1½ miles long across soft sand.   We saw more petroglyphs on this hike than the others. 

These are just a very few of the petroglyphs we saw.  I just loved this little face, he looks as though he's totally bemused.

This one looked as though he was having a great time at a party.

Shopping for lunch.

 As always Kokopelli made an appearance.

This chappie appeared to be creeping out from underneath a large rock.

At the end of Piedras Marcadas Canyon looking back towards Albuquerque

We enjoyed our trip to Petroglyph National Monument, although to be honest we were surprised to find that suburban Albuquerque surrounds most sections of the park.

 

Our next stop was the Volcanoes section of the park.   It’s a day use area and by the time we arrived at the car park we didn’t have time to hike the trails.   Not only that, the gorgeous warm, sunny weather we’d enjoyed all day disappeared, the sky clouded over and the wind started to blow. 

DB looked at me as though I was mad as I hopped out of the truck to read the signs and take some photographs.   He was right, the wind was really strong and quite cold believe me I soon climbed back into the truck. 

Have fun, we are!

Still here - really!

In case anyone's wondered where we are.   We're still here, and haven't fallen off the face of the earth, we're just a tad busy at the moment.

With a bit of luck, we should be able to catch up soon.   In the meantime,

Have fun, we are!

Seviletta National Wildlife Refuge

Sevilleta (Sev-ee-eta) National Wildlife Refuge just off I25 at exit 169, encompasses 360 square miles and is one of the largest refuges in the USA.

  

The refuge has an interesting history, during his search for the fabled cities of gold, the area was named by Juan de Oñate in honour of the Spanish city of Seville.   At the end of the Spanish occupation the area became the Sevilleta de La Joya Land Grant, and was administered by Mexico and then after 1848 it belonged to the USA.

 

In 1928 after New Mexico became a state, Socorro County bought the land, it changed hands again in 1936 when it was bought by General Thomas Campbell who ranched the land for the next 30 years.   Shortly before his death the general formed the Campbell Family Foundation.   In 1973 the Nature Conservancy acquired the land from the foundation and today the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nature Conservancy work in partnership on the refuge. 

All different sorts of eco systems from high mountains, to wetlands, to desert make up the refuge. The visitor centre has remote cameras usually at watering holes in different areas of the refuge and you can see bears, wolves, mountain lions, deer, coyote all different types of animals.

We hiked two of the trails by the visitor centre, our first hike was the Nature Loop which is just over a mile long.  At one point we could see across I25 to the wetlands and were lucky enough to see what the biologist back at the reserve told us were elk.  The photograph isn't very clear as we were so far away.

The other hike we took was the Mesa View Trail which is about 3.8 miles long, the charming lady at the visitor centre recommended that we climb the mesa first as since all the rain last autumn they have a tumbleweed problem.   They certainly do!

 

As we followed the trail up towards the mesa we could see what, to us, looked like dried grass along the side of the path, but was actually tumbleweed, in places you could barely see the path, so it could’ve been quite difficult to see the route if we’d hiked down from the top.

 

Once at the top we walked to the viewpoint, tumbleweed was everywhere, we could see for miles and enjoyed the view from one of the strategically placed benches for a while before continuing to follow the trail around the top of the mesa. 

Eventually the trail led down into a bowl

and then along a small slot canyon,

the views were excellent and there were some very pretty wildflowers.

From there the trail looped its way around the bottom of the mesa until we were back at the visitor centre.

Have fun, we are!

Next Stop!

Our month in Tucson was up so after an overnight stay in Deming, NM we headed across the state line into Texas to get our annual safety inspections for both the truck and the trailer.

   

From there we headed on to Caballo Lake RV Park, it’s a lovely spot, we stayed there for few days last year, but what a difference a year makes!   Last year the lake was very low and there was hardly any water in the Rio Grande this year it seemed like there was water everywhere.   Last year we walked out past the white buoy,

 

we also had to make sure we didn’t get tangled up in this barbed wire fence, we didn't have to worry about that this year.

The next day we moved onto Kiva RV Park and Horse Motel in Bernardo, we took an evening walk along the road to the Rio Puerco, it was back to being a narrow dry ditch but evidence from the floods last autumn could still be seen on the sand.

Have fun, we are!

Highway to the stars

On yet another lovely sunny day we set off to explore Kitt Peak National Observatory.   We followed highway 86 until we reached highway 386,

 

we took a left and followed the road up the very steep, curvy mountain road. 

There were great views, and, unlike Mount Lemmon we didn’t see any cyclists.

The original way up the mountain was a 7 mile long, very steep, very rough dirt road that literally went straight up the side, the road is still there and apparently very occasionally someone will ride a motorbike up that way. 

The observatory, which was established in 1957, occupies 200 acres of the summit.   Our guide told us that Kitt Peak is the second most sacred peak of the Tohono O’odham people and is known as I'itoli’s garden, Baboquivari Peak, below, is the most sacred peak and home to I'itoli, the Creator.

There are 25 optical and 2 radio telescopes on the summit of Kitt Peak, and in 1985 the National Science Foundation signed a perpetual agreement with the Tribal Council of the Tohono O’odham Nation for the use of the mountaintop as long as only scientific research facilities are maintained there. 

Kitt Peak National Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) which is based in Tucson.  NOAO also operates an observatory in Chile and provides US astronomers with access to the Gemini North and South telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. 

The first tour took us to the 2.1M telescope that was built in 1964, which is still in use on a nightly basis.   

Our next stop was the Meade Solar Telescope Array

where we were able to look through a telescope at the sun and see sunspots and solar flares, it was fascinating.

Sadly we hadn't allowed ourselves enough time to look at the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope as well.

After some lunch I headed off to visit the Mayall 4M Telescope, our first stop was actually the car park where there is what looks like a concrete donut.

It’s actually an almost exact replica of a telescope mirror and is used when setting up a telescope instead of the highly polished mirror, just in case after all imagine something happening to the actual mirror! 

On the way up to the Mayall 4M Telescope we saw an open radio telescope being re-positioned.

The Mayall 4M Telescope

A model of a working telescope

From the observation deck part way up the telescope we had a great view of the site.

The observatory closes at 4.00 p.m. but if for any reason you were there on a tour and left after dark, then for the first mile down the mountain you can’t use your headlights, you simply follow the tail lights of someone who knows the way.  I bet that’s pretty spectacular and probably the longest mile you’d ever drive!  

On both the tours our guide was very informative and knowledgeable, not too technical and at the time it all made perfect sense.   At the end of the tour our guide touched on the expanding universe, dark matter and dark energy now, to me, that really sounds like something out of Star Trek!

Have fun, we are!

Escaping the heat and heading for the hills!

Tucson was getting decidedly hot so a hike up on Mount Lemmon sounded like a good idea.

 

As you drive up the Catalina Highway the views are amazing, Tucson never feels like a big city, but looking down on it you realise just how big it really is.

 

Although we cycle we’re always impressed when we pass cyclists riding up the mountain, I’m not sure I’d make it to the first corner.

We parked at the trailhead and set off along the Bigelow Trail, it’s a nice trail through the trees.

There were also some pretty amazing rocks in places, I’ve no idea what type of rock this is but the colours were gorgeous and I loved the way it sparkled in the sunshine.

Arriving at a cross roads in the trail, we walked a little way over and took in the view of, I think, the San Pedro Valley.   The dead trees on either side of the trail, are, I think, the result of a forest fire.

Turning back to the Bigelow trail, we headed up the final section before we arrived at the fire lookout and communication towers at the top.

We followed the road round the top and, would you believe it, there was a parking area with a small Fiesta type car parked there! 

The view from the end of the parking area.

A little way down the road

a trail sign told us that it was 0.7 miles back to the Palisades visitor centre, we decided to go back the way we’d come, because as we’d only planned a short hike we hadn’t bothered with a map, so if we took a wrong turn along the way we could’ve ended up in Timbuctoo.   I know, I know you should always carry a map, but………………….

DB went to see if he could climb the fire lookout, but it was fenced and locked so he couldn’t. 

We chatted to a local couple for a while before heading back down the trail, where we saw a sign advising us that due to fire damage the trail could have loose rock, it did and it was much harder coming down. 

Would you believe that chatting and not paying attention as we neared the parking area we actually lost the trail and ended up coming out on the road by the visitor centre?   I’ve no idea how we managed that so it’s probably a very good job we didn’t take the other trail. 

Another view of the Catalina Highway.

The temperature on top of the mountain was in the high 60’s when we got back down into Tucson the truck thermometer hit 93 it felt like we were driving in an oven. 

Have fun, we are!

In search of Oklahoma and John Wayne!

Years ago, after reading an article in Arizona Highways we took a drive through the Patagonia Mountains and San Raphael Valley, it was a great trip that included old mining towns, almost ghost towns and movies.

 

We decided we’d like to take that trip again, naturally, despite searching through my back copies of Arizona Highways I couldn’t find the details anywhere, luckily for us the visitor centre in Patagonia had a map showing the roads we needed.

 

From Patagonia we followed Harshaw Road and where the pavement ended we turned onto FR49.

 

Our first stop was the old townsite of Harshaw at an elevation of 4,850ft, there is very little left.

Across the road is a cemetery which is either very well looked after or still in use, I’m not sure which.

We continued to follow FR49 as it climbed up and around into the mountains, although we saw the side road to Mowry, it was marked as a primitive road, rarely maintained, so we gave it a miss.  Besides which after our experience on the Old Peavine road last year we’re a bit more careful about which dirt roads we drive. 

There are a surprising number of houses and ranches along FR49 so it’s pretty well maintained and we saw several Border Patrol vehicles, every so often we saw tyres chained together on the side of the road.  I seem to remember hearing somewhere that they're used by Border Patrol, not exactly sure why.

Further along the road we drove through Washington Camp, our next stop should’ve been the old mining town of Dusquene.   Would you believe we missed it, we reached a split in the road and I sent us left when we should’ve gone right and driven up the hill.   Ooops!

The next thing knew we were almost in Lochiel.   We only knew this because we suddenly saw the Cross on the side of the road commemorating Fray Marcos De Niza.   When Fray Marcos entered what is now Arizona on 15 April 1593, as a delegate of the Viceroy in Mexico he was the first European West of the Rockies.

There is an old school and church in Lochiel, but I believe they’re not open to the public as both on private ground. 

Lochiel is only a couple of miles from the border and at one time was a border crossing.   The crossing has long since closed, we did wonder if we’d see any sign of the border fence but we didn’t.

Following the road took us further into the beautiful San Raphael Valley, if you want huge skies, wide open spaces and rolling grasslands this is the place for you, it’s also where Oklahoma was filmed.   I entertained DB by singing what I remember (not much) of the theme song but he didn’t seem particularly impressed, can’t imagine why?

San Raphael State Park is further along the road, last time we drove this way it was closed, it’s still closed and not marked, so who knows if it’ll ever be open.   From the road you can see the ranch house which was used in the film McLintock, John Wayne used to throw his hat onto the weathervane when he arrived home.

From here we carried on following the road across the rolling grasslands until we came to a t-junction.   Originally we had planned to turn right and drive over Canelo Pass which would bring us out on the Parker Canyon Road.   Left would take us back into Patagonia.

In the end the thought of coffee won out so we headed towards Patagonia.   This road took us around the mountains rather than over the top.    Driving back we saw deer feeding on the side of the road

and then before we knew it we were back in Patagonia and enjoying our coffee.   We had a great day. 

Have fun, we are!