In the Clouds

We are just north of Carlsbad New Mexico.  after spending a few days in Texas at Guadalupe mountains National park, we are finally beginning our spring northern migration which will eventually take us to Oregon sometime in June about 2 months from now.  Been living full time in RV for past 10 months.  Amazing huh?

We awaken to overcast skies at Brantley State Park

Geography lesson:  Getting from Carlsbad to Alamagordo requires travel over or around  9000+ mountain range.  We will travel over it and camp at 8600 ft Friday night.  Woo hoo.  Forests again instead of desert

gradual grade increase heading west to Cloudcroft

We head up the narrow winding roads gradually from 3300 ft to 8,000 ft elevation where we find out campsite in a back canyon where Elk are known to come through.  

Our new campsite in the forest

 We saw the fresh Elk droppings by no elk.  It rained hard and fast for a short time last night.  Smells so good out in the forest this morning (Saturday). We are truly in the clouds here.  Reminds me of Sierra Foothills.

We hike the trestle trail.  3 miles  600 ft elevation gain and descent.

We set up camp then head up the hill to Cloudcroft, elevation 8,650 ft,  a small high mountain destination place in the summer for those seeking refuge from the heat in the desert below.

We select a short yet moderately strenuous hike over the trestle trail.

We hike down to the end of Mexican Canyon Trestle.

 It descends into the western canyon about 600 ft where we see remains of several trestles built back in the late 19th century by the Alamagordo and Sacramento Mountains Railway, to bring timber down off the mountain for other parts of the railroad empires.  The route was 32 miles up the mountain featuring grades upt o6.4% and more than 30 trestles.  Quite a feat.

Mexican Canyon Trestle from other end by higway.

 Tired from the hike, especially in the high altitude, we go back and rest in the quiet evening.

We pack up and head out after leisurely morning to Alamagordo and White Sands. down a 14 mile steep 6+% grade.

Future Plans and Directions

We will arrive Santa Fe next Friday or so.  Turns out there is an RV service company in Santa Fe who is certified by our Tiffen, our RV builder so we need the 5000 mile checkup on motor and chassis, and want AC, water heater, etc checked out and serviced.  We decided not to extend our warranty beyond August, choosing to be pro-active in preventive maintenance.  So we will be there over the weekend to attend Saturday market,  tour around and get work done.  They have place we can actually park the RV and stay in it overnight if necessary.  What a deal!

We just committed also to be in Salt Lake City area by May 10 to help Sraddha's nephew-in-law and family move into their new home on south side.  So we will let the weather somewhat dictate our route from Santa Fe to Salt Lake City of that 10-11 day stretch.

Spring cleaning

What an interesting few days.  Easter is upon us and our experience is that people flock to campgrounds during Easter which is actually later than usual.  We are not trying to plan very much so as to enjoy wherever we are and take advantage of not being on a schedule to make impromptu decisions.

our little campsite near the lake.....

Sounds wonderful?  Not so fast my friend.  My mind has been habituated for many, many years to plan ahead. Thinking about Easter weekend is no different.  Where will we stay?  Will we have to park at Walmart?  Don't kid yourself.  These thoughts do run through the mind.  Even in the minds of us relaxed full timers.  Guess I am not yet seasoned enough.

Detailed cleaning of every crack and crevice

So we break our "rule" and make a reservation at Brantley Lake state park north of Carlsbad, for Friday and Saturday nights, figuring if need be we could extend if need be. Then we had second thoughts, of course!  So we changed the reservation to Wednesday and Thursday.  No refunds, no charge for changing pending availability.

Working over the back side waste compartment and hoses

We arrive at Brantley lake SP (See previous post) and decide to depart after one night.  We get up next morning and realize we have a number of phone calls and email and other things to do while we have cell service and good internet.  The day progresses and all of a sudden it is almost noon.  Where has the day gone?  We pack up and get ready to take off.

Dry washing the outside
(and inside) front window.

Sraddha asks whether I would just like to take the rest of the day to rest and do internet stuff.  No, I say, let's go.  We are all packed up, slides in, levelers up and I say, "let's stay"  Late in the day with 3+ hours of driving we would arrive in Cloudcroft too late to do much. And tonight is already paid for (we both remarked being budget conscious).

Ok, she says. We haven't cleaned the rig in a while since she returned from Oregon.  Well, I had cleaned the rig before she arrived and you know it could have been better...

We put down the levelers, out go the slides, we hook up and spend next 4 hours cleaning.  Glad we did.  We cleaned out the waste water compartment with bleach to reduce odors, washed and dusted everything.  EVERTHING was dusty from the trail.  Desert is like that.  I vacuumed, we ate a wonderful lunch then settled in late in afternoon for a Skype call with a dear friend and had dinner, very content that we got the dreaded cleaning project out of the way for a few more weeks.

We stop for a nice big salad at lunch

Ready to head out early in the morning!
Update the next morning (aka now).  We awake to the pitter patter sound of tiny rain drops.  Oh no, my clean windshield!  We find dead little gnats all over the counters. I had heard them flying inside late at night while reading.  Didn't expect them to die overnight.  Sraddha thinks it's Divine Mother's little joke.  Happy Good Firday!

Northern Migration - Brantley Lake

After our hike to Devil's Hole we began our northern migration. Headwinds all the way so we don't push it.  We drive 55-60 in a 75 mph road and everyone passes us of course.  Fortunately it was 4 lane clear to Carlsbad

Our route.  only 71 miles.  Woo Hoo

We stop in Carlsbad at Walmart to pick up some fresh filtered water, shop for avocado's.  Although not organic but sometimes you can't be picky.  RVing has made us converts to Walmart....to a point.  While we are not happy with how they have displaced many small business 

On the road.  looks like west Texas doesn't it?

 We also look for bread at an Albertsons, and discover they don't carry any of the preferred breads.  nor any organic produce.  Hmm. Time to move on from here fast.

Entrance to Brantley Lake State Park

We drive another 10 miles north to turnoff, then another 8 miles out to the "lake"  It's is one of those Corps of Engineers dams across the Pecos River.

Geography lesson for the dayDid you know the Pecos River has its headwaters in northeastern New Mexico?  The headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, just east of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  This mountain range extends from the Rockies up north all the way down into Mexico.  We just discovered that we will need to cross over them soon.  More on that later.

Campsite #15.  Ok with a "lake view"

We find our campsite and the winds picks up.  We decide to cook, eat, and rest inside tonight.  The next morning, I met a man whose tent poles broke in the windstorm overnight and he and his family (wife and 4 kids) spent the night in the Walmart parking lot sleeping in their truck.  They came back to pick up the pieces after they went to the Caverns.  Yikes.

I said to him: "I have two words for you......... R V!"

Glad we were inside last night. 

The Devil's Hall

Before we departed Guadalupe Mountains National Park after 3 nights of camping, we decided one more hike.  We elected to head west from campground up the canyon below Guadalupe Peak to the "Devil's Hall", supposedly a limestone slot canyon.  Really?  Let's go see..  All photos are with iPhone.

Sunrise over campground

 Where these names are derived is baffling to me.  In Death Valley there is "Devil's Golf Course".  Maybe the Devil comes to his hall here to lick his wounds after shooting 20 over par like the rest of us.

Yucca Flower

 We stop and look at this interesting yucca plant flower blooming  BIG

Yucca Flower again

 Pretty open in bottom of canyon.  It gets narrower and narrower

Up the canyon we go

 One mile into the hike we are not hiking up the river bed for next 1.1 miles.  

River Bed 

 Lots of bouldering here.  Glad we brought our hiking poles.  Saw lots of people on trail.  few with poles.  We will be sore but not as sore as they will be.

interesting flower growing out of river rock

 Looking up at peaks above.  We are hiking at roughly 5900 ft elevation up to 6700 ft

North Canyon Wall

 Now you don't see trees like this very often.

Alligator Juniper in perfect gymnast split position

 We keep walking.  Cairns were set up to note the path through the river bed. Giant boulders had to be gone around.

More river Bed

 Lots of these lizards and butterflies.  A few birds

Cute lizard.  we saw many

 We turn back 180 degrees up the canyon and think we are at our destination when we see this cool limestone wall.

Wow.  Cool limestone wall here.

 We decide to keep going.  Not sure how much further trail goes.  Let's find out.

Still going

WOW.  The Devil's Hall.  Limestone Slot Canyon.

Devil's Hall

 At the other end of canyon is this.  Whew.  Now we can say we hike to the end of the trail.

End of Trail

 Looking back we see the canyon again.

looking back on Devil's Hall

 We enjoy the moment,  look at the time and decide to head back down.  We made good time, about half of the trip up.  Tired and satisfied we are ready to begin our northern migration

Returning to campground below

So we end our Texas experience and head towards points north.  Stay tuned

And Down, Down We Go...Into the Depths - Carlsbad Caverns

You gotta really want to visit Carlsbad to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park   It is way out of the way.  So is Guadalupe Mountains National Park and fortunately the two are near each other.
All the photos below were shot with my iPhone using the Pro HDR app.  Too much hassle to use big camera, etc.  Really worked well.

Yesterday we drove north about 35 miles to see the famous Caverns.   I  wanted to get my Passport stamped and Yogananda had visited here back in early 20th century. The caverns didn't disappoint.

The geology is quite interesting. 

Running west rom SE New Mexico then south into NW Texas is this 250 million year old ridge of a dead undersea coral reef from Permian Geologic Period.

Ye olde' Permian Period Layers I think

The sea went away, the reef got covered up then the ridge lifted back up like so many other mountain ranges in the west.

The main difference here is this fold was composed of undersea materials whereas most other mountain ranges were other geologic materials.

One of the cool formations

Compression made the limestone from billions and billions of little shells and plants and life forms.  So, when you hike around these mountains or walk through the caves, you are looking at molecules which were once permeated with life force or life energy.

Not meaning to get all "woo woo" on you but it is a little different energy.  Not inanimate even tho it is, if you get my drift.

We drive north along the "shoreline" 

West of us are these high mountain ridges and peaks, many above 8,000 ft.  Gradually the elevation goes down and we get to the turnoff to the Caverns.

We drive through a long winding canyon then back up on the shelf to the Visitor center.  The wind is blowing fresh at 40 mph so we dart into the center.

Just like Yogananda viewed

There are two entrances into the cave.  Elevator descending 750 feet to main room or natrual entrance and hike down about 1.3 miles and 800 feet elevation.

Natural Entrance.

Because of the wind, we chose to take the elevator down, hike around the caves for 2 miles then walk back up to the entrance or exit for us.

Looking up to entrance as we climbed back out

Guided tours are available by reservation in advance so we elected to stroll through the "Big Room". There are 119 total known caves here.  Some 300 ft tall.

Map of area so we didn't get lost. hehe

Dim lights illuminate the path and shine on various formations.  There is an initiative in place now to replace all the current lighting with LED systems designed to preserve the look while significantly reducing power needs.

Chandelier

It took us 2 hours to tour the Big room and adjacent areas.  Then we headed back up the "down ramp".  Most people choose to enter this way which really has appeal.

We felt it was better to get the cardio workout of going up and save the wear and tear on out knees from the descent which is pretty steep in places.

We are glad we did.  You only need one easy day unless you really want to "spelunk" back in the tiny crevices with a guide.  We ate our sack lunch outside in sheltered area then headed back south.

Content to be back in daylight.

Did you Know?

Nearly 400,000 Brazilian (more commonly called Mexican) Free-tailed bats call Carlsbad Cavern home in the summer... and all they want to do each night is eat bugs... several tons of them!

They aren't there now.  Maybe a few but the real show is in the summer.  Too hot for us though.

Until next time......