The Corner of New Mexico (and a few other states)

My nook at Navajo Lake
State Park

I headed north-west out of Albuquerque on 550, and very much enjoyed the gorgeous scenery!  I only had a slight problem finding a spot to camp (it was the Friday of Labor Day weekend).  I found a spot on my second try in Navajo Lake State Park.  I had a fantastic little nook up on a bluff overlooking the lake!  There was even the perfect bolder to perch on while gazing out at the lake!      The next morning, I headed to Aztec Ruins National Monument.  It’s a little confusing since the ruins are actually from the ancestral Pueblo people (or Anasazi).  The ruins were huge and in shockingly good shape!  It was amazing to get to walk through a good portion of the rooms!  It’s remarkable to realize that the structures were built with relatively few tools and are still standing today! 

Aztec Ruins National Monument 

After exploring the ruins, I went to the four corners monument, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. It’s in the middle of nowhere on an Indian Reservation.  There’s nothing there except the monument, some porta potties, and some booths for people to sell souvenirs.  It was kind of cool to get to be in four places at once and walk from state to state so easily. 

Four Corners Monument 

My section of
Manti-La Sal
National Forest

After leaving four corners, I proved to myself that I am incapable of having (or at least sticking to) a plan.  I had originally thought that I would leave four corners and start wandering through Colorado, but when I got in the car, I was struck with the urge to go to Utah. So I did!  I loved the drive through the south-eastern corner of the state!  I drove past the turn off for Devil's Canyon in Manti-La Sal National Forest, but after driving for a few more miles, I was still thinking out how beautiful it looked, so I turned around.  It was a good call!  It was very beautiful and extremely peaceful up in the mountains!  I really enjoyed having a significant amount of the gorgeous forest to myself!  I had a leisurely afternoon and evening of reading in the warm Utah sun!  It was a lovely introduction to Utah!    

View from my tent in Manti-La Sal National Forest

Lava, Ruins, and a City

Valley of the Fires Rec Area

After a very long a treacherous drive down and out of the mountains in Gila National Forest, I got a tip from my uncle about a park near Carrizozo, New Mexico.  As I got near to the Valley of Fires Rec Area, I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing.  It kind of looked like a road was all broken up and had tons of cacti and other various plants growing in the rubble.  After further investigation, the ruble was actually hardened lava that flowed all over the area over a thousand years ago!  It was a most bizarre and beautiful sight!  I was also pleased to find out that they encourage you to climb on the lava to your heart’s content!   I enjoyed sitting on a section of lava and watching the sun set over the lava and the mountains in the distance.  It was quite peaceful until I realized I didn’t bring a flashlight with me up on to the lava, and would now have to climb down while trying to avoid all the cacti in the dark.  I did pretty well!  I only had a few spines on my shoe.

Salinas Pueblo
Mission Ruins

After camping in the shadow of a huge blob of lava, I headed towards north.  I stopped at the Salinas Pueblo Mission Ruins.  There were several, amazingly intact structures.  They were from the period when the Indians and Spanish were interacting in the 1600s.  It was so strange and powerful to see remains of bustling human interaction from so long ago in a place has very little human activity today! 

Petroglyphs

I kept heading north and ended up in Albuquerque.  I was lucky enough to have my own personal tour guide (my uncle) from afar.  He gave me many tips on what to do, see, and even eat!  It was lovely having a guide!  I went to the Petroglyphs National Monument.  It was amazing how may petroglyphs I was able to see in such a small space!  After examining the various designs on the rocks, I headed to Old Town.  The train station missed the town square by a bit, so the old downtown in much like it was in the 1700s.  It was fun to soak up the historic, southwest feel of the area!  Then, I ate a huge plate of this pork stew situation at Sadie’s.  It was totally wonderful, except for the fact that the male waiter (who was probably several years younger than me) kept calling me “sweetie” and told me I did a “great job” eating. . .weird and not okay!  After stuffing myself, I took a ride on the Sandia Tramway.  The tram goes from the north part of the city all the way to the top of the mountains!  It was beautiful up in the mountains!  I really enjoyed hiking around and finding different spots to enjoy the view!       

Church in Old Town

View of the Sandia Tramway

    

Dunes and Dwellings

White Sands National Monument in
New Mexico

I started off my day by stopping at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.    I took a few hikes through the gigantic gypsum sand dunes.  There are a few plants that can live in the dessert and gypsum sand, but as you get further away from the visitor center there are fewer plants.  When you get deep into the middle of the dunes, there is almost no vegetation at all.  All you can see is miles of rolling, snow white, dunes and the mountains in the distance.  It’s quite a beautiful, yet strange sight.  It’s as if you are at the beach in the desert!  Luckily, the gypsum doesn’t get very hot, so you can walk on the sand in bare feet even when it’s extremely hot!  The best part is that you can sled down the dunes!   That’s right. . .you can go sledding in the desert!  I had a blast climbing to the top of the tallest dunes I could find (they get about sixty feet tall) and sliding back down on my bright green sled!  I was able to get going pretty fast down several of the dunes!  I could be friends with the person who came up with this idea!  So fun!

My shiny green sled
on the dunes

After a most enjoyable morning of sledding, I took my sand covered self and got back into the car.  I started driving west.  I had a minor moment of panic when all the traffic on the interstate had to pull over for a border check point.  I was pretty sure I was on an east-west road, and there wasn’t much chance that I was about to accidently cross into Mexico, but the fact that everyone had to stop had me second guessing myself.  It turned out that I was safely on a road that was totally contained by the United States and it was just some random checkpoint.

Gila Cliff Dwelling
National Monument

I kept driving and it kept getting more and more beautiful!  There were mountains everywhere I looked!  New Mexico is quiet beautiful!  It is also very sparsely populated.  Things that looked like they would be fairly big towns on the map, turned out to be tiny.  In between the tiny towns, there is nothing except beautiful scenery!  As I started driving up into the mountains in Gila National Forest, I got even deeper into the unpopulated beauty!  The drive was slow since the road was winding its way up a mountain (with very few guard rails!), but extraordinarily gorgeous!  I even got to see two rainbows over one of the peaks at one point!  I found a campground about three quarters of the way up the mountain.  I had a lovely spot overlooking a ravine.  

Gila Cliff Dwellings 

The next day I kept driving up the mountain until I got to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.  After about a half a mile of hiking, I had a great view of several cave openings in the mountain.  After a little more hiking, I got to a park ranger who gave me a private tour of several caves!  She pointed out several pictographs and shared what little is known about the people who lived there!   It was amazing to realize that I was seeing remains of the dwellings from the 1200’s!  There was even some evidence that people had used the cave significantly before the 1200’s!  It’s totally amazing to be able to see remains of such ancient people and activity for myself!    

Exploring High Above and Low Below

Dr. Seuss-esque tree
at Carlsbad Caverns
National Park

After my adventures in Palo Duro State Park in Texas, I headed to southeastern New Mexico.  I stopped and ensured I had a spot to camp in the undeveloped section in Brantley Lake State Park.  I didn’t set up though because I was only twenty-five miles north of Carlsbad Caverns and I couldn’t wait to go!  The drive up to Carlsbad Caverns National Park was unexpectedly beautiful!  It takes about five miles of winding up beautiful, plateau-y mountains covered with various types of cactus and stunted palm trees that look like something that would appear in a Dr. Seuss book to get to the top where the visitor center is.  The parking lot has beautiful views of the Guadalupe Mountains!   I was too late to go into the cave that day, so I walked on the nature trail and then found my way to the bat amphitheater outside of the natural entrance to the cave.   At sunset every night in the summer, the thousands of bats that live in the cave during the day, fly out and go find bugs and moths to eat.  It was a most amazing sight to see a steady stream of bats come out of the cave for about forty-five minutes!  Some of them even flew right over my head!  It was strangely beautiful!

The bat ampitheater and view of the nature entrance to the cave at Carlsbad Caverns

Inside the cave!

The next day, I headed back to Carlsbad Caverns.  I was disappointed to learn that if you don’t’ have reservations for the ranger led tours six weeks in advance, you’re not going to be able to go on one.  Since I didn’t know I’d be anywhere remotely near New Mexico six weeks ago, I clearly didn’t have reservations.  However, you can walk through the natural entrance all the way to the elevator by yourself!   It was huge (and I know I only saw a small portion of it)!  It was amazing how far down I walked as I made my way through the cave.  It had an astonishingly magical feel to it.  The magical ambiance was especially strong in the largest room in the cave where there were tons of stalactites, stalagmites, and columns everywhere!  I was half expecting Harry Potter to come whizzing by on his broom! 

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

After strolling through the cave, I headed to Guadalupe Mountains National Park just over the border in Texas.  I set up my tent right at the foot of the mountains, then I headed for the trails.  I started hiking up towards the highest point in Texas.  It was a very steep and windy trail.  There were many chances for spectacular views of the mountain range!  I met a Japanese lady shortly after I started hiking.  She was very alarmed and disapproving of the fact that I was alone, she also told me it was much too late to make it to the top.    Luckily, she got distracted by a deer, so I was able to slip away without having to argue my case too much.  When I was pretty close to the top, I somehow got off the trail without realizing it.  What I thought was the trail kept getting steeper and steeper.  After a while, I had to start climbing.  After that went on for a few moments, I stopped and assessed the situation.  I wasn’t confident I was going to be able to safely get down, so I retreated.  As I retreated, I realized that even though the map did say strenuous, it didn’t seem likely that the national parks system would send random hikers up to climb their way to the top of a mountain without fair warning.  So, as I backtracked I started looking for the trail.  I finally found I the turn I missed and finished my hike to the top.   It was an excellent view of both the mountains and the valley below, but I didn't have too much time to soak it in since that Japanese lady was right, it was kind of late, although, that worked in my favor since it was really beautiful to see the fading sun reflect off the mountains as I made my way down! 

View from Guadalupe Peak (the highest point in Texas)

The next day, I decided that I hadn’t gotten enough of Carlsbad Caverns, so I headed back to take the tour again.  This was a great decision because it was the first Monday that most everyone was in school.  That meant that it was just me and about twelve retirees at the park!  It was so wonderful to get to wander around the cave when it was so quite!  It really added to the cave atmosphere!  I again, was swept away by the beauty and other-worldliness of the cave!  It’s so amazing to know that such breathtaking beauty exists even underground!  

Back inside the cave at Carlsbad Caverns!