vamos a casa

Spring Break 2016 officially ended after an epic desert adventure.  We noticed the importance of water and organic material to decomposition; how long trash and footprints hang around when it doesn't rain or snow.  But oh how it blows!!

A blizzard hit home while we were gone and we felt its power as we plowed through 70 mph gusts down South.  On the way home we saw pure white snow caps peaking out over the horizon.  As we drove through Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, moisture from the snow rose into low, pinkish hazy clouds.  This is Ute Mountain with a giant cloud shadowing the plain in the foreground.

The Sangres behind us as we summited Poncha Pass.

And the Collegiate Peaks in our future.

Adios Nuevo Mexico! 

Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge (and aliens)

Our slow trip back North went through the famous city of Roswell, New Mexico.  We skipped the UFO museum in favor of a walk through Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. 

The water percolates up from the water table which is fed from the faraway mountain runoff and is so alkaline that plants and trees will not grow.  Add the freshwater of the Pecos River to the mix and an Audubon wonderland comes to life.  We saw countless types of waterfowl including plovers, pipers, ducks, Giant Egrets and American White Pelicans. 

Desolate and beautiful--amazing that this place is an essential home to thousands of migrating birds.

Guadalupe Mountains

After six hours underground in Carlsbad, we set out to backpack or camp in the Guadalupe Mountains.  When we arrived it was almost six o'clock.  The campground was full and the backcountry options were far away and up 2,000 feet. So, we settled for a hike the following day.

The Mountains are like an oasis in the desert; starting in the flat, dry and dusty low country and ascending into what they call "the bowl" which is a high alpine environment.  We stayed low for our hike, out to "Devil's Hall."  The Hall...

True to the desert climate, the sun was strong but we were kind of cold.  This is Tucker's very careful application of a sunscreen 'stache.

The rocky natural staircase that we climbed to reach "The Hall."

The wash was so dry and dusty that we could hardly imagine water crashing through the rock walls, down the natural rocky stairs and over the huge boulders of the riverbed.  But it happened...or happens.

It was a fun hike and we wished we could have camped but our spring break was over and it was time to head back to our snowy home!



stalactites and stalagmites

Carlsbad Caverns are fantastic, like an alien world of dark and light, black and white, drips and silence.  The Park Service built elevators from the surface into the center of the earth in the 30s.  Surprisingly, they were not functioning during our visit.  The Park Service also paved walking paths from the Natural Entrance, through The Big Room and into several other side rooms including The Kings Palace which we toured with Ranger John.

We walked 1.2 miles and 750 feet down the natural entrance path through gargantuan, shadowy, impressive caverns.  Walking into the Big Room left me speechless.  It is otherworldly.  At first I worried that the earth would rumble with an earthquake and the immense span of ceiling rock would crumble and collapse, contributing to the house-sized boulders sprinkled throughout the center of the big room.

After we walked further into the Big Room, worry went away and the timelessness of the cave hit home.  These delicate formations were created drip by drip a million years ago.  They've been delicately hanging for another million years.  As Ranger John said, earth and nature have thrown everything and anything at the caverns, but they still remain glistening and perfect, growing millimeter by millimeter, century by century.

Jim White found the caverns sometime around 1898.  He thought the million bats flying out of the cave one evening was smoke from a fire, went to investigate and found the bats, bat guano (for mining) and proceeded to find many other rooms in the caverns.  

We spent four hours in the caverns on the first day and didn't make it all the way around the vast Big Room in those four hours. The Rangers facilitate visitor's exits at a certain time so that they can turn off the lights each night.  They kicked us out a little early to make sure we had time for the ascent out of the natural entrance.

We signed up for a tour of the Kings Palace on the 2nd day.  Ranger John started by showing us Jim White's soot marks from 1898 and then talked us through what it would have been like to explore the cave back at the turn of the century. 

We all sat down on a park-built wall, he turned off the lights and asked for a few minutes of the purest silence and darkness that I have ever experienced. This was my favorite part of the visit, which was epic!  We blinked back to reality in the dim light and walked through the Park Service-blasted tunnel into another glimmering, white palace room.

Of course we considered lights as we passed through the caverns.  The lighting design is very thoughtful: it gives us depth and space and emptiness and some color. We met one of the Park Rangers trying different techniques to hide wiring for the lights.  He told us that in the 30s the Park Service installed floodlights and buried all of the wires which caused major damage the cave.  They retrofitted the hot, monolithic floodlights with fluorescents and, more recently with efficient, directional LEDs.  With the LED retrofit, they re-wired but did not bury the conduit which lays next to the walking path throughout the cave.  He also mentioned that back in the expansive 30s, the Park Service considered blasting a hole through the caverns so that people could tour the Big Room without getting out of the car.  This is the same timeframe that they carved a tunnel through a 2,000 year old Giant Sequoia.  Progress! 

Cloudcroft and Artesia

There is a place 4,000 miles above White Sands in Lincoln National Forest called Croudcroft.  This place is at the end of an old railroad that carried people up from the hot desert valley into the cool mountaintop climate.  The train stopped running in the 1940s but some of the trestles still remain and the tracks are now trails.

The railroad built a Lodge in 1922 at the top of the train tracks.  It is full of stories and antiques; supposed to be haunted by a chambermaid that disappeared long ago, named Rebecca.  We did not see a ghost but we had a delicious, expensive dinner in her restaurant, "Rebecca's."

On the other side of the Sacramento Mountains, on the way to Carlsbad, is Artesia, an oil and gas town.  This refinery is located at the end of Main Street.



It has an unnatural beauty.

space history

We passed Spaceport America on the way to Las Cruces; home of Virgin Galactic's two space ships.  We did not go out to the terminal but it was very intriguing...just the beginning of several space-themed visits including the New Mexico Museum of Space History.

The museum was filled with older relics from the space program: astronaut food, suits, rockets, satellites and information.  So many space shuttle missions and astronauts!! And, a whole floor dedicated to the rocket scientists who made trips to the moon and back smooth and safe.  Kris and I pondered the genius that our kids will strive to exceed: designers of...social media aps???  Alright, maybe the crazy dedication of Elon Musk, compassion and tolerance of Pope Francis and the marketplace of ideas fostered by Neil deGrasse Tyson will set the stage for their generation.

White Sands

Camping in a place with very little organic material or surface water gives "leave no trace" a whole new meaning. Every step crunched through a delicate crust of cyanobacteria and lost crumbs from breakfast bagels were evident in the white, white sand.

And then the wind picked up and disrupted our morning hot chocolate.



White sand made its way into EVERYTHING, including long johns, shoes, socks, sleeping bags and food.  This did not stop kids from playing in the sand. 

Several good rolls down the dune, we headed out.  Next stop the New Mexico space museum!

white sand

We drove out of Santa Fe, over the Organ Mountains, past the White Sands Missile Range and into White Sands National Monument.  First up, sledding.



Climbing up and down the dunes through deep sand at least a thousand times left us completely wiped out and running late.  After a frenetic gear check and H2O refill, we strapped on our packs and headed out to our campsite.

Believe it or not, K and T played in the sand some more.  We set up camp and absorbed the seriously quiet sunset until almost dark and ravenous hunger set in.  The full moon lit up our late dinner but soon we climbed into long johns and sleeping bags for warmth and a cold, quiet, starry night of sleep.

swimming outside

In Santa Fe, our hotel had an outdoor pool.  We were so geared up for warm that we attempted a swim outside in 28 degrees F!  Brrrr.... Las Cruces was hot, dry and 80 degrees F.  Our hotel had a fantastic outdoor pool.  None of us wanted to leave the pool but we had a backpacking adventure to conquer next.

We stopped for a quick lunch and headed off to camp in the White Sands.


packing for hot in the cold

Packing for a backpacking and camping adventure while it's dumping snow outside is very odd.

To ski or to camp, ski or camp...ski or camp???  AAAAHH! What a lucky conundrum.

After a walk outside in my boots and snow pants, I pushed aside our ski helmets and goggles and pulled out our summer clothes and backpacking gear.

Memories of last summer made me smile...



...or was that from Tucker the Terrible racing around the kitchen?

grumpy

A snow storm rolled in today.  The kids came home and immediately started fighting.  Fortunately, a few hours and some free time put them in a better place. 

 

 

After dinner, an epic wrestling match ensued.

 

Nobody got too hurt.

 

And it did not end in a fight.

But they were moving so fast, I barely caught a photo.

morning coffee

A stressful, crazy week before spring break.  Kris and I have been taking turns traveling. 

And, work is full of wrapping up loose ends so that we can enjoy a few days of vacation with some dedicated family time.  The kids are struggling to get up and get moving after daylight savings.  They have returned from school as zombie grumps just about every day this week.

Coffee was yummy and necessary this morning. I just love how the cream swirls around in the first steamy, dark cup.  This is something like the 10th picture I have taken of coffee.  Ha!



At least Kenedy is eating breakfast.  Tucker is just messing around.



And this is what happens to a tablet when kids like Tucker play with it.  Of course I cleaned it as soon as I noticed the ridiculous coating of goo. Of course it doesn't look like that anymore...because I cleaned it!  Of course!