Have Camera, Will Travel.: Carlsbad to The Grand Canyon

Feb 24

We spent a day in Carlsbad, New Mexico to catch up on emails and to assimilate the incredible sights in Carlsbad Caverns.

The people of New Mexico appear younger and friendlier than the residents of Arizona. Unfortunately, the 4,000 plus altitude in New Mexico makes for colder winters.

Desert Vista by Carlsbad Caverns

White-winged Doves seem to be the primary dove around Carlsbad

Feb 25
We headed north toward Roswell. On the way, we passed through Artesia. This small New Mexico town has three exquisite statues commemorating the great cattle drives of the 1880's.

Trail Boss - Sculptor: Vic Payne

At Roswell, Emma struck up a conversation with one of the locals.

We turned West and headed toward Lincoln County. The landscape was bare prairie grass and scrub bushes until we started to gain altitude. The land became rolling with oak and pine trees on the hillsides.

In the town of Lincoln, there was a tall circular stone structure built by Spanish settlers. This thick stone turret was a last stand refugee for the Spanish settlers when Apaches raided the town.

The Torreon - Built in the 1850s for protection

It is understandable why the settlers in the late 1880's got caught-up in the Lincoln County Wars over this beautiful country. We enjoyed walking the main street of the historic town of Lincoln and reflecting on the exploits of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County Regulators.
We saw a Hairy Woodpecker (184).

Billboard showing the various brands of the Lincoln County Cattle Barons

We stayed for the night at Capitan.

Feb 26
The town of Capitan is the home of "Smokey the Bear". We toured his museum and read about his life after he was found burnt and clinging to a tree after a forest fire.

We continued west to the Bosque Del Apache, National Wildlife Refuge on the upper Rio Grande River. This famous bird sanctuary is beautiful and well maintained. The marshes are filled with water in the fall and winter so migratory birds have a good stop over to rest and feed.

Canada Goose

Snow Goose large bill and black "grin patch"

Ross's Goose - a third smaller with short square bill

Emma saw me standing on this rock and had to take this one of me in two different shades of camouflage.Emma thought I should be more colour coordinated. However, I wasn't trying to make a fashion statement, the goal was to breakup my silhouette.

Mule Deer

I was a little surprised at how few ducks, geese and cranes were over-wintering at the reserve. A ranger explained that it had been a mild winter so thousands of Sandhill Cranes and geese had wintered further north.

Feb. 27.
We headed north toward Albuquerque then skirted the City as we continued west into El Mapas National Monument. We rose out of the Rio Grande Valley and up into the red rock soil of western New Mexico.

We did a short hike up the sandstone bluffs overlooking old lava flows in the valley below.

On the way to the lava bed valley, we stopped at an old adobe ruin.

Ancient lava flow covering the valley.

Lava Rock

We continued on to the Ventura Natural Arch and took a second short hike to view this natural bridge from below.

Ventura Arch

It was getting late so I wasn't able to talk Emma into posing on top of the arch. We headed back to our RV campground at the town of Grant.

February 28
The cold winter wind was rocking the RV pretty good when we woke up. We decided not to explore the south entrance to El Mapas National Park and instead headed west. The wind gusts were intense and we pulled over briefly at Blue Water.

We followed historic Route 66 and reached an altitude 7,200 feet when we crossed back to the western side of the continental divide.

View looking north along the continental divide in northwest New Mexico

After driving all day we arrived back in Arizona at the Petrified Forest National Park. The view over the Painted Desert was beautiful as the sun set. Emma needed her daily exercise so I took sunset pictures while she jogged down the road. We stayed at Holbrook for the night.

Painted Desert

February 29
We spent the day exploring the entire length of Petrified Forest National Park. The park is set in a gorgeous rolling desert landscape with huge petrified trees lying about in every direction. The Rainbow Forest Museum was educational as was the short walk through the Giant Logs Interpretive Walk.

I misunderstood the rangers directions and we ended up wandering off into the desert on an abandoned trail. It was a most enjoyable walk as we moved through the desert in complete isolation.

The 1km Crystal Trail was beautiful as it wound through and around thousands of large petrified logs strewn about like ten pins.

Crystal Forest

Path through the Crystal Forest

Petrified Log - Growth Rings

Agate Bridge

The Teepee

Historic Painted Desert Inn

The Painted Desert

March 1
It was a cool and windy morning. The altitude at Holbrook by the Petrified Forest was 5,200 feet. This would be our lowest altitude for several days as we were headed for Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.
On the plus side, the parks are not crowded at this time of year.

East of Flagstaff we stopped at the meteor crater.

Meteor Fragment

The plus side to gaining altitude is the forests of pine and spruce that start to appear once we got to an altitude of 6,500 feet by Flagstaff.

March 2

We spent an even cooler night at Flagstaff where the elevation is 7,000. In the morning, we headed north to the southern edge of the Grand Canyon.The altitude slowly rose to 7,600 feet as we moved across a snowy open prairie toward the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Common Raven

Prairie Northwest of Flagstaff

The Grand Canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Wow. Words cannot describe it and the pictures don't begin to capture the magnitude of the experience.