Tag: airstream

Over Lava Falls, Up Sandstone Bluffs. The Mother Road Episode 21.

After a long chat with one of the rangers about the bats, he also highly recommended the viewpoint at the sandstone bluffs. So, of course…we drove down there. Detailed maps of the park and any info you could want are freely provided at the visitors’ centers.

One of the short trails partway down the road is a viewpoint for a massive sandstone arch, carved out of the cliff by hundreds of years of wind.

It was a day for slow paced walking and many extra bottles of water, but a worthwhile stop.

The downside of stopping is always the lack of shade…..even for this short stop the truck interior (black of course….!!) would become stickily hot.

Onward to the bluffs….

Most of the elevation gain is the drive up there….which is fortunate considering the heat and lack of shade. At the top was the ranger we spoke to earlier, chatting and answering questions, we were most envious of his office. I’m not sure the pictures convey the scale, the height of the bluffs or the vastness of the valley…….spectacular…!!!

An impossilbly beautiful high viewpoint that lays out the whole valley floor in full panorama….and likely a point where anyone who lived here 3,000 years ago may well have watched that magma oozing out of the ground as it happened.

There are rock pools dotted around the top (we had watched the National Park video in the visitor centre so we knew to look for them..!!) There are populations of tadpoles and ghost shrimp…incredible place to find these tiny swimmers….

Yes…that is a shrimp in the middle of that picture……

We had a wander around in this magnificent landscape…..

There are always the reminders of the recent usage of this terrain.

A quick stop was made on the way back down b/c we spotted this little derelict building (what is a route 66 post without a little dereliction…LOL)

Time for another (small) hike although trying not to be too ambitious as general temp was high….but the black basalt rock makes it even hotter when you are out there.

The Lava Falls Walk is part of an ancient route the indigenous population used to cross the lava fields. For more modern hiking/walking this part is marked with small cairns, although still very easy to become disoriented in these surroundings. Only admiring the surroundings once stationary, gazing at the landscape while trekking across it, well that way lies disaster as you can see from the photos.

….and as the sign suggests…you really don’t want to fall…..this stuff will shred your hands, knees and boompsadaisy…….!!!

What a fascinating place to be……you can clearly see all of the bubbles, swirls and oozing stuff, now frozen in time.

Here’s me for scale again…..

We were stepping carefully over cracks in the earth…..and staring in wonder at the life clinging on in such a harsh place.

There were a couple of spots where we lost the line of cairns and had to backtrack a little…….and amazing how quickly one can become completely disoriented…..( I was also following Alltrails..!!)

The contrast between the sandstone bluffs and the lava fields below is mind-blowingly stark. Such an ancient, untouched landscape……another place where you can really get a sense of how it looked hundreds of years ago…….fabulous place…..

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Fire and Ice. The Mother Road Episode 20

Having thoroughly enjoyed Albuquerque and now with two fully functioning AC units (phew) Scott spotted our next side trip …the Bandera Crater, Fire and Ice.

To reach a convenient jumping off point for Bandera, we picked a campground in Milan, New Mexico….The Bar S. Great little campground. As we progressed across the continent with increasing temperatures, I was learning to check google maps satellite view and choose campgrounds with shade trees…..!!!

So…to Milan, a tiny town just off the highway, with a 30 minute drive to Bandera. After I made the booking, I spotted another campground that also had an onsite Kraft brewery (darn it..!!)

Driving the highway towards Grants/Milan we were surprised to be driving through a lava field…well actually a magma field…it’s an astonishing landscape….it looks so recent and hard to imagine how long ago this actually occurred..

The drive down to the Bandera Crater takes you across El Malpais National Monument. It’s an extraordinary landscape…we had no idea that it existed until we were driving through it. A bit of investigation revealed that the first flow is about 10,000 years old and the most recent….3,000 years old. It is astonishing to see the wrinkles and bubbles of magma that looks like it might have happened last year……

Bandera promised a walk to the volcanic rim (it was a very warm for a walk on black lava rock…… 33 Celsius./91F….!!)… and a descent to a frozen cave.

Although not a challenging walk…… it is an extraordinary display of all the varied volcanic features from lave tubes to tree holes…..

A wide variety of plants were clinging to life in this very severe black basalt.

It’s a fairly short walk up to the crater itself with an easy wide trail of crushed basalt.

….and then down the other side to find the path to the caves…..

You have to get all the way to the steps before you see them…..

….and the descent…. not that far but you can really feel the temperature drop as you go down….

Another extraordinary sight/experience….amazing mother earth…..

The visitor centre is another great experience……quite….rustic….and not in the trendy, but very genuine, sense of the word…great little place…..

Next stop was the trailhead for El Calderone……a hike that we had scoped out and planned to follow the next day. The El Malpais area was used by the American military for munitions testing and training in the second world war, Consequently there are warnings about finding old ordnance in the area…. 😮

A trip to the visitor centre for this National Parks gave us another idea tho.

We found the information for a bat outflight which occurs from the larger volcanic caves in this area.( As ever in the US National Parks, the Rangers were super friendly and helpful.) How could we resist….. The planned Ranger led trip ended up being cancelled due to heavy rain that night (bats don’t fly when they are wet..!!) …but we were able to return the next night to the same spot.

We were joined by a group of Boy Scouts and their leaders who had spotted the activity during a trip they had made to hike the Grand Canyon…so they were weary and dusty but very excited. They were a great group to share this amazing experience with.

We waited for the moments just before dusk…and all of a sudden …the cloud of 3000-4000 bats appeared in the cave mouth, swirled a little and then flew east.

They swirled around us…you could hear them and feel the air movement as they whirled around us…..It was a surprisingly emotional experience…..incredible…the photos definitely don’t do justice to what it’s like….

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Albuquerque Part 2. The Mother Road Episode 19

On a mission to collect a few more ticks on the Route 66 dance card we headed off to try to find the Railyards. Google was not particularly helpful on this quest……but what she did find was one of Albuquerques’ real gems……Wheels Museum.

This is a small but magnificent little museum dedicated to the history of transportation in Albuquerque. It’s run entirely by a wonderful group of volunteers and funded solely by donations.

Lots of Route 66 stuff…..A very real and tangible reminder of just how difficult and risky it was for those escaping the dust bowl, searching for that new life out west.

….and just plain cool old car stuff……

….and some ironically relevant connections for us…..!!!

I almost tripped across this old thing propped against the wall…….it’s a motorcycle….!!!

We met and chatted with Ron Perea historian and author, generous, engaging and informative volunteer at the museum. The museum version of Mariachi Elvis, but this time a stand-up comedian, with an equal enthusiasm and an incredible in-depth historical knowledge.

His area of interest was the Alvarado Hotel. There is a scale model of this historic building in the museum…..it was host to many celebrity guests in its day…..

He also gave us a bit of the history of the Harvey girls, which we also found hugely ironic as you might imagine…… here’s the Harvey girl…with the Harvey girl….LOL

The staff in the museum were also very helpful directing us to the Railyards market…. a huge indoor/outdoor vendors market/farmers market in the old railyards in Albuquerque…right behind the museum….LOL….

You may recognise some of the shots if you were a fan of the Breaking Bad series.

The Wheels people were there too….. 😁

……..and then of course….we have to do the evening run through the city to secure the pictures of their Route 66 neon.

Yes…shades of Tulsa…this is me creeping along at walking pace along the main route through the city, keeping pace with the blogtographer…not crashing, finding parking spots to pick him up again……not stressful at all…!!!

….beautiful tho….!!!

Wednesday arrived, as did our new air conditioning unit……time to get it switched out…..

Yayy…!!! Two functional AC units again…….Phewff…!!!

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Albuquerque Part 1. The Mother Road episode 18

The campground selection for Albuquerque turned out to be a point of interest on the Rte 66 list. Enchanted Trails, I was just trying to pick something reasonably close to the highway and more to the west of the city…and really…Enchanted Trails….who could resist…. 😃

It’s maybe a bit close to the highway (nighttime road noise) but otherwise a pretty good pick. Lots of 66 memorabilia and some vintage trailers (rentable)

First order of business was to see if we could get a timely fix on the AC. After days of trying to arrange something with a couple of places by phone, the lady at the Enchanted Trails desk recommended Good Sense RV. Jeremy Hogan, the service manager was terrific….. ordered the unit on the spot as we stood there in his office on Friday and tentatively booked us to switch it out the following Wednesday……. So 4 extra days in Albuquerque….I’ll tell you there’s worse places to pass the time…. 😁

What a great city. There is a flavor of artistic pride here. The bridges have murals or friezes or at least some decorative element. The architecture embraces the Adobe rounded, earth coloured aesthetic which makes the buildings less imposing.

We stopped in to a new route 66 visitor centre just across the highway from the campground. There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot…we poked around a little and it was closed.

Just as we were about to leave a door opened and the guy asked if he could help. Turns out the centre had just and only just, been gifted to the city after its original planners/developers had run out of money. He let us come in and have a look around…… ( Thanks Dominic..!!)…..

….there was an impressive collection of Route 66 cars……

The upper floor of the centre is an event space….with the most amazing view from the balcony…..

He made some great recommendations for things to go see in the city………and also shared with us his ‘Breaking bad’ story……the guy with the crazy moustache is his dad…. 😁.

On Dominics recommendation we found a great parking spot downtown to walk the Old Town of Albuquerque. A touristy spot, but a quite lovely walk around the old original town…….and a big dose of Breaking Bad that came with it……!!

The Old Town was built on a grid, perfect for a bit of touristy traipsing around…..

It was hot that day…..but it seems like that terracotta colour of the stucco and concrete of the sidewalks does not reflect the heat in the same way as that regular stone/grey colour.

Or maybe there was just enough shade to keep it comfortable. There were lots of lovely little artisan stores, weavers, antiques, jewellery and more. Lovely for browsing.

The Breaking Bad store was a must stop too….

It was more like a museum of the series and spinoffs with a gift store attached. It was a cool little place…

Next task was to scope out the Kiva Centre and where the parking was in prep for Lyle Lovett in concert. (Did I mention that Scott had scored us tickets for this, the opening night of this years’ big band concert series……!!)

Lyle was awesome, as usual. Always worth the price of admission.

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Nambe Badlands. The Mother Road episode 16

The old route 66 does a loop up through Santa Fe, adding time and distance to the journey. Even although this is the original route there was still a little bit of debate whether we should do this loop or not. We were conscious of the increasing temperatures in some of the destinations ahead of us, and the urgency of having that a/c unit repaired.

In the end we were so glad we decided to do it. We fell instantly in love with Santa Fe with its cooler climate in the mountains particularly welcome, especially with just the one air conditioner working.

The cooler clime created the opportunity to get the old legs stretched out again and Alltrails offered us a couple of likely candidates. The downside of a trip like route 66 is a lot of time sitting and driving and this far into the summer months…..the heat adds to the disincentive to be particularly active.

We picked a hike on the road up toward Taos, (Taos is on the list for a return visit 😁) Nambe Badlands. We have seen many different badlands landscapes by now but never tire of them…..they are all incredibly beautiful, and all so very, very different …

It’s a loop trail……

and we had lots of water….it was cooler than Tucumcari….but still pretty hot…!!!

There was really no shade for the truck….

….also no real hope of any shade for us on this particular trek through the coulees…….

…..and up onto the plateaus and mesas…..

……. taking every opportunity for a little shade…..

The path was well laid out and easy to follow ……..

….and the views were suitably spectacular…..

..as per the landscape we went up,

then down,

then up and down again….

…and again……

We kept up a steady pace and drank lots of water……

..it really is a spectacular landscape…breathtakingly beautiful…..and then….on the way down we met one of the local residents. Our first sighting of that old Western movie favourite, the Diamondback rattler.

I did not get anywhere near him despite encouragement from the photographer (“it’s for the blog..!!!!”) I circled around the bush. He may have been stretched out lazily in the heat, but I was not about to find out how quickly he could coil….!!!

Finally….hot, sticky and dusty we sighted the truck again……it was good to be out……but good to be done…..

……now home for a shower…!!!

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July 20th. The Road East.

Packed up and ready to go.

Coincidentally, its exactly a year since we took the Chi Cheemaun ferry across to Manitoulin and set off on this journey of ours. So here we go east this time. First stop was a Harvest Host just outside Kingston. The Doner Studio perfectly located close enough to the Trans Canada to be convenient, and tucked away enough to be beautifully secluded and private.

Our hosts, Randall and Darlene, were super friendly and helpful. The parking spot they had for us was quite magnificent. It’s a level, gravel area across the road from their studio and store, but facing out over the Rideau Canal at Lower Brewers Lock. The added bonus to this spot right now is that the bridge by their property is out for re-construction, so the through road is actually closed.

It was a real breath of air stopping here to break up the drive. The walk around these old locks on the canal was another unexpected bonus.

Lower Brewers lock.

A little bit of history mixed in to our evening stroll.

…and a little bit of fishing……well…..the throwing of a line into the water….!!!!

…..on the way back to Xolo, we happened on this heron showing himself off quite magnificently……..

….. and then disturbed a gaggle nibbling the grass around our site..!!

…..the sunset was pretty decent too…..!!!!

With Harvest hosts there is no unhitching…..so in the morning, coffee in hand, its just lifting the stairs, locking the door and off we go again. ( That might be a slight oversimplification…!!!LOL)

Next stop Quebec City……..

Gas prices take a big leap when you cross in to Quebec, and the gas stations become more impossible to get a 30 foot rig into…!!!

Neither of us could believe that we did not take any pictures of the site in Campground Bernieres (just off the Trans Canada, and just outside Quebec City.) It was a very nice campground, very friendly staff. We drove through some horrific thunderstorms on the way there……collected our first ‘giant hail’ dents in the front of the trailer. (🙁)

We stayed a couple of nights so that we could take a wander round the old city.

Lovely buildings and little art spots scattered around.

Its a very beautiful city…….if you mashed up Edinburgh and Paris (France) with a handful of Montreal….you pretty much have Old Quebec city.

We wandered down to the harbour, and stopped for a foot cooling session in the arty sprinkler system. ( it was a hot day…!!)

Lots of soaking wet kids around…..😁😁

Its one of those places that is trapped between old beauty, interesting fine art and tourist kitsch.

It was a lovely place to wander through, but it also reinforced to us that cities are not where we’d rather be anymore.

We did have an interesting little lunch stop at Tora-ya ramen. Very yummy..!!

All the pictures in this post are clickable if you wish a clearer view. Additional information is included in clickable links which appear as underlined text.

November 9th, Dogtown Trail….head in the clouds.

This was the trail recommended by the couple we met up the hill on the last walk……the weather is definitely changing now…and it was a bit of a last minute decision to do this one….it had been heavy rain all morning but we decided to go for it and so glad we did.

The trailhead is up a steep winding road from Okanagan Falls …about 20 minutes from our current home spot. The drive was up into an ‘out of the way’ little valley…and a less well travelled road.

I was finding it tough going as we headed up the hill….it did not seem that steep so I was thinking it was just cos it was quite a bit colder……by this point we are in to multiple layers of clothing….(and my newly finished latest knitting project, a very cosy double layered hat..!!!).

There was also this weird bucket/barrel swing thing hanging from a tree , in the middle of nowhere…any ideas?…anyone..?

Halfway up the path, the view is down in to a valley we did not know was there. Another chocolate box scene…as now there are the snow capped peaks behind.

As we approached the top of the hill, where the promise of more views down the other side resided….the clouds were moving in fast ( at that elevation) Mr Adventure was all for pressing on “into the clouds”…!!!

So…up in to the clouds we went……cold, slippery with poor visibility……but it was quite fascinating….silent and moody for sure….!!! But of course…no view from the top.

As we started to descend….coming back out of that cloud level was another amazing unveiling by mother natures weather department…..with the wispy cloud above us and the visible sun rays down in to the valley below……and the glinting waterways and roofs of the buildings below in full sunshine……

….and as ever….the return journey down the path reveals how steep it actually is…..leaving me strangely reassured about how hard I found the journey up. I think we are getting so used to seeing these steep grades that we are losing our sense of ‘steep’…lol…..

It turned out to be quite an exciting hike all in all…….yet another different terrain…..and another fabulous visual experience……Thanks Deb and Keith for the heads up on this one…….

Next trip out will be Hawthorne mountain….(.AKA Snowy Mountain per Mr Adventure…!!!)

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