Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Today we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We got there about 10 am and watched an interesting movie at the Visitor Center about National Park Caves.

You can travel the 700+ feet into the cave by taking an elevator from the visitor center or by entering at the natural entrance and following a path for a mile. Both ways get you to the rest area down below where there are bathrooms, snacks and some souvenir stands.

We chose to enter via the natural cave entrance. There is a nice path that goes down and down and down for a mile. It is rather steep in a few places. I was feeling the arthritis in my knees, but it was doable. Its definitely not for everyone.

Once we got to the bottom we followed a self-guided path for another mile around the Big Room. There were a number of interesting formations to see. Both of these are columns formed when the stalactites and stalagmites meet.

Many of the formations on the ground look like coral, but they are not. They are mineral deposits formed from water dripping into the cave.

After we were finished with our self-guided tour, we waited for the ranger to guide us on the King’s Palace Tour. I had heard that tickets sell out for the ranger tours, so I had pre-ordered our tickets online. Good thing because the tours were sold out when we arrived this morning.

The ranger took us to the King’s Palace room of the caverns which is 830 feet underground. Lots of amazing formations in this area.

This formation is actually a very large section that broke loose from the ceiling many years ago. As the water continued to drip onto it, this flowing sheet of rock was formed.

 

This formation is called a drape. It’s forty feet tall but only one inch thick in the center which allows light to shine through it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At one point in the tour the ranger turned off all the lights so we could experience the total darkness of the cave. Then she let us experience cave fireworks. We all pointed our cameras at the ceiling and when she told us we all flashed our flashes at the same time. It was quite a cool experience.

Here’s one more amazing column formation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we drove the seven miles to get to the visitor center, we noticed a great deal of burned landscape. The ranger told us that there was a fire on the grounds last summer that burned over three-quarters of the park lands. The fire was caused by someone being careless. What a shame.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Carlsbad Caverns. My only regret is that we didn’t get to see the bats fly out of the cave at dusk. Thousands of bats make their home in the cave during the summer. Every night at dusk visitors are allowed to sit in an amphitheater outside of the natural entrance and watch the bats fly out of the cave. I would have loved to see that. Unfortunately, the bats don’t usually come back until mid-May. Here’s a picture of a picture I took to show you what it might look like.

We’ve been to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky and Jewel Cave and Wind Cave in South Dakota. I can’t say that I have a favorite. Each one is different and worth exploring. Pictures definitely do not do it justice.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

We’ve Arrived at The Ranch

Yesterday we arrived at The Ranch, an Escapee park in New Mexico. While working at Amazon we met Roger and Barb who are lease holders at this park.

Since we wanted to visit Carlsbad Caverns which is about an hour from here, we thought we’d spend a week here. They currently have a special price for first time visitors of $50 a week plus electric so it seemed like a good place to stop on our way north.

It’s a pretty small park with not too many frills. We haven’t met many of the residents yet, but that will change this afternoon when we go to happy hour. There is a very nice clubhouse, but that’s about it. No pool or any of those types of amenities.

The park is pretty isolated with the nearest town being about 15 miles away. The lots are nice and it’s quiet. I’m sure we’ll enjoy our time here.

While driving through New Mexico we saw an area with tons of yellow flowers blooming. I think they are called Mexican or California Poppies. It was like a carpet of them and was so pretty. So much of the desert is brown and boring, but every once in a while it surprises you with some beautiful color.

I didn’t realize it was a full moon last night. I was sitting on the couch watching TV and all of a sudden the moon smiled down on me through our little window above the kitchen area. It was perfectly framed in the window and so pretty. What an awesome site!

Today is opening day for the Milwaukee Brewers. Kevin is watching the game right now because we have 10 free days of MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV. Right now they’re losing in the bottom of the 5th inning. I sure hope they pull out a win for the full house crowd in Milwaukee.

Tomorrow we’re going to Carlsbad Caverns. I pre-ordered tickets for the King’s Palace tour. I’m looking forward to visiting another National Park.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

On The Road Again

We left Buckeye this morning and drove about 250 miles to Bowie, Arizona.

We’re staying at the Mountain View RV Park tonight. It’s a Passport America member park and is definitely a no-frills place. But, for $15 we have a FHU 50 amp site and that’s all we need. They also have very fast free Wi-Fi. We are very near the limit on our air card this month, so I’m liking the free internet and watching some Netflix.

As long as we can keep finding these inexpensive places, we prefer to have hook-ups rather than boondocking at Wal-Mart or someplace like that. We drive a few hours on travel days and arrive by mid-afternoon. We hook up, put out all the slides and are able to relax and enjoy dinner and watch some TV which works well for us.

Bowie is a small town out in the middle of nowhere about 25 miles east of Willcox. When we entered the office there were a group of five men sitting around chewing the fat. I felt like I was on an old western movie set with a bunch of guys sitting around playing checkers at the general store. At least they were all friendly and I didn’t see any six-shooters :)

We got here at 1:30 pm and there were only a few other RVs here which all looked to be permanent. As it got later in the day, a few more RVs pulled in. I happened to look out the window and saw a woman that looked just like Kevin’s aunt. He went out to investigate and sure enough, his aunt and uncle had just pulled in. We visited them in February at their RV park in Casa Grande. They are now on their way home to St. Louis and just happened to end up at the same place we are. What are the odds.

The weather continues to be warm. The last few days cooled off a little and were rather windy. That same front is what caused the tornados in Dallas today. I just saw video on the news of tractor trailers flying through the air. It’s a miracle no one was killed.

The forecast in Phoenix for Easter is in the 90s again. They were talking on the news about hiding the Easter eggs inside because they would melt outside. That made me laugh. In Wisconsin we almost never were able to have an egg hunt outside because it was always too cold, sometimes with snow still on the ground. I never really thought about what Easter would be like in a warmer climate.

Tomorrow we will spend the night in Las Cruses, New Mexico. The following day we plan to arrive at The Ranch, an Escapee park near Carlsbad Caverns. We’re staying there for a week. They have a weekly special going on for only $50 for a FHU site. Such a deal!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

It’s Been Hot

The temperatures are rising here in Arizona. It’s been consistently in the 80s and this weekend is predicted to be in the low 90s. The nice thing about the desert is that it cools down nicely at night. Kevin heard on the news that the average first day that Phoenix hits 90 degrees is March 30th so they’re right on target. It’s time to head north. I don’t care what they say about dry heat, it’s still hot.

We’re leaving here on April 3rd. We plan to spend a week in New Mexico in the Carlsbad Caverns area at The Ranch, an Escapee park. Then we’ll make our way back to Wisconsin arriving around April 19th. Of course, the weather will determine our exact arrival date. We’ll be watching the storm forecasts carefully.

We’ve been taking it easy. On Tuesday we went to our last spring training game this year. The Brewers lost again. We’ve been to 7 games, with 4 losses, 2 ties and 1 win. They’re overall record is at about .500, so I think we’ve been bad luck this year :)

The rest of the week we’ve been doing our daily 3 mile walk. We’ve also ridden our bikes shopping a couple of times. We rented the movie “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. It was pretty good, but a little long.

I’ve been working on the quilt I’m making to donate to Korey’s camp. I’m almost done. The free motion quilting I chose to do has been a bit of a challenge. It’s definitely not perfect, but I think it turned out pretty nice. I just have to finish hand sewing the binding and then I’ll post a picture.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and don’t let those April Fools jokesters get you!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Meeting a Fellow Blogger

Last week I received an email from Susan who writes the blog What’s Up With Susan and Company. She is a follower of my blog, was in the area, and wanted to know if we could get together on Saturday.

We were happy to meet her and so after a couple of emails and phone calls it was decided she would come and visit us around noon yesterday.

She was in the Phoenix area on Saturday to attend the Good Sam Rally at Phoenix International Raceway as a day visitor. Her granddaughter came with her. She also had her cute little dog Angel with her.

We spent a couple of hours getting to know each other. She’s had lots of interesting life experiences and was fun to listen to. I’m constantly amazed at the courage of the ladies that are out there fulltiming on their own. I don’t know that I’d be willing to do it.

She’s still learning about her rig and had some questions for Kevin. He showed her a few things and hopefully was able to help her with some of her questions.

They left after about two hours to head to the rally. The entertainment at the rally for Saturday night was Martina McBride and they had plans to see her.

Thanks Susan for reaching out. Hopefully, we’ll see you down the road!

The rest of the weekend has been pretty uneventful. It’s been quite hot. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far with a high of 88 degrees. We did our daily walk, road our bikes to Fry’s to pick up a few groceries and a movie. The rest of the time has been spent sitting out in the shade reading.

The movie we rented was Tower Heist. I didn’t necessarily like the ending, but it was a pretty good comedy type movie.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Another Day of Sightseeing

After a good nights sleep and our free continental breakfast this morning, we continued our sightseeing trip.

Our first stop was the Chapel of the Holy Cross. This chapel was the inspiration of architect Marguerite Bruswig Staude in the 1930s. She visited Europe looking for sites, but found the perfect spot while on vacation in Sedona. Frank Lloyd Wright collaborated on the project. It was completed in 1956. What an inspirational and beautiful site.

 

The view from the top is equally amazing. There were some very pretty fountains and flower beds around the building. Definitely worth the hike up from the parking lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The area surrounding the chapel seemed like the more affluent area of Sedona. This little house was down the hill. Notice the pool and fountains.

We continued on 89A. Our next stop was Tuzigoot National Monument in Clarkdale. We’ve been to quite a few of these Pueblo Ruins in the last two years, so we didn’t spend much time here. I stamped my National Park Passport book and took a quick look around. Kevin stayed in the truck. He’s had his fill of rock walls :)

A few more miles up the road is the town of Jerome. I found the history of this town fascinating. It’s built right on the side of Cleopatra Hill. The houses are built at about 5,000 feet elevation on a hill with a 30 degree incline. Each row of houses looks down on the roof of the house below. I can’t believe they thought it was a good idea to built at that incline. There were times when blasting from the mines actually caused entire houses to slide down the hill.

The streets are very steep and narrow.

The town was established in 1876 as a copper mining town. Mining continued until the 1950s with over $1 billion worth of copper being mined. At its peak the population was over 15,000, mostly men. As you can imagine, saloons, brothels and gambling were prevalent.  A New York newspaper called it the wickedest town in America.

After the mines shut down, the population dwindled to about 50 hippies. The town is now a National Historic Landmark and has become a tourist area as well as an artist community. It was quite an interesting place.

We continued on 89A towards Prescott. The road took us up to over 7,000 feet through the Prescott National Forest. There was still quite a bit of snow at that elevation. I’ve discovered that I like snow when it’s in the 70s outside and I’m wearing shorts. It’s quite beautiful. It’s driving in it and the cold that goes with it that I don’t like.

We continued through Prescott. It’s a pretty big town and looked like a nice place. We saw several RV parks with lots of RVs in them. We arrived back home at about 3:30 pm, just in time for our Friday afternoon cocktail.

We enjoyed our trip, and the scenery was very nice. In my opinion though, the red rocks of Utah are more impressive. The areas around Moab and the Monument Valley had more red rock and were just phenomenal. I doubt we’ll go back to Sedona. Just too touristy for our liking.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Sedona, Arizona

We left Buckeye at 9 am this morning and headed north towards Flagstaff. We took Interstate 17 to 89A just south of Flagstaff. The stretch of 89A between Flagstaff and Sedona is listed as a scenic highway in my book of scenic drives.

As we climbed in elevation we noticed more and more snow along the side of the road. Near Flagstaff at just over 6,000 feet there was lots of snow. They received over 2 feet last weekend. We haven’t seen snow in a while, and it was very pretty as long as we weren’t dealing with driving on snowy roads.

We saw this gorgeous view from the Oak Creek Canyon Vista Overlook.

I did the tourist shuffle with some people, I’ll take your picture if you take ours.

The drive down into the canyon has lots of switchback turns. I wouldn’t want to be towing (there is a 50 foot limit on the highway), but I didn’t think it was as bad as some other roads we’ve been on.

The scenery along the canyon was fantastic. It took about an hour to get to Sedona once we were on 89A. Sedona is quite the tourist trap type of town. It’s location among the red rocks makes it a beautiful place to visit. But, with visitors comes lots of shops and restaurants. We decided to take the trolley tour. The tours were booked until 5 pm so we bought our tickets and spent three hours wandering around.

It took an hour to check out all the shops. We didn’t buy a thing. Then we spent another hour enjoying margaritas and bottomless salsa and chips at Taos Cantina. Their salsa was the best I’ve ever had. We finished off two baskets of chips and two bowls of salsa. We are so full we aren’t having any supper. We spent the final hour sitting on a bench enjoying the wonderful views and weather and people watching. Here’s the view down the main street.

The trolley tour was interesting. We learned about the history of the area. The driver pointed out lots of rock formations with goofy names. There were some that I just didn’t see what it was supposed to look like. I’m thinking there may have been alcohol involved in the naming of some of them :) This was one of the prettier views.

We stopped at this spot which is supposed to be a vortex. In the 1980s some psychic lady came to Sedona and claimed there were certain areas that were a vortex where there are special energies coming from the earth. Supposedly some people experience intense feelings at these sites. We didn’t feel a thing. There are lots of spas and shops selling crystals and psychic type items in Sedona.

After the tour we drove up to an overlook on Airport Road. Our trolley driver told us it had the best views of the red rock and Sedona.

It was almost time for sunset and there were lots of people at the lookout. We waited for about 20 minutes and were rewarded with this gorgeous sunset.

We’re now in our very nice room at the Days Inn watching NCAA basketball. Wisconsin lost by one point earlier today. Marquette is losing at half-time. Hopefully, they’ll pull out a win. More sightseeing tomorrow.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!