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This Week on the Road - April 13th-20th

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This Week on the Road - April 13th-20th

Hello Everyone! First and foremost I wanted to wish those of you who celebrate a belated Happy Passover and/or a belated Happy Easter. As those of you who have been following me for several years already know, I was brought up in the Eastern Orthodox tradition so we do not celebrate Easter before or during Passover. Our Easter will be this coming Sunday this year so it totally slipped my mind last week. I hope if you were celebrating that it was a wonderful day however you chose to spend it. This week has had considerably fewer headaches than last week which I’m very grateful for. I have traveled down the east coast and across Southeastern Arizona this week, visiting with and learning about the Apache, exploring Arizona’s copper mining past and present and checking out some beautiful National Park Sites along the way. Since I’ve come down about 5000’ in elevation from the high desert to the low desert, the temperature has risen considerably with daily highs reaching into the 90s. Thankfully it is a dry heat, which really does make a huge difference, and it cools off at night which is the most important thing. I am trying to avoid being outside and/or driving in the heat of the day at this point, but overall it hasn’t caused me any problems. I’ve certainly seen some fascinating places this week, so let’s get right to it.

When I left you last week, I was in the interestingly named town of Show Low which was a quaint and quiet vacation town which seemed nice enough but didn’t have much of interest to me. I spent Wednesday night just a little bit south of there in Pinetop and was up and off early the next day. I headed straight for the White Mountain Apache Reservation which is centered around the old Fort Apache. Fort Apache was built there at the confluence of the East and North Forks of the White River beginning in 1870. The fort was built in that location with the permission of the White Mountain Apache, and many members of that band served as scouts in the U.S. Army during the Apache War which was waged mostly with the Chiricahua Apache. I was fascinated to learn about this conflict between the different bands at the wonderful museum and cultural center located there at the old fort, and it seemed to me as though they were proud of the role their ancestors played in that campaign. The fort remained an active one until 1924 and after it closed the buildings were converted into the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School which educated both Navajo and Apache children. I’m not a huge fan of the Indian Boarding Schools, which sought to strip young Native Americans of their culture, but I do believe there were good intentions involved. The campus is still a school today, but run locally by the White Mountain Apache. I spent the morning at the museum which, while it discussed some of this history, was clearly designed to present the White Mountain Apache as a modern community proud of its heritage and working towards the future. I spent the afternoon touring the old fort and trying to soak it in. Everyone I met there was incredibly friendly and welcoming and I spent considerably longer there than I had planned. I did get out to visit the Kinishiba Ruins in the afternoon which is a small Ancestral Puebloan site just down the road. It is protected and managed jointly by the White Mountain Apache, the Hopi and the Zuni, all of whom claim ancestry at Kinishiba. From there I was off to the twin cities of Eager and Springerville for a quiet and an early night.

Friday morning I was up early and headed down the Coronado Trail Scenic Byway which at some point likely crosses the trail Coronado took in 1540 on what was the first European penetration into the region. What their exact route was is unknown as there were no maps of the region for them to follow, but there is evidence that they spent time in that general vicinity. The scenic byway was a beautiful, winding 120 mile route which took every bit of four hours to travel. There were some stunning viewpoints along the way as I descended out of the White Mountains and into the desert below. It was a great road to crank up some good tunes, roll my windows down and cruise. At the other end of it, I found myself in the heart of the Morenci Mine, the largest copper mine in North America. It’s not pretty by any measure, but it is massive and definitely something to see. The small town of Clifton, on the other end of the mine, was an interesting little place to visit. The main street through town was a dirt road and a narrow one at that. The buildings were definitely a century old and not necessarily in very good repair for what should be a prosperous mining town. Everything seemed coated in red dust. It was unlike anywhere I’ve seen in the US and reminded me of some of the small mining communities I visited in Western Australia. They did have a beautiful old train station though. From there I was off and running towards Safford, another 45 minutes or so down the road. When I got there I was excited to see a Jack in the Box, one of the only fast food restaurants that I actually like. I don’t eat fast food as a general rule, but I haven’t seen a Jack in the Box in years, so I treated myself. Then I headed out to a great little private hot springs park called the Essence of Tranquility. The owner was super friendly and I had a wonderful night there soaking in the tubs and kicking my feet up in the communal areas. While I stayed in my van, they do offer little casitas and dorm beds as well. It’s definitely a worthwhile little stop and it was a nice respite from the road for a night.

I had a quick soak in the morning as well and then set off to Fort Bowie National Historic Site high up on Apache Pass…

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This Week on the Road - April 6th - 13th

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This Week on the Road - April 6th - 13th

Hello Everyone! Greetings from Arizona, where I have been since the weekend. So far, Arizona has had its challenges and after a fairly smooth 6 weeks in New Mexico it’s caught me a little off-guard. Arizona is also one of the states in which I have spent a lot of time in the past, probably a year of my life collectively if not more, so I wasn’t expecting to have any problems here whatsoever. Gas is up at around $4.59/gallon on average, meaning it costs over $100 to fill my tank which is hard when you’re on a budget and need to fill up every 2-3 days. I can’t let it stop me, but it’s painful. I don’t see states dropping their fuel taxes to help mitigate it either, once again turning towards and pointing at the federal government. It’s been very windy since I’ve been here which the locals tell me is common for this time of year. I guess I haven’t spent much time here in the spring before and have visited mainly in summer, fall and winter. When I say “wind”, I’m talking about sustained 30-40 mile per hour winds with gusts up to 60. When it’s at your back, it certainly pushes you right along, but when it’s coming from any other direction it makes driving a real chore. Hiking in it is also less than pleasant, as really is any outdoor activity. Beyond the wind, I haven’t had a phone signal since I got to the state except for a few hours in Holbrook. There is a signal, but not one I can get on either my Sprint or AT&T phones. It’s their state and if they are happy with their coverage then so be it, but it’s frustrating as I haven’t encountered this elsewhere to this degree. This also means that I need to use WiFi and depending on where I am, it’s very particular about what I can access – and I’m talking about mainstream things like Twitter, Netflix and AT&T Prepaid, not anything remotely scandalous. I’ve found campgrounds to be prohibitively expensive and even the state parks are at a price point where I will have to be very selective as to which ones I pay to see (their annual pass of $75 is also pretty high in my comparative mind). I can tell just from the week that I’ve been here that vanlife is far more prevalent here than anywhere I’ve been thus far and communities are pushing back, making where I stay more of an issue than it has been. All of that being said, I’ve seen some beautiful places in the 5 days that I’ve been here and I hope to find more of a rhythm in the next week or so. Despite the amount of time I have spent in Arizona, there is still a lot I want to see, and I hope the logistics of my time here aren’t as overwhelming as they have been so far.

When I left you last week, I was headed north from Gallup to check out the Bisti Wilderness. Unfortunately, I had tried and failed to get a map of the area and the digital ones available online were less than adequate. When I got there, I took to the high ground to be able to navigate better, but really I should have just headed straight into the canyons. I think the warnings I read about getting lost were quite exaggerated and I spent half of my time unnecessarily high above what I went to see. When I finally dropped into the canyon, it was a beautiful place, full of hoodoos and petrified wood. Hoodoos occur when sandstone or other softer rock is covered with a layer of harder rock. The hard cap layer works like a hat and the sandstone layer erodes from the outside in instead of from the top down. Petrified wood comes about when old trees are subjected to extreme heat and pressure in very specific conditions and harden to a stone-like texture. Both the hoodoos and the petrified wood out there were really cool, but it was fiercely windy out and tough to concentrate on much besides staying upright. It was a cool area, though, and one I would definitely return to on a quieter day with a better understanding of the landscape. I left in the late afternoon and got into Farmington with enough time to shower, dress and head out to see the incredible Ballet Folklorica de Mexico at the Civic Center. I even ended up with a free ticket as the lady in the ticket office said someone had left a few to be given away. It seemed as though the performance told the story of Mexican history, from the Aztecs through to modern times. The music and dancing were wonderful, but the costumes really stole the show in my opinion. After the first hour or so, the many children who were in the audience around me started to get pretty fidgety and I wish there had been an intermission in this two hour show for them to get up and move around a little. The girl sitting two seats down from me was literally bouncing in her seat as high as she could get and her parents just let her bounce. Despite all of that, it was a very enjoyable evening and a sharp contrast from my day in the windy wilderness.

Thursday I headed off to Aztec Ruins National Monument in the morning, which was located in the cute little town of Aztec about 30 minutes up the road. Aztec was a Great House of the Ancestral Puebloans built in the 1300s in the Chaco style. It had enclosed passageways inside the ruins which were open to explore and fascinating to see. The centerpiece of Aztec Ruins was a reconstructed Grand Kiva which was a project of the lead archaeologist who excavated the site. Most reconstructed kivas are interesting and give you some idea of their purpose (as the center of Puebloan community and religious life – think of a church in early America), but they are rough and unfinished. This was a beautiful, massive kiva with plastered and painted walls (as the originals would have been in their time) and felt very peaceful and well-done. I asked the ranger if the Puebloan people who visited ever shared their thoughts on this kiva as their communities are still centered around kivas today. She told that she hadn’t heard anything so I guess it wasn’t too egregious of an example. I thought it was wonderful. I also thought it was interesting that the Animas River, a pretty big river by southwestern U.S. standards, flowed right next to the old Pueblo. Of course building your town near water has always been essential, but my questions came with why this site was abandoned. A massive regional drought is always cited as the main cause of this out-migration, but I would find it hard to believe that this river ran dry even in the driest of years. I enjoyed discussing this and several other questions with the ranger there as they are always happy to engage in discussions beyond where the bathroom is.

I returned to Farmington in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day at the library which was big, clean and beautiful but sadly had no internet. I still got plenty of work done, though, and set myself up well for the next day. That evening I went for a nice steak dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. I usually avoid chain restaurants, but my dad and his girlfriend had given me a gift certificate for Texas Roadhouse and I was happy to use it. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by my meal and left very satisfied.

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This Week on the Road - March 30th - April 6th

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This Week on the Road - March 30th - April 6th

Hello Everyone! It’s been another amazing week out here in New Mexico and I can’t wait to tell you about it, but I’m going to start out this week with my most exciting news. As most of you know, I will be going back to my regular gig as an overland tour guide this summer. I’ll be working for a company called Incredible Adventures which is currently being run by my last two managers from my old company. I got a call from one of them yesterday with some thoughts on my start-up tour and I will be heading to Hawaii next month. Of all the places I thought I might go this summer, Hawaii was not on my list and I am so excited for this opportunity. It will be in the midst of my time in Arizona, but I will fly out and then back and be able to finish up my time there before heading on to San Francisco to begin my season in earnest. I am definitely looking forward to walking barefoot on a white sand beach and swimming in beautiful turquoise water. So with mai tais and sea turtles dancing in my head, let me tell you about my exciting week here in New Mexico.

When I left you last week, I was planning on heading to a place called Meow Wolf the following morning. Meow Wolf was an incredible experience which is really hard to explain. It’s essentially a big funhouse, full of fascinating and beautiful art installations. You enter it through the front door of a Victorian house and then you choose your own adventure from there. You can go through the fireplace into an ice cave with a mammoth skeleton which you can play like a xylophone. You can go through the refrigerator which takes you to a strange vacationland. You can go through the bookcase and come out in a circus-like room. You end up in treehouses and lighthouses and flying buses. It really is quite a place to experience and I was there for probably three hours and continued finding new rooms and passages right up until the end, and I’m sure I missed some along the way. It was weird and wonderful and I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Santa Fe (or Denver or Las Vegas).

My Thursday afternoon was definitely one of ups and downs. I got a call from my dad telling me he had fallen and broken his ankle. He’ll be okay and is in a recovery facility, but I worry about some of these places and what floats around in them with Covid only being one such worry. On the flip-side, I got a nice email telling me one of my photos has been accepted to be published in a book of hiking trails from National Geographic called 100 Trails, 5000 Ideas. As a photographer, National Geographic is obviously one of the biggest names in the industry and while it will be a small photo in a big book, I’m still very happy to be included. In the afternoon I headed over to visit the Montezuma Masonic Lodge, where the gentleman I met in Taos told me I could find Kit Carson’s rifle. I met several of the Masons who were a part of the Lodge when I walked in, and they were incredibly warm and welcoming. The Secretary, Don, told me the whole story of the rifle and how Kit himself had instructed that it be hand delivered to the Lodge upon his death. It was, and they’ve been caring for it ever since. I had to put on a pair of gloves to hold it, but it was amazing to have this piece of history in my hands. I’m very grateful to the gentlemen of the Montezuma Lodge for their hospitality and all of the fascinating stories they shared with me while I was there. I decided to celebrate the day with a few beers at La Fonda, a wonderful must-see hotel right off the central Plaza in downtown Santa Fe. Mark has been bartending at La Fonda for years and it’s always a pleasure to stop in and say hello and have a drink in historic surroundings. From there, I said goodbye to Santa Fe and headed up the highway to the Buffalo Thunder casino for the night.

I started my day on Friday at Bandelier National Monument, not far up the road. Due to its proximity to Santa Fe it’s a busy park and it was fairly crowded when I was there, but there were some great old ruins to poke around at the base of some beautiful cliffs. When I had had my fill of the ruins, I had some lunch and then set off up the other side of the canyon on the Frijoles Rim Trail. It was a wonderful and beautiful trail and, in contrast to the valley, I didn’t see a single person along the whole hike. The trail took me up to the top of the canyon and along its rim for a mile or so and there were wonderful views down the canyon and off to the mountains in the distance. When I made it back to my van, we were off and running to Los Alamos to have a short look around Manhattan Project National Historical Park before it closed. I had been to another section of this park several years ago in Oak Ridge, Tennessee where they had enriched the uranium which was then transported to Los Alamos and built into the atomic bombs. They tested their first bomb at the Trinity Site down near what is now White Sands National Park…

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This Week on the Road - March 23rd-30th

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This Week on the Road - March 23rd-30th

Hello Everyone! It’s been a wildlife viewing week out here on the roads of Northern New Mexico. I’ve seen eagles and hawks in the air, deer, bighorn sheep and pronghorns in the fields and lots of prairie dogs running around searching for their underground tunnels. I like seeing wildlife. These animals make me smile. I’ve actually done a lot of smiling this week as I’ve found myself in wild places surrounded by beautiful landscapes and breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. I’ve managed to keep most of the demons in my head at bay this week and have felt pretty good all around. The weather has generally been great this week as well which hasn’t hurt. Warm, sunny days and cool, pleasant nights work really well for me. I do find that I need to change from shorts to long pants very soon after the sun goes down – it doesn’t take long to cool down in this dry air. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in New Mexico for over a month at this point, but I’m starting to make plans for the final stretch of my time here and then I’m off to Arizona for the rest of my winter/spring. My month in New Mexico has been special and memorable and I definitely understand why they call it The Land of Enchantment.

When I left you last week, I was in tiny Clayton, New Mexico in the far northeast of the state. I did head out to Clayton Lake State Park that evening which has a fascinating “pad” of over 200 dinosaur footprints from when the area was the muddy shoreline of a vast inland sea. Some of the footprints were very pronounced in the evening light and while it was very windy out there it was still really cool to see. I decided to spend the night at one of the campgrounds by the lake and ended up having the whole place to myself which was really nice. It was windy and cold, but I stayed out to watch the sunset and then popped out periodically to check out the stars which were really bright and mesmerizing.

Thursday morning I stuck around my campsite for a bit, enjoying my coffee and the warm sun on my face by the lake. I’ve been rereading the book Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides which essentially tells the history of early American New Mexico. It’s an excellent book, and I’m enjoying it even more now that I’ve been to a lot of the places he writes about. A pair of bald eagles were cruising around the lake while I read which was awesome. Eventually I pulled up stakes and headed back into town to take a few more photos and then got on the road west to Capulin Volcano National Monument. I had noticed on my way out to Clayton Lake the evening before that the landscape was much more volcanic in that part of the state and it became even more pronounced as I went west. I drove past Sierra Grande, which is an incredible example of a shield volcano and then headed towards Capulin which is one of the country’s best specimens of a cinder cone volcano. This volatile and quick-forming volcano (which looks like what you imagine in your head when you think of a volcano) formed sometime around 60,000 years ago. The fertile soil it produced made for some fine grazing land so ranchers have used the land around the volcano for centuries and its distinct and easily recognizable shape made it a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. Today, you can drive right to the top which is pretty cool but probably not for the faint of heart as there is a pretty severe drop-off and not many guardrails on the road. Once you get up there, though, you are rewarded with remarkable views in all directions and you can hike around the rim and down into the crater. You can look east at the seemingly endless plains stretching to the horizon and west to where they run into the Rocky Mountains. When I left the park, I headed north to Folsom and planned on taking the road over Johnson Mesa to Raton so I could drive past the Folsom Man Site, an archaeological area similar to the Clovis Man Site I talked about last week when I visited the Blackwater Draw museum. Somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up going a half hour down the wrong road but it was a beautiful road and a nice detour. When I finally figured out I had gone astray, I returned to Folsom and found the road I wanted to take. It was poorly marked and when I made the turn, I found it was also closed. Two hours later, I was back at Capulin but thankfully it was only a short drive from there to Raton. Raton is a cute little town on the railroad line with an old theatre and an older train station. I did wander around town a little bit but I was pretty tired and didn’t find out much about it. I stopped in for a great craft beer and one of the best burritos I’ve ever had at the Cellar Brewery (which is actually on the first floor, but they brew the beer in the basement) and then called it a night.

On Friday morning I headed just down the road to the town of Cimarron. Their sign reads “Where the Plains Meet the Mountains” and you can look west from town and see the Rockies emerging from the flat plains. Cimarron is also home to the Philmont Scout Ranch, a massive wilderness area donated by oilman Waite Phillips to the Boy Scouts in 1938. Way back in 1992, I came to Philmont on my very first trip to New Mexico and my first trip anywhere west of the Mississippi. My Boy Scout troop spent 10 days backpacking through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and covered about a hundred miles on foot if my memory serves. It was an amazing experience for a city kid like me and a formative one…

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Snapshots: Madrid - An Old Coal Town Reborn

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Snapshots: Madrid - An Old Coal Town Reborn

Madrid was the first town I came to along the beautiful Turquoise Trail, the scenic byway which connects Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Pronounced MAD-rid for some maddening reason, I couldn’t find a clear story as to how the town got its name. The earliest Europeans in the area most likely came from Spain, but it doesn’t appear that Madrid got its name until New Mexico was an American territory. First lead and then coal were mined in the surrounding hills and in 1892 a 6 mile spur was built to connect the town to the Santa Fe Railway. By 1906, coal mining in the area was consolidated under the Albuquerque and Cerrillos Coal Company and a company town grew to a population of over 3,000, more than that of Albuquerque at the time. In 1922, Madrid boasted the only baseball field with lights west of the Mississippi River, and the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor league affiliate the Madrid Miners played there for many years. The mines did well until the early 1950s and in 1954 the Coal Company left Madrid and many of the residents went with them. By the early 1970s, Madrid was almost a ghost town but then artists discovered the town and started moving in. Today, Madrid is a vibrant and colorful town with many reminders of the old mining town that it once was, but truly reborn as an artists’ colony and a tourism destination. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Madrid, New Mexico.

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This Week on the Road - March 17th-23rd

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This Week on the Road - March 17th-23rd

Hello Everyone! First and foremost this week, I want to say how much my heart goes out to those affected by the tornadoes yesterday in New Orleans and across Texas. The Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans suffered enough for a lifetime with Hurricane Katrina and I’m heartbroken by the images coming from there today. I wish them well with their recovery. As for me, I’ve spent most of this week traveling across the Llano Estacado or the “Staked Plains” of northeastern New Mexico. This is not an area that sees a lot of tourism, but there is actually quite a bit to see out here and I’ve been enjoying it. The winds, however, have been blowing hard at me all week, which makes it hard to drive and since no matter which way you turn it never seems to be at your back, it doesn’t help with my gas mileage. When I pulled into Clayton an hour ago though, gas was at $3.70/gallon, the cheapest I’ve seen in over a month! It would have seemed expensive 3 months ago, but for today it brought a smile to my face. I’ve spent a lot of the week dodging suicidal tumbleweeds which wait until the last second and then make a beeline for my undercarriage. The beautiful pronghorns I’ve seen out in the grasslands have made up for it, though. I’ve actually been feeling really good this week and have been enjoying seeing this region of the state. Even though towns are few and far between and the wind makes me feel like I’m captaining a boat instead of driving a van, it’s been a really good week out here.

When I left you last week, I was on my way out to take some photos around Santa Fe, but clouds had moved in and it was a bit gloomy. I tucked into a little bar and met the most cantankerous person I’ve met thus far in New Mexico. Since he was the bartender and owner, it seemed like a good sign to call it an early night and get a good jump on my Thursday.

I hit the gym first thing Thursday morning and came out to find it snowing pretty heavily out. Since I couldn’t take my camera out in the snow, I went for an early lunch at a spot called Horseman’s Haven which my friend Estilla had recommended. When I got there, I double checked my phone to make sure I was in the right place because it was a little plain-looking spot tucked into the corner of a gas station parking lot. I’m sure glad I didn’t judge the book by its cover, because it turned out to be a really great restaurant. I had some chicken adovado, a New Mexican dish of chicken marinated and cooked in red chili, and I also got a side of their famous green chili which was as good as I had been promised (Anthony Bourdain apparently said it would “melt your face off”). It may be the best restaurant I’ve been to thus far in the state.

From there I headed back downtown and went to see the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of Governors. The museum was pretty good and set out to tell the history of the state from the earliest Paleo-Indians to the modern day. I must admit my ignorance on a lot of the details of this region. Even though the names were all familiar from guiding tours here for many years, I didn’t have a good chronological understanding in my head and this museum really helped with that. I also enjoyed their in-depth look at the Harvey Hotels, an early chain of hotels and restaurants that grew up with the railroad, of which Santa Fe’s own La Fonda was one. I’ve been to La Fonda many times, and El Tovar and the Bright Angel Lodge at Grand Canyon, but I’ve always been interested in the brand, which was also one of the first big tourism operations in the Southwest. After early run-ins with locally hired employees, Fred Harvey decided to hire mostly young, single women - lovingly remembered as the Harvey Girls. In doing so, the Harvey brand may have had more responsibility for populating the region than they intended by bringing single, adventurous women to the Southwest. The Palace of Governors, which is attached to the museum, has been on the plaza in Santa Fe since 1600. It’s been occupied by the Spanish, the Pueblo Indians, Mexico, the United States and even, briefly, the Confederacy. The building has been altered, expanded, contracted, and was even given Victorian flourishes at one point. When you learn all of this, it’s amazing that this adobe building has survived for 400 years. Sadly, there isn’t much to it on the inside except a bunch of whitewashed walls and I wish they would furnish it from its many different periods. It was still interesting to see and I’m glad I went.

It being St. Patrick’s Day, my next stop was Boxcar – a very un-Irish bar, but seemingly the only game in town for the big day. To be fair, they did try and they all worked very hard to make it enjoyable. There was corned beef, Guinness and green beer…

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Snapshots: Truth or Consequences - Interesting Name, Beautiful Town

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Snapshots: Truth or Consequences - Interesting Name, Beautiful Town

People have been visiting the natural hot springs in the Palomas Basin for centuries. The Spanish called them Ojo Caliente de Las Palomas and the cowboys called them Palomas Hot Springs. In the late 18th century, a public bath was built on a ranch in the area where people could come and take the waters. When the Elephant Butte Dam was built in 1912 to help with irrigation, the area became more attractive to settlers and the town of Hot Springs, New Mexico was incorporated in 1916. Twenty-one years later, it would become the county seat of Sierra County. In 1950, Ralph Edwards, the host of the popular radio show Truth or Consequences, promised to air their 10th anniversary show live from any town that would change its name to match that of the show. Hot Springs residents jumped at the opportunity and officially changed its name to Truth or Consequences. Edwards made good on his promise and visited the town on the first weekend of May every year for the next 50 years. His visit was turned into a celebration, Fiesta, which still happens every year at that time. T or C, as the locals call it, is a wonderful and colorful little town full of hot springs resorts and art galleries and with a backdrop of beautiful mountains that light up when the sun is low in the sky. I loved my brief stay in one of the country’s most uniquely named towns, and I hope you enjoy these photos of fabulous Truth or Consequences.

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This Week on the Road March 10th-16th

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This Week on the Road March 10th-16th

Hello Everyone! Well I’m finally starting to feel more adjusted to the dryness of the desert and the altitude here in Northern New Mexico. It definitely takes a few days to get used to in my sinuses and with just walking around. On the other hand, Shadow Catcher has gotten better gas mileage this week than at any time since I’ve had her, and it is definitely the right time for that. Daylight Savings is back and I’m absolutely enjoying the later sunset – it stretches my day out a bit and I feel a little less hurried. I spent a good chunk of this week in Albuquerque, a city I had only visited in passing before. At first it seemed a little bit seedy, but it really grew on me and I enjoyed it quite a bit and look forward to returning. Beyond that, the weather has been near perfect all week and I’ve continued to really enjoy my time in New Mexico. It’s growing nearer and dearer to my heart every day. I guess they don’t call it The Land of Enchantment for nothing.

So when I left you last week, I was in the small town of Truth or Consequences which turned out to be a neat little town and one of the most photogenic I’ve been through so far. I headed out to Elephant Butte Lake State Park to take some photos and grab a quick shower, but the lake out there is really low after years of drought. I returned downtown in the evening and enjoyed wandering around and taking photos until the sun went down. Then I stopped in for a couple of beers at the great little Truth or Consequences Brewery and enjoyed speaking with the lady who worked there who had moved to T & C from El Paso and never looked back.

I was up and off on Thursday with big plans that I couldn’t quite fit into a day. My first stop was at old Fort Craig, an army fort built in 1854 - soon after the New Mexico Territory became a part of the United States as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The fort was established to provide protection from Indians for settlers moving west into the newly acquired territory. It was staffed mostly by recent immigrants, one of whom described Fort Craig as “some lonesome sort of hole on the edge of the hot and dusty desert”. It would become the unlikely site of a fairly important battle (for the Western Theatre) of the Civil War as the Confederacy had its eyes on Colorado and California gold and a Pacific port which would be free from a Union blockade. To get to either, they had to cross New Mexico first, no small feat in the 1860s. Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley, who led the charge, planned on providing for his troops by “living off the land”. I don’t think he was quite prepared for the desolate and sparsely populated desert environment he found. Fort Craig, at the time, had tremendous storehouses and provided food and supplies to the entire region, so Sibley set his sights on the small desert fort. The armies met on the Valverde Battlefield, not far away, and the Confederates managed to send the Union troops retreating back to the fort. Sibley then demanded the fort’s surrender, which was probably met by laughter but was definitely refused by Commanding Officer Colonel Edward Canby who saw no reason to surrender his secure and well-armed fort. Sibley didn’t have the ammunition or the firepower to attack the fort, so he was forced to move on in search of provisions for his men further north. Canby left in pursuit, leaving Kit Carson in command in his absence. A defeat near Santa Fe sent the Confederates high-tailing it back to Texas. The fort would go back to serving its original purpose of fighting off the Apache, but was abandoned by the 1890s. Today it is just a collection of ruins overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, but it’s an interesting place. The caretaker told me they average just 8 visitors a day, but sometimes get as many as 20.

After a few hours at the fort, I headed on to the beautiful Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge just up the road. These natural wetlands are an essential stopover for migrating birds, and seeing it helps to show the importance of the Wildlife Refuge System…

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Snapshots: Hiking Organ Mountain - Desert Peak National Monument

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Snapshots: Hiking Organ Mountain - Desert Peak National Monument

Organ Mountains - Desert Peaks National Monument is a beautiful park in Southeast New Mexico managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Just 25 minutes from Las Cruces, this park makes for a great day trip from the city or a stop-off on your way to or from White Sands National Park. I enjoyed a wonderful 7 mile round-trip hike up to Baylor Pass, a saddle with wonderful views out over the Chihuahuan Desert. In the afternoon, I made a 3 mile round-trip hike to the ruins at Dripping Springs. This area, which contains a natural spring deep in a hollow, was once home to Boyd’s Sanitarium and Van Patton’s Mountain Camp. The sanitarium catered to tuberculosis patients while the mountain camp was a fancy hotel and resort. Opened in 1897, the hotel had 15 guest rooms, a dining hall, a concert hall, a gazebo and a roller-skating rink and hosted the likes of Pat Garrett and Pancho Villa. The resort fell on hard times during World War I and Eugene Van Patten sold it to Dr. Boyd who ran the sanitarium. The Great Depression would be the final blow to the resort and it closed for good in the 1920s. Today it is maintained in a state of arrested decay and makes for a cool walk in the late afternoon. There is so much more to this park than just these two hikes, but they were all I had time for during my visit. I hope you enjoy these photos from Organ Mountains - Dripping Springs National Monument.

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This Week on the Road - March 4th-10th

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This Week on the Road - March 4th-10th

Hello Everyone! It has been an amazing week here in New Mexico as I’ve been out hiking, exploring state and national parks, visiting small towns and soaking in some wonderful hot springs. The wind has been blowing tumbleweed across my path and the roadrunners make me smile. I even popped over to Mexico for a couple of beers this week. I’ve been feeling great and riding on a real high since arriving in New Mexico, and I’m hoping to keep cruising happily along for as long as I can. When I started this journey four years ago, I really wanted to take a deep dive into the Deep South and Appalachia and learn more about the history, culture, music and food of those regions. I had a fascinating time doing just that, but I also wanted to get west and visit old cowboy towns and hike through the desert. I didn’t know it was going to take quite so long to get here, but I’m sure glad I have finally made it. It’s so quiet out here and I’ve been so happy to get on the trail and explore a region so different from the places I’ve been for the last few years. I’ve spent some time out here on tour, but very little in New Mexico and mostly just cruising through. It’s been really great to be here and it’s been a fascinating week.

I know the world is struggling right now, and being partly of Ukrainian descent, I’m very aware of and unhappy with what Putin is doing in Eastern Europe. I don’t think there is much I can do about it, though, so I’m going to keep pushing onward and upward. The price of gas has skyrocketed in the last couple of weeks as a result of this invasion. I paid $2.98 a gallon just a couple of weeks ago in East Texas and today it was $4.49. I have travelled enough to know that that is still cheaper than in much of the world before all of this started, but when I have to fill up my tank every couple of days it hits hard. It means I have to plan things out more to avoid backtracking and make other adjustments accordingly, but I'm not going to let it stop me. It is actually an incredibly small price to pay to support the Ukrainian cause and while I wouldn’t say I’m happy to do it, I’m willing to do it. I’m very grateful to have work lined up for this summer though.

When I left you last week, I had just arrived in Las Cruces. After I finished writing this post, I decided to head down to Old Mesilla and have a look around and maybe grab some dinner. Mesilla is a town just south of Las Cruces which was created after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (which ceded New Mexico to the United States) as a town for those who wished to remain in Mexico. The border was later moved south and Mesilla officially became an American town. It’s a really cute little place, centered on an old central plaza with plenty of adobe buildings surrounding it. I loved that they had ristras of red chiles hanging from their light posts which brought a big smile to my face. I wandered around for a while and then took a seat in the plaza to listen to the Ash Wednesday sermon coming from the speakers attached to the central Basilica of San Albino, built in 1906. It was a quiet and pleasant sermon and I enjoyed listening to it in the quiet plaza as the sun was going down. When the sermon was over and the sun had set, I dropped into the Double Eagle for a margarita. The Double Eagle is apparently one of the fancier places in the area, and one that families tend to visit on special occasions. The bar area was absolutely stunning and the bar itself was constructed from the old high school basketball floorboards. They made a good margarita and there was a perfect single seat in the corner made just for me. When I finished my margarita, I made my way just down the block to La Posta de Mesilla, the other legendary venue in Mesilla and a restaurant recommended by more than one friend. I loved the piranhas and parrots in the waiting area and soon got a seat at the back bar. I had a hankering for a prickly pear margarita and was thrilled they could accommodate this request. The couple next to me were retired Border Patrol, and they were really wonderful to talk with. On my other side was a gentleman who grew up in L.A. but had moved to Phoenix many years ago. Both were such easy and gentle conversations, maintaining my first impression of the people of the region. My second drink was a chile margarita which definitely had a little spice and kick to it. The drinks and people were great but sadly the food wasn’t very good at all. It was quite ordinary actually and quite disappointing for such a large and historic spot. I had a great time in Old Mesilla despite my tasteless burrito, and decided to call it a very early night.

I was up and at ‘em early on Thursday, though, and on my way out to the Baylor Pass Trail in Organ Mountains - Desert Peaks National Monument. This is a beautiful natural area just north and east of Las Cruces, and I was happy to get out there while the sun was still behind the clouds. The hike up to the pass was steady and moderate, but gained a good bit of elevation over the 3.5 miles to its crest. It took me through prickly pear and yucca and even some sagebrush on my climb…

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In Focus - White Sands National Park

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In Focus - White Sands National Park

Magnificent White Sands National Park in central New Mexico preserves the largest gypsum dune field of its kind in the world. This dune field in the heart of the Tularosa Basin covers 145,762 acres and includes 4.5 billion tons of gypsum sand. This gypsum was left in the area after the Permean Sea retreated several million years ago, and water and wind shape the dunes we find there today. The dunes are ever changing, though, so you will never see the same landscapes on any two visits to the park.

People have been coming through the area for at least 11,000 years and we believe that a group we call the Jornada Mogollon were the first to farm the area (see my photos of their nearby petroglyph site here). Groups of Apache made their way into the area in the 1600s and European-Americans arrived in the 1800s. White Sands National Monument was created by Herbert Hoover in 1933 and it was made a National Park in 2019.

I arrived for my visit to the park just after dawn. The mountains to the east block the sunrise, but the skies were blue and full of amazing white clouds. I headed straight out to the heart of the dunes and hiked the wonderful 5 mile Alkali Flats Trail. The sun reflected brightly off the white sand making photography difficult, but I was grateful that there was no wind. In the late afternoon I set out to capture some of the beautiful plant life in the park, mainly different kinds of yucca, which contrast nicely with the white sand. I stayed to watch the sunset and found real peace and solitude out in the middle of the park. It was a wonderful day in White Sands National Park. You can find some of these photos for sale in my store , but please contact me if the one you want isn’t there and I’ll be happy to add it. I hope you enjoy these photos from my time in White Sands National Park.

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Snapshots: Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

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Snapshots: Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

The Three Rivers Petroglyph site offers an amazing look into the ancient rock carvings of the Jornada Mogollon people. These rock carvings, created between 900 and 1400 AD, are scattered across a boulder field in the Chihuahuan Desert between the San Andres and Sacramento Mountains. There are over 20,000 recorded petroglyphs in this area, making it one of the most prolific petroglyph sites in the country. While nobody knows the exact meaning of these chiseled carvings, some of the more recognizable animals and birds offer a glimpse into what these ancient people found important. Located 17 miles north of Tularosa and 28 miles south of Carrizozo, this site, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, makes an excellent detour. There is a $5 admission fee to the site, but it is federal land so all National Park passes are also accepted. You could make the one mile out-and-back hike in under an hour, but the longer you stay, the more you will see. I hope you enjoy these photos of a tiny fraction of the carvings at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site.

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