Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Sunday we came here, to the High Desert RV Park outside Albuquerque. I know I said we were going to stay a week at El Morro RV Park and Cabins but that didn’t work out. It wasn’t the upside down power plug and it wasn’t the leaking water hydrant, it was the dogs.

The list of rules on line said “all dogs on leash”. The posted rules by the office/cafe said “all dogs on leash”. A posted sign as you pulled into the sites said “all dogs on leash”. But there were four dogs belonging to full time residents, including a Great Pyrenees belonging to one of the campground hosts, that were wandering free. Matey and I met two of the female dogs, a light brown one and the Great Pyrenees, as we set out on a walk. All was fine, sniffing and tail wagging, although I could tell Matey was nervous because the Great Pyrenees was three times his size. Returning from the funky trail in the back we met them again, or maybe it was the other light brown female dog and the Pyrenees, because this time the brown dog raised her hackles and growled and then both of them started to snarl, bark and nip at Matey. He was doing his best to dodge them and I just started yelling “HELP”. The owners came immediately and the dogs obediently retreated, but walking was pretty much ruined for Matey. Not only that, but when confined to her yard the Pyrenees barked at every passing person, dog or vehicle. So we left early.

This place is pretty much the opposite of the last one. It does have sculptures, oddly enough, but these are very well done full sized metal sculptures.

The detail achieved with cut and welded metal is amazing.

Everything here is perfectly aligned and perfectly neat, if a bit sterile. And all the dogs are on leashes!

It was good we came to the Albuquerque area early as we’d been racking up some jobs we needed to do. We both needed shoes. Today we defrosted the refrigerator and freezer (camper units are not self-defrosting) and we also accomplished a new desert chore, getting the dust off everything. We did take the time to play nine holes of disc golf while the fridge thawed.

Yesterday we visited one of three sites with petroglyphs that are part of Petroglyphs National Monument here in Albuquerque.

This one was reported to have more petroglyphs than either of the others.

And dogs were allowed on the trail. Behind Bud and Matey you can see a lot of Albuquerque in the valley.

This was one of my favorite petroglyphs. If you look closely you can see that the pattern extends on both sides of the sharp corner of the rock.

These carvings are from around 1300 AD. No explanations were given of their meanings. They are recent enough that the Pueblo Indians in the area still consider them sacred, and as such, not to be shared outside of the religion.

Tomorrow we move to the planned campground in the area. We will probably visit more of the petroglyphs sites before we leave Albuquerque on Sunday.

That’s the billing for the privately owned ice cave we visited yesterday.

The first part of the tour was a walk around the side of and into the cinder cone crater of the Bandera volcano that erupted 10,900 years ago. That’s the volcano that produced the lava fields I walked on the day before. If you look closely at the photo you can see a couple of places along the top of this truncated cone where nothing is growing. I think the cinders collapse taking any trees with them.

On the way up we encountered this spatter cone. This formed when hot gasses vented bringing molten lava splashing out and solidifying into a cone like this.

The trail up was composed of the same cinders that made up the majority of the cone. There was some more solid lava, but not much.

We got a good view of the lava flow and other volcanoes in the area.

The crater, which has one side blown out where the lava flow came out, is about 1400 feet wide and 800 feet deep. This is looking down into the crater from the end of the trail.

And this is looking up at the rim of the cone.

Many of the trees, like this juniper, are very old and very twisted.

That was the fire part of the tour, although it was cold yesterday with a cutting breeze and we could have used a bit of actual fire.

The ice part of the tour was a visit to a cave formed in a lava tube. These are the first set of steps leading down into the cave.

The Bandera volcano produced a lava flow that is 23 miles long. It has many lava tubes, but the largest is continuous for over 17 miles, the longest known in North America. Much of this tube is collapsed, but some remains as caves and it is one of these caves we were entering.

This is the second set of stairs into the cave. The very deep cave in lava, that is a good insulator, is what has enabled this ice cave to exist.

No one knows for sure how the ice first formed, but it is now 20 feet deep. The oldest ice is 3400 years old. The temperature in this deep hole remains at 31 degrees Fahrenheit and new rain continues to build the ice. The green color is an arctic algae.

The cool entrance to the cave creates an environment where lichen and alpine moss thrive.

To me the history of this land was as interesting as the sights. We talked to the woman who now operates and owns this. The land was bought by her great great grandfather from the railroad. Her grandmother inherited it and asked her father to come and manage it in 1946. He saw the potential and developed it as a tourist attraction. He stopped the mining of the ice, which the previous manager had used to cool drinks for the saloon he ran.

She and her family are very dedicated to preserving these natural wonders and sharing them with others.

Twenty miles east of El Morro National Monument on NM 53 is El Malpais National Monument. El Morro offered the traveler water and shade, El Malpais, the badlands, offered a landscape to avoid.

We drove about five miles down a dirt and gravel county road and then another three or four on a badly rutted dirt park road to get to the Big Tubes Area.

The park road parallels the 10,900 year old Bandera lava flow. The lava flow goes on with tubes and trenches for 17 miles. Here you can see it, nearly as tall as the trees.

It looks more like mine tailings than a natural landscape.

There was a trail taking you back to the “big tubes”, the hollow tubes left behind when the outside lava cools and the inner, molten lava flows on. This was not a trail that Matey could walk on, so Bud and Matey waited while I hiked in to see it and get some pictures.

The only way to tell where to go was to look for the cairns of lava rocks. They were not far apart, but even so it was sometimes hard to pick them out from the general rubble.

After less than half a mile I came to a sign where the trail formed a loop. I was not sure I wanted to go further. I was afraid I might twist my ankle or fall and cut my hands and knees. I decided to go up to the top of a slight hill to my left.

There I found a caved in portion of one of the lava tubes. I’m standing on the edge of the caved in tube and it’s at least 15 feet to the bottom. At the top of the picture you can see the bridge formed by a portion of the tube that remains.

I took my picture and turned back. Even though I had just been this way it took some care to find the cairns.

This is the “soil” after 10,000 years of weathering.

This tree was not having an easy time of it, but it was still alive, still growing.

And this cactus looked like it was getting ready to bloom, rooted in bare lava rocks.

On our way out we stopped at a place where I could climb up and get a shot of the expanse of the lava flow. Not a place to take a horse and wagon!

We returned to the highway and drove another few miles to the oldest lava flow in the monument, El Calderon. This had a nice level trail that all of us could walk.

Here the lava had a thin layer of soil and grass; junipers and Douglas fir were growing, but there were still areas of bare rock.

There were broken lava tubes. Two breaks formed the twin sinks, Bud is in front of the larger one.

It was pretty deep.

The smaller sink was just uphill, on the other side of the trail.

We walked about three quarters of a mile up to two caves that had a common opening. This is Xenolith Cave. A xenolith is a piece of rock found in other rock; usually, as here, rock trapped in igneous magma.

The other, larger cave is Bat Cave. All the caves are now closed.

That did not change our plans, these were not trails we were planning to take!

This older lava flow made a much more pleasing landscape.

But even after 115,000 years of weathering there was barely enough soil to cover the rocks.

El Morro means the headlands. The land gradually rises from the south to the north until the small mesa ends abruptly in a giant sandstone bluff. Beneath the bluff is a pool of water from the outfall of rain and snow from the mesa above. That pool has brought people to the bluff and mesa for thousands of years.

There is a visitor center below the bluff and a hiking trail that takes you up to the mesa, across the top and around the front of the sandstone cliffs.

As the trail rises near the base of the cliff…

you walk through rough darkened areas. This is the biological soil crust and you are asked to stay on the trail and not damage it. The crust is composed of microscopic Cyanobacteria, algae, bryophytes and lichen. It helps to stabilize the soil and prevent run-off of the 16 inches of rain and snowmelt the area gets per year.

There are three sets of stairs that take you fairly quickly up…

until you are walking on top of the mesa.

A short walk brings you to a pueblo that has been partially excavated.

Past the round kiva you can see the outline of the pueblo. Ground radar shows it has 118 rooms around the central plaza.

From there it’s a rather dramatic walk across the top of the headlands.

The etched outline and carved steps of the trail were made by the WPA in the 1930’s.

In the center of the mesa is a box canyon. The trail leads along the east and north sides of it.

It’s fun to walk along, with beautiful views all around.

This is looking back across the box canyon towards the ruins.

And this view is north from the front of the headlands.

This tree was growing at an angle up the side of the rocks.

For some reason this pinnacle of rock stands free in the box canyon.

The trail then leads down to the base of the bluff through a series of switchbacks.

Here the views are just as dramatic.

You can look up and see the railings where you stood at the top.

Erosion continues to carve these rocks.

The trail takes you closer…

and closer…

to the base where the sheer size of the rock walls is overwhelming.

This area is called “Inscription Rock”. There are some ancient petroglyphs and many inscriptions by Europeans that are dated; the earliest is from 1605.

Finally you come to the pool of water at the bottom of the outflow, the reason for all the human activity.

El Morro National Monument is a beautiful and fascinating place to visit.

The Ancient Way Cafe and El Morro RV Park and Cabins came well recommended but it certainly isn’t the well tended gravel parking lot of a KOA.

Most of the sites are full time residents, and like this one have various structures, like this pole and wire fence.

There was no one at the cafe or office as they are closed on Wednesday. Since there are no reservations we went out to find a site. The open sites were not aligned in a uniform way. The utilities are not in standard locations. We tried a pull-through site but it had water and electric on one side and the sewer on the other. We might have been able to make it work, but not in the direction we first entered.

We did find a nice back in site with 50 amp service. The plug for the electric was upside down, but by propping the cover on the box open we managed to connect our cord. We were just finishing up our connections when one of the hosts came by. He was very nice. He apologized but pointed out that a fine stream of water was coming out of the water pipe because it had a hairline crack. He asked that we fill our tank and then shut the water off. Oh well, not really a bother. And we do have cell service and usable wifi.

They have a “Sculpture Trail” behind the RV park.

It was interesting…

but I found the natural beauty…

more compelling…

than the installations.

There was a spur trail that led up to a swing mounted from a tree.

It was strategically placed to give this view of El Morro National Monument. I think they also appreciated the natural beauty.

I hope this place works out because our intention is to stay here for a week!

We are 8046 feet above sea level here in Alpine. So even though this is April in the southern desert there is snow. There’s quite a bit of snow on Old Baldy in the distance.

I was excited to see a patch of snow on our hike yesterday. But as we drove further we saw more than just a patch.

We saw banks of snow.

Some quite large, especially since this is Arizona in April.

With snow comes water…

and meadows. With water and meadows there should be animals. There are elk here.

We saw evidence.

Then last evening Matey and I saw herds of them in the valley behind the RV Park. Unfortunately they were rather far away.

This morning driving to another hike we saw some a bit closer,

and then even closer! About a dozen crossed the road in front of us. We stopped for them and I got a picture of these three. Matey was quite excited to see them.

Matey was also happy to get to walk where he could be off leash. Although I know he smelled elk, and we saw a lot of tracks, we never saw any while walking. Probably just as well, I’m not sure if I could have kept Matey with us if we’d seen any.

We drove to an overlook at the north end of the White Mountains and saw that the desert is down below, waiting for us.

But for now I am happy to be up in the mountains in the trees.

There were 3 possible routes from Clifton to Alpine, where we are now. The first was 94 miles straight north up US 191. But the average speed on that route was 36 mph, so it was anything but straight. In fact, trucks over 40 feet were prohibited! That was not going to be our route. The second was 117 miles, going a little south, then east on Arizona and then New Mexico 78, then back northwest on US 180. The average speed on that route was just over 50 mph. One review said trucks were not advised to take the state routes. That left a route that went south almost to I-10, then back north. It would be about 200 miles, but with an average speed of over 60 mph there would be no worries.

We decided to go to a highly recommended hike outside of Glenwood, NM called the Catwalk. The route there went across those state roads, so we could drive them in the truck and decide if we wanted to drive them towing the trailer.

The Catwalk was beautiful. It’s a route that was constructed by the CCC along Whitewater Creek and then reconstructed repeatedly when it gets washed out. The creek seems to run year round, at least it was flowing when we were there. The creek flows through a very narrow canyon and the trail is a metal walk anchored to the sides of the canyon.

We would have liked it more except that we went on the Saturday of Easter weekend and it was crowded! We aren’t used to crowds. Also, Matey hated the metal mesh decking and I ended up carrying him over the prettiest parts.

We might have been more disappointed if we hadn’t fulfilled our other purpose. We got a look at Arizona-New Mexico 78.

The route crosses over the southern end of the White Mountains and it is not a route for the faint of heart.

These pictures were taken from the only pull out on about a four or five mile ascent with switchbacks. As usual, the photos don’t really convey the drama of the several hundred foot drop off immediately to the side of the road. The speed limit was 35 through most of this. Happily, the descent on the New Mexico side was not as long and Bud thought it would be fine to tow.

Since we wouldn’t have such a long drive I took Matey for a last look at Clifton on Easter Sunday morning before we left.

The Catholic Church, built in the late 1800’s is still in use.

They seem to hang onto a lot of old things around Clifton.

Between its geography and its history…

Clifton has more character than most small towns. I’m glad we stopped.

We visited two old mining towns in New Mexico, but the mining there had stopped in the late 1800’s. Clifton is as old as those towns and the mine is still going.

The old downtown is along Chase Creek Street. It looks like there’s work being done to revive it.

Clifton had the first mine railroad in Arizona.

This is the old jail that was blasted from the rock. The small stone buildings are just the entry.

Notice the blue in the stones. At first I thought it was painted, but then realized that’s copper.

Down some steps there are two cells.

Only one of the cells has a window. I guess that was for the good prisoners.

The old passenger depot is now a tourist center.

The San Francisco River must flood, because there’s a levee. Here we are coming off the bridge over a low area in the levee. But there’s a wall and huge stone gates for the road, the railroad and the sidewalk!

Matey and I crossed this old wood decked bridge on our walk this morning.

We walked by some interesting houses…

and walked on some unusual sidewalks.

Clifton is a quaint little town overshadowed by the huge Morenci Mine. This photo was taken on a hill southeast of town. Clifton is tucked down in the folds of the hills, but you can see the altered mountaintops of the mine beyond it.

I plan our trip using Campendium, an app on my iPad. It gives me maps and reviews of campgrounds and a link to their website or a phone number. We have some places we want to see, if they are popular I get a reservation there for when I can and then fill in with campgrounds to get us there. So more than half of the places we go I choose because they sound like a decent campground in the right area.

One of my favorite things now is coming to a place I chose on the map and seeing what the campground and the area are really like. I chose the North Clifton RV Park because it was between Kartchner Caverns State Park and Albuquerque. (We took the tour through the part of Kartchner Cavern we hadn’t seen. No picture taking allowed. We liked it, but both thought the other side of the cavern was more beautiful. We are heading to Albuquerque to see the petroglyphs.) North Clifton is a city park and had good reviews so I reserved a site.

Turns out it’s up in the mountains. It’s the first time we’ve seen a warning sign for long horn sheep in the road, and in town, too! So far no sheep, though.

Here is our turn,

then back past some little houses tucked in the canyon.

It’s along the San Francisco River, and there’s water in this river!

The campground looks pretty nice,

and the view from our site is just fine.

But that’s not the half of it! I heard it was close to the Morenci Mine. We decided to drive over to see the mine, there was supposed to be an overlook.

As it turns out, US route 191 goes right through the mining operation. There are huge conveyors running right along the road.

This one went right over the road.

We went through three tunnels. That ore truck crossing overhead would have just about fit though the tunnel.

There were buildings and trucks and trains.

And then we came to the overlook and the pit. Well one of the pits, anyway. The dots you can see on the road going down into the pit are giant ore trucks.

Didn’t know any of this from the map.