THIS PLACE IS BEAUTIFUL…ELEPHANT BUTTE, NEW MEXICO

Friday, October 22 – OUT OF THE COLD!!!! It was 41 degrees this morning when we woke-up in Gallup, NM......that's toooooo cold!!! We headed to warmer areas in southern NM. We stopped in Socorro to see the Very Large Array Observatory. After driving about 20 miles off I-25 south, we saw a sign saying 44 more miles. We were in twisting mountain terrain and Paul decided to turn around. He wishes he would have stopped just off the interstate and unhooked the car for the sightseeing trip. Rookie mistake.....he'll remember it next time (yeah....right!).

We had a beautiful drive. We went through a large area of Lava rock from El Malpais.There is much evidence of past volcanic action in New Mexico, including El Malpais National Monument. The deposits near Grants are the largest, and most are contained within El Malpais.

 

What a drive!

So back on I-25 South to Truth or Consequences, NM and a two night stop at Elephant Butte State Park. Our new friends, Sheryl and Jeff, gave us a heads up on New Mexico State Parks. We are in site #61 overlooking the lake. We choose to go with 30 amp electric over the 50 amp because the view is sooooo much better. The 50 amp sites don't overlook the lake and are much more crowded with sites very close to each other. The price is $14/night, 30 or 50 amp…your choice!

This is our camp site. It is so big.

A super picnic area and fire pit.

 

Look at this view…right out side our front window, and we aren’t even on the beach. If you camp here, get on the third tier. It is so awesome. Can you see the mountains in the background?

We took a drive around the park. Just beauty at every turn! This is Elephant Butte Island.

There is camping right on the beach…0 dollars!

There is boating, swimming, fishing, etc.

We drove off road down to the beach. There are tons of dirt roads…if you are adventurous.

 

Seems like a pretty nice place. This could be one of the best campgrounds we've had in our full-timing days!

We took a walk with Bella and Marsha saw what she called a Jackalope......I think it was a Jack Rabbit. It was huge with big ole' ears! Later, we went for a ride and saw our first Coyote in the wild. We saw him twice in the brush along the road. Really neat, but he was on the move, and we couldn't get a picture of him. Makes us re-affirm our need to watch Bella when she out doors!

Bella is marking her territory. This is to let those wild animals know this is HER territory…STAY AWAY!

She's sitting now on the dash board looking for all the wild creatures outside.....ha ha! What a cutie!

Marsha has stars in her eyes...jeesh! She wrote to the  Colorado Dept. of Travel Webmaster reporting a broken link on their site. She received an email today thanking her and telling her that the link is now fixed. BUT…there is more to the email. She said I was to put exactly what they said, so I told her just to copy and paste it…so here it is.

P.S. – I LOVE your blog!  You have a fantastic set of photography skills.  Should your travels take you into Colorado, we would be honored to post them on our website.

She is on Cloud 9. Does this mean we have to head to Colorado soon????? Goodness!

We had a beautiful moon rise over the lake this evening. What a view out our front window! We aren’t even closing the curtains tonight.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again real soon. Have a great day!

NAVAJO INDIAN COUNTRY

Wednesday, October 20 – We turned back East today (about 90 miles) to Gallup, NM. There are a couple Navajo sights we want to see there. Window Rock, Canyon de Chelly, and Hubbell Trading Post.

We pulled into USA RV Park about 11:30 Mountain Time....remember, Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time so we lost an hour in a very short time....zoom! We decided on this stop at the last minute. The place we planned on stopping was another 50 miles East and too far away from the area we want to visit.

Very nice park

Nice office and store

They have cabin for rent.

Once settled in, we decided to head up to Navajo Country to see Window Rock. Window Rock is the administrative Capitol and administrative center of the Navajo Nation, getting its name from the hole in the 200 foot high sandstone hill (Window Rock) located there.

It was strange to think we were in their Nation's Capital. We started walking around the area and low and behold we heard thunder and saw lightning. So we took a few pictures and headed back to the car. This is the first rain we've been in for over a month....really can't remember the last rainy day. Even this was just a brief shower!

We followed a path in back of window rock until the lightning began.

Navajo Code Talkers were young Navajo men who transmitted secret communications on the battlefields of WWII. These modest sheepherders and farmers were able to fashion the most ingenious and successful code in military history. Serving with distinction in every major engagement of the Pacific theater from 1942-1945, their unbreakable code played a pivotal role in saving countless lives and hastening the war's end.

Since we were rained out at Window Rock, we headed down the road to Hubbell Trading Post. About five miles outside of town we notice the roads were flooded and the ground was covered with about two inches of HAIL.....holly cow! Well, that was enough of that! We decided to head home and return tomorrow.

Back at the RV, it thundered and had dark skies. It poured down rain. Crazy weather!!!

Thursday, October 21 – We intended to visit a couple sights today but the weather wasn't very cooperative. We headed out early to the Historic Hubbell Trading Post. This is the oldest, continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Nation.

Trading Post

John Lorenzo Hubbell purchased a trading post here in 1878, ten years after Navajos returned to their homeland from their terrible exile at Bosque Redondo, Ft. Sumner, New Mexico. After they returned home, traders like Hubbell supplied those new items for the Navajo.

Navajo woman weaving a rug. Marsha asked her how long it takes to complete that size rug. Her answer…5 months!

Marsha can’t believe that Paul picked up a $6669.00 blanket. What goes through his mind sometimes…baffles Marsha.

Inside the Trading Post

Lots of baskets we couldn’t afford.

Outdoor bread oven

Guest Hogan

Original supply wagon

NOT VERY IMPRESSIVE. I guess if you had the $7000 (that's right THOUSANDS) to spend on a Navajo blanket it would be worth the drive out in the middle of nowhere to go there, but.......I recommend you skip this place! I'm sure the wet and cold weather didn't help.

We hoped to visit the Canyon de Chelle, but it was too rainy and cold. Time to head for warmer areas! So we returned to the MH and planned the next day's travels.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you back real soon. Have a great day!

A FEW OF THE BEAUTIFUL PLACES IN THE USA

Monday, October 18 – We headed out early this morning for our day of sightseeing. First stop was the Wigwam Hotel on Historic Route 66. This unique find is a motel where you can stay in Indian Tee Pees. They even go so far as to have antique cars parked out front of most of the Tepees. NEAT!

Our next stop was the Petrified Forest National Park. This is another one of those “must see” places. We watched the movie and toured the grounds of the Visitor's Center last evening, so we headed straight to our first hike – Long Logs and Agate House.



It was 2.6 miles among an immense collection of petrified wood. We took tons of pictures of the thousands and thousands of pieces of petrified wood.



Petrified Wood is formed when wood from primeval forests became buried by thick layers of sediments, usually after being washed away by flooded streams. Over eons of time, each wood fiber was replace by tiny crystals of silica, in the form of agate. Often, this agate is colored by minerals like iron oxide, producing a rainbow of hues, such as the petrified wood found near Holbrook, AZ. Petrified Wood is the official State Fossil of Arizona. It is 180,000,000 years old.



We should note that it is a Federal Offense to pick-up or remove any of the petrified rock. It is frequently posted that it is a minimum $375 fine with possible imprisonment for taking the rocks. You are subject to search and must stop your car when leaving to permit a check-out. Both times leaving the park, we were only asked if we collected any rocks. We were not searched (we don't fit the profile).



There was also an ancient pueblo, Agate House, built out of petrified wood. We really enjoyed this hike. There were only two other people along the trail, so we pretty much had the area to ourselves.



Next we jumped in the car and continued along the 25 miles of roadway through the Park visiting every pull-out. A very beautiful drive.





Our next hike was down to the canyon floor at Blue Mesa trail.



This one mile trail is rated as strenuous, but we found it delightful and only got a little winded climbing back up the trail on the way out. This trail was mostly asphalt surface, which made keeping on the designated trail pretty easy.









We really enjoyed the stop at Puerco Pueblo. Puerco Pueblo was one-story complex of approximately 100 rooms surrounding a central plaza. At this stop we were accompanied by two Park Rangers. One was a “workamper” volunteer. We had a group of six people at the beginning (interestingly all from our home state of Ohio). We were joined by at least six more as we walked the trail. These rangers did an excellent job explaining the ancient pueblo ruins and telling why they settled here, what there daily life was like, and why they left the area over 1000 years ago.

This is a picture of a Kiva…a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals. It had a roof, and it was only used by men.





This area has so many different landscapes. Pictures cannot do it justice!





At one of our stops, we were greeted by this fellow.



He is a Raven and a big one at that.



Paul tried to be friends, he kept moving away.



If you would like to see more pictures of the Petrified Forest, please click here.

We then transitioned into the Painted Desert portion of the park. What amazing colors. The park circles a canyon containing the colorful desert.







There are about a dozen pull-outs featuring different aspects of the desert. Our favorite stop was the historical Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark. The building was constructed between 1937 and 1940 using portions of walls left over from an earlier lodge on the site that dated from the 'twenties. The stone walls of the building are more than two feet thick. On the exterior the walls are finished with a pink, earth-toned stucco. This former Inn has been restored to it's early glory. What a beautiful adobe style building in an awesome setting overlooking the Painted Desert. We could just imagine what it was like to enjoy a dinner in the lounge or a drink on one of the several patios. Beautiful!



Ceiling



Original bar stool



Back



After returning home, we took Bella (our cat) for a walk. She just loves her walks. Paul kept his eyes open searching the ground and did find two pieces of petrified rock. It's legal to remove rock found on private ground. We kept the smaller piece (golf ball size) because it was prettier and replaced the larger baseball sized piece.

We spent some time visiting with our neighbors, Jeff and Sheryl, full-timers from Grants Pass, OR. They began full timing this past February. The evening was cooling off and starting to get dark so we exchanged calling cards and wished them a great day tomorrow. They will be visiting the places we did today. We'll both be here tomorrow, so we'll probably see them then.

Tuesday, Oct 19 – We took a drive to Winslow, AZ to stand on the corner. This corner is made famous by the musical group – The Eagles in “Take It Easy.” It was a neat experience and actually quite a few people were present taking pictures, shopping in the souvenir shop and just smiling and having a good time. A Fun Time!!!

TAKE IT EASY….by the Eagles
Well, I’m a standing on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona





And such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl, my lord
In a flatbed Ford
Slowin’ down to take a look at me





Cute main street.



We also visited the Winslow City Park that has a huge Indian carving and some examples from the historic Santa Fe Railroad.





This still appears an active RR area. We watched as a   l o n g   train of tanks and other military hardware passed by. A sign of the times, I guess.





You can see a few more pictures here.

On our way back to Holbrook and our RV Park, stopped at Bubba's Big Pig Bar-Ba-Que in Holbrook.



We read about this on the Internet and one of our friends (can't remember which one) recommended eating here. So whoever it was, thank-you! The food was delicious.





We then came home for some relaxation time. Tomorrow is travel day.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you visit again real soon. Have a great day!