Photos for Lafayette Posting

It appears that the photos did not come through on this post, so here they are again.

En route up Mt. Sanitas.

Goldie and Gail.

Cari and John Muller's house in Lyons.

More Photos of the Black Canyon

Before you get to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison you go past Blue Mesa. These pinnacles were across the reservoir.

This rock shows the pegmatite intrusions.

Walking in Oak Flats among the aspen.

This photo is an optical illusion. The pinkish striped rock is behind a narrow set of rock pillars.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, CO

We drove from Lafayette to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park through absolutely gorgeous mountains. I had not been over Monarch Pass and through Gunnison since shortly after the accident that killed Andrew. I spent a freezing night in the Black Canyon with some Reed friends on our way home to the mid-west in 1971. This time it was bright and sunny. We got there about 4 in the afternoon and were the only people in the camp ground. We drove down to the Visitor Center to see if we could find a map and saw a bicyclist. When we talked to him, it turned out he had biked up only to discover there was no water available in the park. All the water in the park is trucked in from Montrose, 15 miles away, and since the weather is now below freezing, there is no water. We told him that we could give him a gallon of water if he came by our trailer. He showed up while we were fixing dinner and we invited him to squeeze in with us. Wayne, an Australian by way of England, is a serious long-distance biker. He started in San Francisco and biked all the way up to the Arctic Circle in Alaska and is on his way down to Argentina. The total trip will take about 2 years. While on the trip he met a sweety, a nurse-midwife from Switzerland.

The next morning we got up and walked along the Rim Trail to the Visitor Center, around the Oak Flats loop (which wasn't flat, though it went down to an oak savannah below the rim of the canyon) and back to the camp ground. We took Darwin along (illegally on the last two trails).

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is carved by the Gunnison River which drops nearly 95 feet per mile. Before the three dams were built upsteam, the scouring power of the river carved the canyon over 2 million years. It is quite narrow, in one place only a quarter mile wide. The walls are more eroded on the south side because they face north and the freezing/thawing effect is greater. The canyon is almost 2000' deep at its deepest. Though you can hear the river, it is muted.

The river wasn't fully mapped until about 1910 when two guys went through with rubber air mattresses trying to figure out where to build a tunnel to divert some of the water into the Uncompagre Valley near Montrose for irrigation purposes.

Part of the reason the canyon is so spectacular is these reddish intrusions, pegmatite, which occurred during the volcanic era about 60 million years ago. It's much harder than the volcanic material and so the walls sheer away in thin spires. We drove along the rim road, stopping at various overlooks. It is a really spectacular place and we were almost alone in it. We finally left about 2 in the afternoon, headed for Ouray, and the beginning of the Million Dollar Highway.

Santuario de Chimayo

We left Mountainair and drove up the east side of the mountains and past Albuquerque. In Tijeras, we stopped at the USFS station to look at an interpretive trail related to the pueblo located there. It was full of interesting information about the trees and plants, how they were used for food, the number of people who lived there, etc. We continued north on NM 14 along the Turquoise Trail (many of the Anasazi mined turquoise in Cerrillos). We skirted around Santa Fe and continued on the High Road to Taos. The first stop was the Santuario de Chimayo, a pilgrimage site for many people since about 1850. All along the chain link fence (which surrounded a pretty scungy corral for horses and a private house) people had placed crosses of various sizes. Some of them were very large and were carried during processions.

Outside the church were these memorials and crosses, covered with flowers, rosaries, candles, crosses and other items. Near the church you could buy candles and rosaries.

The church itself is odd looking with the wooden center between adobe towers. Inside are five painted wooden sacred painting. Off the sanctuary is the room where the pilgrims can dig up dirt and carry it with them. There is also a room filled with crutches and other things indicating the miraculous cures people have had from praying and using the dirt. Off the church was a patio with a restaurant advertising the best tamales in New Mexico. Bob had a burrito on a homemade wheat tortilla and I had the best chicken tamale I've ever had. We shared a bowl of beans with hot chili sauce in it. Later we discovered that it had been written up in Jane and Michael Stern's "Road Food."

We continued on to Ortega's Weaving Shop, filled with wonderful woolen blankets and clothing. Eight generations have worked there. The wool is spun and dyed in the shop and then given to twenty people who weave in their own homes. From Chimayo we continued on to a private disc golf course near Taos. It was 18 holes set around two houses and between a river and an irrigation canal. Bob was the only person playing and I caddied (so that he wouldn't lose his discs on the course). It was called the Two Gray Hares Course and Bob had a great time.

We arrived in Taos in time to set up Snoopy in a relatively spartan RV campground, but it was quiet and had electricity. We went in to Taos to look around the central plaza and in to various galleries. In one of the galleries the owner gave us a real education on quality pots. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant we just found which advertised that it was the choice of Taos for the last two years. It was wonderful New Mexico cuisine.

Lafayette CO & Goldie and Gail

Bob's daughter Goldie and her partner Gail had just moved into a house in Lafayette, CO, about 7 miles east of Boulder. The house had fabulous views of the Flat Irons out of many windows. They fixed us fabulous meals and took us on two lovely hikes on the weekend. The first hike, up Mt. Sanitas, was a work out, rewarded by fabulous views of Boulder and Denver from the top. Boulder is a city with a huge number of people who enjoy the outdoors. We passed lots of young people, old people, kids and dogs on the way.

On Monday we went to Cari and John Muller's house north of Lyons. Cari is the daughter of Bob's cousin Sally's partner. We met them at Ted and Myrna's wedding in Sedona, Arizona in 2005. We were the only people who wanted to hike. We shared a wonderful day hiking in Oak Creek Canyon. They live in this lovely house that was designed by Mark (who is an artist) and Cari's sister. It is stunning inside with Moroccan doors and shutter fitted into the living room, lovely mosaic floors in the bathrooms, and beautiful things everywhere you look. Cari and John have just (June) adopted two siblings (3 and 5 years old) and also brought two dogs and one cat home from Mexico, so their lives have changed a lot recently. They seem to be reveling in the change and Goldie and Gail offered to house sit for them in the future.

This was another example of having wonderful visits with family and friends along this long trip.

Guadelupe Mountain National Park

Guadelupe Mountain National Park, with the tallest peak in Texas, is located in northwestern Texas, very close to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It was only created in 1973. A man had purchased most of this property and then donated it to the National Park Service. The camping area is simply a parking lot with spots marked like parking spots. There is no water or electricity. Despite this, it was beautiful and we had the first cooler night in Snoopy. During the night it blew hard, shaking Snoopy and keeping Bob awake worrying about whether it would blow away or turn over. We met our neighbors, who were a retired National Parks maintenance supervisor and his wife who has volunteered at Carlsbad Caverns for 20 + years. They knew someone in Corvallis who I actually knew - small world.

The next morning we woke up and walked part way up Guadelupe Mountain. The top photo is not Guadelupe Mountain, but El Capitan which is nearby. The second photo shows Guadelupe Mountain. The cacti were in bloom and the color of the sky was amazing.












The bottom photos are of a madrone tree and the bark of a tree.




We then continue on to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. When we got there we decided to open Snoopy to house Darwin instead of placing him in the kennel. I tried to help out and unlocked the roof. The wind was so strong that it flipped up the top, ripping the bungie cords, and landing on top of the car, breaking the end of the luggage rack. We couldn't get the lid/top closed again, but finally with the help of two park employees and a rope managed to close the lid. Darwin had to go into the kennel after all.

Carlsbad Caverns is spectacular. I hadn't been there for over 45 years and Bob had never been. Instead of guided tours, there are now two self-guided tours. You can rent wands into which you punch the number that is listed on a sign to get more information. The advantage is that you're not in a mob of people and can spend as much time as you want. The cave wasn't crowded. The cave is now lighted by a theatrical lighting designer and is very effective. It isn't really bright and focuses on unusual formations. I had forgotten how decorated the cave is. After about three hours, we left, heading towards Mountainair, NM, near Albuquerque.

The drive was realtively boring and when we arrived in Mountainair it was dark and cold and windy. It turned out that all the motel rooms and all the RV spaces in town were occupied by workers on a wind farm project about 20 miles away. We were desperate and the woman took pity on us and said that if we just needed an electric hook up, we could park in front of the office. We did so and in the process of trying to put Snoopy up discovered that I had damaged it more than we thought. It is bent and the four hinges inside don't close easily any more. By the time we got Snoopy set up we were cold and tired. The site was right next to the BNSF mainline and freight trains went past all night. However, we were glad we were warm.

Texas Hill Country

We left Port O'Connor Texas heading toward the Hill Country west of Austin. This was the area that Lyndon Johnson was born and lived in. This area was settled by Germans in the 1850s and the town names reflect this legacy. We stopped in Neu Braunfels looking for a restaurant recommended by the Sterns as having really good chicken fried steak (the Texas version of schnitzel). The restaurant was no longer, but was replaced by Friesenhaus, a German restaurant. There I had curry wurst (a northern German specialty) and Bob had pickled herring. Both were very good. There was also a bakery with great bread, but neon-colored napoleons, and German wursts.

We continued on and stopped at Guadelupe River State Park. The weather was warm and there were people still swimming in the river.






The river was filled with these wonderful mangrove-type trees.
We finally made it to Lost Maples State Park. We never figured out why it was called this, though I suspect it is because there are few places in Texas that have maples which change colors like fall trees in the northeast. This photo shows just a touch of color along the river in Lost Maples.