Yesterday (4/11/2007) we decides to go to Gallup. It's just 50 or 60 miles from Milan on route 40. The morning drive was great. The Red Rock Mesas are outstanding. The are a deep rusty red and beautiful, at that time of day the sun was shining on them just right. On the way we tried to find Red Rock State Park but the signs to it are bad and we never did find it. The first stop in Gallup was at Walgreens to get one of my many prescriptions filled. We left it with plans to pick it up on the way back. Next we went to the main post office on 2nd street to get our mail which we had forwarded to it. I had looked up the address on line. However, when we got there we found out it was only a central point for deliveries of mail. Fortunately a lady who was putting some mail in the mail box outside directed us the the correct post office on Aztec Street. After picking up our mail we went to the Wal-mart. Peggy always has to check out every Wal-mart fabric department. She buys more fabric than I buy books. While at the Wal-mart I got a call from Walgreens telling me they didn't have enough pills to fill my prescription but that she had called around town and found some place that did, did I want her to transfer the prescription there. Naturally I ask where? She said "Wal-mart. " I said since that was where I was that would be nice, so I got my prescription filled at Wal-mart. We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel which was just across the street from Wal-mart and then headed back home.
Thursday 4/12/2007
Today since the weather here has been so bad, windy and cold, we decided to go back to the visitor center and view some of the 35 videos they had to view. When we got there at 10 o'clock and ask about viewing some of the videos, they told us that a meeting was being held in the theater and would not be available until 12 o'clock. So we took a drive up to Mt Taylor. What an experience. The man at the visitor center had told me that we could only go so far because part way up the mountain you needed a high clearance vehicle. Well believe me the Saturn is no high clearance vehicle, so I thought I would have to turn around some where on the way up. Well we kept going up and up. About half way up the road turned to a gravel road but a well maintained road, so I kept going. About 10 miles up, not in altitude but in distance, we saw a sign that said to Mt Taylor look out, so we took it. Well we kept going up and the road started to get slick and muddy, the surrounding forest had snow patches all through it. We finally came to a rest area and I pulled off to look at the map we had. The road continued on up and was getting more muddy and narrower, so I decided to turn around. We went back down to the turn off that we had taken and continued on it. The road got narrower and there was more and more snow. The trees still had some snow on them from the snow the night before. The map indicated that if we continued on we would finally get to a road that would take us back to Milan. We kept going and it started to snow. Just ahead two Elk ran across the road, so I stopped while Peggy got the camera to try and get a picture of them, then there were two more and two more and three more. We thought that was all, so I started to drive on, Peggy yelled there's two more. I coasted further down the road and sure enough two more ran across the road. Guess what? Peggy never got a picture of one of them. :-) We drove on and I was getting more nervous, the road was actually getting snow on it and slippery, I sure didn't want to get struck up in these mountains. Finally we came to a dead end intersection. No sign, which way right or left? Peg said left. The road left was wider and better maintained so we went left. After what to me seemed like forever we started down the mountain and we could see the valley below and knew we were on the right road. When we got to the valley it started to sleet in sheets, but the sign said to Milan 15 miles and the road was a black top, "hurray." We finally got home, had lunch and I spent the rest of the evening watching the Braves get beat, but it was a good game. You really don't need a high clearance vehicle but a four wheel drive would be nice.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
El Malpais 4/10/2007
I have finally found out why my pictures could not be clicked on and expanded. When I upload them as long as I don't move them they can be expanded. So all of the ones in today's entry can be clicked on and expanded. Now I need to get them so that when they expand they aren't bigger than the screen. I'll work on that in my next entry. I'm going to get this right one of these days. At least now if you expand them you can scroll them to see all of the picture in a better size, unfortunately not all at once. The scenery pictures are so much better blown up to full screen.
I haven't added any thing to the blog in a couple of days because we haven't gone any where. The weather has been so bad. We are having rain and very strong winds. Yesterday was so windy we didn't even stick our noses out the door (4/09/2007). Peggy got her sewing machine out and made her self a pair of pajamas. I tried to get caught up on some of my reading and the baseball season has started so when TBS carries the Braves games I get to watch them.
Since later this week they are predicting higher winds and freezing at night we decided to stay here for another 5 days. "Ain't retirement grant, no schedule". :-)
Tuesday was cold and very windy but we decided to brave it and go to El Malpais pronounced el-mal-pie-EES. It means "the badlands". The west boundary of El Malpais is about 20 miles south of Grants on route 53. We stopped at the visitor center for information and a brochure on the National Monument. Our first stop was the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. It is privately owned since it was owned before the area was made into a National Monument. We took the trail to the Ice Cave first. The picture below is an example of the surrounding terrain. It is very rough volcanic lava.
This picture is a close up of the lava showing how porous it looks. Since it is close up the field of dept is limited so the left side of the picture is not in focus but the right side is.
The entrance to the Ice Cave is down about 65 steps into a collapsed lava tube.
The temperature never gets above 31 degrees down here even in the heat of the summer. The ice has the green algae color from the algae being washed down in to the ice from above and them freezing.
After the Ice Cave we could have gone to the volcano but it was a half mile up a trail that rose a 150 feet to the top of the Volcano. The wind was blowing so hard and I didn't think I could make it up the hill so we skipped it. One of the many problems with getting old, I know it beats the alternative. :-) The ticket man gave us a pass to come back on a better day to go to the top of the volcano. On the way back we stopped at what the park calls the Calderon Area. There are a couple of collapsed lava tubes here and some trails to other interesting sites. The collapsed tubes were close enough that I could get to them. Below is a picture of one of them. There are about seventeen miles of tubes in the area and apparently some cavers do explore them.
From there we went back to route 40 and went east to exit 89 and took route 117 south to the east side of El Malpais. The first stop was a BLM ranger station. Adjacent to the National Monument is a National Conservation Area. The National Monument is administered by the National Park Service but the National Conservation Area is administered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). They also have a nice ranger station with views over the lava field and tapes you can view about the area. The first stop after the ranger station was at the Sandstone Bluffs Overlook area. The wind was blowing so hard we were afraid to get near the edge of the bluff for fear of getting blown over the cliff. The picture below is a view from the bluffs. The grey area in the middle is part of the lava flow. This is about twenty miles south of route 40 and the lave extends all the way to route 40. There were three volcanoes in the area that contributed to these lava areas.
From there we headed south another 10 miles to the La Ventana Natural Arch. The picture below is from the path into the arch. Note the white sand stone near the top of the mesa. Peggy is in th bottom left of the picture. It might give you some idea of how cold that wind was.
The arch is the largest in New Mexico. I'm looking forward to seeing the ones in Utah. From there we drove further south on route 117 through what they called the narrows. It is an area where the lava flow gets very close to the mesa so there was not much room for then to build a road. We stopped at the Lava Falls area but again unfortunately it was too far a walk to get to on such a cold and windy day. From there we headed back to the motor home, but first we had to stop at Wal-mart for a few supplies. Tomorrow we plan to go to Gallup to see about getting a hair cut picking up our mail, which we had sent there, and seeing if we can find a mall for Peggy to walk in. She has that restless leg syndrome and has to walk every day or she can't sleep at night.
I haven't added any thing to the blog in a couple of days because we haven't gone any where. The weather has been so bad. We are having rain and very strong winds. Yesterday was so windy we didn't even stick our noses out the door (4/09/2007). Peggy got her sewing machine out and made her self a pair of pajamas. I tried to get caught up on some of my reading and the baseball season has started so when TBS carries the Braves games I get to watch them.
Since later this week they are predicting higher winds and freezing at night we decided to stay here for another 5 days. "Ain't retirement grant, no schedule". :-)
Tuesday was cold and very windy but we decided to brave it and go to El Malpais pronounced el-mal-pie-EES. It means "the badlands". The west boundary of El Malpais is about 20 miles south of Grants on route 53. We stopped at the visitor center for information and a brochure on the National Monument. Our first stop was the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. It is privately owned since it was owned before the area was made into a National Monument. We took the trail to the Ice Cave first. The picture below is an example of the surrounding terrain. It is very rough volcanic lava.
This picture is a close up of the lava showing how porous it looks. Since it is close up the field of dept is limited so the left side of the picture is not in focus but the right side is.
The entrance to the Ice Cave is down about 65 steps into a collapsed lava tube.
The temperature never gets above 31 degrees down here even in the heat of the summer. The ice has the green algae color from the algae being washed down in to the ice from above and them freezing.
After the Ice Cave we could have gone to the volcano but it was a half mile up a trail that rose a 150 feet to the top of the Volcano. The wind was blowing so hard and I didn't think I could make it up the hill so we skipped it. One of the many problems with getting old, I know it beats the alternative. :-) The ticket man gave us a pass to come back on a better day to go to the top of the volcano. On the way back we stopped at what the park calls the Calderon Area. There are a couple of collapsed lava tubes here and some trails to other interesting sites. The collapsed tubes were close enough that I could get to them. Below is a picture of one of them. There are about seventeen miles of tubes in the area and apparently some cavers do explore them.
From there we went back to route 40 and went east to exit 89 and took route 117 south to the east side of El Malpais. The first stop was a BLM ranger station. Adjacent to the National Monument is a National Conservation Area. The National Monument is administered by the National Park Service but the National Conservation Area is administered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). They also have a nice ranger station with views over the lava field and tapes you can view about the area. The first stop after the ranger station was at the Sandstone Bluffs Overlook area. The wind was blowing so hard we were afraid to get near the edge of the bluff for fear of getting blown over the cliff. The picture below is a view from the bluffs. The grey area in the middle is part of the lava flow. This is about twenty miles south of route 40 and the lave extends all the way to route 40. There were three volcanoes in the area that contributed to these lava areas.
From there we headed south another 10 miles to the La Ventana Natural Arch. The picture below is from the path into the arch. Note the white sand stone near the top of the mesa. Peggy is in th bottom left of the picture. It might give you some idea of how cold that wind was.
The arch is the largest in New Mexico. I'm looking forward to seeing the ones in Utah. From there we drove further south on route 117 through what they called the narrows. It is an area where the lava flow gets very close to the mesa so there was not much room for then to build a road. We stopped at the Lava Falls area but again unfortunately it was too far a walk to get to on such a cold and windy day. From there we headed back to the motor home, but first we had to stop at Wal-mart for a few supplies. Tomorrow we plan to go to Gallup to see about getting a hair cut picking up our mail, which we had sent there, and seeing if we can find a mall for Peggy to walk in. She has that restless leg syndrome and has to walk every day or she can't sleep at night.
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