3 Years Around North America, Plus a Few More

[Umnak]

Solo in North Central New MExico

Solo in north central New Mexico

Eve went north to check on her mother and I went on a four night road trip. After spending a late afternoon an evening back along the Animas River, I followed Rt 64 into Apache Country then up the mountains to Chama.


Chama is a “T” Shirt tourist town focused on the Cumbers and Toltec Scenic Railroad. I stopped at the Tourism Information Center, but it was closed. A woman leaving the building said the governor closed it last fall, leaving aside how she had access to the keys and why the town wasn’t supporting it. She drove off in a car with Texas plates.


The climb up the Tusas mountains ended in deep snow with much of it on the western and northern sides. The ride down exposed more trees and grass heading toward Tierra Amarilla, which is a dying town still showing a coffee shop on my phone apps. All that seems to be left is a faded sign and a notice on the door.




I stayed in a dispersed campsite in the Carson Forest, which was close to a monumental rock outcrop. The outcrop offered panoramic views and places to retreat from the 30 knot wind that had picked up in the afternoon and was to continue for the next two days.




Aldo Leopold spent time early in his career in and around the Carson Forest. His house is now a Forest Service cabin rental.


Earth Shelter is a community of cob and bermed homes embellished with fantastic architectural details, south facing glass and solar panels. It looks like something out of a Star Wars set.

The Rio Grande Gorge passes through this part of New Mexico and continues southwest along the San Louis Valley. It is deep and channels a fast moving river fresh with spring runoff.

I stopped briefly in Taos and feel that it would be a nice place to live for a while. We plan on spending a long weekend there in May, so this was an exploratory trip. The Plaza dates to Spanish occupation.


Abiquiu Lake is the Chama River dammed. A Bureau of Reclamation campground offers great views and hot showers. I walked around the hills until the wind forced me back inside the Sprinter.


The road to Cuba from Abiquiu passes through much of the regional landforms. It’s a good ride.



I wanted to soak in Jemez Spring’s bathhouse one more time before leaving this part of the country. The BLM campground along Rt 4 was open — most don’t before mid May — and I spent my last evening listening to the river.


Kutz Canyon's Pre-Puebloan Shrine that marked the end of the Great North Road out of Chaco.

 

[Umnak]

Last Visit to Chaco Canyon

Last Visit to Chaco


Our friends and niece met us in Chaco Canyon for what will probably be our last visit on this tour of New Mexico. Chaco Canyon’s Ancestral or Pre-Pubebloan Culture is the primary reason we chose Farmington as a base these past months.

Farmington really has no other redeeming value aside from its proximity to the Great Houses. The weather is horrible, the San Juan Basin has been torn up by oil and gas exploration, the clay soil eliminates any chance of hiking after just a trace of rain, it snowed the last day of April. I could go on, but instead we will be moving on soon. Ok, I do enjoy the walk along the Animas River and the 302 Espresso Shop, but really aside from that…



Back to Chaco. The road, which we last drove in late February, had been graded allowing us much easier access even though it had rained two days before our visit. Our friends — Ann is Eve’s former sister-in-law, Jason her husband and Christina our niece — came in from the south having attended the Gathering of the Nations event in Albuquerque. They had driven from Washington with Christina coming in from Anchorage. I had told Jason that the road is deemed difficult when wet. Their Jeep made it, even after that morning’s snow storm, though the video showed conditions that were anything but ideal. It didn’t make it out of the 40s the first day and was in the 20s that night. And true to form, the next day was hot.



It was fun watching them come to understand the importance of Chaco. The 600 room Pueblo Bonito, the rock art, the alignments of Casa Rinconada and Pueblo Alto and the Great North Road, the sudden dispersion after only 300 years of occasional occupation, and essential spiritual nature of this very special place.



It was also fun to watch their roof top tent unfold from atop their Jeep.


We hiked the South Mesa Trail in a strong wind, which had removed any remaining moisture from the land and our bodies. And later a hike to Wijiji to see one of the last Great Houses and more rock art.


The desert was colored with green sage and small flowers keeping low to the ground in their effort to beat the wind.

The weather improved each night giving us a chance for a long evening with a fire and time to reconnect.

Chaco was the epicenter of Pre-Puebloan culture and will be our fondest memory of the time spent in Northern New Mexico.

 

[Umnak]

last visit to Bisti

Last Visit to Bisti

After leaving Chaco we drove north then west to the Bisti Wilderness with its surreal landforms. The road was not in great condition and there were parts where I was worried about sliding off into the ditch. The wench on our friend's Jeep gave me some courage to continue.

It's hard to explain Bisti without images, so I'll just stop writing and post some.

 

[Ashton]

The southwest, and New Mexico in particular, is a very beautiful place. Stark, remote and somewhat forgotten, it really gives you that isolated feeling in some of those places.

 

[Umnak]

The southwest, and New Mexico in particular, is a very beautiful place. Stark, remote and somewhat forgotten, it really gives you that isolated feeling in some of those places.

Indeed it does. We've spent a lot of time in remote parts of Alaska, Canada and Greenland and yet the feeling of isolation is even more apparent being the only vehicle to pass along a rutted road in the high desert.

 

[Ashton]

If you make it down south towards Silver City and the Gila Wilderness, at any point, I have a homestead just off hwy180 near Gila/Cliff, which has ample space and provides a great base for exploration. Lots of dispersed camping in these parts, but if you are ever in town for the Bike race in April or the Blues Festival (one of the best in the country) in June/July, and need a spot, ours are always available to the overlanding community.

 

[Umnak]

If you make it down south towards Silver City and the Gila Wilderness, at any point, I have a homestead just off hwy180 near Gila/Cliff, which has ample space and provides a great base for exploration. Lots of dispersed camping in these parts, but if you are ever in town for the Bike race in April or the Blues Festival (one of the best in the country) in June/July, and need a spot, ours are always available to the overlanding community.

Thanks for the offer. We went through Silver City and the west side of the Gila Forest in December after spending some time at Faywood. I came back in March and went along the eastern edge after another couple of days in Faywood and Silver City.

We hope to end up in that area next November.

 

[unkamonkey]

If you make it down south towards Silver City and the Gila Wilderness, at any point, I have a homestead just off hwy180 near Gila/Cliff, which has ample space and provides a great base for exploration. Lots of dispersed camping in these parts, but if you are ever in town for the Bike race in April or the Blues Festival (one of the best in the country) in June/July, and need a spot, ours are always available to the overlanding community.

A friend was there several years ago for the Silver City Blues event. He also enjoyed the golf he got to play with people he had never met before and perhaps a cocktail or 2 after..
He has also been a fixture at the
Greeleybluesjam.com
For over a decade.
One of the best blues shows in the state.
Nuttin, I decided to keep quiet about other venues.

 

[Umnak]

End Game in Northern New Mexico

End game in northern New Mexico

We have one more week in Farmington then we're off on a five month road trip.


I drove the 4Runner to our home in Port Townsend last week, which was a two day marathon drive. We've never lived in this house, and look forward to doing so sometime in a couple of years.


Now we will give away what little furniture we bought during our stay here, pack up the Sprinter and head north, away from the heat and the people.


Last weekend we walked up the Kutz Canyon Wash to the Twin Angles Pueblo for one last look at the ruins that brought us to this part of the continent. It has been good to learn about the Chocoan culture and to find the outliers, but it's getting too hot here.

 

[Umnak]

Campground Camping

Campground Camping


We don’t often spend three nights in the same camp site, and even less frequently in a campground. The Redondo Campground north of Jemez Springs was almost full when we arrived on the Friday before Memorial Day. Lots of families and lots of tents and screened pavilions.



We hiked to McCauley Warm Springs out of Battleship Rock. The smell of Ponderosa pines filled the air and gave meaning to the coming of summer.


The next day a hike along the edge of the Valles Caldera Preserve gave one a sense just how massive the eruption must have been to form this 13 mile wide grassland within the forest. It is the caldera that provides the heat for the hot springs that are in these mountains.



This was a good ending to our time here in northern New Mexico.

 

[Umnak]

Heading North

We've been back on the road for the past week, heading north out of New Mexico and into the Rockies.


First stop was Valley View Hot Springs in Colorado where we camped one night in the hot springs and another at a trail head just outside of there.

It's a clothing optional hot springs, well maintained and with a wide variety of guests.

From there we headed into the Denver area over Kenosha Pass.

Next stop was to visit friends in Denver and Boulder. The latter have a house about as high out of the city as possible with a view of the Arapahoe Glacier

The last two days have put us through Wyoming and Montana, and now entering Idaho. We are, once again, traveling too fast but need to meet friends for the weekend.

 

[Umnak]

Olympic Peninsula




We have a house in Port Townsend, which we’ve asked Eve’s parents to house sit while we are on the road. This will be our second summer of on and off visits there. Port Townsend is a wonderful place to call home base. It is a great mix of working and tourist town. The wooden boat festival and accompanying docks and shipyards provide a good grounding and the shops and restaurants offer a great variety of things and food. And we can paddle from our beach to a great coffee shop in town.


The eastern Cascades were our first hint of the refreshingly moist air of the Pacific North West. We somehow missed the turn for our first choice of a camp site but found Indian Creek just a bit farther along the road to White Pass.



A short visit to our friends on Vashon Island the next day left of happy to be back on Puget Sound. Then it was a nice drive up Rt. 101 to the Collins Campground and the Duckabush River for my birthday. The Brother’s Wilderness hike is a great introduction to the mixed hardwood and conifer forest of the eastern Olympics.

 

[profdlp]

Beautiful country! :Wow1:

 

[Umnak]

Beautiful country! :Wow1:

it is very nice. And Port Townsend, where we have a home base, is pretty good too.


We will be heading to Southeast Alaska July 7 for a month or so.

 

[Umnak]

Backpacking along the Pacific Ocean

Eve went to Victoria, B.C. with her high school friends last week and I decided to explore the western reaches of the Olympic Peninsula on my own.

Part of the adventure included an overnight backpacking trip to the Wedding Rocks from Ozette Lake.



I spent a night at the lake which is secluded and almost void of watercraft. The campground is close the trail head to the beach. A quick afternoon hike took me to the coast then back for dinner. The boardwalks are made from rough cut logs artfully placed. A nine mile loop connects the two trails leading out of the ranger station.


An early afternoon start the following day gave me time to relax and do a clean-up inside the van. The 3.5 miles trail to the beach is flat and mostly shaded, with the trees becoming larger the closer one gets to the beach.


The tide was in the last of the fourth hour when I got to the beach, and I was surprised how much of the ground was covered in shallow water. Trees had to be climbed to move down the beach. I rounded the Wedding Rocks point still trying to figure out where the “official” camp sites were located. It turned out I had passed them, which wasn’t apparent until I had scrambled up a steep hill rounding the point, which meant a steep descent on the return. The base of the petroglyphs rocks were mostly in ankle deep water, but I did see one example, which was a mix of ancient and contemporary pecking.


I chose a camp with a high bench off the water. There was room for my tarp at one end and I made use of the “furniture” at the other for my base. The islands and sea stacks close to shore are home to thousands of birds, and offered entertainment for the remaining hours of light.



The Park does not allow a fire in this part of the coast, though the multiple fire rings along the beach proves that many don’t follow that rule. I did, but mostly because the weather was warm.


It was good to watch the sun move toward Vancouver Island and beyond to the sea. I had left my bevy in the camping box, but the tarp offered sufficient protection from the dew.


My walk back in the morning was less difficult because of low tide.