Rosette Nebula

We are pretty close to a new moon, and that means star photos.

I have to wait for the weekends, since this part of my hobby keeps me up WAY past my bedtime. This photo is about 7 hours of open shutter time (in 2-minute increments), but only about a third of those were usable.

This is the Rosette nebula, pretty close to the Orion constellation.

Cheers,

Marc

Morning hike on the Range

Ian and I went for a hike Sunday morning, hopefully part of a new weekend routine.

We stayed local; we drove to the golf course on base and then started hiking up into the mountains.

Our destination was this A-frame thing. It is very hard to spot from down below, but pretty obvious once you get there. I have no earthly idea what in the world they built this A-frame for, way up here.

It was mid/upper 30's for our hike, but the sun was out and that felt good. We found this prickly pear cactus patch towards the end of the hike.

Cheers!

Marc

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

After exploring Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we drove the hour or so north back into New Mexico to Carlsbad, where we met Emily and family for dinner. We hadn't seen them since they visited us in Virginia, I think the kids enjoyed seeing each other again, too.

We had reservations to get our cavern entrance tickets at 9 am, so we had a bit of a lazy start to the day. We drove the short 30 minutes or so to the park and basically headed straight in.

We opted to do the long walk down into the main cavern, first passing through the bat cave. We will make our way out there mid/late spring to see if we can see the bats taking off en-masse. A gal I work with lived in Austin, and she said the bats leaving Carlsbad where way more impressive than the bats in Austin. I don't have that frame of reference, but it would be neat to see.

We made the long walk down, passing a ton of cool features. It is hard to imagine the early explorers making their way that far down with only gas lanterns and some ropes, I'd think it would be easy to get lost in the massiveness of the caverns!

We enjoyed a quick little lunch while we were down there, before we did the big loop in the main cavern. 

Fortunately, that part of the cavern is relatively flat, with a couple of deep, dark holes that I wouldn't want to fall in, including the "bottomless pit."

All told, we spent about 4 hours in the caverns. I know I had a good time, I think the kids did, too.

While "exploring" we came across this rickety old ladder that some early cave explorers used.

The caverns are just massive - there were several paths that were blocked off that limited some of our wanderings, but there was still plenty to see.

On our way home, between the park and Carlsbad, NM we found Skinner Rd. Had to get a photo!

Cheers,

Marc

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

We took advantage of the long Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend to visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. My cousin Emily and her family came out and asked if we'd like to join, which we did!

We drove the southern route, through El Paso and then east to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Once you leave El Paso, it gets remote - fast!

GMNP is pretty small, as far as roads to explore. I will go back to do some camping either this winter or early spring before the scorpions/snakes/tarantulas get going. Since options to hang a hammock are limited (backpacking may be an exception, I know there are trees at elevation), I'd like to avoid the heat and critters that go along with it.

We did a short hike near the visitor's center, and then drove to a different section for a longer hike. The trail was short, but sweet!

Cheers,

Marc

Snow on the mountains!

First sunset of the new year - let's hope that a fresh dusting of snow on the mountains with some warm light on the clouds is a harbinger of a better year!

I drove to San Augustin Pass to take this photo - the wind was WHIPPING, making things bitter cold. I stuck around just long enough get my photos, and then bundled back up in the car and drove home. Home is just out of sight to the left of this photo - maybe a 15 minute drive.

Cheers,

Marc

Happy New Year (again)!

 What a way to start the day!

This was the view from the back door this morning looking to the south.

Cheers,

Marc