White Sands National Park Hot Air Balloon Ascension

Catherine and I got up pretty early today to go see the hot air balloon ascension at White Sands National Park.

We did not have the place to ourselves, that is for sure. The balloons were supposed to launch at 7 am, but it was probably closer to 7:30 before the first balloon launched.

They had quite a few balloons, but didn't quite manage a mass launch, it was onesies and twosies until they all had launched.

It was a lot of work for the ballooners, since they launched, floated maybe 300 yards (some barely skimming the hillside downwind!) and landed in or near another parking lot.

I think their total time in the air was less than 3 minutes, maybe 5 at the outside most.

We are set to see the big hot air balloon show in a couple of weeks in Albuquerque; it should be a pretty good show.

I am pretty sure there will be naps later - have a great day!

Marc

Jeff's visit

Jeff made a quick visit to and experience southern New Mexico. We crammed as much in there as we could. The morning after he arrived, I had to run with the installation on our 9-11 memorial run. Shortly after that, Jeff and I loaded up and went to Dripping Springs, to hike up to the former tuberculosis sanitarium. We haven't had a ton of rain lately, so the springs truly were just dripping.

From there, we made our way to White Sands National Park. It was hot, and it was bright. Even under a hat with sunglasses, the light was painfully intense, so we didn't stick around. We then went up to Cloudcroft to see the Mexican Canyon Trestle. We had lunch at a little BBQ place I hadn't been to yet - but totally will go back to. Mad Jacks is the more famous/busy of the two, but Son-In-Law had great food, too!

After lunch we drove to Bluff Springs, which is about 7-8 miles down a gravel road. We saw a cowboy recovering a run-away horse, and a few other people along the way, but not many.

We drove back to WSMR, since I had a farewell/social function I had to attend. The next morning, Ian, Jeff, and I got up pretty darn early to hit the road - we had a long day ahead of us. We drove to Silver City, where we ate at the slowest Denny's on the entire earth. That didn't ruin our plans at all, since we were probably the third group there, but it did set us back a bit.

After getting fed and watered, we headed north to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The road twists through the mountains, up and over the continental divide a time or two. We hiked up through a beautiful, and cool, canyon on the way to the cliff dwellings.

We had the dwellings to ourselves - only a park ranger was there with us. A couple of people arrived after, but we had the place basically to ourselves.

Ian showed Jeff the pictographs painted on the walls, which he had learned about on a previous trip.

We hiked back to the car, and checked out a smaller dwelling, and then Spirit Canyon with its many pictographs on the way home.

We took another wonderful, twisty mountain road home, with lunch at Sparky's.

Cheers,

Marc

Happy Labor Day

It was a busy weekend for the Skinners in New Mexico!

We went to Carlsbad Caverns on Friday to watch half a million bats fly out of the one entrance on their way to a meal. It was pretty neat - the bats circle in what amounts to a vortex as they gain altitude to escape the bowl that the cavern mouth sits in. They then fly in a "river" to wherever they go to eat. It was silent to us, but you could hear the air moving from all those wings.

Saturday we took in a bunch of football games with some friends. Sunday I loaded up the motorcycle and headed into the mountains - I was lucky to find a campsite, as most campgrounds were full.

I grabbed the last site, then did a bit of riding further up the mountain to see the sights. 

Monday morning I was up early, as usual, and headed out as soon as the tent was dry. While I was enjoying some coffee and waiting for breakfast to cook, I noticed a long string of lights in the sky - I think it was a Skylink train of satellites, which was pretty cool. I only had my cell phone - so no cool photos.

On my trip up into the mountains (again), I came across a young bear running on the road. Thankfully he was small and mom was nowhere to be found. There isn't much protection from animals on a motorcycle!

The mountains are putting on a last, spectacular, display of flowers for the summer. The whole mountainside (below) was turning yellow from the flowers. We've had a pretty wet summer, compared to the wildfires we had, I'll take it!

Cheers,

Marc