Not another sunset!

Yup - another sunset, and again from the back yard!

We've had a ton of rain this past week to kick off the monsoon season, this was the first time seeing the mountains in a couple of days. The back yard is basically flooded, but I'll take it.

Cheers!

Marc

Road Trip

I had to travel to Thoreau ("threw") New Mexico to attend a Wilderness First Aid course for a trip with the Boy Scouts later this summer. Since it was just me, I loaded up the bike and traveled the back roads, including a gravel county "road" through a very remote section of New Mexico - it was me and a couple of ranchers!

After the gravel road section which took me to the Very Large Array, I made my way to El Malpais National Monument to check out the La Ventana arch (above). That stretch of road was pretty cool - large lava field to my left with towering sandstone bluff to my right. The trip was through some very strong winds, which made my choice of roads all the smarter.

After the last class, I loaded up the bike and started back south, but since I hit the road after 6 pm, didn't want to go too far. So I made my way to El Morro National Monument, where they have a free campground. Since all the National Forests up that way are closed due to fire restrictions, I was worried that the 10 sites would all be taken and would have to drive further south into the Gila National Park. Turns out it was just me and one other person who never came out of his/her van. It is close to Navajo and Zuni lands, so I had very dark skies very close to a new moon...and I brought my star tracker with me!

I got some nice photos of the Milky Way (which is the brighter cloud of stars in the left of the photo, above), but decided I had enough of those, and turned my eye back to Rho Ophiuchi - the orange star with the orange cloud and dark dust fingers in the upper middle/right part of the photo. I combined it with a photo of a bluff to the south, just had to turn down the brightness a good bit to make the night scene work.

That next morning, I snapped some photos of El Morro proper (above) and made my way back home. 

That trip took me through the Gila National Forest, which has a very large wildfire - more than 215,000 acres when I went past. This photo is from the south and east, on a road I discovered last year that winds and twists its way through the mountains for miles and miles.

We actually had rain in the Lincoln National Forest today (and parts of the White Sands Missile Range) - I am hopeful that they will lift their closure soon!

Cheers,

Marc

New Mexico sunsets

Ian and I have been walking at sunset - meaning we wait longer and longer for the heat of the day to settle down a bit AND get treated to a visual treat. This first one is from yesterday evening.

And this one is from this evening.

We are getting spoiled...

Marc

Ian Graduates High School

Ian graduated from Organ Mountain High School last night in Las Cruces!

It hasn't been the easiest journey for him, but we are all super proud that he persisted and put in a lot of hard work over the years to get to this point. The ceremony was at the "Field of Dreams" in Las Cruces, another 15 minutes or so further from Organ Mountain High School. 

Nancy came to visit, getting here pretty much the day after we all got out of COVID jail.

Here you see Ian waiting for the emcee to call his name

And here he is after just walking across the stage and shaking everyone's hands.

Congratulations Ian!!!!!!

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

We took a little trip to the Gila National Forest to check out the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Once we turned off the interstate, it got desolate, fast. There was a wildfire in the general area, but nowhere close to where we were traveling or planning to stay. It was, however, still close enough to see the fire response going on.

After a couple of hours on a very winding road, to include crossing the continental divide, we made it to our camp site. The campsite was probably less than a quarter mile from the Gila Cliff Dwellings parking lot. In the photo below, if you stick to the canyon on the left, you'll find it - it is very well marked.

It was only a half mile or so uphill to the cliff dwellings, we made it!

The Mogollon (early descendants of the Pueblos) built these nearly a thousand years ago, and then abandoned them.

A park ranger was joking with some kids that this housed an elevator (below), but they weren't having it.

After our hike, Ian and I drove a couple of minutes to the campground to the south of us and hiked the 1/4 mile to these ruins - very similar to the main site.

After that, we headed back to the campsite and finished setting everything up. Our tent complex turned out to be awesome. We have a main tent for Catherine and me in the 10' x 10' canopy, with large tents for the kids, hanging off the ends of the canopy. It turned out to be pretty slick.

I took some photos of the stars. It was a new moon weekend and the skies were dark, but we were in a canyon so trees blocked most of my photos. I woke everyone up pretty early to see the Milky Way. Once everyone was up, I cooked breakfast. We had to pack up and leave early since there was a bike race that was going to close the roads from 9 am - 2 pm. We had places to be, so we hit the road early and beat the races. They had some mountains to climb!

All in all, I think everyone had a good time!

Cheers,

Marc

White Sands National Park

We had some high winds this weekend, so when the died Sunday morning, I decided to grab my camera and head to White Sands National Park to see if I could find some places without foot prints/tracks.

The park does not open until 7AM, which means the sun was already well above the horizon by the time I got back to the hiking area I wanted to explore.

I had the place to myself for the first 30 minutes or so - basically by the time I hit my turnaround point people started to come into view.

Cheers!

Marc

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Once we got back from Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, I got ready for my backpacking/photo expedition to Guadalupe Mountains National Park - another solo backpacking trip for me. I got up stupid early to shoot some photos of the Milky Way, but since I didn't have my tracker, nothing turned out good - but it was still amazing to see the Milky Way in detail with the naked eye.

I moved on from the Salt Basin area to El Capitan, and shot photos from just off the highway of the Big Dipper circling overhead while waiting for the sun to illuminate El Capitan.

Once the sun came up, I drove to the Visitor Center/Ranger Station and waited for that to open at 8. I got my backcountry permit and headed up the Tejas Trail on my way to Bush Mountain. It was a bit more than 2000 in elevation gain (to 7500 feet total) on a very rough trail. Once I made the top of the ridge, I decided to cut the hike short (it would have been a loooonng trip out) and stayed at Pine Top. That turns out to have been a fantastic decision, since I had the park to myself (7 sites to choose from, no one else there) - and I got to witness a gorgeous sunset.

I slept great, but set my alarm for 4:30 to get some photos of the Milky Way with the Guadalupe Mountains to help frame it. It didn't turn out like I thought it would (weekend of a new moon - it was DARK!), but the Milky Way turned out pretty good for a single exposure. It is amazing what lack of light pollution can do for you!

I went back to my campsite - about a 5 minute walk from here, ate breakfast and packed up the campsite, then went back to this spot to photograph sunrise.

This is about a 180* panorama from where I was photographing. From there, I took a more scenic route back to the car. The section called The Bowl was delightful, I walked on dirt with not a lot of elevation change through trees suitable to hang a hammock from while playing hide and seek with the sun and a nice breeze - just about perfect. Once I dropped over the edge of the ridge, it was back into the desert and rough trail.

Cheers,

Marc