Along the Rio Chama

 

Along the Rio Chama

We decided to make a grocery store run via a back road along the Rio Chama (Chama River).  It’s generally such a nice drive, and it didn’t disappoint this time either!!

Here are a couple of great views along the Rio Chama – the one on the left was taken from a picnic area that is part of the Rio Chama Recreation Area.  The image on the right was take on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and is actually the view one can have if one was to camp there.  There are a few of these camping spots available in this area.  They are free, but don’t have any hook-ups (water or electric), so it’s what’s called dry camping or boondocking.  The view is priceless, though!!

Again, this is from one of the dry camping sites, and what a lovely mirror view of the Rio Chama.  The river always looks muddy and brown in this area.  It’s clean (meaning, no chemicals), but because it’s just come out of the Abiquiu Dam, so it’s still rather churned up. Even though the water is flowing, it looks very serene in this image.

When I look at this plant, all I generally think is “Ouch!!”  The plan is called a cholla (pronounced choy – a) and I’ve always felt those thorns to be rather magnetic and are attracted to people!!  It feels as if they sort of leap out at you if you get too close to the plant!  I’m sure that’s not really true, but I swear they did that to me a time or two when I was well clear of the plant!!

Let me be the first to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!!  This is the New Mexico version of Christmas colors.  In fact, when you order chilies as part of your meal, often the wait person will ask if you want “red, green or Christmas” when they are talking about chilies!

Enjoy!

Plaza Blanca

 

Plaza Blanca

One day while staying at Abiquiu Lake, we went exploring so I could finish walking all the way into Plaza Blanca, famous for Georgia O’Keeffe’s series of paintings of “The White Place” as she called it.  I tried this hike a couple of years ago, and although I saw other interesting sites around Plaza Blanca, I could not make it all the way to the end of the canyon where she painted.  This time, I’m happy to say, I made it!

There was one large difference this time when we went to Plaza Blanca.  Previously, we could always drive in without any issue, as the Mosque on whose grounds Plaza Blanca lies, was very agreeable to having people visit the area.  However, due to the bad behavior of some, who were destructive or disrespectful in some ways, there was a gate at the entrance to the overall property and then again to the Plaza Blanca parking area itself.  We needed to call a number provided at the gate, and agree to certain conditions (mainly, that we wouldn’t be destructive or disrespectful) and then we received a code that would open both gates.  The guy I talked to, Tariq, was very nice, and invited us up to see the actual mosque after we were finished exploring Plaza Blanca.  This image is of the road we were on as we approached the parking area of Plaza Blanca, or The White Place.

The views were great heading into the canyon.  Plaza Blanca is a box canyon and a slot canyon.  A box canyon is one that only has one way in or out, and a slot canyon is one that gets progressively narrower the further in you go.  But, for now, we are looking at wide open spaces, and goldenrod at the base of the towering white rock formations.

When I saw what appears to be a small tree growing on top of the canyon walls, I thought it was an inspirational scene about the power of perseverance, not that the tree thought of that!!

Amazingly, there was a lot of growth in an area that was very rocky and sandy when we were there.  The two bottom flowers are Apache Plume, and the upper flower is a penstemon.

And, here we are, reaching my goal!!  You can see from the image on the right, Jeff is walking in an area that isn’t nearly as wide open as the canyon was at the beginning of our walk.  The image on the left is the view as we got very close to the slot canyon part of the walk, and the center image is one of Jeff and Max (you have to look close) at the very end of the canyon, the area where the slot part of the canyon sort of folds into the canyon wall.  I suppose if one was a mountain goat, one would find the climbing easy, but that wasn’t any of us!  In fact, Max was very uncertain as to how he was to climb down from the spot in which he found himself!!

Since we were invited, we did stop at the Dar Al-Islam Mosque.  I found the design of the mosque to be quite simple, which really set it off in such beautiful surroundings.  I took a photo of one of the lovely wooden carved doors there were on all sides of the mosque, and also the scenery to be had right off the east side of the mosque.

Enjoy!

 

 

Ten Days in August

 

Ten Days in August

In August, we took a short (for us) trip to northern New Mexico, stopping at three campgrounds.  We had a fun time at all three, although one of the stops was very short!!  Come along on our travels!

Our first stop has become a favorite stop for us – Red River, New Mexico!  We camped at a great campsite, right along the Red River.  One day, we took a short drive up a back road and I captured these two images of Red River.  The one on the right is when the east and west branches of the river merged into one, and I captured this from a bridge.  The second image was from the opposite side of the bridge, after the two branches have merged.

I captured a couple of images of thistle, and both just seemed rather inspirational.  I hope you agree.

Another side trip we took while in Red River was to an area around the Rio Costillo (Costillo River).  There is a camping spot there that we wanted to check out.  Depending on the spot one might choose, one could be camping with cattle!!  We thought the area was beautiful and we did decide that the area is great for a day visit, and a lunch stop along the river (image on the right)!

The mountain wildflowers were out in the Red River area!!  More thistle, a couple of images of golden coneflowers, and always a favorite with me, daisies!

Our next stop, just for an overnight, was at Heron Lake State Park, about 10 miles outside of Chama, New Mexico.  We got a very lovely camping site, with a nice, shady sitting spot (Max enjoyed it!) and some great views from that sitting spot!

It’s really sad to see Heron Lake.  It’s only about 1/3 it’s normal size, so as you look at it in these images, picture it 2/3 larger than it is now.  We stopped at the visitors’ center, and the ranger there said it was so low due to it feeding the water needs of Albuquerque, and that the snow melt that they usually see from the mountains north of here and into Colorado didn’t happen this year.

Our last stop was at Abiquiu Lake, which is always a favorite stop.  We didn’t get our typical spot, but this one was a good second choice!

The views from the campground are fabulous.  We could see The Pedernal from our campsite directly, and just a few steps away, let me get a great sunset image of the lake itself.  It, too, is very low for the same reason Heron Lake is, and all one can do is hope for a good snowfall next winter.

Enjoy!!

Dinosaur National Monument - Quarry and More

 

Dinosaur National Monument – Quarry and More

Our second day of exploring Dinosaur National Monument consisted of visiting the dinosaur quarry and driving Cub Creek Road.  Join us!

On August 17, 1909, Earl Douglass, a paleontologist from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg, PA, discovered an ancient riverbed full of dinosaur bones.  The river flowed in the very area where this exhibit hall stands today.  There was a long drought`` and many of the dinosaurs died near this old riverbed, when they came in search of water.  When they died, and the water receded, their bones piled up at the bottom of the riverbed.  This dinosaur “log jam” is what has been preserved and is on display in the exhibit hall.

Sand buried some bones very close together, while other bones were separated and scattered. There are about 10 different dinosaur bones in this area. These bones have been in this habitat for about 149 million years.  The bones shown in this exhibit are the actual riverbed, but they’ve angled the riverbed up so that it’s easier to view.  Many of the bones on display are disarticulated, meaning they have come apart from each other over the years.  There are only 2 dinosaur skeletons that are fairly complete, but these are not those!

About 15% of the bones shown in the Quarry are those of the stegosaurus.  In the images above, most of the bones of the stegosaurus can be accounted for.  Of course, they are very disorganized and have been scattered a bit.  The stegosaurus was a herbivore from the Late Jurassic era, between 150 – 155 million years ago.  I have also shown an image of a drawing of a stegosaurus so you can get an idea of what it looked like when he was living.  The image below shows a rather long view of the skeleton, so you can get a better idea of how close together the bones are.

The other dinosaur whose skeleton is fairly complete is a Camarasaurus.  In fact, the skeleton here is relatively articulated.  And, there are only 2 skulls in the quarry, and I’ve. highlighted one of them!  I’ve also included an image of what a camarasaurus looked like when they walked the earth.

Here are some other dinosaur bones spread around the quarry, including one that anyone can reach out and touch (the one in the lower left corner).

About a thousand years ago, there was a native people living in this area.  They were the Fremont people and have left petroglyphs along the road after leaving the dinosaur quarry.  I especially liked the image on the left side above.  I think it looks like a vase of flowers!

In the previous blog, I captured images of the original Chew ranch.  Here are a couple of images of the current Chew ranch.  This ranch was originally owned by Aaron Daniels, who started the ranch in late 1880s.  Douglas Chew purchased the ranch in 1941, and still operates it.

This view is of Placer Point.  Placer deposits occurs when valuable minerals flake off and are carried downstream.  They tend to collect where the water flow slows, like in bends in the river.  They are mined by dredging the river bottom in those areas.  Placer mining occurred just downstream from this peaceful scene between 1905 – 1942.  While some valuable minerals were found, including gold, but never enough to make the effort profitable and eventually were stopped.

As we continued on our way, we saw an interesting rock formation – they call this turtle rock, and we can certainly see why!!

Our last stop for today’s exploration is the homestead of Josie Bassett Morris.  Josie established this homestead in the early 1900s.  Information at the homestead state that she moved to this homestead when she was about 40 years old, divorced and her children grown.  She lived here until 1964.  Here are photos of the outside of her cabin and the chicken coop.  There are also images from the inside of her home.  It’s reinforced enough to be safe to explore.  Although the information shown at the homestead doesn’t reflect this, Josie lived quite the unconventional life. She lived for awhile with her sister, Ann, who I mentioned in my previous blog.  Both of them were known for their love affairs with various members of Butch Cassidy’s “wild Bunch” band of outlaws.  Josie was married five times – divorced four times and suspected of killing the fifth husband.  During the Prohibition years, she made and sold bootlegged whiskey, although she was never arrested. What a way to end this exploration!!

Enjoy!

 

 

Dinosaur National Monument - Harpers Corner Road

 

Dinosaur National Monument – Harpers Corner Road

 

Our last stop on this trip is a two-parter.  The second part will talk about seeing the dinosaur quarry, some petroglyphs, and an old homestead by quite an interesting woman.  This first part will cover our explorations down Harpers Corner Road, and a bit of a side trip down Echo Park Road.  Let’s get started!!

As we began our drive, the views were spectacular from either side of the Jeep.  On the left (upper image) was Plug Hat Butte and on the right (lower image) was the view looking out over the landscape.  How did Plug Hat get its name?  An early traveler thought this formation looked like a derby hat with the red color being the color of the band on the hat. 

The next view along the canyon road was the Escalante Overlook.  The broad valley is the Uinta Basin and is home to plants and animals from the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains. The view is so expansive, it’s hard to believe this is in back-road country, and if you don’t head down this road, you’ll have no idea it exists.

The next great view was what’s called Canyon Overlook.  Although I shot the image on the right with my wide-angle lens as wide as I could, I couldn’t get the full view in the frame, so I took another image to capture the rock formations off to the left of the view (image on the left). 

The next view is of Vivas Cake Hill Overlook We were told in the driving guide we had that it wouldn’t be unusual to see cattle along the road, and we certainly did (see image below)!  The road shown in the image is Echo Park Road, which we’ll be heading down in just a little bit. The area we were looking out over had quite the history.  Back in the “olden days” of cowboys and cattle rustling, this canyon was part of what is known as the Outlaw Trail.  It was part of a backcountry route that ran from Montana into New Mexico and was used by many outlaws.  The most infamous of them was the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Two local sisters, the Bassett befriended the Wild Bunch, and even celebrated Thanksgiving with them one year. Josie Bassett ended up marrying and moving to the base of Split Mountain (more about her in the next blog post), but Ann became the girlfriend of Butch Cassidy at age 15, and remained involved with him and the Wild Bunch for many years.  She became known as the “Queen of the Cattle Rustlers”.

The next view we had was from Island Park Overlook.  In April, 1883, Henry and May Ruple homesteaded in this area, and established a cattle ranch.  The family ran cattle from this area to Wild Mountain, about 10 miles away.  In 1915, the ranch switched over to sheep ranching when their son, Hod, took over the ranch.  The Ruples sold most of the ranch in 1945, but still maintain a portion of it, outside of the Monument.

We now approached Echo Park Overlook, and what a grad view it was!  Although you can’t see it in either of these images, the Yampa River runs through this valley, and in 1950, there was some talk of damming the river, which would have caused all of what you see here and everything I talk about in the rest of this post to be under water.  Obviously, the opposition to the dam carried the day, and we still have this wonderful area to explore!  The winding road you see in the image on the right is where we’re headed next!

Here we are at the bottom of the canyon traveling down Echo Park Road.  The road is actually in really good condition, and it quite picturesque.  What’s next to see?

Here are some views as we drove through the narrower part of the road.  The bottom image is of a butte off on our right, and not right on top of us.  However, the upper image is of the rock formations as they sort of hung over the Jeep.  I took this image while looking up out of the open roof of the Jeep.

Jack Chew and his wife settled in this area at Pool Creek in 1910, along with their 12 children and their cattle.  They build the small one room cabin which became home to them and their children.  I believe the image in the upper left is this cabin.  It was one of the first ranches in what is now Dinosaur National Monument and was home to three generations of Chews.  With hard work and the resources provided by Nature, the Chews lived here for more than half a century. The lower right image is another type of structure in what seems to be the Chew Ranch.  Mary Chew, and her sons, Rial and Douglas, managed the ranch during the 1920s.  Rial, who eventually became the sole owner, increased the ranch to more than 2,250 acres.  In the 1930s, Rail also begins raising sheep in addition to the cattle. During the 1940s, Rial and his family begin to spend winters in Vernal, UT, so his children can attend school there. In 1966, Rial sells 1,900 acres to the National Park Service that are now within Dinosaur National Monument.

Some of the rock formations were very interesting.  This formation, for example, has what appear to be clefts in the rocks.  As we looked at them, Jeff surmised that as the rain flowed from the top of the mesa/butte, it ran in the same patterns, and those patterns eventually became these clefts.  They don’t seem to go all the way through the rock – at least not yet!

The next place we stopped was at a place where there were some interesting petroglyphs up high on a rock wall. As you can see in the image in the upper left, the path was rather narrow, and the rock wall was very high.  The petroglyphs were up very high, much higher than we could reach or even see very well.  After a while, our eyes got a bit adjusted to how the petroglyphs appeared, and I was able to get some good images.  When the Fremont people made these petroglyphs, the ground was actually about 35 feet higher than it is today, and so the petroglyphs were in easy reach.  However, with the water flowing all these years, the floor of the canyon is much lower, and the petroglyphs are truly out of reach!  The two shapes we could make out were dots and chips.  The dots were made by drilling many small holes into the sandstone.  The chips were made by actually chipping away at the sandstone.  When you look closely at some of the petroglyphs, it looks like they got very accurate in both drilling and chipping.  This is the only place in Dinosaur National Monument where you can see these types of petroglyphs.

At the end of Echo Park Road, we did finally run into the Yampa River.  Although not shown in this image, very close by was a rafting outing getting ready to hit the water!  We chose to take a few minutes to simply enjoy the view before heading back the way we came.

Enjoy!

Craters of the Moon

 

Craters of the Moon

As we headed for home, we spent a couple of nights near Idaho Falls, Idaho.  We realized that we weren’t far from a National Monument, called Craters of the Moon.  One of the most interesting things was that several NASA astronauts learned basic volcano geology here as they prepared for their moon missions.  With that little tidbit of trivia, we couldn’t help but decide to check out this treasure.

This area was described as “The surface of the moon as seen through a telescope” by geologist Harold T. Stearns.  Although most lunar craters originated with meteor strikes, the crater at this National Monument are from volcanic activity.  The lava here issued from a series of deep fissures, known as the Great Rift.  Beginning 15,000 years ago, lava welled up from the Great Rift in this area to produce this vast field of rock.  This image is how this field of lava looks today.

One of the things that was amazing to me is how many flowers were growing among all the jagged and rugged lava rocks.  The bright green growth in the image on the far right is lichen and yes, it was that bright green in reality!

We first stopped at Devil’s Orchard Trail.  Two thousand years ago, volcanos erupted so violently that they tore themselves apart.  Rivers of lava flowed through this area and left chunks of debris here.  Over time, rocks crumbled, and seeds of trees and shrubs took hold in the very sparse dirt. A hundred years ago, a minister looked over this area and said it was a garden fit for the devil himself.

I found it surprising how many of the trees and shrubs were growing and green, given how the area developed.  I really loved the tree in the image on the left – the bent of the tree tells the tale of wind!!  As an aside, the day we visited here, it was threatening rain almost the entire time we were there.  One might wish for blue skies and sun.  Somehow, these stormy looking clouds seem to fit the landscape much better than a nice sunny day.

I did love the various signs of life as we walked this path.  There were flowers, of course, and also, we saw a tree that was serving as a nest for some bird.  We didn’t see any while we were there, but I have hopes that birds are also finding things livable here.

Our next stop was a very short, very steep path up to the top of a Spatter Cones.  Think of spatter cones as mini volcanoes.  Tiny blobs of molten lava were tossed into the air as part of the last gasp of an eruption sequence that ended about 2,100 years ago.  This image is a close up of a very small spatter cone that we saw as we climbed the vary steep, very narrow path up the side of a larger cone.  These smaller cones were embedded in the side of the cone structure we were climbing.

As we wound our way up, there were so many different types of formations to see – here you can see a very small arch and on the other side is a collection of what appear to be small caves.  I don’t know that they are considered cones because they open off to the side…. but maybe they are.  After all, some volcanoes erupt laterally (think Mount St. Helens).

At the top of the Spatter Cone, we saw two different craters!!  It felt like a bonus after the climb.  Looking at the images, the bottom of the crater doesn’t look that far down.  It actually was and the image is a bit of an optical illusion.  The bottoms of both craters are now filled with lava rocks.  They are long extinct, thank goodness!

As we walked back to our car after following the path down, I captured this image of some smaller spatter cones off in the landscape.  They are larger than they may look in this image but were smaller than the one we had just climbed.

Our last formal stop was to walk the Caves Trail.  The walkway has been finished off so that one doesn’t need to try to balance and walk on the jagged lava rock.  There are a number of “caves” along this trail.  The term caves is a bit of a misnomer, as the caves are actually large lava tubes.  About 2,100 years ago, lava ran down the slope from where the Spatter Cones stand today.  In some places they flowed into channels.  These tops of these channels hardened forming tubes and then caves.

As we drove out of the National Monument, we did notice one last feature – lava cascades!  When the lava begins to harden, the shape of the flow is captured as a portrayal of the way it looked when flowing.  You can really get a feel for how the lava looked when flowing.  In a way, it reminded me of Kilauea Volcano, in Hawaii, except that the lava there is often still red hot!

Here is one last look at the lava fields (with a lava tube in the foreground) of Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Although this was a last minute “add” to our itinerary, I’m glad we had the time to stop!

Enjoy!