A Walk at City of Rocks

 

A Walk at City of Rocks

City of Rocks State Park is small but mighty!!  It covers about one square mile in the Chihuahuan desert region in southern New Mexico.  The City the name refers to the large rock pinnacles rising as high as 40 feet!  These formations occurred when there was a large volcanic eruption about 35 million years ago.  After all these years, the rocks have worn down to the rounded forms they are today.

Here’s our great campsite!  We really like this specific site and try to get it every time we stay here.  We are nestled in between some of those huge volcanic rocks.  It’s actually quite a large site, with plenty of seating space.  We spent a lot of time in our chairs under the tree.

We were camping here for one full day, and in the morning of that day, we decided to walk along and in between the rocks on the hill behind our campsite.  Jeff and Max managed to find a rock with a natural sort of bench carved out.  Taking a rest at the top of the hill!

Every so often as we walked along, we’d come across a nice little quiet spot – this one with a lovely tree setting in it!  I think it would be a great place to meditate, if I meditated!

As I walked past this area where two rocks are very close to each other, I thought that no one could manage to fit through this narrow crevice.  Then, Max shows up at the top of this crevice, very proud of himself, racing around and finding fun new places to explore! When he started down the crevice to reach us, he seemed to get stuck for a minute, because it was so narrow and so steep.  But, after a moment, he just sort of jumped over the narrow, steep area and joined us!

Here’s another great view from up in the rocks.  One thing that’s fun for those folks who camp in tents is that there are a number of tent sites that look similar to this.  Again, nestled in the rocks.  It sometimes feels like you’re protected, as the rocks block some wind, etc.  It’s a very basic, simple place to camp and just relax!

And, the opposite of relax is Max!  I do believe that he walked, ran and jumped at least 2-3 times what we did!  Here are some images of him playing in between the rocks.  He had a grand time, as did we!!

This was our last camping trip of this year, so see you next year!!

Enjoy!

 

 

Max meets the Dunes

 

Max Meets the Dunes

One of the reasons we wanted to visit White Sands National Park was to introduce Max to one of the largest and best doggie parks we knew of!!  Now, technically, Max was to be on the leash the entire time we were there, but one look around tells you that people regularly violate that “rule”.  The trick to not getting in trouble is to Walk far enough onto the dunes so the park rangers don’t see you!!

We weren’t far enough on the dunes when I shot these, and shortly afterwards, the park rangers used their speaker to tell us he needed to be on his leash – yes, officer!  But really, who could keep this much joy tied up??

Isn’t this a handsome boy of a pup? For a brief moment, when he was deciding which way to run, Max struck a pose!  It only lasted for a second!! LOL!!

Oh, he saw me while running around and just had to come by (at full speed) to say hi!!  We have thought from the very beginning that Max was a very happy pup – and here he gets to be exuberantly happy!!

I really like this image of Max on the dunes.  He almost looks contemplative, like he’s reflecting on his life….almost!!  I think it’s more likely that he’s wondering what lies down the dune and beyond!!

Max met a friend while at the dunes!!  This little pup was so charming – she (I’m assuming she was a girl) came up and kept sitting, then sneaking a few steps forward, then lying down, etc., until we decided it was ok to let him off his leash. We tend to be a bit careful when another dog comes close, but it was clear all she wanted to do was play with Max. They had a grand time, and both sets of puppy parents got some laughs just watching them racing around. And, no, Max never did catch her!!

After all that running around, Max felt like he had to just chill for a bit and catch his breath. The warmth of the setting sun helped him to momentarily relax!

At the end of all this fun, max took one last stroll around as the sun set on his fun time at White Sands National Park! He slept well that night!

Enjoy!

Dunes at Sunset

 

Dunes at Sunset

The next day when we visited White Sands National Park, we drove further into the park and stopped at the area where the dunes are higher.  Families will visit this part of the park and bring disc types of sleds, for the kids to “sled” down the dunes.  Whenever we’re there, we always see some kids (of all ages) doing this, so it is obviously great family fun!  That wasn’t what we came for though.  We just wanted to enjoy the beauty…

At times, walking along on top of the dunes, the landscape strikes me as being very stark.  This image represents that.  I processed it in black and white, simply to show off the textures of both the nearby mountains, and the dunes themselves.

This scene also gives you a sense of starkness.  In this one, the mountains have taken a bit of a step back and let the flow of the dunes be the star!  At times, even though my feet are firmly on the ground, I almost feel like I’m at sea, looking at rolling waves.

As the sun sets, the scene warms up quite a bit!! And, we have lines everywhere!  There are what I think of as the larger flow lines of the dunes, and up close, you can see the pattern that the wind makes in the dunes.  Since the wind is never ending, any steps one may leave are quickly erased by the breeze and the dunes.

As the sun sinks further on the horizon, then the scene becomes very soft.  Details in the sand melt into the shadows of the dunes and you just have the feeling of the sands softly moving, with almost absolute silence, except for my breathing.

Again, as we were walking back over the dunes to our car, we faced the opposite direction and got a lovely view of the moon rise over the mountains that had been behind us all this time.  One interesting thing about being on the dunes is that you must always be aware of where you walked.  Since all dunes tend to look alike, it would be very easy to get lost!

Enjoy!