Leaving Arizona

We left Palm Creek with no real travel plans other than to head to New Mexico and do some exploring.  Our first stop was Benson, AZ where we finally started doing some exploring of the local area.  We spent a week at the Butterfield RV resort (we wanted to stay at the Escapees Park but it was full).  We visited Tombstone, a real tourist trap and something to avoid, and Kartchner Caverns which is a must see.  Since we had to go into Tucson to get some dog medication, we did manage to sneak in the Pima County Air Museum as well.  A must see for aircraft enthusiasts.  Butterfield has an operating observatory on the property that is open every night,  weather permitting.  If we took pictures, we can't find them.

From Benson, we headed to Las Cruces, NM and we really haven't left.

As full timers you are always aware that at some point you are going to come off the road and settle in one spot.  We had figured we would do that after 5-10 years (we would be in our mid to late 70's) and in the meantime we would keep looking for that perfect spot.  We had looked at Las Cruces as a possible retirement place before we had jumped into motorhoming but decided running around in the motorhome was more fun.  As a lark, we contacted the realtor we had talked to 4 years before and he was still in Las Cruces and still working for the same firm.

We kind of hit the perfect storm.  With a good inventory of quality homes, great prices, and interest rates really low, buying a home now and using it as a base for more travel it really seemed like the thing to do.  So, we are now official residents of Las Cruces, NM.

Front, looking towards the south west

Front, looking towards the south east.  The open patch of gravel looks big enough for a motorhome!!!

And it is.  It is big enough that we can open all the slides and best of all, it has full hookups.  We just happened to have a sewer cleanout on that side, plus the electrical box, and soft water.  So we have a 50 amp full hookup site.

So why Las Cruces?

Scenic beauty certainly plays a big part of why you like an area.  Las Cruces is surrounded by the various pieces of the Organ Mountains National Monument.  Towering volcanic spires in your backyard are always nice.

Organ Mountains from just west of downtown Las Cruces

From the upper mesa.  The highest needles are about 9500 ft.  The valley floor around Las Cruces is about 4000 ft.

And from our neighborhood.

Just over the hill (east of Las Cruces) is the White Sands National Monument.  The sands are really gypsum (the stuff inside of drywall) and are very different than sand.  First off, in the hottest weather, you can walk on the sands barefoot and not be burnt.  You can sled on it and you can die out there amongst it.  We had a French couple who were hiking one of the trails this summer with their son.  They did not take adequate water with them and the parents died, the son lived.  

White Sands vs. real snow.  The white dot in the middle of the picture is snow on one of the mountain peaks.  It's probably 50 mi or so from where the picture was taken.

Except for the bits of green, you could be in the Dakotas in mid winter.

And you could be sledding almost anywhere in the rest of the US in winter, but not shorts.

The climate isn't bad.  Sure it gets hot in the summer - mostly in the 90's, but it doesn't feel like the 90's when you compare it to anywhere with humidity.  We experienced some of Spring and it was pleasant but Fall this year has remained hot.  We are going to miss Winter as we are cranking up the motorhome and heading off to Florida.

We haven't sat in one spot the whole time we have been in Las Cruces.  We did take a side trip to Carlsbad (we never take pictures is caves although Carlsbad allows and encourages photography).  I guess we will have to return.  Also on that swing were Roswell (sorry, the aliens weren't home) and Albuquerque.  

Our oldest son, Sean, was a balloon pilot and trained in Albuquerque and flew in a couple of the Festivals as well in the late 90's.  We want to visit the area where we scattered his ashes.  We had originally planned to do it during a flight in the 2000 Festival but the weather was horrible.  So we opted to climb up one of the cinder cones in the Petroglyph National Monument and do that.  The area overlooks the area where balloon pilots are trained so we felt that it was an appropriate resting place.  You can see the cinder cones to the west of the the Rio Grande and I-25 as you are driving south towards I-40.

And you can thank Sean for the URL of this blog as well.  This was his response to his brother when an eel, caught in a crab trap, slithered out and across the dock and back into the Chesapeake Bay.  The whole statement was "Don't worry, eel be back".  Till next time.

Our visit to Zion National Park

Zion National Park - October 2014

(from Benson, AZ, March 14, 2015 For a fullsize image, just click on the picture)

Our blog post from last October was not completed as we ran into a large snag - Palm Creek RV Park, where we spent the winter.  With minimal internet coverage we just couldn't get enough band width to up load a few pictures.  Needless to say, I'm not happy with Palm Creek but it is hard to back out of a 2 for 1 deal without serious financial impact.  We are back on the road (yeah!) and we have internet again so it is time to catch up.

We stayed in Hurricane, UT for our visit to Zion National Park.  Very nice little town and not nearly as congested as the area around the main entrance to ZNP.  We also had easy access to the Kolob Canyon portion of ZNP as well.

Zion is unique in that it is really a long, narrow valley, carved by a rather small river, that results in some pretty impressive mountains.  Because vehicle emissions and traffic were creating problems in the valley, the NPS banned vehicular traffic but offered free shuttle buses to tour the valley and service the back country trails.  Works great but you have to get to the visiter center early to find a parking spot.

You can thank the formation of the Rocky Mountains for ZNP.  The uplift of an ancient sea bed ends at I-15 in Utah.  On the west side of I-15 you have the Great Basin, on the east side you have all of the national parks.  Zion sits on the southwest corner of this uplift.

Across the bridge and to the left and you are in the part of the canyon closed to regular traffic.  This is looking towards the east and where the tunnels are located when you exit the park.  We didn't take this road - yet.

View from behind the museum.

View as you enter the canyon.  You are greeted with large vertical surfaces that soar to the sky.

 

This shallow river carved this entire valley and is still carving it today.

We decided to stay on the road until the last stop and then work our way back down the canyon.  At the very end of the road is a trail that takes you to slot canyons, however, you actually have to hike through a stream to reach them.  

The end of the "dry" trail and the beginning of the "wet" one.

As we walked back towards the bus stop, we spotted a small herd of mule deer along the far bank of the river.  

Looking back down the canyon.

Kolob Canyon

On the western edge of the park is a section known as Kolob Canyon.  This section is only accessible from I-15.  Given the low number of cars in the parking lot, I'd say that most people miss one of the better sections of ZNP.

The road to the canyons.

Like most of Zion, if you can hike, you are in for incredible views.

 

Because of the large number of photos from this trip, I will be creating a Dropbox album as soon as I get time.  I will post a link when everything is ready.