Home

We arrive home after four days of driving through, at first, beautiful sunny skies, which change to rain and wet snow by the time we cross the Canadian/U.S. border.  Sigh - yes, back to the north, that which we had escaped in the beginning.  But it is good to be home, to see our son and the rest of our family and friends.  Last impressions:

I describe our trip as magical.  We saw so many wonderful things, went so many fantastic places and, of course, made so many great new friends.   It is the people we met that stand out most in my mind when I think back on the past five months:  Jean and Denyse, Denny and Linda, Janice and Jerry, and everyone else.  The campfires, the pranks (still sorry about the rattlesnake Mike and Julie), "happy hours"... such fun!  RVers are the best people in the world.

Of the places we visited, it would be difficult to pick a favourite.  Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico was a highlight, as was swimming at Balmorhea in Texas, but then Slab City in California was a whole different experience.  Camping alone in the mountains in the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico was so peaceful, almost spiritual, as was camping in the middle of the desert at times.  Seeing my uncle for Christmas was a special treat, having not seen him for over 20 years, and he so reminded me of my dad.  The beaches in Texas, at least on the Padre Island National Seashore were full of seaweed and nothing like the pristine, clear beaches of Florida - a surprise for us.

Weather-wise, we were caught by how cold some of the states were in November and December.  We damned near froze in New Mexico and Arizona and had to buy warmer clothes and blankets.  I guess we're just as guilty as Americans who think all Canadians live in igloos and have sled dogs, we thought the southwest would be warm, but there was snow on the ground in many areas due to the elevation - up to 9,000 feet in southern New Mexico.  Lesson learned!

Grady was such a good boy on this trip too.  He didn't like being in the truck, especially when we had to make long journeys over several days, like from Texas to Florida (three days) and home (four days), but he survived.  He never tried to get out of the trailer, even the few times I tried to take him out on a leash - that just made him nervous and he wanted back in the trailer, which I guess was good.  But he's happy to be home and he runs all over the house which took him a few hours to get used to.

Texas - the Lone Star State.  It certainly is.  The people of Texas are extremely friendly and the state is very travel-friendly.  RVers are welcome to stay overnight in highway rest areas and picnic areas, unlike many states (like California, a very travel-unfriendly state!).  Texas tends to think of itself separately from the rest of the states - it's bigger, it has more resources, it's just different; it's special.

New Mexico - Land of Enchantment.  It enchanted us.  We had never been to New Mexico before this trip, and we found it had a lot to offer the nature lover.  We will definitely go back, but in warmer months.  Great people, great land, great hiking, caverns, hot springs, mountains, beauty abounds.

Arizona - the Grand Canyon State.  Well it's a claim to fame, but I think they need a better nickname.  We didn't go anywhere near THE Canyon on this trip (too far north), but we've been there twice before and it is a sight to behold!  We found southern Arizona less attractive than northern AZ, although still some good parks to see and when the sun sets across the desert, the lighting is spectacular!

California - the Golden State.  You know, no one I asked in CA knew their state's "nickname".  They thought it was "the Sunshine State", but that belongs to Florida.  I had to look it up online.  So named because of the Gold Rush?  Because the setting sun on the Pacific Ocean turns the grasses a golden colour?  Who knows.  California can be a beautiful state, but it's bankrupt and most tourist facilities are closed.  Remember the commercials with Arnold "come to California" - just don't try to find a rest area or Welcome Centre on the Interstates!  Great parks though once you get away from the cities - Mojave, Death Valley and Joshua Tree.

Nevada - the Silver State.  Well they did and still do find a lot of silver here.  Everyone comes to Nevada for Las Vegas - GET OUT OF LAS VEGAS people!!!  Nevada has so much more to offer.  Valley of Fire State Park is the most breathtaking park I've ever seen.  Seriously!  And the Hoover Dam offers tours (which we took in 1987).  And now the new bridge - WOW!  Lake Havasu is gorgeous too  (ok, this is really in Arizona, but on the highway near Nevada).  London Bridge is in Lake Havasu City, transported stone by stone from England - really.

Florida - the Sunshine State.  Actually, New Mexico and Arizona get a lot more sunshine than Florida because the former states are much drier so they see something like 350 days of sun each year - not kidding.  EVERY day when we were there, we'd get up and see the sun.  It ALMOST (but not quite) got boring.  In Florida, like California, we had quite a lot of rain.  But, our warmest weather was in Florida, so I won't complain!  And the beaches were the best in Florida.  We only spent time in the panhandle (northern FL), although I've certainly been to many other parts of Florida in past years.  Florida was our last stop before we came home, so it was already spring and everything was in bloom - gorgeous.

So where to next?  Well, next time we're thinking of starting out later in the year so we can finish later in the year and see some of the states more in the north - parts of northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, northern California and Colorado.  We can't wait and will probably start planning soon.  But for now, we're still cleaning up from the past five months - finishing unpacking the trailer, cleaning it, and dealing with five months of mail.  I'd rather be RVing!

Calling All Saints

Our last two parks are both state parks on peninsulas east of Panama City in the Florida Panhandle.  It's our last week before we start our drive home .

St. George Island State Park is on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico.  We cross two incredibly long bridges that make us think we are in the Florida Keys.  Unfortunately, the weather while we are here is horrible.  Cloudy and windy for the first day, and steady rain for the other two with severe thunderstorm warnings.  So we don't get out to explore much, but we do hike most of the way out to Gap Point where primitive tent camping is allowed.  Along the trail are many 50 to 60 foot tall sand pines, one of which is tapped to show how they used to make turpentine; it reminds me of the tapping process for maple syrup in Ontario and Quebec.  Unfortunately we have to turn around before we get to the end of the trail because it is getting dark, and we get back to our trailer just as it gets dark.

It's impossible to sit on the beach even when it's not raining because of the wind, but the beach looks nice - beautiful, white sand, and a long stretch of beach for walking, running, or just kicking back and relaxing.  The campsites are quite nice, not too close together and lots of trees for shade which would be important if you camp here in the summer.  The humidity is already killing me!

Fire ant bites on Marilyn's foot

There are two ponds as we drive into the campsite area.  There is a sign at each pond that says "Alligator.  No swimming."  Brad wants to take my picture by the sign.  So I go and stand just behind the sign and while he is adjusting the polarizer and determining the best focal length, blah, blah, blah, I feel sudden stinging sensations on my right foot.  I quickly look down and see that I have about two dozen fire ants all over my foot.  I yell to Brad to quickly help me get them off as they are biting me and it freaking HURTS!  I was standing on their nest.  We get the ants brushed off quickly, but I sustain almost a dozen bites, which drive me crazy for about a week.  They are itchier than mosquito bites.  From this point on, I watch where I walk.

St. Joseph Peninsula State Park is on a cape about 30 miles west of St. George Island.  Thank goodness the weather clears by midafternoon and is supposed to be great for the next few days, because I want to work on my tan before I go home.  We manage to book an extra night, and we hear from our Quebec friends Jean and Denyse, whom we first met in Mojave National Preserve and later spent a few days with near Tucson, that they want to come this way to spend a night or two in the area and they manage to scoop a site in this very overbooked park.  Here's the story of the campsites - it's really insane.

We are originally booked into site #38 at St. Joe's for Thursday and Friday nights.  When we arrive, I ask if there's been a cancellation for Saturday night because we want to stay an extra night since the weather on Saturday is supposed to be so nice and we want to spend the day on the beach.  The Ranger tells us "Sorry, no, but keep watching the website and maybe something will come up."  But the Ranger Supervisor walks by and says "We could move you to a non-reserved site now for three nights, but you won't get the site you originally booked."  "We don't care.  We'll take it as long as it will fit our trailer."  We work out the details and we're good to go - we move into site #18 for the three days!  Earlier this afternoon our RV friends from Quebec, Jean and Denyse, asked us to find them an RV park in this area for Friday and Saturday night.  There is nothing available at this park we were already told, and we passed no RV parks on our way from St. George Island, but I had found a list of parks on the internet in a couple of nearby beach towns that I had sent to Jean.  However, now our old site #38 becomes available at least for Friday night, so I call Jean on the cell phone and tell him that if he hasn't reserved another RV park (he hasn't), to call Reserve America and book site #38 here at St. Joseph Peninsula right away because we just gave it up.  So he does and he gets it, but it is only for the one night.  Not the end of the story.

Jean and Denyse arrive around 5pm on Friday after a long drive from New Orleans.  We all enjoy Happy Hour, have dinner and a campfire and I tell them that they should continue looking on the Reserve America website to see if a cancellation comes up for Saturday night so they can stay in the park and not have to go to one of the beach towns tomorrow.  Jean says, "We are not so good at doing that like you are."  "Come on inside and I'll show you how to check," I say.  I take Denyse inside and show her how to get to the website and how to search for a free campsite and voila, site #38 comes up as available for Saturday night!  Someone must have cancelled!  OMG!  "Denyse," I say, "your campsite is available tomorrow night. I can't believe it!  Shall I book it for you right now?"  Denyse runs to the door and "blah blah blah" en Francais to Jean who doesn't believe her at first, but she convinces him and he runs back to their trailer to get his credit card to make the booking.  So here we all are for the beautiful, sunny weekend in this usually full state park, sitting on the gorgeous white sand of this fabulous Gulf beach, enjoying each other's company until we leave for Canada on Sunday morning.  What are the odds of the stars aligning in the right direction, at the right time?  And for the one site that became available to be the site that they are already occupying so they don't even have to move.  AND for me to show them how to use the Reserve America website at the right time when the cancellation of site #38 had been made but no one else had reserved it yet.  So many pieces of the cosmic puzzle just fall into place.

Alligators - Swim With Caution!!!

Brad and I take a hike along St. Joseph Bay, where we see tons of tiny crabs and beautiful views of the bay and the mainland, but here we see a funnier alligator sign than the one at St. George Island (which wasn't funny really).  Beside every pond at St. Joe's park is a sign that says "Alligators.  Swim with caution."  Swim with caution?  Who the hell wants to swim in skanky ponds with alligators?  Well, we couldn't resist a silly photo.  Brad emailed this one to a bunch of friends saying that I'd had enough of him after 5 months (ain't it the truth!).

Anyway, for our last day in Florida, of our 5 month journey, we enjoy the day on the beach with Jean and Denyse and we have our last campfire (we have to use up all of our wood that we got in New Mexico since we can't take it across the border) and in the morning we say our last au revoir to our Quebec friends.  Well, for this season.  Au revoir nos amis.  Adios to the southwest and warm temperatures (although some temps during the 5 months were downright freezing!).  Until next year.

The Western Panhandle

Denny, Linda and Marilyn on the beach at Ft. Pickens

As I sit with my toes in the floury, white sand, I think of family and friends back home weathering yet another snowstorm.  In three weeks, we will be back home in Ontario, and we will have to trade our shorts and bathing suits for long pants and coats.  How will we manage?

It takes us two and a half days to drive from Corpus Christi, Texas to Pensacola, Florida where we stay at Big Lagoon State Park first for a few days then at Gulf Islands National Seashore, Fort Pickens.

Big Lagoon State Park is on the Intracoastal Waterway, not the Gulf, so we drive to the ocean beach at Perdido Key only 10 minutes away.  The beach here is beautiful, unlike in Texas; it isn't littered with garbage and seaweed and the sand is like flour and almost pure white.  There is a crew on the beach gathering tar balls from the recent BP oil spill, although we don't see any tar on the beach or oil in the water, so they're either doing an excellent job or their work is all for show for the tourists.  The beach is a bit steep, so the waves are pounding and it seems to be high tide.  The water is about 75F so Brad and I decide to finally take a swim.  The waves are kind of fun; Brad, the 12-year old, has a lot of fun playing in the surf.  As I enter the water, the first big wave knocks me on my ass and I tumble along the shore.  Well, that makes it easier to get wet anyway.  At least four dolphins swim by about 400-500 feet offshore.  We can only see their fins but I do glimpse one breach in a wave much further down the beach; unfortunately we can't get any photos of them.  During a walk along the lagoon beach we find numerous hermit crabs.  Brad puts two close together and one tries to pull the other out of its shell; at least that's what we think they're doing.  Brad does pull them apart before either crab is harmed.

While checking out the beach at Big Lagoon State Park one afternoon, I hear something to our right and instinctively do the "mom move" on Brad, thrusting my arm across his chest to stop him from moving forward.  As I look down to the right toward the rustling noise, a large snake moves across our path.  It is dark brown with black markings; it hastily slithers in front of us and moves off into the trees.  As we move towards it, the snake keeps moving away.  It's about two feet long and 1-1/2 inches in diameter at its widest girth.  A ranger later tells us it is a cottonmouth snake and it IS poisonous, but they prefer to run away from humans like a big chicken.  Thank goodness for that.  A sign near a small pond also announces "No swimming.  Alligator."  No problem.  And yet the campsites (not ours) are so close.

Have you ever heard of the Blue Angels?  They are the elite team of Navy fighter pilots who perform stunts and fly their jets in tight formations at air shows.  Well, they practice a few miles down the beach from us.  Apparently we can go watch them on Wedensday or Thursday mornings, but they start at 8:30 am and that's too early for me.  We can see them from our campsite anyway and certainly hear the roar of the jets.  Brad and I saw the Blue Angels at the Hamilton Air Show about 25 years ago and they are an amazing team.  Of course, we have the Canadian Snowbirds, also an incredible team of formation flyers.  We've heard that Hamilton will be having an Air Show again this year after about a 10-year hiatus; wonder what the star attraction will be.

Dolphins in the Gulf at Fort Pickens

After four nights at Big Lagoon State Park, we move to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, Fort Pickens.  Driving there is like driving in a big letter C turned clockwise 90 degrees so the opening of the C is in the south.  We essentially have to drive around Pensacola Bay.  At Fort Pickens, we will be meeting up with our new friends, Denny and Linda from Ohio, whom we met at Padre Island.  Denny and Linda are a hoot, and we have a great time with them - more campfires and chats on the beach.  Again, we see dolphins in the water, closer this time than at Big Lagoon so I do manage to get some photos.  We take a night walk on the beach and hunt the ghost crabs, which Linda learns to enjoy handling.  Myself, I'm too girly and let a few screeches pass my lips when some of the large white crabs get too close to my bare feet.

As the name of this park suggests, there is a fort here, built shortly after the War of 1812 and used during the Civil War.  Brad and I tour it during a bike ride.  This fort was one of three used to protect Pensacola Bay during the Civil War; one other was on the western Gulf Island near Big Lagoon State Park where we just were, but it was destroyed during that war, and the third was on the mainland in Pensacola; the three forts forming a triangle.  Fort Pickens was fortified for WWI although never used.

Then once again, before we can say "Florida Panhandle", the sand in the hourglass has run out and it's time to move on.  We bid adieu to Denny and Linda, and to these Gulf Islands and head east.

Padre Island Update

Marilyn on the beach with the Sargassum Seaweed

The day before we leave Padre Island National Seashore, we attend the Ranger program Beach Walk.  Brad has attended a similar program in Delaware with Brandon at Cape Henlopen, but this is my first, and it's very interesting, partly because of what happened yesterday.  The sargassum (rhymes with sarcasm) seaweed washed in en masse and now lies all along the beach; it continues to wash in today.  This happens all spring from March until May or June because of the prevailing southerly winds.  It's unbelievable to watch so much seaweed being pushed in by the tide.  We could see it floating in the waves several hundred yards off-shore as it slowly gets coaxed in.  It brings everything with it (as I mentioned before a lot of garbage) including creatures - tiny creatures like slugs, crabs, fish - some smaller than your baby fingernail.  The Ranger has the kids in the crowd bring these up with both a small hand-held net and a large seine net which scoops up the seaweed, then we shake the seaweed out over a clear tub of sea water and all the creatures fall into the water for us to see.  The kids (and us adults) are enthralled.  The Ranger also digs up a small ghost crab, so named because it is so well camouflaged in the sand that it's almost invisible unless you're really looking and it's moving.  Ghost crabs can get quite large, perhaps several inches across, but he digs up a little fella about one inch across so as not to get pinched too harshly.
I also learn that the plant on the dunes that smells so wonderful is called camphor weed.  It isn't camphor like that used in medicinal rubs, but it does have an odour similar to that of camphor, hence its name.

More about the seaweed - the staff here at the National Seashore do bulldoze it and pile it up in the dunes every once in a while when it gets really deep along the shoreline.  The seaweed dries out and composts itself in the dunes, allowing plants to grow and stabilize the sand in the dunes.  When the seaweed is dry, it's a very dark reddish brown colour and crunchy, and very light leaving it at the mercy of the winds again.

Tomorrow, we begin our last leg east to the Florida Panhandle.  We'll be making four stops there before heading home!  I can't believe this 5 month journey is almost at an end.  When I remind myself of some of the places we have visited, I am amazed myself!  So many fantastic things we have seen and places we have been.  We will have two more weeks on the beach, and I'm already as brown as a bear.  It's hard to stay out of the sun when almost every day is sunny!  Let's home spring will arrive soon after we get home so we don't have to endure a lot cold weather and snow!  I don't know if we could tolerate the white stuff.  And my tan would fall off!  I also think Grady is looking forward to getting home.  He's started climbing the walls - literally.  We find him at the top of the cupboards, meaning he has climbed up the drapes and walked across the top of the kitchen cupboards to sit on top of the kitchen pantry.  And yes, his claw marks are in the drapes, so we've had to be creative at stopping him from getting up there.  So it's time to get him home where he can go outside and run around the backyard.  He's not allowed outside the trailer, nor does he attempt it.

Last word - our thoughts are with the people of Japan and those with family and loved ones there.  It will be a long struggle to clean up and rebuild the country.

Life's a Beach!

The view from inside our trailer at the campground

We arrive at Padre Island National Seashore under heavy skies.  These are the first serious clouds we've seen since California - three states ago!  We originally intend to camp at Mustang Island State Park (for no particular reason) which is further east, but that park is full and we get one of the last four paid sites here at the national park.  Our big back window faces the ocean with small dunes separating us.  The smell here is incredible.  It's not a salty, ocean smell; it's a sweet, herbal smell, but no vegetation is blooming so I don't know from where the scent is originating, however it's intoxicating.  I later discover it's the creaping leafy vegetation covering the dunes which has almost a minty smell to the leaves.  Mmmm.

The birds near the trailer drive Grady nuts during the first few days!  Black birds that are iridescent blue in the sunlight with yellow eyes (someone tells me they are Magpies) make very strange, whistling calls and other funny noises.  They look just like our Grackles back home, but definitely don't sound like them.  We joke that they are calling the cat, "Here pretty boy!  Ooo, aren't you a pretty kitty.  Wanna come out and play with me and my friends?"  They keep him awake most of the day as he crouches from window to window, watching them.  There are also numerous marine birds - sandpipers, gulls, herons, pelicans and others I can't identify.  These are too far away for Grady to be interested in, but wonderful for us to watch.

We go for long walks on the beach almost daily, although the wind blows constantly, fiercely some days but hardly at all others.  We get a couple of thunderstorms the first morning after we arrive, which adds to the excitement.  We can drive on much of the beach except the area where we are camped.  We can actually camp for free on the beach if we want, but we are nervous about getting stuck in the sand although there are other trailers and motor homes our size out there.  However, if we do get stuck and have to get towed, it could cost anywhere from $500 to $2,000 - not a chance we're willing to take.  For $8 per night, we'll pay to camp where we are with our view and not right on the beach where everyone else is driving by.

The 1,000 year old tree

We do some exploring further east to see if we want to move after our initial paid four day stay here:  first to Mustang Island State Park where the beach is the same as ours but the trailer sites have no view of it; then to Goose Island State Park which is not on the ocean, but on Aransas Bay so, although the park is beautifully arranged with sites on either the water or amongst the Live Oak trees whose branches sprawl in gnarly patterns sometimes horizontal to the ground, it is not a desirable park to us.  Near Goose Island State Park, we also visit the 1,000 year old Live Oak tree where we run into two of our new RV friends from Quartzsite, Sue and Paul from Michigan.  We know they are staying at Goose Island State Park just down the road, but to run into them here is just odd.  So the answer to the question about whether or not to move to another park is obvious to us - we prefer Padre Island National Seashore and at the end of our initial planned four night stay, we book another five nights and eventually another five nights, making our total stay the maximum allowed 14 nights.

One night, we attend a Ranger-led talk on the history of Padre Island.  As with most of the land along the Gulf of Mexico, the island was founded by Spaniards in the 1500s and they named it Isla Blanca - White Island.  Three Spanish ships shipwrecked just off the coast, although the crew and passengers managed to make it to the island safely.  There were natives here who were brutal and virtually wiped out all of the shipwreck survivors.  In those early days, the island wasn't used for anything as it was deemed to be useless.  By the 1800s, a priest bought most of the island and brought cattle here; hence how the island was eventually renamed Padre Island (or "the Padre's Island"), Padre being Spanish for "Father".  It was also used as an Navy bombing range during WWII and was finally made into a National Seashore in 1962 by President Kennedy.

To my left, David & Lynda, Linda & Denny

We meet some of our RV neighbours and have a fire on the beach with them during one of the less windy nights.  This is the best part of the trip is meeting new friends.  In our little group is Denny and Linda from Ohio who also love to sail around Lake Erie near our home, Lynda and David from Peterborough, Ontario who are fellow college employees, and Nancy from Syracuse, NY making us all practically neighbours at home!  We enjoy great campfire talk, and many "happy hours".

At 70 miles from north to south, Padre Island is the longest undeveloped natural barrier island in the world!  What is really unfortunate though is the amount of garbage that washes up on the beach - water bottles, plastic toys, shoes, milk jugs - you name it, it's caught in the seaweed and laying on the sand.  Everything floating out in the Gulf comes in with the tide.  It's a  real shame.  These are not the pristine beaches we are used to seeing in Florida.  However, it's still such a serene feeling to hear the waves crashing onto the beach.

Lake Amistad

Brad overlooking the Pecos River

Friendship - that's what amistad means in Spanish.  After months in the desert, it's nice to be on a lake for a change.  Lake Amistad is a reservoir.  We are near the city of Del Rio where three rivers meet:  the Devils River and the Pecos River meet the Rio Grande, which is dammed to form Lake Amistad and the Amistad National Recreation Area.  There is fishing, waterskiing, swimming (obviously no aligators here), boating, camping and archery-only hunting (yuck!).  There are four camping areas, separated by miles.  We arrive on Sunday night and find picnicers in the camping spots!  So I manipulatively guilt some picnicers into vacating the best spot in the San Pedro camping area.  It's right on the lake with access to a small beach area.  Hey!  They didn't pay for the use of the spot!  There's a picnic area right across from this camping spot.  Yes, I like to get my way.  We camp here for four days and enjoy beautiful sunset and cool breezes.

Marilyn enjoying our campsite beach

Our campsite at San Pedro, Lake Amistad

We take the opportunity to replenish our groceries (can you say "Welcome to Walmart"?), and relax on the beach for a full day.  There are several American Coot ducks here, probably three dozen, and I also see an armadillo drinking from the lake.  I follow him to get his picture and he doesn't even notice my presence.  After a couple of days of shopping and sitting on the beach, Brad and I take a short hike along the Pecos River.  The cliffs here are about 300 feet high, the water is a refreshing green (not an algae green), and it's cold (of course, it's winter).  Again from this hiking trail, we can see the Rio Grande to the south - this is where the Pecos dumps in the Rio, and Mexico is across the other side of the Rio.  And everywhere else is nothing but arid desert.  The Border Patrol vehicles and officers are everywhere; we've been through so many checkpoints, each one with a drug-sniffing dog which is taken around the perimeter of our truck and trailer.  Can you imagine if the Canadian-U.S. border was so heavily patrolled?  It's, what, some 3,000 miles long?  Jeez, if someone here had a grudge against you, all they'd have to do is plant some drugs in your vehicle and you'd have a lot of 'splainin' to do!

Anyway, the hike is very short, but the view of the river is pretty.  Tomorrow we head for Corpus Christie and the Gulf Coast.  Can't wait to get to the beach, just to see something different than desert!

Big Bend

Big Bend National Park is in west Texas on the Mexican border.  The two countries are separated by the Rio Grande, which you'd expect to be a huge river but is really more like a wading pool and only with a distance of about 20 to 30 feet across.  We experience an intense heat wave while we are here.  The hottest day hits 110F in the sun, 96F inside our trailer as we can't use our air conditioner since we have no electrical hookup and it's not worth running our generator for long enough to cool the whole trailer down.  Thankfully we can run our ceiling fans off our batteries using our solar panels.  During our second day, we are evacuated from one of the trails (we were driving down the road from the trailhead) as the rangers are expecting a helicopter to land to airlift a hiker in distress.  We learn a few days later that it's due to a medical emergency, perhaps a heart attack.  Our initial guess is heat stroke as I myself experience intense heat reaction while we are hiking even though we drink plenty of water and I have a wet scarf around my neck to help keep me cool.  Fortunately, the days cool off while we are here, but the sun is still intensely hot.

Mexico on the left, Rio Grande, our campground on the right

 Our first hike is a nature trail that leads off just across from our campsite.  At the beginning of the trail is a small lagoon full of turtles, both soft shell and red-eared turtles, as well as ducks and fish.  We return here on our last day in the park and there are also two Great Blue Herons.  The trail leads up a small but steep, rocky hill that provides us with a nice view of the Rio Grande.  A wild horse wanders down onto the beach and drinks from the river.  We watch as it rolls around on its back in the sand, obviously enjoying the day.  We also see a roadrunner perched in an ocotillo plant (no small feat as roadrunners are a fairly large bird and the ocotillo has very tall, spindly branches) holding a lizard in its mouth for several minutes before eating it.  Interestingly, the roadrunner makes a cooing noise like a mourning dove while the lizard is dangling from its mouth.  Some Mexicans are also on the beach with their horses and we watch as they cross the river to the American side, then back to the Mexican side and ride to the small Mexican town called Boquillas (Bo-key-us).  Even though this hike is short, about two hours, I am extremely hot and exhausted when we return to the trailer.

The Mexicans with their Dr. Pepper

On the next day, we hike the Boquillas Canyon Trail which follows the Rio Grande downstream into a narrow canyon.  At various intervals, Mexicans have left small trinkets - roadrunners, tarantulas, cactus, etc. made of wire and decorated with beads - for tourists to buy by leaving a "donation" in a jar.  The Mexicans are watching from the other side of the river.  The rangers and park volunteers who work in the Visitors Centres have warned us that it is illegal to purchase these items.  Prior to 9-11, tourists here at Big Bend were allowed to wade across the river or go across in boats supplied by the Mexicans and shop in stores in Boquillas and eat in restaurants.  This was the main livelihood of the town.  But since 9-11 and the paranoid fear that has swept through this country, the border has been closed.  The Mexicans are not supposed to cross, but they do.  Tourists are warned not to cross the river as there is no Point of Entry - no customs officer with whom to make a claim for purchases or to identify your citizenship upon return to the US.  So the population of the town of Boquillas has decreased from 200 families to 30 families.  Everyone else has left.  Once a week, one of the town members drives 160 miles over a dirt road to the nearest town to get groceries and supplies for everyone in the town.  It is a tough life for those families who have remained and our hearts go out to them.  They cannot grow crops here as it is too hot and dry - it hasn't rained here in some parts of the park for over a year.  Or the river floods and washes everything away.  Brad asks one of the Mexicans "If I can give you anything besides money, what would it be?"  The response?  "Dr. Pepper!"  What a surprise.  They miss soda pop!  So Brad buys a few six packs of Dr. Pepper the next day and takes them back to the Mexicans.  Are they ever happy to get them and they're ice cold still.

We also drive out to the Hot Springs which used to be part of a resort before this was a National Park.  The Springs is right on the Rio Grande nestled at the end of a canyon.  The road to drive there is intriguingly dangerous - it's a built up one way road which drops off into a wash in the middle, with rocks jutting out from the sides of the cliff.  No large vehicles are allowed, including dual wheeled trucks which would be too wide to make some of the turns.  It's a little nerve-wracking!  The hot spring itself is about 105F, too hot to sit in during the day, although people do.  We think about coming back at night, but we'll have to see how tired we are.

Brad & Marilyn in the Chisos Mtns, Lost Mine Trail

Another hike we take is in the Chisos Mountains where it is 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler - we hike the Lost Mine Trail, which has an elevation gain of 1,100 feet.  The trail is almost 5 miles round trip, but gives us unbelievable views of both the mountains and the desert below.  Even here on this mountain trail, it is hot in the sun, but in the shade the breeze is cool and refreshing.  There are warning signs that mountain lions and bears frequent the area, but we see neither.  Climbing the final peak at the top makes me feel like I'm climbing the Matterhorn.  It is a solid rock peak and when I peer over the edge, I can see straight down the cliff on the other side to the valley below.  It's another photo that will freak out my sisters.  This hike leaves us exhausted some five hours later, but the views are worth every step.

Marilyn in Santa Elena Canyon

Our last hike is at the western side of the park (we are camping at the east side); it is the Santa Elena Canyon Trail.  Here there is another campground, but it is a generator-free zone, and well, we like our generator to run our microwave and my hair dryer!  I live the way the I live, okay?  There is also a campground in the Chisos Mountains, but the road leading up to it is limited to vehicles of 20 feet in length or less, and we are about 50 feet with the truck and trailer.  We'd never make the hairpin turns.  Back to the hiking trail.  Santa Elena Canyon is an incredible gorge where the Rio Grande has eroded into the canyon leaving walls on either side of the river towering 1,500 feet!  It's an amazing sight.  We can see the gap in the mesa wall from a distance of about 10 or 15 miles away, and from there it doesn't look that impressive.  But from the river bed looking up the sides of the walls, we feel unbelievably insignificant.  We keep telling ourselves that the other side is Mexico; in fact half-way across the river is Mexico, and the river is only about 40 feet across.  We see no Mexicans here.  The trail rises from the river at first, switching back and forth up the cliff wall, and then makes a slow descent back down to the river.  We expect it to be clean and clear, but the water is brown, muddy and silty.  The grasses are 10 to 12 feet high; and the rocks that have fallen from above are huge and smoothed from the rushing water when the river is flowing at its peak.  We see some canoeists.  The canyon is 8 miles long, so perhaps they have run all 8 miles of it, although we read that there is a very dangerous section of rapids several miles upriver.  We see no wildlife along the trail, although we can hear small animals (rodents or birds likely) in the underbrush.  This is another amazing hike, in (finally) comfortable temperatures.

There is a lot more in Big Bend National Park to explore, as the park measures about 60 miles across from east to west by about 50 miles across north to south, meaning many miles of hiking trails yet to discover.  But I think we'll leave it for future years, and hopefully for cooler temperatures.

Observing the Skies in Texas

We arrive in western Texas under sunny blue skies, but another cold spell.  Fortunately, the trend is calling for warming.  We camp in a large picnic area about 9 miles north of the McDonald Observatory on Highway 118 in the Davis Mountains.  This free camping area was noted to us in our Frugal Shunpiker's Guide that we purchased from Marianne Edwards who lives in Elora, Ontario.  We've been using her guides throughout Arizona and New Mexico; they've been helping us to figure out where to hike and camp for free or on the cheap.  Yes, there is a state park about 20 miles down the road, but free and alone is soooo much better.  And it's beautiful here at the picnic area with big pine trees and other greenery (finally - TREES!).  It's dry here too so the smell reminds us of Yosemite National Park in California - a dry pine smell.  We're beside a dry wash and hear coyotes yipping at night.  Other picnicers pull in during the day and two cyclists from Quebec camp one night but are gone by daybreak.  The only unfortunate thing is that Brad and I have both picked up the flu bug.  I haven't had the flu in at least 15 or more years.  So instead of hiking and attending the star party at the Observatory on Tuesday night, we will have to wait until Friday since it doesn't run every night.

Prior to getting sick, we do go to the Observatory for a day tour, which is incredibly interesting and informative.  Our tour guide, Shannon (a man), is an amateur astonomer, but is very knowledgeable and rather humourous.  He presents a slide show in the theatre first, explaining about our sun, stars, galaxies and such; and ends with live telescope shots of our sun, highlighting some sunspots and filaments which are bursts of gases that usually erupt around sunspots.  Then we go up the mountain to see two of the telescopes.  The first telescope, the Harlan J. Smith telescope, is a single reflexive mirror measuring 107" in diameter - that's pretty big - not the biggest in the world, but big enough to be used by the many researchers here.  It is designed to shoot laser beams into space.  For example, I saw an episode of MythBusters in which they dispelled the myth that man did not walk on the moon (there are skeptics who don't believe!).  How this was proved was by firing a laser at the moon where Neil and Buzz landed because they left laser transmitters there.  So, if the signal is returned, then the transmitters are on the moon and someone had to put them there!  And on the MythBusters episode, the signal was returned.  It was a telescope like this one, or perhaps this very one, that was used to perform the test.  The second telescope on our tour is the fifth largest in the world, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and is built with 91 1-meter hexagonal shaped mirrors that are fitted together to form one huge mirror that is 11 metres or 432 inches; however only 83% of this area is actually used bringing the diameter to 9.2 metres or 362 inches.  This one also isn't designed to view visible light, but rather invisible light rays - infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, gamma, x-ray, etc.  These invisible forms of light help researchers understand a lot about our universe - whether stars are traveling towards us or away from us, how hot a star is (blue is the hottest, red is only warm), and other such amazing discoveries.

By Friday night, we are both feeling better and go to the Star Party for my birthday!  First we attend the Twilight show, which is Shannon again doing a presentation in the theatre talking about our solar system in some detail, explaining each planet's orbit.  You know, it's amazing how much we forget from grade school, because we did learn all of this then.  And sure enough, Pluto has been bumped from planetary status; it's now just a "dwarf planet" - poor thing - along with four others.  Shannon uses software to put the planets into motion for us and shows us that Pluto's orbit is actually on a 17 degree incline from all the other planets in our solar system.  I don't remember that from school.  Earth and all the other 7 planets orbit the sun on an even plane, but Pluto's orbit, if viewed on a horizon doesn't.  Huh!

He also talks in some detail about the constellations and relates them to the signs of the zodiac.  How many are there?  Twelve?  I always thought so too.  But apparently there are really thirteen, but since people are superstitious of thirteen, the thirteenth, Ophiuchus, was booted out many years ago.  The signs of the zodiac - Aquarius, Pisces, Scorpius, etc. are constellations in the sky, and are segmented like counties on a provincial map.  The dates from one sign to another is truly supposed to be when the sun travels from one of the constellation's boundaries to the next.  I know the sun doesn't really travel; the Earth tilts, but you can imagine the sun traveling through the constellations throughout the year with the tilting of the Earth.  Some constellations have very small areas and others have large areas.  Scorpius, for example, has a very small area and would really only take the sun about 7 days to cross it, so those born in October/November would be ripped off.  After Scorpius, the sun passes through Ophiuchus, but nobody knows who that is, and it's the thirteenth sign, so Scorpius just got extended.  Most of the signs of the zodiac got averaged to roughly 30 days too, but if you have a map of the sky and their zodiac constellations, well, you'd see that how it is now isn't how it should really be.

We also go outside for some night viewing.  We get really lucky and see the space station go over us.  Apparently, there is a website you can go to where you enter your longitude and latitude and you can find out if and when the space station will appear in your sky.  Google it.  Our speaker points out many constellations including Orion, the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), Leo the Lion, and others.  He has a laser pointer that my son would kill for - it seems to reach the stars!  Then the moon rises from behind the mountain that the Hobby-Eberly Telescope is perched on - what a sight.  It is a full moon and, unfortunately for stargazing, lights up everything.  However, we will get to view the moon tonight through one of the telescopes.  There are six telescopes set up for us to view various stars and planets, but we won't be using the really big telescopes.  We get to see a couple of star clusters, which are less interesting because it's just like looking up in the sky.  But, we also get to look at Jupiter and four of its moons which are all aligned vertically above the planet, the middle cluster of stars in Orion's Belt which is also a gaseous cluster and is stunning, and our moon in its entirety using a filter to ease the brightness down to 13%.

To end the night, we watch a video called The Power of Tens, which starts with a man and a woman having a picnic in Chicago, and every 10 seconds the camera moves away by one more metre to the power of 10.  At first it doesn't seem to move too much, but then all of a sudden, we're in outer space, then out of our solar system, then for a while nothing, then suddenly out of our galaxy.  The camera stops at 10 to the power of 24 which I think is 1000 million light years.  Then it quickly zooms back in, focusing again on the man, then this time zooms in on his hand until we're looking at a single carbon atom, stopping at 10 to the minus 16 metres.  It is a fascinating 10 minute video.  Brad says we've seen a similar show on the Discovery Channel - I don't remember.  Age is a wonderful thing!  And the Star Party makes a great birthday party for me - celebrating with the moon, Jupiter and Orion to name a few.

Saguaro National Park (again) and Tucson

We meet near Tucson with Jean (French male name, for my new American friends who may not speak French) and Denyse, our friends from Quebec whom we first met in the Mojave National Preserve in California early in January.  Our plan is to visit the Saguaro National Park which we had so much difficulty finding our way around on our way out west, but perhaps if we aren't dragging the trailer around and we Google where to find the Visitors Centre (now that we have access to the internet), we'll be better off.  And we are.  We do find the Visitors Centre and so now we have maps which show us where the hiking trails are.

Marilyn, Brad, Denyse and Jean in Saguaro National Par

We camp on some BLM land southwest of Tucson (making it 23 consecutive nights of free BLM camping between Quartzsite, Why and here by the end of our stay).  With Jean and Denyse, we drive the Scenic Bajada Loop Drive, a short loop dirt road that takes us through the majestic Saguaro cactus.  We also hike the Valley View Overlook Trail, a short walk that provides us with a wonderful view of the valley.  These cactus are so plentiful here, of course, that would be why they made a national park here!  Some of the specimens are 50 feet high.  A Saguaro may be 50 years old before it grows its first arm, although average here is around 60-65 years old.  Usually, a Saguaro will live to a ripe old age of 200 years.  During their life, they may become home to an owl, the Gila Woodpecker or a Flicker, and their holes are evident near the tops of these tall prickly cacti.  Their fruit, which ripen in June and July, will produce a million seeds in its lifetime, but only one seed may grow into a new adult.  The fruit and seeds are also food for desert animals like javelinas, coyotes, foxes, squirrels and birds, as well as native people who make jams, syrup and for ceremonial purposes, wine.  The creamy white flowers grow like little cups from the top of each arm from late April through June.  Each blossom opens after sunset as the evening cools and by the next afternoon the blossoms have wilted.  But during their brief blooming period, they are pollinated by bats, bees and birds.

The Saguaro's flesh is spongy since they absorb water, as much as 200 gallons of it, enough to last all year.  Their roots may only be three inches below the surface of the desert floor, but may spread as far out as the Saguaro is high.  Like many other cacti, a Saguaro may start life under a nurse tree like a Mesquite or a Palo Verde.  But as the Saguaro grows, it will often take over the nurse tree which will die from lack of water as the Saguaro extracts all nutrients and elements from the environment.  The landscape here is certainly dominated by their humanlike stance.  The natives, either ancient Pueblos or current natives (I really should pay closer attention to the Visitors Centre's videos) use the same word for "people" and "Saguaro".

After Jean and Denyse leave and head off to Tombstone, Brad and I visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  It's not really a museum, but more like a zoo and we arrive just in time for the raptor flight show.  This is an excellent show, focusing on indigenous birds of prey like owls, hawks, falcons and ravens.  An announcer provides detailed information on each bird as it flies from perch to perch where meat is placed by handlers.  The birds swoop over our heads, often within inches and we can inspect them close up on their tree perches.  This is not done in an indoor setting; we are outside in the open desert, but these birds fly obediently from tree to tree where the meat is placed so we all get a good look and then miraculously fly back to their building, perhaps as a result of some sort of call we can't hear.  We also see wild cats - a Bobcat, two Mountain Lions and an Ocelot (all sleeping like good kitties, of course), a pair of Mexican Wolves, and other desert dwelling animals like various snakes, spiders, insects and rodents.  But the highlight of the morning is the hummingbird cage.  The hummingbirds are so familiar with people that they buzz by and hover close to us.  They particularly like my purple sweater, and one tiny green hummingbird hovers only an inch or two from my chest for several seconds.  Unfortunately, Brad doesn't get a photo!  I hold my arm out for 5 minutes at a time and stand like a statue, and she keeps returning and almost perches on me, but some small movement from another person, or another hummingbird entering the "territory" always makes her fly away.  She also hovers at my ankles for several seconds, and another photographer is able to snap the photo.  There are several other people waiting for this little bird to land on me so they can snap a pic, and although she never lands, she does come close.  The other photographer gets that photo too and I've been trying to get ahold of her to get them sent to me.

Saguaro National Park

For the afternoon, Brad and I hike a park loop trail that takes us up the Gould Mine trail, across the Sendero Esperanza trail and back to the parking lot on the King Canyon trail through the wash.  The landscape is much like our other hikes, and the view of the Sonora desert valley below is beautiful, although it's a bit hazy today.  Perhaps if we have more time and hadn't spent so much time at the Desert Museum, we might hike the longer, full King Canyon trail up to Wasson Peak, but not this trip.

AusRox - third largest gold nugget in the world

Our other purpose for coming to Tucson is to attend the Gem and Mineral Show.  The Main Event at the Convention Center is the biggest show displaying gems and minerals, at least in North America.  There are about 40 different shows around the city displaying rocks, meteorites, fossils, etc.  At the Main Event, we see the third largest gold nugget in the world (the largest owned privately).  It is from Australia (as are the first and second largest) and weighs 51 pounds!  It is worth over one million dollars.  Brad is, once again, in his glory looking at metals and minerals, especially the gold displays.  We spend almost four hours walking around the displays.  Even at that, it's a rushed day.  But it is why we have come to Tucson, and it is our last stop in Arizona before we move on to southern Texas.

Organ Pipe Cactus - Why, not Why?

I realized yesterday that I have forgotten to write my blog about Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument where we visit after leaving Quartzsite.  This national treasure is near the town of Why, Arizona a few miles from the Mexican border.  Organ Pipe Cactus grow mostly in northern Mexico because of the hotter, dry climate, but a few survive this far north, in this part of the Sonoran Desert where the conditions are just right.  There are many Saguaro Cactus here too, as well as Cholla, Prickly Pear, Ocotillo, Mesquite trees and Palo Verde trees, both of which are desiduous and leafless now.  This is called the green desert because there is so much plant life here and so many Palo Verde trees, whose bark is even green, that the desert is green all the time, not brown like the rest of the Arizona deserts.  It's beautiful.

We camp on BLM land just outside of Why.  Signs are posted at the entrance that there may be immigrant and drug smuggling problems here because of the proximity of the border, but there are many RVs here, and a campground host.  We have to register, as we did in Quartzsite.  Some BLM areas require this formality; most do not.  There is still no cost to camp, but there is a 14 day limit.  We will only be here a few days as we're meeting our Quebec friends near Tucson in a few days.

Marilyn with an Organ Pipe Cactus

We arrive at night, and hope to do a couple of days of hiking, but our first full day here is really cold and very windy, so we spend the days inside relaxing.  But the next day is sunny and warm again and we head out to hike the Bull Pasture trail in the park.  This trail takes us through a canyon up about a 1,000 feet elevation gain to a stunning view of the desert and the Mexican city of Sonoita.  The day is hazy so the visibility is poor.  There are fires burning in Sonoita it seems; farmers burning their fields?  From this distance it is hard to say.

We hear helicopters over the trailer each night; we assume they are looking for Mexicans crossing the border illegally.  When we drive from the park back to our trailer near Why, we have to cross a Border Patrol checkpoint.  The Border Patrol Officer says to me "I assume everyone (there are only the two of us since Grady is back in the trailer on the BLM land) here is an American citizen?"  "No," I say.  He looks quizzical.  "We're Canadian."  He smiles.  "Go ahead," he says.  Didn't he even see our Ontario license plate?  Maybe he doesn't know where Ontario is!  A state somewhere up north perhaps.

When we leave Why to go to Tucson to meet our friends from Quebec, we see a group of five Mexicans who have just been captured by the Border Patrol.  They must have been walking up a wash when they were found.  It's a bit sad.  Most of the problems are drug trafficers.  So far, we have had no problems and have always felt perfectly safe.

Can you say Ca-Ching!

I wasn't going to write about our time at Quartzsite, but I thought I might let everyone know what's been going on.  When we arrive, we think we'll be staying a few days for the Gem and Mineral Show and the RV Show, but we end up staying a full two weeks and spending a ton of dough.  At least the camping is free!  We also meet some great new RV friends.

The Gem and Mineral Show is interesting.  Brad gets to see some gold nuggets the size of a lemon, so he is all excited.  There are also lots of other specimens of natural rocks, metals and minerals, jewelry, beads, polished gems, and petrified wood.  The RV Show has everything you need to spruce up an RV:  solar systems, LED lights, cooking utensils, propane heaters, satellite systems, as well as brand new trailers and motorhomes to view.  These shows as well as a few others, run throughout January and early February in Quartzsite every year, causing this town to swell from 3,500 residents to over 100,000 putting a strain on services and residents' nerves.  For the first time in our travels really, we encounter rude service providers.  However, I'd be cranky serving this many people too I guess.

While we are here, we outfit our trailer with a solar system: 2 big solar panels on the roof, two great big new batteries, and an "inverter" which converts battery DC power into electrical outlet AC power inside the trailer.  So no the solar panels charge our batteries all day, and we can use our electrical appliances without having to run our generator.  First and biggest ca-ching!

Next we purchase a small propane heater that stands on the floor.  We use this instead of our furnace which is only about 60% efficient; the heater is 99% efficient.  The furnace fan was running our batteries our old batteries down to zero by morning.  Even though our new batteries are much more powerful, we don't want to destroy them, so the new heater makes more sense.  It has to be connected to the gas line from the refrigerator so we also have to pay for the gas line installation.  Second ca-ching!

I also bite the bullet and get a new Verizon cell phone which will allow me to connect to the internet using its wireless technology from anywhere.  Having the internet whenever I want it and not having to sit in a McDonalds parking lot or find a library is great.  Third ca-ching!

Our last purchase is a StarChoice satellite system with an automatic satellite finder.  We are currently with Bell, so I also have to switch at home and order all new receivers and programming at home.  Fortunately Shaw Direct is have a half price sale on their PVR receivers which are regular $400.  Unfortunately, we won't be able to get our receiver for the trailer until we get home, but that's only a couple of months away.  Fourth ca-ching!

Other than the cell phone, each of the systems we buy takes time to install: a full day each for the satellite and solar systems, and a couple of hours for the heater.  Fortunately, Grady is a very patient kitty - he has to wait in the truck as we can't leave him in the trailer since the installers leave the door open and Grady might run out and get lost.  But we all make it through.  At the end of our two weeks, we've spent over $7,000 on the trailer upgrades!  It's only money right?  Quartzsite turns out to be an expensive stop.

The best part of being here is that we arrange to meet our friends Jerry and Janice from Tennessee.  We first met them in New Mexico.  They introduce us to three new couples:  Carol and Steve from Oklahoma, Julie and Mike from Florida, and Sue and Paul from Michigan.  We had some fun times sitting around the campfire telling stories.  We will remember our new friends instead of all the money we spent.

Back row: Janice, Jerry, Brad, Marilyn, Steve; Front row: Julie, Mike and Carol

Nevada - it's not just for gamblers!

If you hear "Nevada", most people think of Las Vegas and gambling; but there's more to "The Silver State" than that once you leave "the strip".  We merely hit Vegas just to restock our supplies since the fridge and cupboards are empty, and then we head about one hour north to the Valley of Fire State Park.  It's hard to believe this beautiful landscape exists here; the drive up the interstate is brown - brown desert vegetation, brown mountains, brown rock, brown, brown, brown.  Then suddenly, as we enter the park, the rocks and hilly outcrops are red with iron oxide.  The effect is stunning.

Most of the interesting aspects of the park can be viewed either from the road or from very short walks from the road, for example, Elephant Rock which really does look like an elephant's head and trunk, the Beehives which are sandstone rock hills about 15 to 20 feet high that do look like beehives (or huge cow patties if you've spent any time on a farm), Balanced Rock near the Visitors Center, and Arch Rock which is just a small arch and not really comparable to Arches National Park in Utah.  All are carved from the same red sandstone, eroded by wind and water over the past many centuries.  What makes the rock features look even more red perhaps is that all of the rain that fell even here about 2 weeks ago has greened up the valleys and many plants on the desert floor providing a green burst of colour contrasting the red rock.  The park is, for us, reminiscent of both Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon in Utah, although on a much smaller scale, but the intensity of that "WOW" feeling is almost the same.

Marilyn in wash #5 - note the brilliant colours

Marilyn sitting on top of "The Wave"

The true piece de resistance here we see on a hike down one of the washes.  We are looking for a secret spot, the photo of which is featured on the Nevada State Parks brochure.  A volunteer at the Visitors Center tells us she thinks the photo was taken down wash #5 on the road to the White Domes, and the photo is gorgeous - it is called "The Wave".  The photographer, a professional by trade, refused to tell the exact location to protect his photo rights.  Well this is a challenge that can't be refused.  We have to park some distance up the road and walk back to wash #5, and the colours in the rock along the road are breathtaking - purple, pink, yellow, and orange, like ribbons of colour in the stone.  Brad can't stop taking photos and we haven't even gotten to the wash yet!  When we finally do, the colours in the wash are intensified!  Not far along, we come to a sandy area that is underwater and we can't pass; here the walls are only about 2 feet apart.  So we have to backtrack a bit and climb up about 30 feet and go around.  We do so and come out on the other side of the water onto a beautiful, sandy beach.  The sand has the same beautiful pink and orange hues as the sandstone - of course!  And here the wash widens out, so we stop and sit on the sand to have lunch.  It's a very hot day, our first in a very long time, so we enjoy the sun and the heat.  But only a short walk further down the wash, the rock colours change suddenly and dramatically from the purple, pink and yellow swirls, to red and white horizontal stripes.  This has to be the area where The Wave photo was taken.  We turn left out of the wash and climb up the gently sloping rock.  Two other people are standing on top of a large red and white striped rock that is about 30 feet high.  They are taking numerous photos, so we head over to where they are and there it is - The Wave.  They had been looking for it too, so I don't think this place is as big a secret as we were led to believe.  But in any case, I mark the spot on our hiking GPS, and Brad starts clicking away.  The Wave effect is created by the coloured stripes folding into a bowl in the rock before following the curve around a cliff that stands some 50 feet above the desert floor.  We are here mid-afternoon, but apparently the lighting at sunrise and sunset is spectacular.  Well, challenge successfully met.  As we drive back down the road, we note which of the other washes (numbers 1 to 4) might be worthy of a hike in subsequent years.  This is a place to which we will definitely return.

We also drive the length of Lake Mead.  Valley of Fire State Park is at the northern end of Lake Mead, and we are heading to the Hoover Dam which we haven't been to since 1987.  Most of the drive is not actually along the lake, but is scenic just the same.  The whole area surrounding the lake is a National Recreation Area.  It is odd to see so many vehicles towing boats in the desert.  If you didn't know Lake Mead was there, you'd think these folks were all nuts!  There are a few vista points closer to the south end.  It is interesting to see a "bathtub ring" all around the lake on the rock - this is a high water line where the rock is white from the current water level leaching its minerals into the rock and is about 70 feet high, or should I say the water is about 70 feet lower than its highest.  This is of concern to folks in Arizona, California and Mexico who draw water from the Colorado River for irrigation.

The Hoover Dam, built between 1931 and 1936 (I think), is at the southern end of the lake technically spanning the Colorado River.  There are two intake towers on the Arizona side, and two intake towers on the Nevada side, which is odd because the two states are in different time zones - Arizona is on mountain time and Nevada is on Pacific time.  So if you work there, what time do you go for lunch?  What I don't remember seeing on the dam wall when we were there in 1987 was the stone markers I now see in the concrete.  I can't get a good look at them, but I suspect they are to memorialize the men who died while making the dam.  I count five markers in all shaped like shields.

Memorial Bridge over the Colorado River

And now they have the new Memorial Bridge which is just down river and much higher than the dam itself.  It was just completed and opened a few months ago to alleviate the traffic on the dam highway.  It too has a walkway which provides a great view of the dam.  There are numerous plaques along the walkway leading up to the bridge explaining how it was built and providing specs (I remember none of them except it's over 1,000 feet high!) - all very nicely done for the tourist.  Looking down from the bridge into the Colorado River is dizzying, but man, what a view!

That's it for Nevada.  We are back to Arizona next for the Rock & Mineral Show and the RV Show.  These shows, held concurrently in Quartzsite draw tens of thousands of RVers.  Not sure if I'll blog about that - we'll see.  We'll just be buying a solar panel and maybe a satellite dish; making some power upgrades to the mobile home, ya know!  Someone call Red Green, or Tim the-Toolman-Taylor!

Death Valley Adventures

It is known for searing hot temperatures (a record 134F in 1913 although average summer temperatures are 120F), the driest weather (an average of less than 2 inches or 5 cm of rainfall per year) and the lowest elevation (-282 feet below sea level) in North America.  Death Valley is truly a unique landscape.  Bordered on the east by the Amargosa Mountains and on the west by the Panamint Mountains (Telescope Peak is the highest at 11,049 feet), the valley in between is home to places like Badwater and the Devil's Golf Course, so named because of the salt crystal deposits left behind by water that has no escape.  In the summer, the valley floor is as inhospitable as Venus.  In January, daytime temps are about 65F (14C) and at night the temp drops to about 40F or 5C (thank goodness).  It's about the warmest we've experienced so far with the exception of L.A.

Again, since the park is so large, we section it into three pieces.  First, Furnace Creek (elevation -190 feet), the most popular area by far and almost in the centre of the park.  Here there are even two resorts, one of which charges over $300/night for a room.  We will not stay there.  We camp for $12/night (for no services mind you, just a spot in a big parking lot!).  From here, we spend two days visiting Badwater, Natural Bridge (a hike), the Devil's Golf Course, Artist's Drive, Zabriski Point and Golden Canyon/Gower Gulch (a combined hiking trail).  All are along Badwater Road, within 20 miles of each other and our campsite.

Badwater, Death Valley

Badwater, so named because water does tend to sit on the salt flats after heavy rains - as it is now - and is very briny.  There has been a lot of rain lately; two significant rainfalls in the past couple of weeks, and the salt flats are flooded here.  Which is great for photography as we can capture the snow-capped mountains reflected in the large pool of water.  Where the rains haven't flooded are small mounds of mud topped with spiked layers of salt.  From a distance, you might think it was snow. 

Brad and Marilyn at the Devil's Golf Course

At the Devil's Golf Course, this is what the entire plain resembles.  Here, nothing is flooded and serrated spires on the entire valley floor stretch 5 miles across and almost as long down the valley.  The salt peaks look soft, but they are sharp.  If you were to fall on one, you would cut yourself badly.  We walk across the "golf course" very carefully.

The two hikes are impressive.  Natural Bridge is a short 1 mile hike but as usual, Brad and I find a way to stretch it.  The hike follows the path of a wash - where water runs off during a flood.  No floods today; everything is nice and dry.  The Natural Bridge is pretty big and we watch as a German tourist scales it freehand.  The walls of the canyon are a soft sandstone conglomerate - more like mud compressed with other stones in it.  The park hiking guide says that the trail ends at a dry waterfall.  Huh!  Well, we can get up there!  So we climb up the rock waterfall; actually, there are about 4 dry waterfalls as the canyon narrows.  Here, the colours of the canyon walls change; they are now red, orange, green and yellow, and are more of a granite type of rock.  We also find a silver sparkle in some of the rocks, but it's flaky so likely a mica and not actual silver.  Darn!  We do finally come to a waterfall that would be a climb straight up about 20 feet, so we have to turn around, but it's always fun going where few others go.

View from Red Cathedral in Golden Canyon, Death Valley

The Golden Canyon hike is also stunning.  It also follows a wash up through a sedimentary canyon that is an "alluvial fan" - a fan-shaped deposit of eroded sediments (silt, sand, gravel and cobbles) dumped by floods.  The formations here look like yellow cone-shaped mud piles 100 feet high with a million tiny cracks where rivulets have flowed down the sides in all directions.  This trail ends at a red cliff wall that is some 400-500 feet high and is flat on top: Red Cathedral.  By scaling up the side of Red Cathedral a bit, the view back of Golden Canyon with its gold cones, the valley floor below and the snow-capped mountains on the far west side is magnificent.  A quarter mile back, another trail branches off and up a steep incline into the "badlands" and to Gower Gulch, a three mile loop trail.  The view from the top of this trail is brilliant - the colours of the badlands, which is really Golden Canyon - the yellows and golds and browns, the red of Red Cathedral, and the Panamint Mountains across the valley to the west; it's so breathtaking.  We can see for miles in every direction and again, we are alone up here.  The silence is deafening.  All I can hear is my own pulse, my breath passing through my lungs and a ringing in my ears.  The rest of this trail, after hiking down from the peak isn't as stunning, but interesting just the same as we hike through the wash again - a very wide wash (can't imagine the amount of water that flows through here during a flood!), and we have to scamble down some dry waterfalls until we come to the final dry waterfall - a 25 foot drop straight down!  Well, I'm not scaling that.  Fortunately, there is a trail around it and back to the parking lot.  Since we're now both thoroughly exhausted, we drive the 9-mile loop drive that is Artist's Drive.  There are a few colourful hillsides, but nothing much better than we saw on our hikes, so it is rather disappointing.  Zabriski Point is a lookout that we drive to; it looks west toward the badlands that we hiked in Gower Gulch.  This morning, with the sun shining on the hills, the valley and the mountains, the effect of the colours and the textures are magnificent.  But the wind is very cold this morning even though the sun is shining brightly and we don't stay up on this point long.

Our second stage of Death Valley takes us to Stovepipe Wells, elevation 5 feet above sea level!  It's only about 30 miles north of Furnace Creek.  From this location, we hike into Mosaic Canyon and the Titus Canyon Narrows and also drive up to Hell's Gate which provides us with a great view of the entire valley looking south.  The two hikes are rather disappointing, perhaps because we expected more or perhaps because we enjoyed Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch so much more.  Mosaic Canyon is a hike up (they're always up!) a narrow, polished, marble rock canyon.  The golden, brown rock has been smoothed by the water and gravel that rushed here during floods and when it was a stream millions of years ago.  After the first 1/2 mile, the canyon widens out into a wide wash, and the canyon walls on both sides are a dull brown.  So we turn around.  In the Titus Canyon Narrows, the canyon we hike up (up again!) is really a gravel road that can be driven down but is closed now from the other end because of snow.  While the canyon walls are high, perhaps 200 feet or more, they are only a dull brown made of some composite rock.  The drive towards the parking lot was actually more exciting as the patterns of rock compression on the mountains was more interesting.  But that's another geology lesson that I'm not qualified to give.  On the way back to our trailer, we get some late afternoon photos of the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes which are only about 2 miles away from where we're camped.

Poor Grady.  During the first day of our stay at Stovepipe Wells, he is sick.  Since it is so cloudy, and I mean dark, overcast skies, we decide to pay for the RV Park which has full RV hookups - electricity, water and sewer.  This will allow us to recharge our batteries fully which lately are dead in the morning thanks to our furnace fan.  So, since we have electricity, we can also hook up our satellite dish and watch TV.  Hooray!  Brad doesn't like taking photos on cloudy days because they look "flat", devoid of highs and lows, so on our first day at this location, we take a day off and relax.  Grady sits on my lap as I watch the tube, and he sneezes continually.  He sneezed yesterday too - right in Brad's face!  Not pleasant for Brad!  He, Grady, has been off his food a bit for the past couple of days too, and now the sneezing.  He hasn't been as playful in the mornings, which is usually his all-out crazy time.  We play fetch with him before we get out of bed.  He has this little, spongy, purple ball that he loves to play fetch with.  It's about one inch in diameter and has silver, fuzzy fibres that protrude off it.  He loves that ball because he can catch it with his claws or teeth and throw it around.  We flick it with our finger and he chases after it, plays hockey with it for a few minutes and then brings it back to us to do it all over again.  When he's really in the game, he'll play for 15 to 30 minutes, but these last couple of days, he's only chased the ball once or twice and then given up.  So he obviously hasn't been feeling well for a day or two.  On this first day at Stovepipe Wells (our TV day) he just sleeps (and sneezes) all day.  But on the following day he seems to feel a lot better.  We don't think of our pets getting sick like we do, but I guess they do!

So Brad was a sick with a very minor cold almost two weeks ago while we were in the Mojave National Preserve.  Can a human pass a virus to a feline or even vise versa?  I don't think so.  I think I heard that the Avian Flu was the first virus that was transmitted from an animal to a human.  Comment to me if you know differently.  Anyway, kitty is fine now.  Brad got over his cold within three days, and so far (knock on wood) I've been fine.

The final stage of this desert valley tour takes us west across the Panamint Mountains; the climb is 5,000 feet.  Then we descend 3,000 feet into the Panamint Valley which we cross, and then start the climb into the Inyo Mountain Range to the Father Crowley Vista at 4,000 feet looking back into the Panamint Valley.  The Panamint Mountains are snow-capped - they are quite high with peaks at 9,000 to 11,000 feet.  The Inyo Mountains are just as high, although the highest peaks are only visible as we descend the Panamint Range from the east.  And yes, there's a lot of snow up there.  But not where we are, and the sun is shining today with only a few hazy clouds.  The view is magical.  There are small peaks on the sides of the range we descended.  There are so many peaks and valleys, they look like rumpled tin foil that someone has tried to smooth, unsuccessfully.  The lines in the higher, granite mountains are also awe inspiring.  There are white, horizontal stripes in the dark gray granite that suddenly swirl in a circular pattern.  If you have a Ph.D. Geologist as a best friend as I do, then you know there were major forces at work in the earth millions of years ago to form that mountain range and to create those twisted layers in the rock, but she would have to explain that, I cannot.  I can only gaze and partake of the beauty in the patterns.  There are also a few small sand dunes on the valley floor, and a feature that looks like it might be a pressure crater which is created by deep, underground streams that are super heated by the earth's core or underground lava, which then turns the water to steam and this eventually explodes causing a crater, so there is no flow of lava, or ash debris on the surface.  However, from the distance we're at, it's hard to tell.

Brad at Darwin Falls in Death Valley

We also hike to Darwin Falls, an unexpected oasis in this desert of harsh life.  At first, the terrain is a rocky wash like other canyon hikes, but soon we can hear a bubbling creek and there is vegetation, some of which is green and some of which would be if it was summer.  We can smell the moisture and the plants, something we haven't smelled for the past 2-1/2 months!  The path becomes muddy, very muddy, and we have to cross the creek about five times, but after about one mile, we are rewarded with a little waterfall about 20 feet high; and there is actually a fair amount of water falling with a pool at the bottom.  There are tiny plants that look almost like a clover but must be some kind of lily in the stream.  The water is freezing and we wonder what the temperature would be in the middle of the summer when the desert floor is 120F.  It must be a joyously cool place to be during the scorching summer heat.

The vegetation in Death Valley is very different from what we have been used to in the rest of the desert, and especially from Joshua Tree and Mojave parks.  Here, we are hard pressed to find any cacti.  There are still what I think is Rabbit Brush, a low bush with wiry branches and tough leaves, and a very small handful of the beautiful red and yellow barrel cactus and cholla (choy-ya) if you really look in the crevices, but not much else.  It would seem the harsh summer climate is too much for them.  Cacti must be very particular as they are very specific to a climate: the saguaro grow mostly at a certain elevation near Pheonix and in Saguaro National Park in Arizona, there is the Organ Pipe Cactus which grows mostly only in southern Arizona and parts of Mexico.  Temperature, moisture and elevation must all play a part in this plant's cycle, although we all think desert equals cactus, but there are many species of cacti as I have learned.  What does grow abundantly here in Death Valley is the Silver Holly bush, and it is beautiful.  It looks like our Christmas holly, only it's a light silvery green.  And right now it's just finishing "blooming" with it's seeds which are a very deep reddish brown.

When we leave Death Valley, we visit a ghost town called Rhyolite, which claims itself to be the most photographed ghost town in the west.  Unlike Tombstone, no one still lives in Rhyolite, in fact only the train station and the Kelly Bottle House are the town's remaining complete structures.  The town was established in 1905 after two prospectors, Shorty Harris and Ed Cross, discovered gold the year before.  By 1908, the town's population had grown to 8,000, but the mines had already begun to fail in part thanks to the destruction following the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco which collapsed so much of the financial district and caused panic in the east; funding for Nevada mines continued to decrease and by 1920 the population of Rhyolite was 14 - another gold rush town was dead.  The Bottle House is probably the most interesting, although apparently not unusual construction for the time.  People would build a house of anything they could lay their hands on, especially if it was free.  With about 50 saloons in town at its height, used bottles were abundant and free, so Tom Kelly build his house from used whisky, wine and soda bottles and adobe in 1906.  The house has since been carefully restored.

Right after we fuel up in the nearest town outside of Death Valley, two F16s (at least I think they're F16s but my fighter jet expert friends, Don and Sandra, would have to confirm that) fly past us barely 50 feet off the desert floor - I'm not kidding, 50 feet high and about 100 feet from the highway.  We've seen many jets flying training missions over Death Valley, but quite high, and usually we track four jets by their jet streams, not because we see first one, then another jet come barrelling towards us.  It was rather daunting.  Well, perhaps the Canadians are finally invading!  I wouldn't put it past those crazy Canucks!

In all, we spend 8 nights in Death Valley.  This is the end of our California tour.  We head east into Nevada for supplies (we have no food left and for those of you who know Brad, you know how dangerous that is!) and the Valley of Fire State Park just north of Las Vegas.  California has shown us the worst weather of our trip so far; not the coldest perhaps, but certainly the wettest and the cloudiest.  It is not what we expected of this golden state.