Home

Well, we are home safe and sound and not enjoying the snow.  A couple of inches have fallen overnight and it's still falling.  Oh well, that's the price we pay for leaving so early in the fall.  Our four-day drive home was uneventful other than a light dusting of snow on the ground on Saturday morning in Amarillo, Texas.  Otherwise, the entire drive through Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan was sunny and above freezing, so we didn't have to winterize the trailer until yesterday at home.

For those of you who are interested in numbers, here's what our six-month excursion cost:

Description	Total Cost	Average Daily Cost	Comment
Diesel fuel (for our truck)	$4,424	$25.43
Camping fees	$994.45	$5.72	would have been a daily average of $4 excluding the expensive RV park in California for five nights which was about $300
All trip-related expenses	$8,007.39	$46.02	includes above expenses as well as gas for the generator, propane, grey/black water dump fees, maintenance & repairs, recreation and other stuff like laundromats)

During our first RV year (2010-2011), our expenses were about $40/day; fuel prices are a lot higher this year and we were away for six months instead of five; although this year I think we did a lot more free camping now that we know where to find it and how.

Anyway, that's the end of the blog for another season.  It was a great trip, but I'm glad to be home - and so is the cat!

Space Tour - Part 4, Roswell, NM

These aliens are NOT real!

While the International UFO Museum is interesting, I can't say it would convince the skeptic.  The story is told through a series of newspaper clippings and typed posters.  There are also photos of "evidence" submitted by those who have photographed UFOs (remember, this simply means an Unidentified Flying Object, not necessarily a spaceship).  Of course, there is no evidence of the crash other than testimonials of those who were supposed to be there - the rancher who originally found the crash site on his property, those who later found the alien bodies, and the military personnel who were involved in the removal of the craft and aliens first to Area 51 in Nevada and later to a base in Ohio.  Many of the civilians claim to have been threatened by members of the military to keep quiet about what they had seen; many of those involved made deathbed confessions insisting that the event was real.  The thing is, given our ability today to convincingly recreate aliens and spaceships (as they do in Hollywood every day), who wouldn't be skeptical if the actual space craft or alien bodies were shown to us?

Brad in Goddard's reconstructed workshop

Of other worthy note is the Robert H. Goddard rocketry exhibit at the Roswell Museum & Art Center.  Dr. Goaddard (1882-1945) tested many rockets in the 1920s and 1930s.  He started in Massachusetts, but after setting the woods on fire behind his aunt's house, he moved to New Mexico (where he often set the grasslands ablaze with his tests) with support from Charles Lindburgh and the financial backing of the Guggenheims.  Dr. Goddard was often ridiculed for his vision of putting a rocket into outer space, so he stayed out of the limelight as much as possible, another advantage granted him by living in New Mexico.  What I find surprising is that Dr. Goddard, the "father of modern rocketry", is the inventer of 214 patents, including those for harnessing solar energy, rockets installed in military airplanes, the turboprop, and magnetic levitation which is used in today's high speed trains in Europe and Japan.  Dr. Goddard's work was recognized in 1959 when NASA named one of their space centers in Maryland after him - the Goddard Space Flight Center and in 1961 when he posthumously received the Congressional Medal.

Another point of interest about Roswell:  German POWs were interned about 13 miles southeast of town during WWII.  The prisoners were put to work on local farms and in Roswell where they placed stone along the banks of the Spring River.  At one point they selected different sized rocks and made an iron cross in the bank.  Some locals were very upset by this and poured concrete over the cross.  The concrete has since washed away, revealing the cross.  We did not go see the cross as no one could tell us exactly where it is and how far it is to walk there (along the river hike and bike trail) and the winds in this area are brutal.  Wikipedia info on Roswell, the POWs and the Iron Cross.

Brad between two sinkholes at Bottomless Lakes SP

We camp at Bottomless Lakes State Park a few miles east of Roswell.  The lakes are not bottomless of course, but the deepest one is 90 feet.  They are really sinkholes, formed when water erodes the limestone under the ground and creates caverns (many caves are form this way) and later the earth above the holes caves in.  Natural underground springs feed most of the lakes.  There are about 10-12 of them, all different shapes and sizes; some even with a high salinity because they have no outlet other than evaporation.  This park is a great summer recreation area for camping, fishing and swimming.

One more interesting point about New Mexico - it is one of the major producers of chile peppers and they can be found at local farm stands throughut the state.  The town of Hatch calls itself the "Chile Capital of the World" and celebrates with a Chile Festival every fall.

And so ends our New Mexico Space Tour.  There are many other "space" sites in the state, but time is running out and we have to head for home.

Space Tour - Part 3B, Alamogordo, NM

Brad walking on the dunes at White Sands National Monument

Alamogordo is partly "famous" for its white sand dunes in the White Sands National Monument.  We visited here on our first trip in 2010, and are back now mostly because Brad loves to play in the sand.  We wait for the calmest day to hike the Alkali Flats Trail in the dunes which are only up to 60 feet in height, but still provide lovely views of the mountain ranges on either side of this Tularosa Valley.  The day is perfect, with a very warm sun and still desert air.  A few other people are hiking the dunes, but we don't run into anyone since we go off the actual trail and follow the pristine sand up and down from dune to dune.  We actually hike in our bare feet, and the sand is cool, really cold when you dig just under the surface.  It's a great, relaxing day.

Soap-tree Yucca in the dunes at White Sands National Monument

Rockets at the Missile Museum, Organ Mountains in the background

The White Sands National Monument is surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range, a military installation.  They have a missile museum which we visit.  In an outdoor "park", more than 50 missiles and rockets which were tested at this base from the 1950s to the 1980s are on display, as well as a few planes and a helicopter.  Inside, is a V-2 missile, which was developed by Wernher von Braun during WWII.  These bombs were used in raids on London, England and northern Europe, but had little impact on the outcome of the war.  After the war, von Braun and his V-2 were brought to America, specifically the White Sands Missile Range for further development and testing, but as a rocket, not a bomb.  It is this research that led to the rockets used in the Apollo missions and finally putting a man on the moon.  Inside the museum, there is also a nice exhibit on the Trinity Site and an explanation of the Manhattan Project (the design and building of the first atomic bomb) which occurred in Northern New Mexico at Los Alamos.  The Trinity Site is about 60 miles northwest of Alamogordo, still on the White Sands Missile Range, but only open to the public on the first Saturday in April and October.

Water Tank Mural at the Space Murals Museum, Organ, NM

For fun, we cross the beautiful, jagged Organ Mountains to the town of Organ, and go to the Space Murals Museum.  Here, a water tank has been painted with murals depicting some of America's space history.  Inside the museum are interesting, donated pieces - space suits, parachutes, rocket parts, and lots of photos.

And that leaves only one more stop on our Space Tour, at least for this year.  Next, off to Roswell and the International UFO Museum.  I'm really curious to see this one as people around here now say that the official military information has been declassified and "they" are coming clean about the incident - and it WAS a UFO that crashed that night in 1947.  Yet to be convinced...

Space Tour, Part 3A - Alamogordo, NM

Cholla with snowfall at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park

The city of Alamogordo (elevation around 4,000 feet) in New Mexico lies in the wide Tularosa Basin between the San Andreas Mountains to the west (San Andreas Peak at 8,229 feet) and the Sacramento Mountains to the east (Sacramento Peak at 9,255 feet).  For the first couple of days, we camp at the Oliver Lee Memorial State Park just south of town at the base of the Sacramento mountains overlooking the valley.  We awaken on our first morning to snow on top of the cars, RVs and cacti - just a dusting really, but snow just the same!  But when we head into town, we see that the top of Sierra Blanca (White Mountain) to the northeast is COVERED in snow; about one foot apparently.  Three days later, all that snow is gone, thanks to the constant sun and the dry air (snow mostly evaporates out here).

Sierra Blanca - I pressed the shutter just as the finches flew!

Our campsite at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park

We try to take Grady for a walk behind our campsite, but it is dense with bushes and "Cow Tongue Prickly Pear" cactus.  As he is following a narrow path, something spooks him and he turns to run back to the trailer - right through two large cactus plants.  His paws hit the prickly pear several times during his escape, and he and I spend the next two days removing the tiny hairs from his pads and between his toes.  He doesn't want out after that, although a large group (flock?) of Gamble's Quail pecking their way through the foliage intrigues him - from the window.

Our campsite at Lake Holloman (AFB)

By our third night, we are camped on the shores of Lake Holloman which is part of the Holloman Air Force Base beside us.  I discover this free camping area on the internet, but the website shows a maximum vehicle length of 26 feet.  So we try calling the AFB to find out if our 31-foot trailer (50 feet with the truck attached) would fit, and - get this - NO ONE at the base, including the manager of the Outdoor & Wildlife Recreation Area, knows anything about camping at the lake!  So, we just scope it out (sans trailer) during our first day, find a large spot with space to turn around, and come back on day 3 with the trailer.  No problem.  We prefer to be here rather than at the State Park because it is a half-hour closer to the things we've come to see.

Now, when I say we are camped beside a "lake", think big pond.  And, there's a strange odour when the wind blows from the northwest across the "lake" that smells like the air inside a rubber tire (and don't ask me how I know what that smells like!).  However, the odour doesn't linger and doesn't bother us after the first few minutes.  The smell probably comes from the alkalinity in the water as this area is really one big alkali flat, the remains of ancient lakes and selenite (gypsum).  The sand and dunes at White Sands National Monument (4 miles west) are the wind-eroded gypsum, and as white and fluffy as snow.  There are no trees at the lake, but the view is decent enough with the mountain ranges on either side of us.  I think the trees died from whatever is in the lake and they've been cut down as their carcasses are piled up about 100 feet from the shore.  There are a few birds, red finches, which Grady likes to watch.  Each morning, there is a layer of ice on the lake which quickly melts in the warm sun.  Daily between 3:30 and 4:00 pm, sonic booms shake our trailer.  And, thanks to the AFB, we get our own private air show every day.

After a couple of days of lounging around, we go to the New Mexico Museum of Space History.  For $10 each, we see a 45-minute IMAX film on the Hubble telescope, and tour the museum.  Both are fantastic.  The museum is mostly dedicated to New Mexico's contributions to space flight and exploration, and there are many.  To the west of us is the White Sands Missile Range (beside the National Monument) where most of the Apollo rocket tests and mission training were conducted.  Since the 1950s, acceleration and deceleration tests have been done at the Holloman AFB, as well as training and launching chimpanzees into space.  In 1982, the Columbia space shuttle landed at the White Sands Space Harbor on the Missile Range.  New Mexico hosts the X-Prize Cup, a contest for private industry to create a reusable manned space plane that can return to earth.  Sixty miles north of Alamogordo is the Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was exploded on July 16, 1945.  The site is only open to visitors twice a year in April and October.  And there are many other historical events.  Museum exhibits also include the International Space Hall of Fame, dedicated to those who have made a significant contribution to the space program, from Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton to Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Goddard and Edwin Hubble, not to mention numerous astronauts like Neil Armstrong (first man to walk on the moon), Yuri Gagarin (first man in space), and even Marc Garneau (first Canadian in space).  I even got to land the space shuttle in a simulator, and did an excellent job (no crash & burn) even without listening to all of the instructions!

The IMAX movie, Hubble, is incredible.  Shown on a giant curved screen that fills even your peripheral vision, which is actually a little disorienting (and I've been suffering from migraines every couple of days again ever since we returned to the higher elevations in New Mexico), the film is absolutely amazing.  A lot of the movie is spent showing the shuttle missions during which the Hubble was launched and repaired, but real images of what Hubble has revealed in the universe are also featured.  I have seen TV shows documenting these discoveries, but my television doesn't surround me like this theatre.  Still images taken by the Hubble telescope are sequenced together in this film to simulate a flight through the universe to distant galaxies.  It is estimated that there are 100 billion galaxies in our universe, which is more than I can comprehend.  And to think that we will likely never travel beyond our own solar system.

We will stay in Alamogordo to tour the White Sands Missile Range Museum and the Space Murals Museum, as well as to hike the Alkali Flats Trail in White Sands National Monument - next installment part 3B.  Time is running out though, and soon we have to return home.

Space Tour, Part 2 - Socorro, NM

Our campsite in Box Canyon showing rock face popular with climbers

North we go to Socorro, New Mexico, which is on the western side of the state about mid-way north/south.  We camp about 5 miles west of town on BLM land at the trailhead of the Box Canyon which is a very popular spot for hikers and climbers.  We watch many climbers right out of our trailer's back window.  Sadly, we never explore this area although it looks beautiful.  We are in the foothills of a mountain range whose peaks are up to 10,000 feet and have snow on their tops.  But our temperatures are warm (enough) and the sun is shining (still).

The VLA

We visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array (VLA) about 50 miles west of Socorro, where 27 radio telescopes spread about 36 miles across the plains of San Agustin in a Y pattern on rails.  Today, the antennas are close together, so not 36 miles apart end-to-end.  They are moved by rail using huge flatbeds.  This area is perfect for the array because it is surrounded by mountains on a desert plain which helps to block other radio signals.  If you like space/science fiction movies, you've seen this array in a few movies, most notably Contact with Jodie Foster (although in that movie they computer generated almost 100 more telescopes and used Canyon de Chelley (pron. Canyon de Shay, which is really in Arizona) as a backdrop.  It was also used in the opening scene of one of my all-time favourites, 2010: Odyssey Two, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey ("piece of pie"; "easy as cake" - my favourite quotes from 2010 and I use them to this day).  Anyway, the site is really neat, and we take a self-guided walking tour.  There is also a very informative Visitors Center with numerous displays and videos, although I must admit, most of the physics is over my head, but Brad loved it.  I focused on the movie stuff and the easy layman explanations, for example, the scientists here (mostly from universities) create pictures of planets, stars, galaxies, etc. by capturing the radio waves from space, which a computer translates into numbers (as computers do), then each number is assigned a colour and a picture can be generated.  It's another way of looking at our universe, as opposed to using visual telescopes which usually only capture visible light rays (those we can see).

One of the antennas behind our truck

The VLA is also part of the VLBA, the Very Long Baseline Array, comprised of 10 antennas located across the US including the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, California, Washington, Iowa, Arizona, Texas, New Hampshire and two sites in New Mexico.  Working together as a single powerful telescope, these antennas reveal aspects of our universe that are hidden from other observatories.  Important to note: these radio telescopes are not listening for transmissions from E.T.  The images produced from the radio waves provide astronomers with a different view of the elements in our universe.

In town, we visit the Mineral Museum located on the campus of New Mexico Tech University.  Many local mineral specimans are displayed here, as well as others from around the world including Ontario, Canada!  We were delightfully surprised to see minerals from the Bancroft area where we have collected numerous rocks for years.  There's even a specimen from the Bear Lake Diggings (old mine tailings) near Bancroft, where we were chased by dogs about 10 years ago!  It's an interesting little museum, and free, although signage is a bit lacking and we had to ask directions in the Geology building down the street.

Marilyn in San Lorenzo Canyon

We also hike San Lorenzo Canyon, about five miles north of Socorro.  The canyon walls are a mixture of volcanic basalt, sandstone and conglomerate (rocks in hardened mud).  Millions of years of erosion and upheaval have created interesting channels, angles, and formations (including hoodoos and pinnacles).  An ancient fault line occurs here, but is not as active as it was in its younger days (like so many of us!).  This fault has pushed up many of the rock faces.  Being Sunday, there are also a couple of groups of people out riding today - that is, riding horses, mules, and donkeys.  This just adds to the western, cowboy atmosphere.

Horse & mule riders in San Lorenzo Canyon

Space Tour, Part 1 - Truth or Consequences, NM

New Mexico has a rich space history.  Near Alamogordo is the White Sands Missile Range, a military installation that encompasses the White Sands National Monument with dunes of white gypsum.  The Trinity Site, the location of the first atomic explosion, is in this missile range, but tours occur only twice a year on the first Saturday in October and April.  Roswell, New Mexico is also the alleged location of the crash landing of a UFO in 1947, and where we will tour the International UFO Museum.  The Very Large Array - radio telescopes - is located in Socorro.  But first, we plan to tour Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences.

First, let me explain the name of this town.  Originally called Hot Springs (for the hot springs found here), the town voted to change its name when Ralph Edwards, producer of the TV show, challenged any town in America to change its name to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the game show. Hot Springs met the challenge and became Truth or Consequences.

Spaceport America, still under construction, will be the future home of space travel for tourism.  Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's venture, will operate from this center carrying (wealthy) tourists into space.  The buildings are owned and run by the state of New Mexico.  We arrive at our free BLM campsite about 30 miles from the Spaceport on Monday.  As I investigate the tours of Spaceport America (which I should have done previously), I learn that exclusive, guided bus tours are only available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - we won't be waiting around.  It is expected that sometime later this year (2013), the public will be allowed to drive out to the site and tour the area without taking the bus tour.  We'll have to come back.

Picnic lunch at Elephant Butte Lake State Park

We always find other things to do.  From our campsite, we enter Elephant Butte Lake State Park from the north, and its "back door".  Several dirt roads lead from this main road down to the lake which is VERY low as New Mexico and many western states suffer from a multi-year drought.  The boat ramp at the northern end of the lake is closed as the water doesn't reach this far any more.  The lake is a reservoir, dammed at its southern tip by Elephant Butte Dam, holding back the waters of the Rio Grande River (which is only about 6-8 feet across and quite shallow).  The dam is a beautiful structure, built between 1911 and 1916.  We stop for lunch on the rocky beach at Three Sisters Cove where we can drive quite a distance across what was once the lake bottom to the shore.  At the point, a group of bird enthusiasts are photographing the tens of thousands (literally) of migratory birds that fill these waters.  We are not close enough to identify most of the birds, but with our binoculars I do see a couple of bald eagles, a great blue heron, cormorants, ducks, geese and terns.  Suddenly, one bird will get spooked and they will all take flight at once, the sound of their thousands of wings beating sounding like a passing airplane or rushing water.  The sun is hot, there is no wind - it's a perfect day.

Elephant Butte Dam - note how low the water level is by the white line

Dona Edmund explaining the 1870s credit system machine

We also drive out to the ghost town of Chloride, about 40 miles west of us.  It is a very scenic drive that takes us through valleys and foothills, with 10,000-foot snow-capped peaks to the west of us.  Chloride was once a silver mining town in the 1870s to the 1890s when the government changed coin currency from silver to gold and the price of silver plummeted.  Only 11 people reside in the town today, but two of those residents are Don and Dona Edmund, a retired couple originally from New York who have purchased many of the old buildings and are restoring them.  They run the Pioneer Store Museum as well as the Gift Shop and Gallery (which used to be a saloon).  These two have the most interesting stories to tell.  For example, the Pioneer Store was originally built by a Canadian, one Mr. Dalgleish.  The Edmunds purchased the store from one of his ancestors and when they unlocked the doors, all of the original store items - tools, saddles, clothes, etc. - were still on the shelves.  When the town "died", the previous owners simply locked the doors and left.  We are the only tourists in town today, and we get a personalized tour by Dona of the items in the museum as well as site founder, Harry Pye's original cabin which the Edmunds have restored and converted into a rental cabin for visitors, and the closed cafe (originally a failed bank and later saloon) for which they are seeking a cook.  There is also a 5-site RV park, picnic area and pit toilets.  What a delightful, entertaining couple, and kudos to them for their work and passion.  There are several other ghost towns in the area: Cuchillo, Winston, Monticello, Placita, Hillsboro, Kingston and Lake Valley, but we visit only Chloride.  New Mexico ghost towns website.

Pioneer Store Museum displays, Chloride

And so the first stop on our "space tour" is a little disappointing because we can't visit Spaceport America, but we are once again enchanted by New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment.

Rockhounding in Deming, NM

Our campsite with view of Deming

It takes us about 9 hours to drive from Yuma on the western border of Arizona to Deming about one hour east of the Arizona/New Mexico border.  Just south of the city of Deming is Rockhound State Park in the foothills of the Little Florida (pronounced Flo-rita) Mountains.  The campground sits on a hill overlooking Deming, with the city lights sparkling out our back window.  Many birds inhabit the desert flora surrounding our trailer, their twitters and flitting driving Grady crazy.

On the trail overlooking Deming

We come to this state park to hike the Thunder Egg trail where rock collecting is encouraged.  Usually, no collecting is allowed in state or federal parks, but here visitors can take up to 15 pounds of rocks and minerals.  Most commonly found at the park is jasper in many colours (mostly pink, orange and red) as well as common opal (white and pink), perlite (sparkly black) and white quartz crystals.  Geodes (thunder eggs) are can also be found here - these are rocks that look like crappy round rocks but yield beautiful hollow centres full of crystals when broken open.  We find lots of jasper, perlite and quartz crystals, but the only opal we find is in a rock too big to carry out.

Brad on the hunt amidst rocks and cacti

The ranger tells us that the best rocks are found off the paths, but it's difficult to walk off the paths as the desert is covered with cactus (pancake cactus) which is similar to a prickly pear but with bigger flats.  We manage to weave around and jump over these spiked plants to make our finds.  Regardless, it's fun to find the minerals and Brad certainly enjoys slingling a small sledge hammer to get them out of the rock (probably rhyolite which is volcanic).

We only stay a few days before we move a bit further north to Truth or Consequences...

Snowbirds' Paradise - Yuma, AZ

Yuma lies 2 miles east of the Arizona/California border along the Lower Colorado River.  We are surprised by how large this snowbird mecca is.  Why Yuma?  Climate.  Yuma enjoys a wonderfully moderate winter climate where nights rarely dip below freezing and days can be in the 80s.  And of course, sunshine - lots of it.  The Yuma Visitors Guide magazine says "According to Guinness World Records, Yuma is the sunniest city on earth, receiving sunshine an average of 91 percent of all possible (daylight) hours"!  Wow!  The population of Yuma doubles in the winter because of the snowbirds who flock here - some 90,000 of them and many from Ontario!  There are numerous RV parks as well as hundreds of acres of BLM LTVAs (Long Term Visitor Areas) where, for $75 per year, you can camp without services.  While a fee is not usually charged when camping on BLM (federal) land, it is in these high-use areas.  The Imperial Sand Dunes just across the border into California is another BLM area where a fee (and permit) is required.

Our campsite on Mittry Lake

We camp along the shores of Mittry Lake inside the Wildlife Refuge which is - you guessed it - free.  The lake seems to be part of the Colorado River dam system with the Imperial Dam above us (visible in the distance from our trailer).  Reddish-brown, rocky "mountains" surround us, but the lake is lined by tall grasses about 12 to 15 feet high and is home to numerous species of birds and other wildlife.  I think we see a Golden Eagle hunting on two separate occasions, but it is difficult to identify from such a distance.  We hear owls and coyotes calling at night while we're lying in bed.  We feel like we are in the Midland Marsh, except for the few palm trees growing and the reddish-brown, jagged peaks on the horizon.  There are many RVers camped along the shore (a lot of people come to fish in the lake) and we share the large space where we are camped with one other RV each night.

Well, there's a sign you just don't see every day
On the road beside the Yuma Proving Grounds
(helipcopter is suspended on a post as display)

Beside us about 5 miles down the road are the Yuma Proving Grounds, a military test base.  During the day, we hear loud explosions, some of which shake the windows in our trailer.  Brad likes this - "something's blowing up every five minutes!"  Planes (jets and propeller planes) are constantly flying overhead; but thankfully nights are quiet.

Mittry Lake with boat launch and picnic area on left (white dots)

This area had one inch of rain fall two or three days before we arrive.  There are huge puddles everywhere; some parking lots are under water; the crops in the fields (Yuma supplies the country with 90% of its leafy, green vegetables between November and March, as well as 175 different other crops; agriculture is its main business) are flooded and workers are deep in the mud picking cabbage and lettuce.  But with the rain comes desert flowers, and during a drive out to Ferguson Lake, north of the Imperial Dam through 10 miles of desert dirt roads, we are excited to see a few ocotillo blossoming with their dark green leaves and another small desert plant (which I can't name) full of yellow flowers.  The desert is starting to bloom.  The ocotillo have large thorns along the length of each stalk which are about the diameter of a finger and may be 15 to 20 feet in height.  Tiny leaves grow along the entire length of the stalk when rain conditions are just right, and a scarlet red flower will grow at the end of the stalks.  The ocotillo can grow and shed its leaves up to five times per year when conditions are favourable.  Also abundant here are the Palo Verde trees (palo verde is Spanish for either green tree or green branch).  These trees have a beautiful, feathery appearance because all of its bark is green and the ends of its branches are as thin as strings, so even though they have no leaves right now, from a distance they appear to be full.  But be forewarned, these trees, like many in the desert, have tiny thorns at the ends of the branches - perhaps these are new branch sprouts.

Ferguson Lake with Castle Dome peak top left

Back at Ferguson Lake - wow!  What scenery!  The dirt road is pretty good until near the end (which we don't know is near the end because we don't even know how far we have to drive to get to the lake!  So we always drive around with spare fuel in a tank in the back of the truck.) where the road becomes so steep we have to use four-wheel drive just to get up the incline.  There is a view from the top of one of the hills which overlooks Ferguson Lake and Lake Martinez beside it.  Neither lake is very big, only a few miles across perhaps.  But what an oasis!  Well, not really an oasis, but a wetland in the middle of the desert.  This is what the Colorado River provides in this landscape.  These lakes are here because of the dams built on this river to provide power and irrigation.  It's an incredible sight.  The road winds down and we find a few camping spots right on the lake, and while we could never get our trailer in here, we do have the foresight to bring our zero-gravity chairs and some snacks (Brad is lamenting he didn't bring any beer), so we have a sit, relaxing and enjoying the view while a bird (unidentified again because I discovered that my National Audubon Society bird field guide is for eastern North America and includes birds found in the west only if they are also common to the east, with the Rockies being the dividing line; but I think it's some kind of grackle) walks around us.  He is really funny, walking like a chicken, but he is beautifully golden coloured on the underside and dark brown on his back, although he has those scary yellow eyes.  He seems very curious about us, and we throw him a few sunflower seeds which he picks up in his beak and runs away with into the long grass.  Perhaps he doesn't like to be watched while eating, or he is storing the seeds for later.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park - Mountain Palm Springs, CA

The last area of the park where we will spend a few days hiking is at Mountain Palm Springs in the southern region of the park.  Here there is another free park campground - we can see the palm trees up the canyons from our site.  We are practically in a bowl, surrounded by rocky grey-white hills (the rock is called pegmatite for you geology enthusiasts, probably white fledspar with black tourmaline or horneblend in it) with a few desert plants on them.  We are in a parking area between two sandy washes which Grady loves to walk in.  Cats and loose sand - what could be better?  Even though we get two straight days of rain while here (it's rained about every 3 or 4 days while we are in California!), we get no flash floods and the washes beside us don't flow.

Marilyn in Mary's Grove

The two washes beside us lead up two separate canyons.  We hike up these canyons to the grove of palms we see from our trailer on two separate days.  The first one becomes a bit of a rocky scramble, but after some of the hikes we've done during these past four months, it's like walking up steps.  The first grove is North Grove, and a bit further beyond that is Mary's Grove, a large flat area with several groups of palms growing.  There are also large boulders and smoke trees here, giving the area a true oasis feel.  We follow some cairns and a faint footpath that goes up and over a rocky ridge, then down into the adjacent canyon where we find Surprise Grove with a fairly large number of palms growing together.  A wide, sandy path leads up the canyon to Palm Bowl Grove where about 60 trees are growing on the side of the rocky hill.  This is a large bowl surrounded by these rocky slopes except for the outlet of the wash we just walked up.  On another day, we hike the other canyon to find Pygmy Grove (a small group of shorter palms) and further up in Torote Bowl is a large grove of about 100 palms overlooking the Carrizo Valley with amazing views.

Marilyn in Torote Bowl
Note burnt trunks

All of the palm groves show evidence of fire.  Trunks are blackened and their skirts (the dead palm leaves that lay against the trunks) are gone.  Apparently, in the wild, the skirt is important to the palm, shading the trunk which absorbs water when it's available, and preventing over-heating and allowing the moisture to evaporate.  The skirt also helps to protect the trunk against predators like a certain beetle which can bore two-inch holes into the bark.  But yet these groves have survived throughout thousands of years, showing early native settlers where to find water.  Given this rugged, arid landscape, finding these palm trees is like stumbling across a treasure.

Brad at Big Mud Cave - entrance to a long tunnel

The Mud Caves are about a 5-mile drive through a sandy, washboard wash into the Carrizo Badlands.  These clay hills are mostly tan and grey with some hues of green and pink.  The hardened layers often angle at about 45 degrees, evidence of geological plate movement common in this area.  Along the way, we talk to a couple from San Diego who tell us that someone died here last year during a flash flood - on an overcast day like it is today.  Whenever rain is possible, even in the mountains 50 or more miles away, people are warned not to travel into the canyons.  Accumulated rainfall in the mountains rushes down through these canyons like a freight train.  We probably shouldn't be in the canyon today, but naively continue on.  Obviously, we make it out unharmed and no rains falls today.  The caves are eroded holes in the mud hills; some are actual caves, others are really a slot canyon with tunnels and overhead bridges or arches.  There are two caves where we park at an obvious, large hole in the side wall.  A narrow entrance takes us into Plunge Pool Cave, flashlights blazing in the blackness.  This is a very narrow, winding slot which ends at a 50-foot dry waterfall after about 100 feet.  You would not want to be in here when a flash flood arrives!  Back in the wash, the large opening takes us through Big Mud Cave, which is really a slot canyon that continues for about half a mile or more.  We follow one opening in the side that takes us into a narrow, winding cave for several hundred yards before it becomes a very small tunnel which Brad explores for several yards on his hands and knees.  Me?  No thanks.  I prefer to walk upright!  The caves are interesting and fun to follow, but not terribly photogenic.

And so ends our California journey after about 5 weeks.  It is the last week of January, and we will start heading east (boo hoo!).  (I'm posting this blog late due to lack of internet signal!)