SW Trip 2014 - Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix, Arizona – Lake Pleasant Regional Park

May 1 – 5

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Our drive to Phoenix was fairly easy, but windy. The drive through the city revealed what a large metropolitan area Phoenix is! Lake Pleasant Park is located northwest of the city in a remote desert area, surrounded by mountains. The huge lake is a reservoir for the Phoenix area. Our campsite was located on one of the loops out on a peninsula. The location was great and we could see way across to the east side of the lake. After getting setup, I made margaritas for us all, which were quite strong and we all enjoyed them. Bedtime came early after a couple rounds of margaritas.

The next morning, we decided to relax a little around the lakeside. We packed up food, drink, and the dogs then headed over to a lake front area where we could setup and get in the water. We also brought our kayaks for a little paddling fun. The weather was very hot; it reached 100 degrees that day. We had setup a tarp between the two trucks for some shade. The water was very cold, due to the deep reservoir, but it definitely cooled us down. The dogs didn’t even want to go into the water because it was so cold, but we made them get wet to cool off. Kurt and I paddled around the area and got enjoyed the water. After a few hours, we packed up and headed back to the camp site. Later we all got together and enjoyed a grilled steak dinner.
The next day, we headed out to hike on the north side of the lake. The Pipeline Trail followed Pipeline Canyon and crossed a floating bridge over Pipeline Cove. It was a rugged desert hike with elevation changes, but not too difficult. Along the way, we observed the many Saguaro cacti which were just beginning to bloom. We also saw a couple of burros, which live throughout the park. As we returned from the hike, the heat was going up to 100 degrees and we were happy to be off the trail. After we cooled down from the hike, we drove over to the marina to check out the facilities. It was a very large and well equipped marina, but the boat rental pricing was outrageous. Later in the evening, we attended a program called “Stargazing For Everyone”. There were serious, amateur astronomers that presented a slide show in the outdoor amphitheatre and had about 10 telescopes setup for the people to view stars, planets and galaxies. It was a wonderful and we truly enjoyed it.

The following day, we had decided to drive around Phoenix and check out the area. Kurt had lived there for a couple of years when his father was stationed at a nearby Air Force base. We drove by his old house and elementary school. At lot had changed in 50 years! Then we drove up to Scottsdale to “Dos Gringos”, a great bar/Mexican restaurant to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. We enjoyed margaritas, drinks and Mexican food. We were impressed with Scottsdale and it is such a nice, upscale area. It was very beautiful among the desert environment.

Our last day at the lake, Kurt and I went on a kayak paddle. We took Kody and headed up to a popular cove on the north side of the lake. We put in our kayaks and paddled around some islands and back into another cove. Kody got to “run the shore” and he had a fun time jumping off and on Kurt’s kayak. I believe that Kurt has created a new kayaking game for Kody. We had to head in after a couple of hours as the wind began to get stronger. Later, we began preparing for our move the next day.

Our next location is the Sedona area. We will be staying at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood. Can’t wait to see what adventures are there for us!

SW Trip 2014 - Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona – Catalina State Park
April 25 – 30

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I have three words for Tucson, WE LOVE IT!

As we drove into the Tucson area, we were impressed by the many mountain ranges around the area. We had no idea that there were so many mountains; we had expected more of a flat desert environment. It is so beautiful; the city and surrounding areas seemed clean and modern. Catalina State Park is in the Sonoran desert area, with the Santa Catalina Mountains as the backdrop. The campsites are spacious with great views of the mountains. Even though we were in a remote desert area, there was shopping and restaurants within a mile of the park entrance. After getting setup, we relaxed and enjoyed the evening, even though it was windy.

The next morning, the wind was getting stronger as forecast. Debbie and I decided to use this time to get some laundry done. The guys decided to mountain bike a trail that originated right in the park. Later in the day it rained for awhile and then the weather became nice again. We took Kody on a hike on one of the trails inside the park. We were only able to go about 1 mile up the trail, as beyond that point no dogs were allowed, due to the reintroduction of bighorn sheep into the mountain area. We all decided to do the full trail the next day.

In the morning, we made our plans to go mountain biking in one of the local area trails. We found a great trail called Fantasy Island on the southeast side of Tucson. We had to drive across town to the site, but it was worth it. Some of the trails were more difficult, so Debbie and I decided to ride some of the easier ones. The guys had a great time riding the challenging trails of Fantasy Island. Located near the trail area is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and miles of “airplane boneyard”. It was amazing how many planes were being stored there as far as you could see; wrapped up in protective materials and ready for whatever purpose. Looking at Google Maps satellite view of the Tucson area, it’s quite apparent how many planes are there! After bike riding, we headed back to camp and a cookout for dinner.

The next morning, we set out in the park to hike the Romero Canyon Trail. This was a steep and rocky great trail up the Catalina Mountains. It was challenging at many times, with many switchbacks and steep cliffs. The views of the canyon and valley below were amazing, with Saguaro cactus along the mountain sides. We hiked back in to an area called Romero pools, where there was standing water in rocky creek bed below. The hike back down was a little easier, but was still a challenge. We were never fortunate enough to see a bighorn sheep; as there were only about 14 sheep at this time. The round trip hike took us about 2.5 hours. Heading back to our campsites, we were very glad we went on this amazing hike.

Our challenge for the next day was to mountain bike a trail just north of the park. This desert trail called 50 Year Trail started out as an intermediate level biking. We were able to ride most of the trail, but attempted to find another more challenging part called “the chutes”. We rode around trying to follow a trail map and were never able to find the chutes. After a couple of hours, we headed back to camp. Our next event for the day was to drive a scenic road up to Mt. Lemmon, called Sky Islands Scenic Byway. The 25 miles followed hairpin and blind turns, climbing more than 6300 feet to the peak of Mt. Lemmon (9157 ft). The drive begins in the Sonoran Desert, passing through five distinct life zones, ending in a cool mixed conifer forest (Coronado National Forest) that looked more like Canada than Arizona. It was a beautiful drive with amazing views, well worth about three hours of driving and overlook time.

The next morning, we all decided to go back to mountain bike the 50 Year Trail. Debbie and I rode mostly on that trail, while the guys were able to find the path back to “the chutes”. We all had a great ride that morning and it was so much fun. We later headed back into town for some shopping and preparations to leave the next morning. We all were sad to go, as this was one of our most favorite places we have been so far on this trip! We could have stayed a few more days, Kurt and I vowed that we will return someday and stay at least a month.

On to Phoenix Arizona for our next adventure!

SW Trip 2014 - Deming, New Mexico

Deming, New Mexico – Rockhound State Park
April 23 - 24

Rockhound State Park is located a few miles east of the town of Deming. This is a beautiful park with awesome campsites. Our campsite was very large with nice landscaping of cactus and rocks. The park is surrounded by the Florida Mountains. The weather was cool and sunny, but the wind was kicking up to 35mph. The first night the trailer was rocking with the wind howling most of the night. By the next morning the wind died down and we went on a short hike on some trails around the park. This park is known for semi-precious stones and rocks. The main activity here is to look for these rocks. Later in the day, we were trying to determine where we could go hiking in the area where it might be more challenging. There was also no mountain biking within 30 miles, so Kurt and I decided to do a hike in Spring Canyon, which is on the south side of Rockhound Park. This was a nice hike back in a canyon to Lovers Leap. It was steep with a small elevation gain, and we enjoyed the scenery and the exercise.

After getting back to camp, we had discovered that a wind storm was heading our way and may affect our travel in 2 days to our next location. We were told that if the winds go over 50 mph, they could shut down I-10, which could be a problem for us. So we all decided to leave the next day and arrive in Tucson a day earlier.

That evening, the wind had died down and we were able to have a nice campfire. We sat up until late looking at the amazing stars and searching for meteors. We saw a couple of meteors, but it was getting really late and we wanted to get an earlier start on the road in the morning.

We were ready to head to Tucson and see what that area has to offer.

SW Trip 2014 - Alamogordo, NM - Oliver Lee S.P.

Alamogordo, New Mexico – Oliver Lee State Park

April 20 – 22
 

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Our drive from Carlsbad to Alamogordo was quite nice, especially when we drove over the Sacramento Mountains, through the Lincoln National Forest. The road winds through a beautiful forested river valley, ultimately crossing through the mountain town of Cloudcroft. Then the road began going downward towards the foothills. There was an overlook area where we pulled off and took some amazing pictures looking down to the Tularosa Valley. From that vantage point, we could clearly see the White Sands dune fields.

After arriving at Oliver Lee S.P. we got setup and prepared for an Easter dinner with Rick & Debbie. The table was setup in the shade behind our RV and we enjoyed a nice dinner. After dinner we took the dogs and hiked into the Riparian Nature trail, which went up through the creek bed. It was shaded and lovely with a small flowing creek. This wonderful campground is located in the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains. What an amazing place with great views of the Tularosa Valley.

The next morning, we all hiked up the Dog Canyon Trail, which winds up to a peak overlooking the canyon and the valley. The trail was well maintained and had a steep elevation change. We hiked up to the 2 mile mark, which took us 2 hours. We then headed back down to the campground. We didn’t see much wildlife; however, Rick & Debbie did have a snake encounter. On their way down, they came within 2 feet of a Western Diamondback rattlesnake. The snake was not aggressive and wasn’t even coiled up, but rattled a warning. They moved slowly past it and were not affected.

After lunch, we packed up the truck and headed to White Sands National Monument. It’s so amazing how large this white gypsum sand dune field is, 275 square miles! We watched a video which explained how the dunes were formed over the centuries and continue to change to this day. The sand is amazingly cool, even with the direct sun. We had decided to arrive in the middle of the afternoon so we could stay for sunset. We played in the sand, took pictures of our shadows and footprints. We didn’t have sled saucers to slide down the dunes, so Kurt improvised. We did have the kayaks on our truck, so he took down my 12’ Tarpon and hauled it up to a dune top. He was able to successfully slide (uh, kayak) down the dune; several people on a nearby dune stopped to watch him. He did it a second time and we all had a great laugh. We were not surprised that he would find a way to slide down the sand dune!  For awhile, we sat at one of the picnic tables and enjoyed Happy Hour. As sunset approached, we took more great pictures of the changing shadows and the San Andres Mountains to the west. What a great day we all had, we will cherish these wonderful memories.

The next day, we decided to drive north of Alamogordo to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Area, which was inhabited by ancient Indians who carved over 21,000 glyphs in stones around the area. We spent the afternoon looking for glyphs and taking pictures of the most prolific images. We also hiked around the nearby ancient “village” where these natives lived and observed some ruins of their homes. It was a great day to learn about the history of this area.

Later in the evening, we began preparing for our next day and the move to Deming, New Mexico and Rockhound State Park.

SW Tour 2014 - Carlsbad, New Mexico

Carlsbad, New Mexico

April 16 – 19

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After a one night stop in Ft. Stockton, Texas, we headed into New Mexico to Carlsbad. After a drive through the desert with endless views of oil and gas wells, we arrived at the RV park and got setup for the evening. This area of the country has so much oil production it’s amazing! The town of Carlsbad is mostly inhabited by oil and gas workers, with some tourism for Carlsbad Caverns.

The next day we headed to Carlsbad Caverns for a couple of tours.  After going through the Visitors Center, we walked down to the natural entrance. This allowed us to do a self-guided tour through parts of the cavern with trails that head down to the Big Room area. We spent about 2.5 hours viewing this part of the cavern. The amazing formations are so beautiful and such a treat to look at. It’s so hard to imagine how these mineral forms were created over 10s of thousands of years ago! We had lunch in the café at the Visitors Center, then proceeded to the meetup spot for our guided tour of the Kings Palace rooms. The Ranger was a great tour guide and was an experienced caver. He offered so much information on the cave geology, what’s in the cave and what’s not. We were fortunate to have this Ranger as our guide. This part of the cavern is a separate wing that had smaller rooms, but was much more decorated with formations than the other parts of the cave. What an amazing place! We had considered staying until dusk for the bat flight, but the guide did advise us that this time of year the bats are migrating and there may or may not be many bats.  After this tour, we followed another range up to the observation deck of the Visitors Center. Here we were able to see great views of the valley below. He described much of the geology of the area and the caves. He pointed out landmark locations in relation to the Big Room and the Bottomless Pit sections of the cavern below. He also explained how this land was once under a sea and the mountains were a huge reef. What a wonderful day for a tour of these amazing caverns!

The next day, we again headed south to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. There were several great hikes there and the prime landmark is El Capitan, which is the second highest peak in the Guadalupes. We spoke with the rangers to advise us on trail conditions and decided to go on the  Permian Reef Trail. This was an amazing hike which was 4 miles to the peak. We only hiked up about 2 miles, as the trail was steep and the elevation gain was about 1000 feet. We stopped to eat our lunch there and we decided to head back down. Kurt was determined to go to the peak, so he continued upward. Debbie, Rick and I headed back to the trailhead. Kurt did make it to the top and took some more great pictures. He met us back at the trailhead about an hour later.  This was such a great hike, and we all enjoyed our first desert/mountain hike on this trip. There will be many more to come.

The next day we had planned to go mountain biking on some local trails near the town of Carlsbad, but we woke up to a thunderstorm. We hunkered down for awhile and Kurt said he couldn’t sit around in the camper any longer, so he drove back to Carlsbad Caverns. He wanted to see it again, and to hike back up and out the natural entrance. He really enjoyed it the second time.

Later we had Happy Hour and began preparing for our departure the next day. We will be heading to Alamogordo, New Mexico.

SW Tour 2014 - San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio, Texas – Hidden Valley RV Park

March 11 -14

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While driving from Austin to San Antonio, we realized how large San Antonio actually is. A very large metropolitan area with surrounding suburbs. The city has a maze of interstates and highways that create several large spaghetti junctions. We fortunately had chosen a lovely RV park on the southwest side of SA, near a town of Von Ormy. Hidden Valley RV Park is located in a beautiful valley out in the country. When we arrived, Rick & Debbie were already setup, as they had previously been in Blessing Texas to visit family. This RV park was very quiet and spacious with just a few other RVs. We were able to let the dogs run off leash, which they really enjoyed. After setting up, we all had happy hour and snacks. Later, Kurt built a huge campfire at the campground firepit. We all enjoyed the evening around the fire and met two young men who were staying there while working on a pipeline job.

The next morning, we geared up for a major bike ride. Along the San Antonio River is an awesome paved hike/bike trail on both sides that follows the river and had stops at each of the four historic missions. We headed north towards the city and stopped at the Mission Concepcion for a tour. It’s amazing that these missions were built in the 1700’s by Spanish Franciscan priests and are still standing. The structures are mostly in great shape, but had been pillaged by the local Indians after they were secularized in the 1800’s. It was a great time to learn some more history about this part of our country. After a couple of hours, we headed back to the campground. The wind had picked up to about 15-20 mph, it was a tough ride into this headwind.

Later, we got all cowboyed up and headed to a rodeo. North of SA is Tejas Rodeo, a great complex out in the boonies that has Saturday night rodeos. It’s a complex of rodeo arena, steakhouse, bars and dancehall. We really enjoyed the rodeo and hung out listening to music for awhile.

The next day, we went into the city and took a boat cruise on the San Antonio Riverwalk. What an amazing place this is, with the river below regular street level. The river winds through the city with walk paths on each side. Along the Riverwalk are restaurants, shopping, historic homes/buildings, gardens and lovely cypress trees. What a beautiful urban attraction! We also walked around town and toured the Alamo complex, another great part of American history. We ate lunch at a Peruvian festival and later went to the Buckhorn Saloon, a historic place in SA. We all had a wonderful time in this city.

After returning to camp, Kurt built an EPIC campfire. We sat around the fire until we were tired and headed to bed. The next morning, storms rolled in and we were forced to hunker down inside until it moved through. We then went into town for lunch and to visit the remaining three missions. After a nice day of touring, we headed back to camp for the evening.

Next we are heading to Carlsbad, New Mexico.  We are looking forward to the caverns tour and some great hiking!

SW Trip 2014 - Austin, Texas

McKinney Falls State Park - Austin, Texas

March 7 – 10

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This state park is located very close to the city on the southeastern side, yet feels like it’s out in the country. Upon arrial we were able to pick the site we wanted. It was very large and backed up to the woods and trails; perfect! This park is known for its limestone geology with the Onion Creek waterfalls flowing over rocky ledges. At this time the waterfalls were very small, as there is an ongoing drought in Texas.

The next morning, we decided to take a drive around Austin and go by Kurt’s childhood home and other nostalgic locations. We first drove northwest of the city to Lake Travis. The lake is also very low due to the drought. The water is very clear and blue, with some marinas. We drove around the lake to a small county park where we were able to get some nice pictures. Then we drove back into town to find Kurt’s former home. He lived there for a few years (8 – 12 yrs old) when his father was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force base. The old neighborhood looked much like it did when he lived there. While driving around the area, we found a local Mexican food restaurant and had a wonderful lunch! Then we drove downtown to visit the Texas State Capitol. I was amazed that Kurt would even consider the tour, but he did enjoy it. We also visited Zilker Park, where Kurt and his friends hung out. It’s a beautiful urban park with many activities, including a natural spring fed swimming pool. Later, back at the campground, we built a nice fire and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
The next day, we geared up for mountain biking and rode all 9 miles. About 6 miles had some technical sections of mountain biking. We enjoyed the exercise and the beautiful weather. After lunch, we got ready to head into town for some evening fun. The Broken Spoke is an authentic, historic Texan honky-tonk dancehall in Austin. It was a lot of fun; we even participated in the two-step dance instruction. However; Kurt was really not in the mood for dancing, so we enjoyed watching some serious dancers. The evening was a lot of fun as we experienced some real Texas culture.

Our last full day there was spent on a scenic drive in the country. This part of Texas is “Hill Country” and we drove west of Austin to the “Devil’s Backbone” scenic drive, which took a few hours. It was an amazing area of mostly ranches. The hills and valleys were beautiful, with limestone terraces. As part of the drive, we visited a barbeque place that we had seen on the Travel Channel and rated as the number 1 in the US. The Salt Lick barbeque is  located out in the country near the small town of Driftwood. Even as remote as it is, the place was very busy on a weekday. The food was wonderful and we stuffed ourselves. We will have to try other Texas barbeque to see if any of them are as good.

Back at camp, we began preparing for our departure the next morning. We will be heading to San Antonio, only a couple hours’ drive southwest.