Sand instead of Snow!

After a month in the desert, Millie had had enough!  She wanted to run and play Frisbee again, and the Sonoran desert with all it’s sticky, pokey cacti was nowhere to do that!  So, when we rolled into White Sands National Monument, Millie was thrilled that I let her do a little bit of “stealth” Frisbee playing in the dunes next to the parking lot.

After leaving Bosque del Apache, we stopped at Truth or Consequences and Elephant Butte State Park to work for a few days. 

While it was still a bit nippy (only in the 50’s during the day, and into the 30’s at night), Millie was happy to see water again, and she got one very quick, very chilly swim in the lake one afternoon.

I love New Mexico’s colors and laid back lifestyle and would love to spend more time here, but it’s at a higher elevation than most of Arizona, so it gets pretty cold and snowy at times during the winter.  Fortunately, winter doesn’t last long here--- so, by mid-February, it was a nice place to spend a week waiting for the right weather conditions to make my final migration home.

Chicago had been blasted with a huge blizzard and was still digging out from 3 feet of snow.  Some friends had posted pictures of their driveways where snow had drifted up so high that it nearly covered the garage door!  Ah well, the only white stuff I had to contend with was the sand Millie and I tracked into the motorhome!

Most of central New Mexico is Government land used for testing missiles (the atomic bomb testing was done on the northern portion of this range in the 1940’s). so there are few roads and even fewer people here.  Yet, just before you enter White Sands National Monument, you must stop at one of these dumb Border Patrol checkpoints that are dotted across NM, AZ, and CA.
 
Each of these checkpoints seemed to be the same routine—dozens of shiney new Border Patrol SUVs and other equipment sitting unused, a half dozen or so BP officers sitting around, and 1 officer going through the motions of interviewing each motorist.  None of these checkpoints ever asked to see anything or even look at my driver’s license.  They simply asked “are you a U.S. resident?” “Ok, good.  Have a nice day!”

I’m all for protecting our borders and ensuring our border patrol agents have the resources they need to do the job.  I could also see how setting up temporary random checkpoints well inland from the borders would help catch any of those missed at the border itself.  But, whose bright idea was it to put all these permanent checkpoints across the Southwest, and then not bother to even really “check” the vehicles coming through?  If Congress is looking to cut the budget, hey fellas, here’s another glaringly obvious choice before cutting grandma’s Medicare!

Ok, I’ll climb off the soapbox now and move on to soaptrees!   Soaptree Yucca plants are one of the only plants that manage to grow at White Sands, so they made some natural subjects for photographs:

 
And of course, there were the dunes themselves, and a nice New Mexico sunset to go with them:

We spent our last night in New Mexico along the side of a mountain at Oliver Lee State Park near Alamogordo.   Wished I could have spent more time there, but 70 mph wind gusts were being predicted for the next day, so I knew we had to high-tail it off that unprotected perch to start heading home.

An Afternoon at Bosque del Apache

Keeping with the “Apache” theme, after the Apache Trail, I headed to New Mexico with the main purpose of visiting Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  This rather small preserve, located just a few miles off of I-25 (and not too far from where the atom bomb was originally tested back in the 1940s), is the winter home to an amazing variety of birds.  It attracts birders and photographers from around the world, and rightly so.   This place was spectacular!

Within minutes of arriving, I came upon a small pond that was jammed packed with snow geese.  I’d never seen these birds before and spent the next hour just being amazed by them.


I then began making my way around a loop drive.  As there was lots to see and photograph, but only a couple hours of prime afternoon light, I decided to forego the tripod and just shoot all pictures from the motorhome—thank goodness for my image-stabilized telephoto lens!

Even though Mallards are very common in Illinois, I never saw them in such amazing light before…New Mexico made them very special!

The real attraction here, though, are the Sandhill cranes.  I was a bit late in the season here for them, but there were still many of them to be seen:

One afternoon was simply not enough time to enjoy the magic of this place!  I will certainly plan to return for a longer stay next time!

Mountain Off-Roading….with a motorhome!

Yes, you can now officially consider me crazy.  I took my View off-roading along 22 miles of a mountainous narrow dirt road known as the Apache Trail.  I didn’t mean to do it. It just happened….and although rather scary in a few spots, it was AWESOME!


The trip started out so benign.  I had enjoyed my drive to Canyon Lake a few evenings before, and after looking at maps to plan my route to New Mexico, it sure appeared that driving further west along the Apache Trail would be the most-direct route, and it’d give me more 2-lane highway driving rather than the boring interstate.

So on Saturday morning, off we headed to the Apache Trail.  With every intersection, I kept noticing my Garmin girl trying to re-calculate me to drive south through Tucson rather than east through the Superstition mountains.  Convinced that that Garmin girl was giving me some whacky route, I continued my familiar drive along the pretty, paved 2-lane highway to Canyon Lake.

Shortly after the Tortilla Flats campground, a sign on the road warned me that the pavement was now coming to an end, and that it’d be gravel for the next 22 miles.

 
But this road looked pretty wide and smooth to me (I’d driven my motorhome along plenty roads like this before with no problem), so I decided to continue eastward.  Soon, however, the road began getting more narrow—only 1 lane, with just a few small turnouts for oncoming cars to pass.  Then the road began to serpentine along the steep rock cliffs as it navigated through the mountains….ut oh!


Obviously, I was pretty pre-occupied with keeping my white knuckles on the steering wheel most of the time, so didn’t get many pics of this drive, but I found this YouTube video from another tourist that summarizes the experience pretty well:

Fortunately, I didn’t have any oncoming traffic in the narrow portions, and all the little 1-lane bridges (that had no marked capacity ratings posted on them), managed to support my 11,000 lb motorhome just fine.

Towards the east end of the trail, the road started to widen a bit more, and thankfully, it was on this section when I finally did encounter a driver even crazier than me--- towing his big boat!
 
But this was another day where I was so very grateful to be driving a SKINNY short View rather than a longer, wider Winnie!

The east end of the trail had some nice views of Apache Lake as well as the backside of Roosevelt Dam:

As I reached the dam, the 2-lane highway pavement reappeared bringing us back to civilization.  Only took us a mere 3 hours to drive the short 22-mile Apache Trail, so I guess the darn Garmin girl was right after all…but my route was a heck of a lot more fun!

On the other side of the dam was Roosevelt Lake and a very neat suspension bridge:


Millie had been panting in fear for her life most of the morning and was very overjoyed to see all that inviting blue water.  I found a little picnic area a few miles south that had a perfect spot for dog swimming, so all my morning tortures were now forgiven!

Phun in Phoenix

Every time I had passed through Phoenix in the past, I’d never been all that impressed.  Maybe it’s the contrast of coming from such grand wide-open scenic vistas to suddenly seeing miles of suburban track homes and big box stores along with all the traffic that goes with them. 

This time around, I decided to stay on the far east side of town in the foothills, hoping to still get all the connectivity and modern conveniences of the city, while also enjoying some desert beauty as well.  A number of full-time RVers had raved about Usery  Mountain Regional Park in their blog posts, so I decided to give it a shot.

I arrived late Sunday afternoon figuring the campground would likely have a few open spots by then….but not so here in February!  This first-come-first-served park is so popular, that folks stay in the overflow parking lot up to a few days before finally getting a real spot.  Fortunately for me, I was only # 5 in line and the ranger thought for sure I’d get a spot the next morning.  So, I pulled into the overflow lot for the night and enjoyed the amazing sunset above!

I got a site the next morning as promised, and it was a great big one with a great view of Usery mountain and the cactus trees.

Not a bad view from the office window either:

I stayed a full week here to soak up the all the sun and warmth I could before heading back towards Chicago.  I also needed to get the motorhome serviced—both headlights had managed to burn out within a week of each other, and I also wanted to get the oil changed, so made an appointment with the nearby Dodge dealer. 

Whenever I had taken my motorhome for service in Chicago, I just took my laptop along and was able to work from the customer waiting room, so that’s what I planned to do here as well.  But then I realized a big difference between getting service work done at home versus on the road—what would I do with Millie?   Fortunately, the Phoenix dealership had an outdoor waiting area, so Millie was able to hang out next to me and I was still able to work!

One other evening after work, I decided to take a short drive through the Superstition Mountains to Canyon Lake along the first part of the Apache Trail.  The scenery was spectacular and I dearly wished the winds had not been blowing so hard--- otherwise, I would have inflated my Sea Eagle to take a paddle on that gorgeous lake (that will certainly be a “to-do” for my next visit)!

After seeing this view near the entrance to Lost Dutchman State Park on the Apache Trail, my overall impression of Phoenix has now completely changed—no wonder so many people have decided to call this area home, it’s gorgeous!

Weekend in Red Rocks Country

After the cold front came through plunging the temps in southern Arizona down into the teens, I had a decision to make—either start to head home, or find a warmer place to extend my trip.  A call back home confirmed that Chicago was still trying to dig out from the blizzard, so looks like I’d be “stuck” in Arizona a while longer!  So I decided to head north to see some new sights and get some warmer temps.

 
I set my sights on the Sedona “red rock country” for the weekend.  I had been to Sedona a few times before, and when I arrived this time, even though skies were overcast, the rocks were still gorgeous, and a short drive up and down Oak Creek canyon was still spectacular.


While Sedona has lots of boutique shopping, spas, and hotels, it doesn’t offer that many options for RV parking, so I decided to explore the Cottonwood area about 20 miles south that had far better RV options.

I easily found a site at Dead Horse Ranch State Park, and spent the next day exploring the park and town.

There was a dog park nearby that actually had some real grass (something Millie had not seen in over a month, so she was eager to run and play Frisbee). On our way back to the RV, I spotted these pretty trees near the banks of the small Verde river that runs through the park--

But the best was saved for last—the magnificent sky just after sunset:

I really enjoyed the town of Cottonwood.  While not as scenic or upscale as Sedona, it offered plenty of shopping options and had a more casual slower-paced vibe.

On Sunday, I decided to take the scenic route south into the mountains to get to Phoenix via the Prescott valley.  The little town of Jerome is only about 10 miles south of Cottonwood, but is halfway up the very steep mountain range.  Houses and road are literally built into the cliffs.  This is a town where I was thankful to have a short motorhome to navigate all the switchbacks without taking somebody’s mailbox out!


I quickly drove through Prescott and didn’t have time to stop and explore much, but it looked like a nice town to explore next time I’m out here and I also enjoyed finding more jumbo rocks!