Tetilla Peak Recreation Area, Peña Blanca, New Mexico; May 15-28, 2013

About to get into Albuquerque from the East

The drive from Santa Rosa to Tetilla Peak was the best yet, except for the rain. The land changed once more and we saw several large mountain ranges in the distance. As we approached Albuquerque, we drove down a 12 mile grade from Moriarity to Albuquerque - the highest peak in that range is over 12,000 feet.  The mountains are mostly rock with some juniper bushes scattered over them. Albuquerque overpasses are painted in salmon with earth tone trim, which actually is quite a nice change from the norm.

North of Albuquerque on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert

Albuquerque lies within the northern, upper edges of the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion, and on its north side, it is obvious. There are miles and miles of huge sand dunes, dotted with juniper. I nearly made myself carsick, looking from one side of the truck to the other, mesmerized with the huge mountains in the distance and the desert-like landscape close in. 

The farther north we traveled the more mountains we saw. As we made the turn from the interstate toward Cochiti Lake, we were completely encircled with mountains and absolutely no buildings in sight. The remoteness of the campground was emphasized when, with 10 miles to go, we made the final turn and the iPad map app voice told us “turn impossible”. Hmm.

Headed toward TetillaPeak Campground - Mountains in the background, desert like landscape by the road

More desert and mountains

Tetilla Peak campground tucked between the Sandia, Jemez, Ortiz, and San Pedro mountains, is on the banks of the Cochiti Lake, just downstream from the Rio Grande, across the lake from Pueblo de Cochiti, and in the middle of the Santa Domingo Indian Reservation. The afternoon we arrived, we heard drums and once in a while the wind carried chanting across to us. Altogether a cool time! The normal surface of the lake is more than 6,000 above sea level. 

Broad-Tailed or Black-Chinned Hummingbirds, don't know which

The entire time we’ve been here (two weeks) the wind has blown – sometime just a brisk breeze and other times with gusts over 50 mph. We saw ravens (don’t know if they are the Common or Chihuahua) gliding on the winds, black-chinned or perhaps broad-tailed hummingbirds (as you can see in our photos), and house finches.

The yucca/shish-kabob

Dickens has enjoyed the warm sun and all the new scents he smells, but he still hasn’t learned about cactus and yucca. When I was taking him for his “constitutional” he stopped to do his business on top of a cactus that was lying on the ground – my fingers were sore for days from trying to clean that one up. Last night on his walk, he stopped over a yucca plant – picture green bamboo skewers in a bouquet – and made his deposit there. Shish-kabobs?? I’m going to have to pay closer attention when we walk, I think.

The roof of the cover over the picnic table in our site was of corrugated metal and housed at least five nests of house finches tucked in the ends. We were able to watch papa finch feed his two babies by the end of our stay.

The nearest place to get ice is at the Pueblo across the lake, where we saw the mobile grocery store. You can almost see it
from our camp but it is  a trip of more than 15 miles one way – no wonder there is a mobile grocery store, since the next closest spot to shop for food is Santa Fe, about 30 miles from here.

Papa House Finch feeding his babies

I loved Santa Fe with its pueblo-style buildings, the old historic part of town, and the wonderful New Mexican food. As with the other restaurants we’ve visited in New Mexico that serve New Mexican food, they do not put chips and salsa on the table upon your arrival but bring sopapilla (fry bread served with honey) along with your order. They have all been good, but La Choza had some that were so light and delicious I nearly ordered a plateful.

Since we were here for two weeks, I broke down and ordered a field guide to the Southwestern states and I was so excited to get it. The trees and shrubs here are completely foreign to me and I’ve been trying to learn what they all are. I know, I’m a dork 

We managed to get to three different historic sites and monuments during our stay here: Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, Petroglyphs, and Pecos, all of which were very well worth doing and I have done separate entries on all three.

There is so much history here in New Mexico and with such spectacular surroundings – I can’t wait to get back when we can spend a month or two in New Mexico. We’ll get a NM State Park Pass up front, then pay $4/night for electricity.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, Santa Rosa, NM May 10-15, 2013

 The drive from Lubbock to Santa Rosa was through more tiny little towns that looked one step away from a ghost town.  We drove in rain for a lot of miles but luckily missed the worst of the storm. During the drive, I saw my first tumbleweed! It reminded me of one of my Dad’s Louis Lamour books about a lonely woman who wrote poignant notes and tucked them into tumbleweeds.  (A tumbleweed is the above ground part of any of a number of plants that, once mature and dry, breaks from the root and tumbles away in the wind.)

We stopped at the New Mexico Visitor’s Center in Texico and talked with the woman there and she told us about how the drought is affecting homeowners – it sounded like a story from the dust bowl days: sand blowing so hard all the time that it creeps in through the doors and windows, gets into the carpets, curtains and even stove and refrigerator. I can’t help but expect that it has to be getting into the motors of appliances and damaging them as well. She also told us that in New Mexico, if the wind is blowing less than 35 mph it’s just breezy. It’s only considered windy when it gets above 60 mph. The wind is something we’ve experienced since we got to Texas, and New Mexico seems even windier.

Traveling west on State Highway 84, the country is very flat and much is farmland with huge feedlots, grain elevators, and grain silos scattered along the highway. 

We also learned that in a 24 hour period, 100 trains go through town. I can’t even begin to estimate the number of tractor-trailers.

This was a state park just outside of town and you would swear you were 100 miles from anywhere. It is sparse campground by a lake and dam, and I wonder if it might not originally have been a Corps of Engineers park. Some of the sites had no hookups, some had only electricity, and some had water and electricity. The most common plants were cholla cactus, juniper, sagebrush, and lots of dead plants that I couldn’t identify. (Sagebrush is the official state plant of New Mexico and was used for tea, medicines, fuel, and the stringy bark may be used in making baskets and ropes.) The drought has been rough on this part of the country – much of what should be green is brown and crunchy when stepped on. The fire hazard is listed as extreme and only propane fires are allowed. We got a photo of the dam and if you look carefully, you can see a couple different water lines staining the rock – far above the current level of water.

In spite of the dry conditions, we enjoyed the park and the very different scenery we encountered. We took a drive to Puerto de Luna, a little town of 141 people. We never did see any businesses – just houses scattered along and a church that was built in 1888 and renovated in 1921.  The countryside on the drive to and around Puerto de Luna was spectacular and I took way too many photos.

Had some folks come in driving a little class C with at least three adults, two kids, and three little dogs. Neither the kids nor the dogs were on leashes… They decided they needed to level the rear wheel, so they got out their Leggo-style leveling blocks and stacked them up, one two blocks high, then two stacks of three blocks high. The only problem? They had the two stacks of three next to the tire and the two blocks were on the far side of the stack. Needless to say, they couldn’t drive up onto the three high stacks without the lower block to begin with. After a surprisingly long time of gunning the motor, trying to get the wheel atop the stack of three, someone figured out they needed to get the short stack immediately in front of the tire… I really worry about folks like that.

We had lunch at one of the very few restaurants that received something other than two or three stars  in TripAdvisor and Yelp – Comet II. We had a friendly waitress, a good lunch for a reasonable price and nattia, a yummy, rich pudding with a caramel sauce, was included!  How can you not love that?

We stopped at the Blue Hole, a bell shaped pool in Santa Rosa that is a consistent 64 degrees, has a constant inflow of 3,000 gallons of water a minute, is 80’ in diameter at the surface and 130’ in diameter on the bottom. It is one of the most popular destinations in the United States for SCUBA diving and training. It was a surprising find in the middle of a small town.

All-in-all, this was another delightful time in a campground that was completely new to us. Now we’re off to Tetilla Peak Recreation area, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Lubbock KOA, Lubbock, TX May 7-10, 2013

While we don’t usually stay at KOA’s, this one was better than Post View, so we were happy. It was a typical KOA – not much on grass or trees or space, but good restrooms, laundry, and good ice cream sandwiches in the camp store J The worst part was the very busy divided highway about 30 feet away and on the other side of that were busy railroad tracks. 

We visited the Texas Tech’s National Ranching Heritage Museum, which was spectacular. There are 48 buildings from c. 1780 to 1904 that have been moved to the museum and preserved. It is a beautifully planned and executed place with wonderfully informational signs. We spent about three hours and, had we taken water with us, could have easily spent longer. It is definitely a worthwhile stop.

Now it’s on to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Another first time for me state!

Lakeview Park, Coleman, TX April 29 – May 6, 2013

The drive to Coleman was one of the most interesting yet – the landscape was changing and the huge houses were giving way to small ranches, abandoned houses, overgrown fields of mesquite and yucca, and old homes with windmills and cisterns in the front yard.  I noticed the name of one ranch over the gate as we drove past – “Oleo Ranch – Just a Cheap Spread”.  I love a good sense of humor!

Coleman itself is a sad little town with many old adobe-looking buildings falling into ruin, an old two-story school building dark and broken, overgrown lots in the middle of the little town, yet in the midst of all this was a big beautiful bank and a large investment office building. We stopped at the Shoppin’ Baskit for groceries and found prices to be surprisingly low, as they are in most of Texas – bananas were 25 cents a pound, two 10 pound bags of potatoes for $4, and we got some wonderful Tamales – enough for two meals – for $4!

We’ve seen lots of wildflowers along the way – bluebonnets, verbena, rain lilies, Indian blankets, white prickly poppies, beach morning glories, Texas dandelions, and perhaps some Gay feathers. Lakeview Park is nearly deserted – the main drawing card being the lake, which is very low and has a no wake limit. It was in the 90’s when we arrived, but as long as we were in the shade, it was beautifully cool, with a lovely breeze coming in off the lake. The humidity was 18%.

 

Tuesday morning we had breakfast outside (I had a jacket and blanket on until around noon) and spent the entire morning in the shade watching a pair of mourning doves flirt.

Coleman is a huge park with lots of sites – some in loops with only 5 or 6 spots and others with 30 or more. The restrooms left a lot to be desired (motion sensors on showers and no temperature control on the water), but we’ve seen worse.  There were lots of different wildflowers in the park –  Huisache, Chocolate, Blackfoot daisies,  Verbena and others that I’ve never seen before. I’m still trying to identify them.  

The sunsets were spectacular while we were there and of course, we took lots of photos.

Wednesday we drove north to visit Abilene, pick up some groceries, and find some wi-fi, since we don’t even have cell phone coverage anywhere around Coleman. It was about an hour drive and we saw more wildflowers growing in every color of the rainbow, often with lush clumps of blooming cactus in the middle. There are acres and acres of land with mesquite trees growing wild, some with cattle or goats grazing between the trees. In the first 15 miles outside of Coleman, we only saw one house, although there were dirt drives with ranch names over them. As we traveled north, there was more and more signs of working farms and ranches, with plowed fields, baled hay, and farm equipment, but most structures were set so far off the road they were out of sight, even though the land is fairly flat here.

This just proves that not everything is larger in Texas. I'm standing in front of a group of about six full grown oak trees.

We drove through a little town called Lawn – just a handful of dilapidated buildings, several of which were abandoned but there was a café, a repair shop, and another building open for business.  I was depressed just driving past.

Much of Abilene is large brick buildings dating back to the late 1800’s, many more areas are like the fast growing areas from the 1950-60’s which are just tired looking, then an area that has all the usual businesses that end up around an interstate.  None of the old wooden buildings have survived, but there is a fairly new museum “Frontier Texas!” that depicts the cattle town from the early 1800’s. We didn’t make it through, but hope to make it back before we leave the area. We did visit the 12^th Armored Division Museum, which detailed the big part Abilene played in the training of soldiers who fought in World War II. At one point, the base in Abilene housed 60,000 men who were among those who had a hand in freeing the prisoners of German concentration camps. There were several videos which were very informative – one narrated by a Holocaust survivor and another by a soldier who had fought in the area.  It is obvious the museum is run on a shoestring, but the experience was one of the most emotionally draining we’ve had in a long time.  

We had lunch at Farolito’s, which was recommended to us by a woman at the Frontier Texas museum – we would never have found it otherwise. It is a Tex-Mex restaurant run by the Herrera family since 1936 and is tucked in behind some warehouses in a section of town we never would have driven into.

 

 The restaurant was very busy when we arrived, and I welcomed the wait to relax and regain my equilibrium from the museum. We ordered tamales and enchiladas then shared a marvelous flan that was fantastic. The entire meal was delicious and we ended up chatting with a couple of men at the next table who were in town from Fort Worth. They offered some additional insight on local restaurants, which is always welcome!

We had planned on going to another museum and finding a wi-fi location before heading back to Coleman, but after checking on the weather, decided to get some fuel and groceries and head back without additional stops. A cold front was moving into Texas and high winds, hail, and lightning were forecast for the evening. When we arrived back at camp, it was beautiful – about 85 degrees and breezy. We anchored a few things down, then settled in. Before long, we heard that Amarillo had snow and we were witness to a lightning show that rivaled any we’ve seen in Florida or the mountains, but with flashes lighting up the land as far as the eye could see. The lightning started at sunset, with flashes turning the sky purple and didn’t stop until after eleven. The hail only lasted about 15 minutes, but was deafening while it lasted. Poor Dickens couldn’t stop shaking. At about 4 AM, the high winds started and made the wind we had in Texarkana seem like a gentle breeze! The forecast had warned of 65 mph winds but don’t know what we actually had – I don’t think they have been 65 here, but probably well over 45. We got up around 7 AM and the temperature had dropped to 41 degrees. It is nearly noon, 43 degrees and we’re supposed to have high winds through 7 PM. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be down to 29.  I guess it’s true – there’s nothing like Texas in the springtime!

We left Coleman on the 6^th for Post, TX and had planned to stay there for six nights. We stopped in Sweetwater for breakfast burritos and I had a yen for doughnuts, so stopped in at the little hole-in-the-wall doughnut shop run by a little Asian woman and got the best apple fritters either of us have ever eaten.

Once we arrived at Post View RV Park, the campground at which we had reservations, we decided it was so nasty we’d only overnight! There was dog pooh all over, piles of yard trash in sites, about half of the electrical hookups had the covers missing, bare wires exposed, or some other glaring problem, there were broken PVC pipes and caps all over the place, and even if we had wanted to be outside, there wasn’t enough room to do so. The bathrooms were clean though… Early the next morning, we headed out to the Lubbock KOA for three nights.