Running Before the Storms

April 30, 2017

Last Tuesday we landed at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. This is probably our fourth stay here. It's a spacious park with electric and water hook-ups, good internet and phone connections and bathhouses. For only $14 a night its a deal. We have a view of the lake and the mountains, and Gambel's Quail, one of our favorite birds running all around the campsites and the road. The ground doves are prevalent here, too, and every evening we watch the gangs of birds gather together on the blacktop and chase each other around. The doves mostly run a few steps and fly about, while the quail just dash pell-mell in all directions with their silly flags on their heads tilted forward as if they are holding a banner and charging into battle. Their maniacal laugh makes them look and sound somewhat deranged. The doves just can't compete. They seem rather boring and dull in contrast.

Gamble's Quail 

Another camp neighbor

We finished out our time at Moab with a day hiking in the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. The peninsula overlooking the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers thousands of feet below is a breathtaking testament to the power of water and erosion. Greg and Brian did a hike together at Upheaval Dome, a meteor crater. After that we had a day of relaxing along the river, while Brian took off for more vigorous hiking on his own.

The central core of Upheaval Dome, the eroded roots of a large meteorite impact

Hiking the red rock!

Island in the Sky

Looking over the White Rim Trail along the Green River

Lizard sitting on the very edge with a 1,000' drop below it!

Sunday morning Brian left to head back over the Rockies to start a seasonal job, and we took off south to try to get into the campground in the remote Needles area of Canyonlands NP. At the gate we were informed that most of the small campground was now reservation only. The few first come- first served sites were full. The strategy was to camp outside the park at the BLM campground or disperse camp along the road to it, and then at 6 am line up at the campground and hope someone leaves. He said there were only a few sites that turned over every day. We decided to do a little touring and a short hike in the park and see what we could find for the night on nearby BLM land. It was a long haul back out to the main highway and nowhere to camp there.

The Needles

After touring the park we drove to the 12 site BLM campground. It was full. We snagged the last dispersed campsite along the road and settled in for a night of blowing red sand. More high winds came in, but it was cool enough to sleep with the windows closed. The weather was turning, so we decided in the morning we would go farther south. Before sun up the cars were driving down the gravel road to go line up at Needles. Not, us. We'd had enough of crowds!

Boondock on BLM land

Heavy traffic

The next morning a short drive brought us farther south to Monticello, Utah. It was at a higher elevation with a temperature near 40 degrees! We realized we had an engine problem and found a mechanic. Most of the day was spent there. The minor problem was fixed, but after reading the weather forecast of snow showers that night and the next day, we drove on past the local RV park. Driving south took us to a lower elevation, temperatures in the 70's, and the town of Bluff, UT. We found a small BLM campground, Sand Island, on the banks of the San Juan River and got one of the last sites. Before dinner we took the short hike to the cliffs to see petroglyphs carved in the rock face.

Pretty campsite along the San Juan River

The next day brought winter storm, rain, and high wind warnings. We calculated how far south we needed to drive to get out of the rain and possible snow and ice, and when to stop before we reached the area that would be dry, but winds gusting up to 60 mph! Ah, the West. Our travels are so often dictated by the weather, instead of where we want to visit. We set a path out of Utah, east across a piece of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, and then southeast to Albuquerque, NM. Since it was still in the heavy rain area, we drove south down I-25 and decided the Socorro area halfway between Albuquerque and Truth or Consequences would be out of the rain, but north of the highest wind area.

Shiprock in the mist, rising from the plains.

Rain squalls ahead! Heading into Albuquerque

When we reached that area around 3 pm, we decided we would continue on to Elephant Butte. Greg muscled the steering wheel and fought the crosswinds as we traveled the rest of the way south. We were very happy to arrive at the park and found a good site in our favorite campground, Quail Run. Ahhhh, we breathed a sigh of relief. It was VERY windy, but dry. The sun was shining, the temperatures were comfortable, and we decided to settle in and regroup.

Our favorite campsite in Elephant Butte

In the midst of our moving around we discovered that we had picked up two mice while we were in Moab. Food was gotten into, but we didn't see any mouse poops. Hmmm....I put the grains in the fridge and we hoped that they would leave. No such luck! We heard them late at night and early in the morning. On our dash south we bought traps. Before we could set them I heard a sound and shut one up in a box it was exploring. Greg dashed it out of the rig and dispatched it to the bushes away from our campsite. We hoped it would be too confused to return. The next day after our arrival at Elephant Butte a second one was caught. It apparently had traveled with us that long day over rough roads, rain, cold, wind, and noise. It found a sweet potato to chew on while we drove...

Anyway, we had a big mess to clean up. RV's have lots of places to jump up underneath from the outside, and crawl around in tiny places. We found the nest after cleaning out the storage that exists under the back bottom bunk. Finally found all the mouse poops...

We have also been transporting a spider since we left Florida. When we were in Maryland it crawled out from behind the driver side rear view mirror to get a drink from a raindrop and crawled back in. It was large and orange and very Florida looking! Since then we have traveled through wind, rain, very high and very low temperatures. Suddenly, at a gas station in the cold rain in Shiprock, New Mexico, it crawled out again for a drink! I don't know if it is still there. He is too well concealed to see. We are still carrying the little black ants we picked up in Kentucky last Fall. They occasionally make an appearance in the kitchen. Guess we are guilty of environmental “crimes”, by relocating species to other than their native habitats!

Take me back home to Florida!

We will leave in the morning. It has been nice to just relax and catch up with odds and ends. Greg has been trying out the Fat Boy bike he found on Craigslist just before we left Maryland. He has been pleased with how well it rides on the sand. We drove into Truth or Consequences one day to catch up on laundry and groceries. We were disappointed to discover that our two favorite cafes had gone out of business, but Maria's is now Tony's and we got a good Mexican meal for lunch. Yesterday a late Spring snowstorm hit the Southwest. Albuquerque and Santa Fe had a day of snow. We lucked out with just cold weather, winds, rain, and hail. It got down to 50 degrees here, while it was 91 degrees in Maryland!

Boondockers down at the lake's edge

Ready for sand!

Beautiful beetle crossing the road

Tomorrow we will drive south again and try to check into City of Rocks State Park and the Rockhound State Park outside of Deming. Two more of our favorite parks and easy access to the best green chili cheese burgers in New Mexico!