Below is an email from Krista to our respective mothers. In bold typeface are my additions, subtractions and otherwise annoying interjections...
Hey blog readers, we had a good trip, thanks for asking. We'll post some pictures here if you'd like to see more.
We recently visited El Morro and El Malpais which are National Monuments west of Albuquerque. El Morro is a big rock butte that has some neato petroglyphs and also hundreds of inscriptions from Spanish explorers and settlers that traveled past it on their way through the area. There is a pool of water that people would stop at, an oasis of sorts, and added their names to the sandstone. Also, on the top of the rock, there is a partially uncovered pueblo ruin. We camped there that night (not at the Pueblo ruin, that would have been illegal, rather we camped at the El Morro campground where there is a pit toilet) and then the next morning, drove to El Malpais, which is Spanish for "badlands" - a number of volcanoes erupted in that area, the most recent was 3000 years ago. We hiked a trail called the Narrows, which takes you up along the rim of sandstone bluffs and to a view of a natural arch called La Ventana Arch (Spanish for "the wicked awesome rocky thing").
We saw some cool (and sometimes scary) wildlife. I think a coyote, we only saw it running up ahead on the trail, and didn't get a good look at its head for identification. Either that or a fox. There are a number of small lizards all over, and then we also saw a collared lizard, which looks like a small iguana. He just sat on the rock and let us take a bunch of pictures, so we'll post those too. A bunch of hummingbirds whizzed past us throughout the day. It is the rainy season up there, so we had to plan around the afternoon showers which were never heavy, but did involve thunder and lightning.
We set up camp there Friday night and then decided to take a little hike up the nearby mesa before we made some dinner. We climbed up and walked around a bit (light forest of small pinon and junipers trees) and when we were heading back, we were walking along the rocks to find a good place to climb down when I saw something dart through the trees. It looked kinda red, and I stopped David cause I thought it was a fox. We snuck around to get a look and it was a bobcat! David didn't get a good look at it (because I was busy acting as a human shield, trying to protect Krista), but I saw its face pretty clearly. It wasn't very big, maybe 20 pounds or so. It snuck away and we left it alone, of course. We heard it making that kind of low warning noise that cats make in their throats. Apparently they can be quite fierce, but don't attack large healthy animals unless desperate. There are PLENTY of cute bunnies out there, so I'm sure it is well fed.
We took a hike Saturday morning on the lava field, which was my favorite part. It was on the 3000 yr old flow, so it is starting to get reclaimed by plants and small trees and lichens, but you can still clearly see the lava formations and sinkholes. Here you can see some of the formations that have a striking resemblance to cowpies. The trail eventually leads you to a natural amphitheater of lava rocks. While standing in the middle, you are entirely surrounded by lava. The 2 kinds of lava we walked on are called Pahoehoe (the smooth stuff, pronounced "pa-hoy-hoy") and A'a (the rough stuff, pronounced "ah-ha").
We also tried to find some other petroglyphs that a ranger told us about across from the lava hike in the wilderness area, but there wasn't a trail and our directions from the ranger were "stay to the left of the arroyo until you see the three large ponderosa pines and then look for the red rock." Or something like that. We couldn't find the pines and weren't sure if we were remembering correctly, so we headed back after a few attempts. The ranger who gave us these directions was not your typical rugged-looking, dirt under the fingernails variety of ranger. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, similar to the Sweeney Sisters from Saturday Night Live. And her nails were very long, very clean and glazed with shiny bronze polish that complemented her tan skin. At first I dismissed her, thinking she was just some local volunteer, but she proved to have a wealth of knowledge about the area, and able to identify every poorly described example of flora and fauna we could throw at her. I only wish we had written down her directions so that we might have found the petroglyphs...and gotten a picture of that hair.
We ended the trip in Albuquerque to stock up on food at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We got a lot of good stuff that we can't get here (or don't want to cause it isn't very fresh...fish, meat) and also good prices on staples like soy milk and cereal (people in Roswell eat cereal, just not the kind we like) that are expensive here because there is little market for them. And some yummy stuff that we can't find here like curries and wholewheat pancake mix. We'll have to ration it out a bit until we can get up there again.
There is so much to see up in the northwest part of the state, that we were a little tempted to stay longer, but I hadn't planned for someone to check on the mice or my plants and the rainy season wasn't very inviting (flash floods are possible if it really pours). So I think we'll plan a little longer trip to see some of the other places. I think we'll head to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadeloupe NP next, after David's show in September. Those are much closer to us.
Click here for the full photo expose.
love,
krista and David
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