KOFA Wildlife Refuge

Our neighbor wanted to go for a ride with the 4 wheelers so we took him out to the Kofa wildlife refuge.  We entered it on the King road which is up highway 95 toward Quartzsite just north of the border patrol check point.  Kofa stands for King of Arizona which is the name of the gold mine that produced lots of gold back in the day.  There are still a few active mines in the refuge on some private land within the refuge.  People always get confused when they see no trespassing signs in the middle of some government land but there are private holdings in the middle of public lands.  If you have ever been to Glacier National Park you will see some privately owned houses inside the park. 

The refuge has some beautiful scenery and lots of wildlife.  There are desert bighorn sheep, mountain lions, pronghorn antelope, wild burros, wild horses, desert fox and coyotes not to mention all the smaller critters.   We didn't see any but we were out in the middle of the day when you typically don't see much.  The road was fairly good which isn't the case with most of the roads in the refuge.  People can camp out here as long as you don't go more than 100 feet off of the road.  The weather was perfect with sun and no wind.  We went about 35 or 40 miles and our neighbor really enjoyed his first time out there.

Barry Goldwater Range -east of Yuma

Gold prospecting is on hold because it rained so we have been doing more 4 wheeling.  We went over to the Barry Goldwater military range east of Yuma and south of Wellton.  Its about 30 miles from where we are staying for the winter.  We had never explored this area of the Barry Goldwater before so we thought we would check it out.  It had rained a day or two before we went.  We thought it wouldn't be such a dusty ride if we went after the rain.  It was a good day for a ride and the road we took wasn't muddy.  We got quite a ways south but then the road turned into a very sandy wash.  The sand made us sink about a foot and while we could have continued it wasn't any fun slogging through the sand. 

The area is surrounded by very pretty mountains although my picture doesn't do the colors justice.  We also came across three tanks sitting out in the middle of nowhere.  Not sure if they were still in service since they had a bit of rust on them.  I can't believe the military would just leave them out in the desert to "die".  We tried a different road but it eventually got very narrow and muddy so we gave it up but it was still a good day riding.

Spook Canyon

We took a ride out into the Barry Goldwater Range.  It's a military range south of Yuma that allows some public access.  You need to go online and get your free range permit.  When you are ready to go out on the range you go online and check in so they know you will be out there.  The ranger we talked to said that was kind of a joke.  He said that when your relatives or friends start wondering what happened to you they go back and look at the records for the day you entered the range so it gives them a starting point.  There are rangers and border patrol that are out and about on the range so you might get help if you break down.  There are also emergency beacons scattered around the range but if you hit the button you better be in trouble. 

We took the road out to Spook Canyon.  There are two spook canyons in the Yuma area.  One on the range and one in the Dome Mountains.  We have been to both.  They get their name from the funny lights that can be seen when there is no moon which makes it "spooky".  Something in the rocks or soil of the area must give off some kind of gas that glows a little bit.   No one has an exact reason for the "lights."

Birds of a Feather

When we were in Southeastern Arizona on our way to Yuma for the winter we saw these birds near the campground.  The top picture shows Scaled Quail.  They have a funny little "cotton top" on their head and they are more of a blue color than the Gambel's quail we usually see.  It was the first time we have seen this kind of quail although their territory is Colorado, western Kansas, Oklahoma and Arizona.

The bottom picture has a scaled quail and to it's left is a Curved Bill Thrasher.  This is another bird that likes deserty places.  It needs the big curved bill to peck at the very hard parched earth. 

Now that we are back in Yuma we have a couple of Cactus wrens hanging around and they love to eat the bugs that have died on parts of the truck.  They love to get the "grilled" ones off of the radiator. 

Yuma is starting to fill up for the winter.  You can tell by how much the traffic is building.  It gets busy but you just can't beat the weather.  It's in the 80's during the day and 50's at night.

Chloride, New Mexico

When we were in New Mexico we took a trip to a "ghost town".  Chloride is an old mining town that now has about twelve people still living there.  There is a very interesting museum with a small RV park behind it.  The Chloride Bank is now a cafe.   We ate there and the food wasn't bad.  The cook was trying to upgrade the menu.  They can't get deliveries there so he has to drive the forty or so miles to town to get supplies.  They may run out of certain ingredients before the next run.  The waitress told us about a privately owned field a block down where for two dollars you can park and off load your four wheeler.  There is a Forest  Service road/trail that starts at the end of the road in Chloride and goes up into the mountains.  If you take it you will cross a stream over 150 times which may or may not have water in it. 

The other picture is of the "hanging tree or Chloride forest".  Not sure if they really used it for hanging and it is the biggest tree around so it gets the "forest" tag as a joke.  It's a little bit of a drive to Chloride with at least one hairpin tight curve to get up and over so not sure I would want to take the RV but lots of hunters do make it. 

Chasing a Quartz outcropping

We are in Quartzsite, Arizona doing some gold prospecting.  The area surrounding the town is all public land and full of old mines and diggings.   There are pretty white quartz mounds all over the place and pieces of quartz litter the ground everywhere you look.  Here I took a picture of the quartz the old timers were chiseling at and the hole they dug where the fence is.   Gold likes to hang out with quartz so it was tempting to dig where you find these outcroppings.  Mostly we would see lots of digging and smashed pieces of quartz but probably no gold was found or there would have been major digging. 

We found a little gold this time.  Not enough to take a picture but at least we didn't get skunked.  The dirt finally dried out enough so we could use our drywasher but now its time to leave and move on to Yuma.  We are hoping the ground there is dry enough so we can get digging. 

Apache Pass

We took the 4 wheeler up to Apache Pass when we were staying in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.  Apache Pass is in the Caballo Mountains and south of Elephant Butte.  We got high enough to see Elephant Butte Reservoir in the distance.  Seeing some pretty blue water in the middle of the desert is a treat.  We did not go over the pass we just got close to the top and then chickened out of going any further.  The road turned into a goat trail and we were out by ourselves so if we got in trouble it would be a very long walk through the hot desert. 

We left Elephant Butte and headed to Willcox, AZ.  Its a small town just over the border from New Mexico off of I-10.  The town was getting ready to celebrate Rex Allen days -- an old tv cowboy that lived in the area.  We then stayed a few days in Gila Bend which is half way between Tuscon and Yuma.  We visited friends who live in Sun City West one of the Del Web developments.  The area has the oldest population in the country.  The average age is like 78 years old.  The houses in this area sell like hotcakes and sell before they even hit the market.  We have to say it was a very nice neighborhood with nice manicured lawns and very quiet. 

We are now in Quartzsite which was still in the mid to high nineties when we arrived.  It is now in the high eighties but it cools off at night to the fifties.   Very nice!

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

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We took the auto route tour out of Elephant Butte, New Mexico.  It takes you to some pull outs where you can see the El Camino Real.  This is the royal road that started in Mexico City and went all the way to Santa Fe.  This would have been a sixteen hundred mile journey.  The Spanish started the trail in 1598 which goes through Mexico, west Texas, and New Mexico.   We did the mile and a half hike to see the old "road".  The top picture shows whats left of the road/trail going through the New Mexico desert.  There is an offshoot of the trail that is called the trail of death because there is no water along it and people died trying to cross.   The trail/road was used until the 1880s when the railroad finally took over the job of hauling people and freight through this part of the country. 

We have been enjoying the weather in New Mexico and have been visiting friends who have decided to make this area their permanent home after years of being full time RV'ers.  Of course they think we should make this our permanent place as well but we think the winters are too cold.  Also the lake here draws huge crowds in the summer.   A town of 2000 people swells to 100,000 over fourth of July with every inch of beach covered with an RV.  No thank you. 

Sandia Peak Tramway

We stayed in an RV park in a northern suburb of Alburquerque.  We were close to the tram ride that takes you to the top of the Sandia ski hill.  What the heck we took the ride.  At the top you are at over 10,000 feet and have a great view of Alburquerque.  The top picture was supposed to show the rock house at the very top of the peak.  Its the tiniest white blob.  Once your at the top and get off the tram you can hike to it.  Its about a mile and at 10,000 feet a little to high of an altitude for us to hike.   There is also a restaurant up at the top called the 10 -3 meaning 10,300 feet.  A little too pricey for us.  The ride back down was great.  We had the whole tram car to ourselves.  On the way down the wind started to kick up and the car started to rock.  The driver said that when we got to the bottom they would be adding water to the car for ballast.  That keeps the car from swaying too much which might cause it to hit a pillar.  The pillars anchor the cables on which the tram travels.  So glad we took the ride it was well worth the price (not bad) and you can stay up at the top and hike around all you want and come back down whenever you want. 

We are now in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.  The weather is great and we are taking our four wheeler out.  We have been up in the mountains and out in the desert.  We have also been visiting friends while here.   We still know people here from when we spent our first winter here in 2008.  The RV life has been very good to us and the best part has been the people we have met along the way.

Rio Grande Gorge

We took a drive to Taos, New Mexico.  Taos is in the north central part of New Mexico.  It's known for its art galleries and various artsy venues.  Lots of shops selling authentic Native American wares.  We didn't see anything we couldn't live without and the traffic and narrow streets were a challenge for our big truck.  We did find this gem about 8 miles northwest of Taos.  The Rio Grande runs through here and there is a very large bridge across it.  This gorge can be viewed from a state park/wayside rest area on the west side of the bridge.  I walked to the bridge and took pictures from it.  There are rafters on the river in the top picture.  We didn't see where the rafts put in and don't know how far the raft trip goes but it looked exciting.  You can see the rapids the rafts were about to hit.  The bottom picture shows the river looking pretty flat and green.

The state park was free and there were one or two sites you in which you could park an RV and "camp".  There were also Native American's selling all kinds of goods in the park.   They had stalls set up and it looked like they were selling there all the time.   You were probably better off buying things here than in Taos.  At least in the park the parking was free unlike Taos where you have to pay to park and the parking spaces are too small for big vehicles. 

Capulin Volcano National Monument

We left La Veta and went as far as Raton, New Mexico just 75 miles.  Our first day on the road after sitting for so many months we like to just make a short trip and see how everything tows.  The truck started to overheat a few hundred feet before we got to the top of Raton Pass.  We pulled into a weigh station at the top and the truck cooled right down.  That happened on a Sunday and we couldn't get it looked at until Tuesday because of the holiday.  Since the truck behaved when not towing we took the 30 mile drive east of Raton to see this volcano.

The big deal with this volcano is it is the youngest volcano this far east.  It erupted 60,000 years ago.   It is extinct now but the 8,000 square mile area around this volcano is a called the Raton-Clayton volcanic field and it could become active again but not likely.   The other thing that made me want to see it is that normally you can drive almost to the top and then hike down into the volcano itself.  Unfortunately, the road to the top washed out a few weeks ago so they weren't allowing anyone up there.  Oh well maybe the next time we come through we can try again. 

We got the truck fixed and will be headed to Alburquerque for a few days.  Its still in the mid nineties but its a dry heat!

Black Hawk Canyon Mine

We have really enjoyed riding the county roads around La Veta.  We have seen lots of wildlife, wild flowers and incredible mountain views.  We have also found lots of old abandoned coal mines.  This one was the Black Hawk Canyon mine.  I took a picture of the coal seam they were digging out in the top picture.  The place they did all the processing is in the second picture. 

We have enjoyed the deer that wonder through the campground eating the flowers and now they eat the crab appples.  There is also a bear hanging around town and he has come to visit the campground.   The ranch dogs across the river go crazy and have had him treed but he still comes back.  We have to be very careful with keeping the dumpster chained shut and warning the tenters to be prepared to go to the bathhouse or their car.

Overall we have had a nice time here in La Veta and the campground we've been in has been one of the nicer ones.  The owners were great to work for and we had great fellow workampers.  It will be sad to leave but on to new adventures.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

We took some friends to see the Great Sand Dunes.  The dunes are only about 60 miles from La Veta so a lot of people stay in our park and then make a day of visiting them.  There is an outfitter in La Veta that rents sand boards and sleds to use on the dunes.  They trudge up the dunes as far as they can -- its a hard walk because your feet sink in the sand- and then they ski or sled down.  The other popular activity is to enjoy the water that runs at the bottom of the dunes.  This late in summer it is only a trickle but earlier it was running well enough to raft.  As the water dries up people use it like a beach. 

The dunes are as much as 750 feet high which makes them the tallest in North America.  Mid-day in the summer the sand can reach 150 degrees.  This is high country with elevations from 8000 to 13000 feet.  High winds and lightening are real dangers here.  The winds tend to come from three or four directions which created and maintains the dunes.  We didn't think the dunes would be much to see since we have seen White Sands and the Imperial Sand dunes but these are much more impressive.

House on the Bridge

Our trip along the highway of legends (highway 12) going south out of La Veta took us past the gorgeous mountain lakes I pictured in the last post.  We followed it along all the way to milepost 42 to see the "House on the Bridge".  The house was built on top of the bridge that crosses this small creek.  There was too much brush in the way to get a good picture from the highway.  We went past it and then took a gravel road that took us alongside it.  It is falling down and in the top picture you can't really tell that it is sitting on top of a bridge.  We should have tried going farther up the gravel road to see if we would have gotten a better picture. Oh Well maybe next time. 

There is an app for travelers called travelers stories.  It's a free app and you can download the story of the highway of legends in Colorado.   As you travel the highway it then tells the story of each interesting thing along the way that you can still see or maybe gone but is still part of the history of the area.  The app works for other areas not just this one and if you download the story before you travel you don't have to worry about losing cell signal because it will still work. 

North Lake

We took a drive south of La Veta following the "Highway of Legends".  You drive up to the top of Cuchara Pass which has some s curves til you get to the top and then down a fairly steep grade.  The good thing is it is not a long steep drop but I still wouldn't want to do it with an RV.  It always amazes us that people will take this road with their RV.  The other astounding thing is this is one of the evacuation routes out of La Veta if it floods YIKES.

The first beautiful site after the pass is this lake.  It is a beautiful mountain lake.  There were people fishing mostly in small rubber rafts and very small boats.  These are all trout lakes and made from impounding the water runoff from the snow melt.   We find most lakes like this are stocked with fish because there  is little natural production.    I would fish this just to enjoy the scenery - outstanding!

Ideal town

Another 4 wheeling adventure on the back roads around La Veta took us through Ideal canyon.  There was a mining town here called Ideal and I took a picture of the tailing pile from the old coal mine.  There was a lot of coal mining in this area back in the day.  Just small mines with small towns now abandoned.  We've pretty much explored the whole county around La Veta going on the gravel county back roads with our 4 wheeler.  We have met some nice ranchers and some very paranoid ones.  They don't like it when you stop along the road because they think you are up to no good and we just need to get out and stretch.  We never go through closed gates and always stay on public roads but I'm sure others do not.

For a little town there are lots of activities always going on that make it difficult to find parking when you need  a few groceries.  I guess thats good for the town that they are able to draw tourists to it since it is not a destination by itself.  We really like it here and going out in the countryside exploring we find it is unbelievably quiet and beautiful.

Stairway to Heaven

We were out 4 wheeling and came across a ghost town of old adobe buildings.  The picture at the top I call the stairway to heaven because it had stairs leading up to it and the another set of stairs going up inside the crumbling building.   Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.   The other building shows how thick the adobe walls were made.  We figure it was an old mining camp because there was a huge tailing pile nearby of what looked like an old coal mine.  Coal mining was big here and there are still some active mining operations.  We wish they were old gold mines. The history of the area says that there were a few gold mines around as well but we haven't stumbled across any yet. 

The weather has been pretty nice with highs in the 80's and low humidity.  Lately, there have been brief showers in the late afternoon which keeps the dust down.  Our RV park is very busy and most of the time is full especially on the weekends.  You have to go a little out of your way to come here and there isn't a sign on the main highway that tells you we are here so you have to know about the place to come here.  The owners keep the place nice and are willing to pay for enough help (like us) to keep it that way.

Burn Scar

We took our 4 wheeler up into the mountainous area that burned last year.  There was a very big forest fire that came within a few miles of La Veta.  The campground we are in had to be evacuated because the fire was moving so fast they weren't sure they were going to get under control before it reached town.  Many ranchers lost cattle and many folks lost their homes.  The firefighters did manage to keep it from spreading to town.

This year they are worried about flooding because the burn area or burn scar as they call it won't hold the rain.  The ground is cement and the rain will just run off and La Veta is in the bottom of the valley right alongside a river.  They say the siren will sound and give us enough warning to get out if the river floods.  All the workampers here, including us, can be packed and out of here pretty quick if need  be but we are hoping the monsoon rains they usually get toward the end of August and into September will hold off until we are out of here. 

John Farley Overlook

Up on top of Cuchara Pass is a Forest Road/County Road that goes through the San Isabel National Forest.  We drove part way to see how the road was and came to this overlook.  You can almost look down and see the small town of Cuchara but not quite.   All around the overlook were these irises blooming.  Not sure if they are wild since the area has been disturbed.  There are yellow dandelions everywhere along with the blue irises so it was a very pretty picture. 

The road just got rougher from there so we thought we would come back and try using the 4 wheeler to go through the forest.  We seem to be able to get out sightseeing once a week even though we have three days off.  One day we have to do errands and at least one day the weather is bad either rain or wind.  Overall its been nice as far as the temps go staying in the 70's and low 80's.  The only bummer is when it rains it tends to hail but so far its only been pea sized.

Little Kansas

We took another 4 wheeler trip through beautiful mountain meadows.  We followed one road through a very narrow canyon with a nice creek running through it and these old cabins.   There were cabins squeezed into every space.  They call this area little Kansas because a group from Kansas settled this area.  The cabins are very rustic looking but fairly sturdy.  They all have fireplaces and even in June they had fires going.  It stays very cool in this canyon and most of the cabins don't get much sun.  Most of the cabins had cute names like Akins Alcove, Holts Hideaway, etc. 

We are enjoying our stay here for the summer and dream about having a place in a mountain meadow with beautiful mountain views.  It's amazing how many homes are built out in the middle of the foothills and on the mountains themselves and somehow they all seem to have power running to them and most have fiberoptic cable run as well.  Of course, water and sewer are another issue.  We aren't sure how they cope with that situation.  The Little Kansas community had water from the creek and power but we didn't see any septic systems or outhouses so not sure how they managed their waste. 

Rock Formations

We did some more 4 wheeling around La Veta.  There are interesting rock formations in the area.  The rock "wall" in the top picture is called a dyke and there are several around the Spanish Peaks.   These dykes were formed about 65 million years ago when the tectonic  plates moved and pushed these walls up out of the earth.  The bottom picture is a gorge or canyon wall and this area is known as lovers leap.  You have to have one of those around wherever we travel. 

It took us about three hours to ride the county roads that we wanted to follow and on the way back we hit rain.  We were glad we had added a roof and windshield to our 4 wheeler because it actually tried to hail on us.  We got back to the campground and there was a flash flood alert.  If it rained too much and too hard there was a chance the river going past the campground could flood.  There was a huge fire here last year and it left the mountain sides to the west bare and the ground like cement.  If too much runoff occurs it could easily flood the valley.  They aren't expecting anything bad until the monsoon season in August so we will keep our fingers crossed.

Spanish Peaks

We have great views of the Spanish peaks.  They got a fresh coating of snow the other day but thankfully it didn't snow down in our valley just up on the mountain tops.  We've taken one ride on our 4 wheeler so far and got to see these antelope.  Now the snow is almost gone on the mountains surrounding us and we think it's done snowing for the season.

The campground was full for Memorial weekend but surprisingly quiet.  No loud partying all night YEAH!  What a difference from last year at the forest service campground in Minnesota.  It helps that they don't allow wood campfires and have a propane community firepit.  We all take turns starting the fire and making sure it is out at 10 pm plus it cools off quickly once the sun goes down.

We took a drive over LaVeta pass which is an easy one to drive and drove to Alamosa.  There are cute little towns with some touristy stuff to see and do.  We hope to get out on the 4 wheeler again if the weather is warm enough and not too windy.

La Veta, Colorado

We were going to spend time in Raton, New Mexico and get used to the altitude but the weather dictated that we high tail it to La Veta, Colorado.  There was a threat of rain turning to snow and we had to get over Raton Pass on I-25 going into Colorado.  We don't travel passes if there could be snow and ice.  We got to our new summer home a week early but the owners were ok with it.  They put us to work right away.  Of course it snowed on us a good four inches and got down in the high 20's.  So we had a little taste of winter.  Its still cool but not below freezing at night. 

La Veta is in a mountain valley at 7000 feet.  It is surrounded by mountains and since it snowed they got a pretty coating of snow on them.  It is melting of the mountains quickly and they are a little worried about the river flooding that runs through town and the campground.  Some folks have put some sand bags around their property.  We are waiting to set up all of our stuff until the flood threat is over and its safe.

Meteors and Lava

We left Quartzsite and headed to Kingman, AZ up on I-40.  We took our usual route up US 93.  We broke down about 90 miles south of Kingman at 10am.  Its a desolate stretch of highway and cell coverage is very poor.   Trying to call road service took hours of calling and losing signal.  The road service took forever to find us tow service.  The tow service finally arrived at 10pm with two trucks.  One to tow the truck and one to tow the RV.  They replaced a hose clamp and that fixed our problem and then they followed us all the way to our campground to make sure we made it.  We arrived at the campground at 1am.  Not the best way to start our trip.

Our next stop was Meteor Crater by Winslow, AZ.  It is just a hole in the ground but it is pretty amazing when you realize how deep it is.  There are big pieces of equipment on the floor of the crater but you can't see them unless you look through one of the telescopes they have set up.  I took the picture along the rim looking down at the next viewing platform which has people on it while showing the bottom of the crater as well.  We then stopped at Grants, NM and the KOA we stayed at had a walking path through the lave flows.  It was also a very interesting stop and a nice campground.

We have now made it to our destination of La Veta, Colorado.  This will be our home for the summer.