Fishing in January

Fi Fishing is starting to pick up. We caught some nice size white bass. This was the third week in January -- open water -- warm enough for shorts. Although the water temp is around 48 degrees. We hear from the local guides that come February we should be able to start catching walleyes in some of the deep holes in the river -- the Rio Grande -- downstream from the lake. The lake istself is full of debris from the runoff. The snow in the mountains up by the border of New Mexico and Colorado melts and runs into the river. You would not believe the garbage floating in the water. It's worse than when the ice melts and leaves all the garbage on the shoreline of Mille Lacs.

Jim took some pictures of mule deer. They are hidden amongst the cactus. They have very large ears -- seems to be a trait for a lot of the desert animals around here. This group of deer hang out in the state park -- close to the lake. Deer hunting isn't allowed in the park but duck hunting is -- and duck hunting is still open.

Deer hunting is finally over so we are going to try exploring in the mountains. It's been impossible with all the hunting going on up there. Hunters everywhere -- camped out. They would pull all sorts of campers up into the mountains. You can camp pretty much anywhere in the national forest up there. We are hoping that once its quiet again up in the mountains we will be able to catch a glimpse of some elk.

Carlsbad Caverns

We took a "vacation" to Carlsbad Caverns. Its almost a 6 hour drive from our RV park to the Caverns. We decided to stay at a motel in Carlsbad for two nights so we could get there and see the sights without being rushed. It was easier to spend the money on a motel and not worry about maybe hitting snow in the higher elevations pulling our camper. We got there by going south to El Paso, Texas and then headed northeast up to Carlsbad. We went past Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. We didn't stop but there are lots of stories about lost gold mines and buried treasure in those mountains. Carlsbad Caverns is actually on the eastern side of these mountains. The town of Carlsbad is twenty miles north of the Caverns and is along the Pecos River. They have put in a really pretty riverwalk along the Pecos -- we went there and watched as they were stocking some fish in the river. Fishermen were right next to them -- trying to catch something. We weren't close enough to see what kind of fish they were stocking.

We went to the Caverns and went on two tours. The first one was ranger guided in the "Kings Palace". Every room was beautiful and some of the original Journey to the Center of the Earth with Pat Boone in it were filmed in this part of the cave. The ranger did the "shut off the lights and see what dark really is" thing along the way. The second tour we did was selfguided through the Big Room. The pictures here are from that part of the tour. It took Jim a while to figure out the new digital SLR camera we just got. I'm hoping with the new camera the pictures for the blog will be even better.

We came back to camp heading north and west through Roswell -- went by the Alien Museum and through the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in the Lincoln National Forest. There was snow up in the high country through here but the roads were clear. We came around by Alamogorda and the White Sands National Monument and Missile Range then north home.

We really enjoyed the trip but were glad to get back "home". The Carlsbad area is a little warmer than Elephant Butte but except for the one mountain range with the caverns its pretty flat and desertlike there. At least where we are its much prettier and there is a lot more to do.

Rockhound State Park

We drove down to Deming, New Mexico to check out Rockhound State Park. Its in the Little Florida Mountains. I included a picture of what the mountains look like. This is the park where you can rockhound and dig for geodes -- thunder eggs -- rocks with crystal formations inside that you see when you crack them open. This is where the woman from the Travel Channel's "Cash and Treasure" show dug out some geodes. I remember seeing her with a pick axe digging them out.

I checked the web for info on the park and it said to bring a shovel, pickaxe and hammer. We stopped at the hardware store and picked up our "rockhounding" equipment and went to the park. What we weren't prepared for was the climbing involved. We climbed all over like a couple of mountain goats--me digging with the shovel and Jim swinging the pickaxe. At one point we looked down and Jim comments that he doesn't even like to fly this high. All that work and all we found was some pretty jasper but no geodes. There is also all kinds of quartz and semi-precious stones like opal that you can find here. I am showing a picture of carnelian -- its a kind of quartz that we've been finding closer to home but you can find it at this park too. You can take 15lbs of rock from the park. We saw one couple with two grocery bags full.

One scary note -- I read the notice in the bathroom after we scrambled all over the park that there might be Hanta Virus in the area. The rodents may be infected --- its the nice way to say Bubonic Plaque.

We finally had some pictures taken of us and our rig. I hope to have some of the inside to share. We love our "house". I love the fact that it doesn't take very long to clean from top to bottom.

Is it really January?

We were fishing at the end of December so I took some pictures from the boat. I had to take one of all the pelicans hanging out on one of the breakwaters made out of tires. They use these tire breakwaters in front of the marinas to keep the boats from getting pounded by waves.

I also had to take a picture from the boat that shows the mountains in the background with snow on top. It is very strange to be fishing on open water -- in the low 60's and be able to see snow. We also helped a duck hunter by getting some ducks that were back in a canyon to fly by him. He missed.... Hunting seasons are much longer down here. Duck and deer season are still open.

We headed up into the mountains to see the snow up close and get some pictures. There was only a little bit left on the ground up there. It was in the 50's and it smelled and felt like April instead of January. Jim was hoping to see some snow melt running down the mountain and filling the dry washes. The snow seems to just evaporate -- no water rushing down -- and maybe bringing some gold down with it. At least not yet -- The mountains should be getting another 6" now and more to come so we will see what happens.

It Finally Got Cold

I'm never sure what order the pictures are going to appear on the blog page. I wanted to show the snow we see in the mountains from our camp. If you click on the picture with the RV's in it you will see the snow in the mountains in the background about 40 miles away. We drove a little ways out into the desert to get a closer look at the snow. Its very pretty "from a distance". We went from 60 degrees on Christmas Day to barely 40 degrees on the 27th.

I also included a picture of the boat launch we use at the state park. It is huge with 10 lanes -- so 10 boats can be launching at the same time. The marina -- floating behind the boat ramp -- has gas for sale and has dockage for over 100 boats of all sizes. There are some huge houseboats there (that we've never seen move) as well as 30 and 40 foot pleasure cruising boats that cost over $200,000. This lake isn't that big anymore since its about 60 feet lower than it has been in the past. I would hate to see this place in the summer with all these huge boats trying to cruise around. It must be as bad as Lake Minnetonka -- and we've also heard that they camp 3 or 4 RV's deep around the shoreline.

We had a very nice Christmas dinner at our RV park. Turkey and ham provided by the park and everyone else contributing the rest of the fixings. It was all delicious. Everyone here appreciates having a get together to make up for being so far from home over the holidays.

More Exploring

We tried to follow a gravel road that went back behind the Caballo Lake Dam. You can see it in the background of the picture with water (Caballo Lake). We finally had to give up -- the road just got too narrow, windy and was going up, up, up. We were trying to get back behind the mountains in these pictures- the Caballo mountains - to do some prospecting for gold. If you click on the pictures of the mountains to make them bigger you can see the gravel roads going up them. You really need a jeep to explore this area. One of the workampers at our park checked into buying a used jeep -- they wanted $4000 and it was almost 20 years old. I have to say -- you see a lot of really old vehicles on the road down here -- in perfect condition. What a difference it makes when you don't have to drive on salted roads.

Jim finally found something of value with his metal detector -- two pennies -- and an old shell casing that no one can identify -- it might be an antique. We will be trying to find out. I found a beautiful piece of petrified wood so at least we are having some luck out in the desert. You should see our nice white truck -- covered in red dust. Poor thing!

Its almost Christmas and they do decorate some around here. I want to get a picture of the tumbleweed snowmen and post it -- very cute. Did you know tumbleweeds are very thorny -- you can't just grab one or you will pay for days while you try to get the thorns out. Thats true with about every plant out here. Thorns!

Jim had to help a guy (Dave) retrieve his boat where he beached it. Dave is the guy with the inflatable that took us to Caballo Lake once. He wanted to go hunting about 10 miles up the lake on the other side of it so he drove as far as he could -- launched the boat - and then the wind kicked up and he was facing 3 foot waves in his little 8 foot inflatable -- so he beached it and walked all the way back to his car -- several miles and drove back to camp to get his big truck and Jim. He had tried calling back to camp for help but -- just got through and then no service -- well this had everyone in camp thinking he was drowning so they sent the park rangers out searching for him. As soon as the rangers found his boat and saw that it was safely beached they knew he was ok. Dave retrieved his boat with Jim's help and needless to say he didn't get any hunting or fishing in that day.

Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

We went to this Wildlife Refuge to see all of the migrating ducks, geese, cranes, hawks and eagles. This refuge is nationally recognized as a major wintering place for these birds and also a major stopover for those birds that continue farther south. This refuge is along the Rio Grande and is huge. The little bit of road that they let visitors drive around to tour the refuge is 15 miles long. There are lots of observation decks -- we got to see a pair of SandHill Cranes up close from one of these decks. We also saw huge flocks of pintail ducks -- they are as pretty as wood ducks. I tried to get a picture of them but those pictures didn't turn out. I posted two pictures of Sand Hill Cranes and two pictures of a huge field of snow geese. There were some serious photographers there taking pictures. They had cameras attached to scopes that were so huge you could have taken a close up of a volcano on Mars with them. The refuge is only an hour's drive north from where we are staying but about a 10 degree temperature difference (colder).

Jim wants to make sure everyone knows we were fishing on December 12th. It was in the low 60's. I caught one small white bass -- so fishing is still pretty slow. Its just nice to be able to still be on the water trying to catch something. While wintery weather is hitting in Minnesota we have been getting hit with really high winds. Saturday night the wind was gusting between 50 and 60 miles an hour. The trailer was shaking all night. I'm not used to wind like that without a storm to go with it. The snow seems to just stay to the north and west of us in the mountains. We enjoy seeing it -- from a distance!