FINALLY - the last entry from our spring trip west .

I left off on the last trip post with us just entering Monument Valley. We found their RV "parking area" and unhitched the Silver Dog House. Then paid the $7.00 to drive a trail among the Buttes, Spires, Towers and cliffs. The formations are the result of uplift and then millennia of water and wind erosion. The red color of the sedimentary rock that makes up the formations is a result of large deposits of iron oxide. Monument Valley is probably the most photographed landscape on the planet so I just had to contribute my collection of pictures.



The wind was blowing hard the whole time we were in the valley and we still had Monument Valley pumpkin orange sand in the bed of the truck when we got home.

We spent that night camping on the beach at Lake Powell.

The wind was still blowing and some kids camping in tents had problems with them blowing down the beach if they were not in them. The Silver Dog House was buffeted by the winds all night. Duncan had a swim but cut it short when he became more interested in a neighbor's dog than in minding his manners.

We were beginning to run short on time but still wanted to see Zion and Bryce Canyons. After all we had come this far we could not leave without at least a look at part of Utah.

We made the mistake of breaking one of our own rules - never try to find a new camp site on a weekend. First we tried Coral Sands State Park where the sand was more ORANGE than coral in color and the campground was full.
We pushed on the the east entrance of Zion where we were told that the campgrounds there were full. There were none back to the east and Richard did not want to drive through the tunnel with the trailer so we turned around and went the long way around, back south through Arizona to the west entrance near Hurricane.
After searching out a doggy day care where we could leave Duncan for our tour of the park we finally found ourselves at the only full service RV park we stayed in during the six week trip (except for the Airstream Factory). Early the next morning Duncan was deposited at the doggy day care and we spent the day touring Zion Canyon on foot and with the almost silent propane powered shuttle buses.
We returned to collect Duncan before dark and spent another night cheek to jowl in the very cramped park.


Now we headed to Bryce Canyon. Here the campgrounds were not full but the choicest sites were and we had to choose one on a steep slope. That afternoon we worked our way to the end of the road at the highest point in the park, stopping at lookouts along the way, and drove right into a snow storm. Zion Canyon was the first time in the trip we had been too hot and now we were freezing cold. I took pictures as long as we could stand the cold and wind then returned to the trailer and its heater. The next morning dawned bright and clear and found us as Sunrise Point to catch the first light over the Canyon. It was cold but beautiful. We spent the morning retracing out steps of the afternoon before and taking pictures with sunlight on the scenery instead of snow falling from low lying clouds. Wildlife showed itself in the form of Wild Turkeys and Pronghorn Antelope, neither the least bit afraid of us. The sun on the Aspen trees showed me what Richard has always told me - the Bark was white as birch in the east. The morning felt rushed as we broke camp and headed east at lunch time.

The last part of the trip was a two and a half day mad dash across the continent from Bryce Canyon National Park to the Airstream factory in Jackson Center, Ohio. There is one large album in Picasa that covers that 1500 mile stretch. Most of the pictures cover the scenic drive north of Bryce Canyon through Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument and then east across Utah and Colorado to the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial tunnels on I-70 which cross under the Continental Divide at 11,000 feet.

Utah 12 is a designated scenic road that twists and turns through some of the emptiest landscape we saw on the trip. It crosses the north west edge of the Colorado Plateau and is as nearly soil less as any landscape I have ever seen.



Utah 12 met Utah 24 and traveled east through Capitol Reef National Park, another area I would like to spend more time. We finally met I-70 and headed east. That night we stopped at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Glenwood Springs.

The next morning was cold and rainy. We drove I-70 through mountains with snow still on the ground. the last section of the Interstate Highway system to be finished goes through the very narrow Glen Wood Canyon. The Interstate is paralleled by the Railroad which of course came first. In order to make the railroad and highway fit in the narrow canyon with the river they are built on three different levels, the highway on one side of the river and the railroad on the other. At Hanging Lake Dam in Glen Wood Canyon there is a tunnel through the mountain that is amazing. My picture is from the highway but I have since found a flicker album of pictures that are much better than mine. There is a rest area there that we unfortunately missed, so there are pictures from different angles. The Flicker album also includes the Eisenhower tunnel. If you run your cursor over this one you will see the rail road tunnel as well. And here an east bound train going under I-70. And this picture shows I-70 divided on two decks at different elevations, plus has information about the canyon I wish I had known before we drove through it. We will have to go this way again. Here is a blog with an amazing photo of the west end of the tunnel entrance, from above. You can see all three tunnel entrances, and the dam on the Colorado tributary.

Beyond we climbed to the Continental Divide and went under it at 11,000 feet through the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial tunnel. By the time we reached the Continental Divide we had returned to winter with deep snow on the ground. Fortunately the cloud cover was out of flakes and we drove just underneath the bottoms of the clouds through a dark morning with the sun actually trying to burn through.

From full winter west of Denver we descended to spring across the plains and spent the next night in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Topeka, Kansas. That was a nearly 700 mile drive. The last day's drive was over 700 miles in the rain. We pulled into the camping area at the Airstream Factory in Jackson Center, Ohio at 10:00 pm Thursday night. They have a nice camping facility they call the Terraport, where your stay is free, the night before, day of and night after, if you are getting service. We met a couple from Alaska who would be staying over the weekend as their service was more extensive.

Friday morning early they came and collected the Silver Dog House and were done with the repairs in very fast order. We took the factory tour in the afternoon and shopped at the factory store.

Saturday we made the relatively short drive home.

BIRDS - Monday and Tuesday, May 5 & 6

Wow what a place!! This birding secret I am going to keep! I have never seen so many different kinds of birds in such large numbers. I am not going to name this campground. Two days of birding has added a lot of new birds to my life list including a rare tropical bird that nests in the Mexico and only a very few mountain valleys of southern Arizona. We are nestled in a narrow canyon with a forest “scrub” Oak, Arizona Sycamore, Juniper, and pine. The deep, rocky sided, valley we walked up had HUGE Arizona Cypress which are very rare in the U.S, with a mixed forest that had other tall conifers mixed with the shinning whine trunks of the Sycamores. There was a rocky creek that ran through it sometimes with significant water, sometimes dry. The wall were sheer rock faces that did not let the sun into the floor until about 9:00AM.

Here are Richard and Duncan standing beside a very large Arizona Cypress

Our most exciting discovery in that valley were Elegant Trogons. We saw two males. These are a rare tropical bird that is native to Mexico and only a few canyons in southern Arizona. My picture is very poor at best - he was very hard to see in the shade of the thicket of tree branches. We found him only by his odd call. But we could see that his back was coppery green and we got a glimpse of his bright pink breast.

Everywhere we looked were new birds that are never seen at home. It was really strange to find Chipping Sparrows, a common native of home too, in large flocks. There were no House Sparrows and no Starlings. But some of the birds that were new for me on this trip were not here. The list for this place is long.

The Acorn woodpeckers were fascinating with their clown like coloring of Red, Black, and white and their raucous flocks that tumbled through the woods, like a band of preteen boys.

Another camper had put out orange halves and hummingbird feeders. They attracted Bullocks Orioles and Scott's Orioles which are yellow instead of orange. Broad tail, Black Chin, Blue Throated, and Magnificent Hummingbirds were at the feeder.

I also saw a Green Tailed Towhee, White Winged Doves, Gray-Breasted Jays, Pinion Jays, Steller's Jays. Ravens. Audubon's Warbler which is now lumped with the Yellow Rumped, Townsend's Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Painted Redstart, Western Tanager, Hepatic Tanager, Black Headed Grosbeaks, flocks of Lark Sparrows, Yellow Eyed Junco,

Gila Cliff Dwelings: Saturday, May 3

We rose fairly early and I got a real shower this morning because we have and empty gray tank and access to good fresh water.


The road to the Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument was a very narrow and winding. But the scenery was worth the drive. This time of year the Gila river is fairly small but the river bed is wide and fairly deep. The foot path to the cliff dwelling wound through the narrow valley of the Gila and crossed back and forth. The history of the Ancestral Peobloans is fascinating, way too complicated to discuss here.


There was an interpreter at the top of the trial, at the ruin who was extremely knowledgeable and informative.


She answered a lot of questions we had about the area, and confirmed our guess that some of the rocks we were seeing were indeed volcanic. Millions of years ago this area had been extremely active volcanically. Which deposited a deep layer of sediment which consisted of volcanic ash and cobble from gravel size to small boulders. In some areas there were deep layers of pure volcanic ash. It was in these deep layers of sedimentation that the caves were formed.


The Cliff dwellings were built of slabs of this Gila Conglomerate, the volcanic ash and gravel cemented together by pressure, and mortar made by mixing water or urine with the dust that the volcanic ash part of the Conglomerate broke down into.

My pictures of cliff dwellings and pictographs that were at another site in the Monument are Here.


Duncan had to stay in a little kennel they had at the Cliff Dwelling contact center since dogs were not allowed in the ruins. They were dusty but otherwise “clean” and we used a padlock to lock him in.


On the way back "home" we stopped for homemade ice cream at a little tourist store.

Friday, May 2

I am sitting in the Silver Dog House in the driveway of a tire shop, typing the first half of this entry on the Pink Flamingo. White One the magnificent is disconnected from the trailer and in the bay getting his poor flat tire fixed. Duncan is with me sleeping, oblivious to the problems of travel. This repair should not take too long.

This morning it was COLD again, there was ice on the bottom of Duncan's water bowl and we dressed fast for the drive out of the campground with hopes for no more slow leaks in tires and to meet no one coming into the campground. The thermometer on White One says it is 23* We were not as early as we had hoped – 6:54 AM.

We did meet one vehicle not far from the campground but had no trouble getting around. The biggest problem turned out to be visibility with the sun already over the horizon and directly in our face on the dusty, sap specked, windshield. Washing it did not help much. But we arrived at US 180 with no unpleasant events in about 35 minutes.

We stopped for breakfast at a roadside litter barrel. In Michigan we have roadside tables here there are roadside barrels more often and no tables. How the landscape has changed.

No more Ponderosa Pine. Now, where there are trees, they are the evenly spaced Cedars and Pinion Pines, competing for water. Where it is treeless there are bushes, with small chartreuse leaves beginning to come out and Yucca dotted thickly over the range land. Here the Yucca grows to at least six feet tall and sometimes branches near the top. Old bloom stalks, often several year's accumulation, stick up from the tops. I wonder if they are indicators of overgrazed range much like Hawthorns are indicators of overgrazing at home. The Prickly Pear cactus here have pads as large as a salad or even luncheon plate with thorns that look at least four inches long, unlike our native Prickly Pear at home with pads the size of teacups or smaller.

spring is beginning to show its face in the wildflowers that are blooming along the roadside.

We found this place in Silver City, NM to have the tire fixed. We were able to just pull into their parking lot, unhook the Silver Dog House and pull White One into the bay. And they did not charge us anything to fix the tire.

There was a Super Wal-Mart across the street where we tanked up on pop and chicken for lunch. Then called the local KOA where we dumped our tanks for $10 and they let us tank up on fresh water. They even gave us very good advice on what road to take to the Gila Cliff Dwelling and the campground we were looking for.

We passed a HUGE open pit copper mine. It is at least two miles long and maybe a full mile across. They have been actively mining there since the 1800's

The Campground turned out to be just fine, with clean pit toilets, good water, and nice hosts.

Pueblo Creek, Apache National Forest: Thursday, May 1

The road that we came into the campground on is a gravel two track which crosses Pueblo Creek over the wreckage of a bridge and continues west to Arizona, no town listed on the sign, just Arizona. There bridge washed out at some point fairly recently and has been marginally repaired with gravel pushed over the wreckage. The crossing is marked as closed but we have seen several vehicles cross it and go on west. If we had the time we might have tried it but we need to have the tire fixed before we venture anywhere as we now have no spare.


Today we walked along Pueblo Creek which runs past the campground. The creek bed is wide and paved with huge jumbles of cobbles and boulders. The torrent that washed out the bridge is now mostly invisible. There is a small pool at one end of the base of the bridge and occasionally a small trickle of water showed itself among the cobbles. But for most of the walk the creek bed was dry. Part of the way we walked in the creek bed but later ventured onto a trail that climbed high on the face of the valley wall.

Part way along our walk we met two men with a small group of Pack Goats and a couple of dogs and chatted briefly. It was interesting to learn that Pack Goats are a growing "industry". There are a number of outfitters that use them in the back country. They are strong, and you do not need to carry any food for them. The dogs seemed to be pretty good at keeping the goats. The link above is the one they gave us.

Wednesday, April 30 - Day two at Pueblo Park campground.

I awoke this morning to the fantastic view through the curved window at my head. Ponderosa Pines were silhouetted against the sky as it began to lighten. The newly risen moon was hanging behind the tree tops above several lines of pale yellow clouds that gradually turned pale pink.

I call myself a tree hugger and here are some of the reasons why. These immense Ponderosa pines are so beautiful they almost make me weep. There was also morning bird song for the first time in the trip. Birds have been amazingly absent in many places. However we have seen some new life list birds for both of us:

Roadrunner

Western Bluebird

Pinion Jay

Spotted owl (heard not seen)

Dark Eyed Junco – gray headed Rocky Mountain race

Broad Tailed hummingbird

Great Egrets

We have also seen some old friends among the western birds and ones that are familiar from home:

Raven

Mockingbird

Western Kingbird

Stellar's Jay

Red Shafted race of the Common Flicker

Clark's Nutcrackers

Black Billed Magpie

Robin

Mourning Dove

Tree Swallow

Chipping Sparrow

White Breasted Nuthatch

Purple Martins (not really everywhere, We saw these in Wichita at Nephew S's home. It was a real treat as I have not seen any in years)

Crows

Cattle Egrets

Starlings

Grackles

Red Tailed Hawks

This morning the Robins started in singing, then a Flicker called and drummed. A bird with a trill followed by a couple of more clear notes has been calling all morning. Flocks of swallows also fly at treetop level both early in the morning and in the evening. They have bright white breasts and dark wings and tails and no other markings that I can see, so I will guess that they are Tree Swallows. The Stellars Jays are numerous and vocal.

Later in the day as we were sitting in the lawn chairs, one of the cutest animals I have ever seen boldly moved across the grass and jumped up on the picnic table. This squirrel had such large tufts of hair on his ears that they were almost the height of rabbit ears, he was gray with a brown back and white undersides including the underside of his very large bushy tail.

We have had very good luck so far with the truck and trailer – but today DH walked around White One and discovered a flat tire. What an ordeal, no nails just a leak, no idea where or when it happened. Thank goodness we made it into the campground and did not get stuck on the six mile access road. Once the tire was changed DH broke out the compressor and the generator to find the leak.

We are learning that the wind blows all the time during the spring in the west. The tree tops are really dancing in the wind but today there are only comfortable breezes at ground level with, a few gusts. We are dusty and dirty but who cares it is camping and there are NO sounds of other humans or of human machinery. All is quiet except the wind in the trees and the calls of the birds. The warmth has finally arrived today after the very cool spring weather we have been having.

For those of you interested in the solar on the Silver Dog House it is really putting out the Amps. The batteries are at 100%. For those of you who know what it means the battery is at 13.3 Volts (DH says 13.1 is good) and the panels are charging at 3.4 Amps. When I charge the laptop off the trailer batteries it draws down to about 75% but returns to 100% very quickly. Of course I can plug the many electronics we are carrying into the truck while we are on the road.

We are on open range here and although there seem to be fences and cattle guards between us and the herds there is a rather large red bull right here in the center of the campground enjoying the very fine very short fresh green spring grass.

It is very dry and between the wind and low rain fall the fire danger is very high. The ground is dry as a bone and very dusty. Everything is covered with a thick coating of grit. Yesterday we had the relief of fairly low winds. Today the wind started blowing after full sun up and continued to increase most of the day. It got really warm in the middle of the day but the temperature has dropped and I think it will be cold again tonight.

Monday, April, 28 from the Pecos River to Apache Springs

Today we left Field Track Campground. Arrived at the exit at 7:30. Stopped to chat with the Hosts and take pictures. It has been a good stay and the Hosts are really good folks.

Up the Pecos river valley, at the campground, no leaves are out on trees though the cottonwoods have catkins, and the shrubs bear a few very tiny beginnings of green. As we came down the valley the leaves were coming out and some trees seemed to be in heavy bloom, possibly they were Ash Leaf Maple (we did not stop to check the identification). As we came into the small town of Pecos flowering trees were beginning to show colored blooms.

The architecture here is really attractive. No buildings over two stories high and all of mission style either real adobe covered walls or if not adobe painted the tan and rust earth tones of the landscape. The building blend into the landscape and are not eyesores like so often happens in the north country of Michigan.

As we drive south on I-25 the country is becoming more and more arid. The occasional arroyo shows a topping of black columnar basalt where the flat terrain is broken by the arroyo. The Basalt at or very near the surface could explain why the country is so desolate looking. The rocky tan soil must be very thin and supports only scattered shrubs and very thin growth of last years grass. We saw only an occasional grazing cow. In the low areas there are trees, probably Cottonwoods and Ash Leaf Maple. Here at lower altitude than the campground they are showing small spring green leaves.

We crossed the Rio Grand river so suddenly I did not get a picture. The braided river flowed through a wide shallow typical western river valley with levies along the sides far from the small stream of water that is there now. Large wide topped trees grew all along the sides of the river right out to the levies. The trees must be really old to be so large, they are really narly looking. I think the large ones are Cottonwoods.

The agricultural landscape has changed suddenly. There are huge “basins”, surrounded by low burms, with what look like little trees with collars planted in rows in the basins. These basins extended about 400 feet back from the road to the foot of the hill behind. We discovered that

they are wine grapes after passing a building with a winery's name on it. These basins must be flood irrigated as we passed one very large irrigation ditch running full with water flowing straight toward the road down from the hill behind the basins creating an impressive "waterfall". It was amazing to see so much water running openly in this arid area.

The landscape changed repeatedly today. First we left a forest of Cedar, Douglas Fir and Ponderosa Pine with Cottonwoods along the Pecos River. We descended to arid grasslands that were interspersed with hills covered with thin woodlands of Cedar and Pinion Pine. At times we came down hills onto flat-lands where the road went straight as an arrow and disappeared between the next hills which we would then climb. The land was empty and beautiful in its
constant changes.

VLA = Very Large Array = It was right on the way to where we were headed, a campground on he Gila National Forest. If you have see SF movies you have seen the VLA. This is not new technology but it is still providing researchers with radio photos as good as advanced optical Telescopes. We stayed long enough to take the walking tour and get up close to one of the antennae, each antenna is very large and the array extends in a Y formation that spreads across the high desert for 13 miles.

There were lots of Jackrabbits just hopping around mostly unconcerned about us.

We finally pulled into Apache Springs Campground in time for a late dinner of leftovers. The campground is very near the road but the grove of Ponderosa Pines in which it is located is spectacular. I don't think I have ever seen any larger trees, not even the huge White Pines at Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan (the last stand of virgin White Pine timber in existence in Michigan). Ponderosa Pine are also called Western Yellow Pine, and are closely related to our Red Pine from home. These trees are capable of growing to 150 feet in height and to a huge diameter. They are growing in an almost pure stand with just a few MUCH shorter but also mature Junipers and the ground covered with long tan grass from last year. The trees are breathtakingly spectacular and grow spread out like a planned park due to the shortage of water. The arid west does not allow for the dog hair growth of trees that we see in the much wetter midwest.

Saturday, April, 26.

Freezing temps again last night. But we are warm under the wool blankets and the down sleeping bag.

DH went and helped B, the camp host sweep off the top of the stone covered cistern which creats water pressure for the campground water spigots. M and B are really nice folks. They have been hosting this campground for 17 years. It is not a job either DH or I would like to do. They tell stories of the neighbors and locals that make it sound like their jobs can be hard to deal with, but they come back year after year and have also made friends here.

We walked part way up the “road” DH and Duncan walked yesterday. Wow I can sure tell we are over 6K feet of altitude. DH went to 8900 feet yesterday but we only went to 7700 feet today. It is a lovely Ponderosa Pine forest mixed with HUGE Douglas Firs and another fir I have yet to identify. They look like the Con-Color Firs sold as Christmas trees, but may be Subalpine Fir or some other kind. We stopped and watched the adult Clark's Nutcracker feeding young ones, and are amazed that they have young off the nest and fully grown already. The woods still look like winter, no snow on the ground at this altitude but no deciduous leaves breaking the buds yet and there are still very few birds in the woods. I wonder if it is still too early or just too barren in spite of, or maybe because of the large forest cover. The soil is hardly what we would call soil at home. It looks more like pea gravel only not so sorted for size nor so rounded in shape. The slopes are steep and there are sheer rock faces with interesting formations. Going up we met two white pick ups trucks coming down, moving very slowly in low gear. The first was carrying a load of Aspen trees balled, for sale? There were a few wildflowers in bloom. Oregon Grape, which I am used to as a largish shrub that can get as tall as a single story building, was very small, individual plants no more than 4” tall with one cluster of bloom and just a few leaves. It grew dispersed over the ground the way cactus do because of the shortage of water. There was also a very small white mustard of some sort also not more than about 4 or 5 inches tall. Yellow False Indigo, a species of Baptisia also called Rattle Pod was in bloom. They were much smaller plants, up to 12” tall and only a few stalks per plant, unlike the Baptisia in my garden which grows to three feet tall and spread a foot or more across at the ground. This is a DRY environment.

We had a fire in our own open fire pit tonight instead of going to one of the little log cabins.

Friday, April 25, Field Track Campground.

Freezing temps last nigh, there was ice coating sticks which were in contact with the water. Thank goodness for the furnace. We slept soundly to the sound of the Pecos River rushing over rocks in the channel and wind in the large Ponderosa Pines.

My stomach did not feel just right at bed time last night. Today I did not feel well – stayed close and read all day. Part of the day I followed the sun in my lawn chair as the shade moved. A large flock of very noisy Stellar's Jays moved through the campground, but there were few other birds. Not even many Chickadees and no Robins yet. It is still very early spring here. There are no leaves on the deciduous trees and little new green coming up. The wind was cold and it was hard to stay warm so I gave up and went into the trailer.

DH went for a long walk with Duncan up the mountain, across the road from the campground. He took the GPS with him and we stayed in contact through most of his walk. He called to have Clark's Nutcracker identification confirmed and then called to say they had found snow.

A whole flock of Magpies flew north up the river late in the afternoon. Migrating?

There are the cutest little fireplace buildings here. They are three sided log cabins with a rough stone fireplace and chimney that rises just about the peaked, shingled roof. After dinner we went down to the closest “cabin” and had a fire in the fireplace. It was very enjoyable.

While we were there a very large flock of swallows swirled around the campground at tree top height making their typical twittering sounds. They are high and all I can see is that they have dark backs and all white breasts.

Sleeping with the windows open is a dream. We can wear winter Pjs and snuggle beneath the wool blankets and the down sleeping bag/comforter. And be sung to sleep by the noisy/musical Pecos river rushing to the Rio Grand.

Wednesday, April 23, - Leaving Wichita, KS

There was a rumble of thunder while we are getting ready to leave, and there are warnings of Thunderstorms here and for the area we will be going through. We are on our way west starting at 8:55 AM

I am riding with my laptop computer that is of course Flamingo Pink to go with the Silver Dog House, on my lap. Today I will repeat the running commentary as we go.

(Now that I am editing these entries in August I do not much like the format but for this days of long drives I will leave them as they are)

The land is flat as can be, quilted with green winter wheat fields and huge expanses of pale straw colored warm season “prairie” grasses some pastured and some not.

Now we are seeing a few fields that have short dark stems from last year and white “trash” lying about. Cotton! I think these are the cotton fields that our Nephew D told us that they are starting to grow some.

The sky to the south is very threatening – solid gray, and it is windy - it is always windy it seems out west.

11:06 AM Large rain drops are hitting the windshield, and there is hail mixed in!!! we have pulled to the off the side of the road and are creeping along the shoulder. Hail sure sounds big on the roof of the truck. It looks pea size for the most part. We have stopped on the shoulder to sit it out. One car stopped across from us but moved on very shortly. Now it is mostly raining with just an occasional hail stone. There is one lightening flash and a bit of thunder. The rain is beginning to let up. - FLASH – every once in a while a rain drop sounds big – hope that is – FLASH – not any more hail.

11:18 We decide to move on, it is still raining hard but no hail now. Now the sky ahead is lighter and the rain is letting up a bit.

We just passed an old Airstream. Now that we are "streamers" we notice others and see more than we used to because we weren't looking before.

Whew 11:30 rain has let up and pavement is just damp here. That storm is the worst wind and rain with hail we have weathered with the rig.

These huge warm season grass fields are great pheasant habitat. It is very flat with only occasional trees or long lines of classic windbreaks composed of shrubs, with conifers on the south side and deciduous trees on the north side.

11:35 Another storm cell this time we pulled into a roadside park to sit it out, just in case there is more hail. HAIL a work that strikes terror into an Airstreamer's heart. The weather reports are predicting large hail with these storms in south west Kansas and north Oklahoma.

Wow we are going through Greenberg, Kansas in pouring rain. This is the town that was hit by a HUGE Tornado last year and was completely leveled, only the elevator was left. The devastation is still nearly total. Someone has propped a hand lettered sign “we are making tornado history” against a pole beside the road. The John Deere dealership is back up and running. and a few hoses and other buildings are scattered in the rubble. But the trees still look like my memory of news footage of the European theater in WWII.

Geez - It is pouring again and the visibility is terrible. Oh well this is western Kansas the only scenery is wheat fields and pastures and the occasional grain elevator.

This is certainly prairie; the soil is BLACK, and the only trees are in the drainages and around homes and farms, planted as wind breaks. They are haying the warm season grasses.

12:58 the sun is trying to come out thought the clouds are really low, almost fog.
We have left the green wheat fields behind us. Now great expanses of grassland and wheat fields alternate as far as we can see. Yucca is growing in the rough ground between the road and the RR tracks that parallel the highway.

Occasionally there are corn fields with overhead irrigation systems. Great wheeled monsters that pivot around their center point with hoses dangling from the connecting booms so the spray is delivered close to the ground in an effort to prevent as much evaporation as possible.

As we continue west the land continues to change. Now low eroded “badlands” are beginning to appear between the fields, more and more of which require irrigation. Sagebrush with the Yucca are beginning to fill uncultivated areas. The land is falling away from the prairie “heights” and it is beginning to look like the west instead of the prairie breadbasket .

4:56 PM We continue to drive through cells of thunderstorms at some point I sure hope we get behind this front. The wind and sometimes hail that comes with the rain are what we should expect from this part of the country.

We stopped at the “Mid-America Air Museum” in Liberal Kansas. The Museum is a very nice collection of non flyable aircraft in a former Beechcraft factory. The whole time we were in the museum the wind blew really hard. The museum has a B-25J Mitchell, a P-51 Mustang, an Avenger, and a really long list of more including everything from Ceasnas to an F-105.

The very nice lady at the museum offered to let us camp overnight in their parking lot since it was approaching the time of day that sane travelers settle in for the night. I was very tempted to take her offer but DH wanted to press on. He was sure we would find a friendly Wal-Mart parking lot when we connected with I-25 in New Mexico. We only have to get through the panhandle of Oklahoma and a bunch part of New Mexico. When we left we wound up in a really serious blow and pouring rain, again. It was really quite scary.

Now we are headed due west through the middle of the Oklahoma panhandle. New Mexico is about 90 miles ahead. The sun is shining with blue sky overhead and ahead, and the storms are behind us at last.

The country here is as absolutely flat as the proverbial pancake, mostly light tan colored range land and only occasional trees where there are houses but they are scattered far and few between. Occasionally a filed is plowed but it is really very barren looking. This is probably what our nephews were calling UGLY country. I think it sort of interesting if only because it is so alien to our experience.

When we crossed into new Mexico the landscape changed almost abruptly to look so much more like "out west". Instead of flat deep soils now bedrock is exposed, rolling hills covered with sage and yucca falling to dry stream beds paved with cobble. There are lots of Pronghorn in the fenced pastures. Surely Pronghorn are not the livestock these fences are for, where are the cattle?

When we eventually connected with I-25 there was nothing but the exchange, no Wal-Mart, not gas, no buildings at all. So on we go headed south looking for gas and an place to spend the night. Each exit was bleaker than the last - nothing along I-25 south.

Finally at 9:00 PM when it was nearly dark, we pulled off at Wagon Mound, New Mexico, Here is a tiny town and two gas stations. The one we picked was automated with not a soul in sight but there was an abandoned restaurant next door. The old unpaved parking area provided a place to park for the night. We turned on a minimum of lights, made and ate a tuna salad and crawled into bed. Wouldn't you know it? We picked a place next to a RR switch. Fortunately there was only one noisy train and we slept pretty well, even though Duncan got DH up twice during the night.

We were up early the next morning and found another vehicle had used the same lot to spend the night.

Here is the mound that this very small town must be named after.

Day four

Thursday, April, 17,

Wow what a day yesterday. Brother took us on a float trip in canoes down the Buffalo River in Arkansas. The section we floated is a grade one white water river, open only in winter and spring, something we have never done before. Duncan went with us in the canoe, when Dick could keep him in. He bailed out several times. At the very beginning he bailed out twice before we could get him settled in to stay. This was a brand new experience for a nervous puppy. He was not at all sure he wanted to be in the canoe.

How to describe the experience? It was ten miles of aqua green water with the bottom ranging from small gravel to huge boulders and great sheets of limestone or sand stone, from ankle deep to over our heads so we could not see the bottom through the slightly cloudy, from the limestone, water, from smooth aqua pools to rapid riffles over dark cobbles, some a simple fast riffle, some faster drops with large boulders to maneuver around, some almost small waterfalls to go over, some straight shots, some sudden turns in the riffle or at the bottom. Twice there were close calls. The worst was when we wound up going through a tree in the river and when we got through could not find Duncan. He had gone overboard with a leash attached and it took a few seconds to find him. Another time we went over as small waterfall with a solid wall of water to enter at the bottom, I hollered and Duncan jumped out again. By the time we got him back near the canoe we were headed over another riffle on which we got hung up long enough for DH to drag Duncan back in the canoe by his collar.

We took a break in canoeing and walked up a feeder stream to the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies. The wind was blowing the water sideways in great drifts across the valley.

Wildflowers were in bloom in the woods as we walked up to the waterfall. it was spectacular. Spring beauties, Wood anemone, Wood Betony, purple and yellow violets, buttercups, wild phlox, rock phlox, tiny wild blue iris, Bell Flower.

It was a wonderful day. I did not take my camera for fear of getting dumped with the dog in the canoe but I found a series of pictures on Webshots that someone else took of the same section of the river. The waterfall pictures in the Webshots album are not a place we went but we did see where that stream emptied into the Buffalo River.

When we reached the take out point our car had been brought to us and we just left the canoes on the bank.

We bought our dinner at a real old fashioned Drive in and ate it an Arkansas Information center and roadside park that allowed overnight camping for ONE night.

We slept well that night.

Toads are singing singing today.

We visited civil war battlefield today.

There were tiny pale blue and white 4 petaled flowers in bloom in the “grass” , mouse eared chickweed, gill over the ground.

I cooked my special version of venison loin chops for dinner.

After dinner we played the game – Worst Case Scenario and laughed until we cried.

From Greybull Wyoming to the top and then home.

My pictures for this part of the trip are finally up here.

From the Beartooth Mountains in Montana we came south through Lovell and to Greybull where we stopped to take a look at an airfield with a large number of old airplanes parked. This was the home of a company that used to be one of the largest owners of planes used for firefighting, crop dusting and seeding. And imagine my delight to discover my name - oh no it is their name emblazoned on the tail of a PB4Y-2, the Navy version of a B-24 parked right next to the fence. Hawkins and Powers is no longer in business due to two tragic accidents with C-130s during fire fighting chemical drops. Pictures of the airfield and all that is left of the collection is here. Oh Hawkins is my maiden name which made it a fun discovery.

From Greybull we continued up US 14 through Shell where there is an impressive waterfall and its deep narrow canyon of smooth rock walls (pictures in the US 14 photo album on Picasa) and up to the top of the north end of the Bighorn Mountains. Again we drove through undulating landscape that hardly looked like the tops of mountains. We found a place to camp at Tie Flume campground.
The story of how the camp ground got its name is fascinating. I am not good at dates, but during the building of the rail roads a flume (water flowing in a wood trough also used at grist mills and the like) was built by hand from this location all the way to Sheridan Wyoming to transport railroad ties which were cut from the forests on top of these mountains. What a feat. Tie Flume is a National Forest Campground with graveled parking spaces well away from your closest neighbor, good water from a pitcher pump well and acceptable pit toilets. This building had LED lights on them so they were easy to find in the dark. Unlike in the south the garbage cans here were heavy duty bear proof jobs with complicated mechanisms a bear could never get his big paws into even if he figured out what was needed. As we parked the "Silver Dog House" we could hear cattle bawling in the not too far distance. Driving the road into the campground we had to wait for cattle to get out of the way, we should have know, it was pretty obvious, that this campground was on an actively grazed open range. The cattle even wandered through camp. Our other camps had been on open range but the cattle were kept out in part by rail fencing plus we just happened to be there at a time when the immediate areas were not actively grazed. Mule Deer also habituated the Tie Flume camp ground. This was our least favorite camp site but since the cattle slept at night they were quiet then. We missed having a stream running right by the site but it was heavily covered with Lodgepole pine.

From here we explored US 14A without the trailer on the day before we were to collect our three month old puppy, Duncan. Who is now seven months old and banging my elbow with his nose as I try to type this. We traveled west on US 14A. The part of 14A that descends to the Basin below has long 10% slopes which we had been advised to stay off of it with our trailer. It is the direct way to Lovell where we needed to go to get Duncan the tomorrow and we want to know just how bad this road is. Most of it is level road either on top of the mountain or in the Bighorn Basin. It is a beautiful drive. East of the Medicine Wheel we found a patch of snow and some wildflowers blooming around it. There was a parking area here with a foot trial west to an old abandoned mine. East of the road a horse trail through the flowers lead to the top of a steep slope. We chose east through the flowers and climbed high above the road on a great hill side of grazed alpine meadow. There are pictures in the Picasa. From the top of the hill we looked east to miles of pastured meadow rolling into the distance and to the west we could see into the Bighorm Basin. Below the road but still on top of the mountain, a flock of sheep gathered around a copse of conifers in the distance. A pair of horses with halters, so not wild as one tourist excitedly declared, grazed just below the road. They likely belonged to the shepherds.

From here we continued on to the Medicine Wheel. An FAA installation is also located off the same road on top of Medicine Mountain. From its high location it can peek through a gap in the mountains to the west to control the communications of aircraft over a great area. The Medicine Wheel is located on top of a Medicine Mountain. Access is from a parking lot a mile and a half off the 14A and then by foot another mile and a half up a road that is accessible to handicapped and American Indians by vehicle if requested.

The Medicine Wheel is an ancient holy site of the American Indians who come from all over the country to pray and make offerings. Open to the public all visitors are urged to walk around the circle to the left and to respect the site as you would any holy site. American Indians have priority and may request to have the site closed to the public for a ceremony with no advance notice.

My pictures of the Medicine Wheel do not do it justice. It helps to have an advantage of greater height than standing on the ground. As we walked a storm was approaching from the north and made our stay a bit shorter than I would have liked and not very relaxed. I would like to visit on a day when the weather was not trying to chase us away. I walked around the wheel twice once taking pictures the second time trying to get a feel of the place. Though it was interesting I unfortunately got no personal feeling of a Spiritual presence. Clearly others had.

The storm finally chased us back down the mile and a half road with thunder crashing over our heads and the lightening blessedly farther away down the valley behind us. We waited out part of the storm in the little building erected for the Forest Service volunteers, at the parking lot, along with other visitors and then made a dash for the truck. We sat and watched as snow and then hail fell on us, praying that there was no large hail where the "Silver Dog House" was parked. As the storm passed we started down the road toward US 14A and the trial run down to Lovell.

The drive was quite an adventure. Much of it in second gear to keep our speed down so we would not have to use a lot of braking for the sharp switch backs. At one spot there were tire marks on the pavement and signs of impact with the wall of the mountain. We passed a number of 18 wheelers coming up the road so we figured if they can do it so can we - course they have big diesel engines and we have a small gas engine. We had learned much by listening to lots of people who had driven this before. With low gear and brakes applied only in short hard bursts not over long distances they were only warm at brake check stops as we went down. We did stop at the Brake Cooling Turnout on the map and spent time there because the view was great. There was one wide place in the road on the outside which was protected by high fences where we also stopped to check the brakes and enjoy the view. The driver had little other opportunity to enjoy the scenery as his concentration had to be on the road. Coming back up we passed several vehicles whose brakes smelled way too hot.

We spent only a little time in the basin before the return back the way we came. Ate dinner in an unfamiliar fast food place and Discovered the most divine candy shop. Queen Bee candy company makes candy from the local honey. The irrigated fields in the Basin produce a huge crop of alfalfa hay and the accompanying honey. The trip back up definitely had a lot less pucker power, but it would be a real job to haul the Silver Dog House up. Not this trip thankfully. However driving the route again the next day to pick up Duncan was going to be OK.

The next day we collected Duncan from the desert. That evening his crate was siting on the ground beside the steps into the trailer. When it started to get dark he just went in the crate and put himself to bed. What a surprise. We were told we could spoil him and let him ride on our laps all the way home if we wanted, to aid bonding. He preferred to ride in his crate. He turned out to be a great traveler, no complaint, no accidents. His only problem was that on the first night on the top of the mountain the poor pup nearly froze. He was used to 100 degree temps during the day and certainly a lot warmer than the 37* it fell to that night. He did not have a blanket to curl up with and I could hear him moving around in his crate during the night. In the morning he was shivering pretty hard so I wrapped him up in one of Husbands coats and hugged him until he warmed up.

The next morning we headed White One pulling the Silver Dog House east for home. We had three LONG days on the road. The first night we stayed at a city park at Medora, North Dakota just outside of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The next night was at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Superior Wisconsin, right next to the Burlington Northern track - that was noisy! The third was back in our friends yard in the U.P. There Duncan learned to manage a long flight of steps and had the shock of his life. Duncan is a desert raised dog and got to go for a swim in Lake Michigan. Well he just dabbled. It was a bit much for him. A month later when we returned to Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore he discovered he LOVED the water. From the U.P home was the shortest day's drive of the return trip.