Tucson – Benson - Green Valley – Anchorage

December 1^st thru December 7^th

We drove the 60 miles from Tucson to Benson where we stayed 3 nights at an Escapees Campground. We went to Benson to visit some friends, one of them I work with in Anchorage many years ago. We had a very nice stay there and caught up on whats happening. We went back to Tucson for a couple of nights before going to Green Valley to meet up with some friends from Palmer Alaska and also to store our truck and trailer in secure storage in that area. Our plan is to be home for Christmas and then return to Tucson in January and continue our traveling.

We left 80 degree temperatures in Tucson to return home to Anchorage where it was 4 degrees, that was a slight shock to our system. We had a good time with the traveling that we saw some beautiful country and stayed at some very nice campground. We are very pleased with the performance of our truck and trailer and are looking forward to continuing our exploration of the lower 48 in the new year.

I hope to continue with this blog once we get back on the road and have some more photo's to share.

Regards Keith

Bluff UT – Tucson NM

November 25^th thru December 1^st

We left Bluff with the intend of camping in Show Low, but we decided to drive all the way to Globe that afternoon. The drive was thru some amazingly beautiful country, the scenery reminded me a lot of the Grand Canyon. The road had many bends and it seemed as if we weren't climbing we were descending. A great deal of the road was 6% and 7% grade, so it was pretty steep, the engine braking feature of our truck was greatly appreciated. It is not a road I would recommend to anyone that is towing.

We arrived at a Casino campground in Globe just before dark and it was full so we spent the evening in the Casino parking lot which was just fine. The following day we drove to the 100 miles to Tucson. In Tucson we stayed in a campground that we really enjoyed for 5 nights. The campground was massive and it is the Rincon Country West Campground, there are over 1000 sites there including Park Models. There is lots of activities happening, I played in a pool tournament and to my surprise was not eliminated in the 1^st round. Every day we spend time in the lovely large swimming pool and one of the 2 jacuzzi. We had a wonderful 5 days doing pretty much nothing but relaxing.

I am sorry there are  photo's with this posting, the last time I transferred my photo's from my camera I left the memory card in the computer. oops

Albuquerque NM - Bluff Ut

November 18^th thru November 25^th

Driving the 70 miles to Albuquerque to Enchanted Trails campground on Historical Route 66. The campground has a small museum and several vintage travel trailers and cars. After dropping off the trailer we headed downtown to do some shopping and get the truck washed. We went to Octopus wash. Get out of the truck leave the keys in, next second the interior was being vacuumed and next the truck was on the conveyor getting washed, I have never been to a car wash where at least 8 people work on the cleaning and all that for $8. The next day was more to our enjoyment we went on several short hikes at the Petroglyph National Monuments right in Albuquerque.

 Petroglyph National MonumentsAlbuquerque.

 On the 19^th we drove the 320 miles to Saint Christophers Episcopal Church in Bluff Utah where our brother in law is the Pastor. Holly's family were having a Thanksgiving reunion and to celebrate their mothers birthday. Her sister flew from Seattle, her mother came from Anchorage and her niece came from LA. While in Bluff one of main activities seem to be centered around the dining room table. We also did a couple of short hikes while we were there. Every night the temperatures dropped several degrees below freezing and we didn’t came south to experience freezing temperatures as we get plenty of that in Anchorage.  

Bluff UT

Bluff UT

Bluff UT

Bluff UT

Bluff UT

Edge of Cedar Museum Blanding Ut

Blanding UT Musuem

Alamogordo - Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

November 15^th thru 18^th

Alamogordo we stayed here for 2 evenings, as there is lot happening here that we wanted to see and enjoy. We visited New Mexico Museum of Space History & International Space Hall of Flame. On display was the history of space flight from the very beginning to the present. There were many mock ups of the actual crafts used in the exploration of space; all this technology and history in one place was just amazing.

The afternoon we spent at the White Sands National Monument, another amazing place. The sand dunes are white gypsum sand. Here is the largest acreage of gypsum sand dunes in the world. A small portion of the dunes make up the national monument, and the rest of it is military property where testing of weapon systems is performed. We had a lot of fun on the dunes sliding down them in borrowed sleds. We also went on a ranger guided walking tour of the dunes just before sunset.

Alamogordo

Space History Museum

Entrance to White Sand Monument

White Sands late afternoon

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The next stop was 120 miles down the road to Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, where there is a migratory bird sanctuary and we arrived on the weekend of the bird festival. We camped about 5 miles from the refuge at a very basic campground where we were hooked up to electricity. We felt very fortunate to get a campsite at all this evening and like most of the evenings lately the temperatures are dropping below freezing. We drove to the refuge and were very fortunate to see a flock of geese take off and land in front of us. The highlight was at sunset when thousands of cranes returned to the small lake in front of the viewing platform where we were standing. Wave after wave of cranes came thru the sunset to land on the small lake in front of us, what a wonderful beautiful experience to see these magnificent birds come to roost at sunset. 

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Cranes

Cranes returning

Geese in Flight

Sand Hill Cranes

Sand Hill Cranes at Sunset

Austin to San Antonio

November 1^st 

Today we became tourists. We walked about 1 mile from our campground to the nearest bus stop to ride into Austin City. A bus pass for all day is only $2. The first thing we did was take a guided tour of the State Capital Building of Texas. We were very fortunate as we were the only 2 people on the tour. We visited both the State Senate and the State House offices. In Texas the legislators come into session only once every two years.

Texas Capital Dome Austin

Senate Chambers Texas Capital Building Austin

Our next stop was the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, where we saw an Imax movie about the diversity of the people of Texas. After that movie we watched a 4-D movie about the wild Texas weather. The 4-D movie had 3 screens with lots of special effects like mist coming in during the rain scenes, lighting flashing across the theater during the storms and the wind blowing at us; it was like we were experiencing the weather as it was happening. Texans are very proud of their state and its history.

Bob Bulluck Museum Austin

November 2^nd

Today we drove about 60 miles south towards San Antonio to New Braunfel and stayed at a campground called Lake Pointe Resort at Canyon Lake. En route we visited a Camping World, a store specializing in RV camping equipment.

Sunset Canyon Lake

November 3^rd

Today we relaxed at the campground. We did a couple of nice walks, one along Canyon Lake shore, where Lake Pointe Resort borders. There is an amazing number of deer wandering around this campground and we are very happy to be camping here. There is quite a social organization here and we got involved in a couple of the activities today involving eating. In the early afternoon there was an ice cream social, then in the evening there was a potato bake dinner where we also met members of this resort. The people we spoke with gave us a lot of good advice which we gratefully received.

November 4^th

Today we drove 50 miles into San Antonio to visit The Alamo. There is so much history there which we both really enjoyed. After a couple of leisurely hours wandering the shrine and its grounds we went to the river walk on the San Antonio River.

We were told it is a must do in San Antonio. Unlike any river walk that we have ever been on, the river is actually a canal with paths on either side, with side by side eating establishments a large percentage of the way, and river taxis and many other tourists. The temperatures were in the 80's but it was nice and cool and a real pleasure to be on.

The Alamo San Antonio

River Walk San Antonio

River Walk San Antonio

River Walk San Antonio

River Walk San Antonio

River Walk San Antonio

River Walk San Antonio

Fort Davis to Carlsbad to Brantley Lake to Alamorgdo 2nd try

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   November 11^th thru 14th
   
   
   After leaving the campground we visited Fort Davis National Historical Site a excellent example of a restored frontier fort. We then drove the 200 miles to Carlsbad where we stayed for 2 nights. We experienced our 1^st below freezing temperatures since we left Anchorage, our water hose froze overnight.
   
   
   
   

   

   Largest Texas Cottonwood Fort Davis

   
   

   

   Fort Davis Barracks
   

    On the 12^th we tour the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, where we were for about 6 hours underground in the caves. We walked on a switch back path down 750ft below the ground, enjoying the many limestone formations of the caverns. We rode the elevator back up to ground level. Carlsbad Cavern is a pretty magical place.
   
   
   
   

   

   Carlsbad Caverns

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Entrance to Cave
   
   
   
   

   
   

   

   Carlsbad Cavern Formation
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Carlsbad Cavern Formation

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Carlsbad Cavern Formation

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Carlsbad Cavern Formation

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Carlsbad Cavern Formation

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Painting of bats leaving Caverns
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   On the 13^th we drove about 30 miles to Brantley Lake State Park where we camped. Had a nice walk around part of the lake and like most lakes we have seen on this trip the water level is extremely low. Once again we had a evening of freezing temperatures.

   
   
   
   
   
   

   

    Brantley Lake low water
   
   
   
   

   On the 14^th we drove to 140 miles to Alamogordo. The drive there was on a mellow winding road with a normal gradient until we got to Cloudcroft at 8650ft, then it went down hill in a big hurry, the sign said 6% grade and that was most of the way down to Alamogordo at 4335ft.

Adviser Road Sign

Fort Stockton-Big Bend National Park-Fort Davis

November 7^th thru 11^th

We drove the 160 miles to Big Bend National Park, amazing how far out of the way this park is, it borders the Rio Grande River. Our camp site is at Rio Grande Village about 200 yards from the river where we camped for 3 evenings. Rio Grande River is the Texas border with Mexico. The 1^st evening we went for a short hike to see the river and to a look out point, there is very little water in the river. No rafting just a few canoe trips happen on it at the moment. We went on some really nice short hikes, we tried to time our hikes early in the day as the temperatures in the afternoon got extremely hot around 90 degrees. Our 1^st full day we went to Chisos Basin which is in the hills, beautiful scenery everywhere you looked. The 2^nd day we drove to the west side of the park to Santa Elena Canyon. There we did our most pleasurable walk in the park, walking along the Canyon Trail about one and half miles along the river. It was really nice to have a walk in the shade of the canyon with a pleasant river breeze. Today we left Big Bend Park and drove thru Presidio to Fort Davis, not the most direct route, but possible the most scenic route out of the park. The road follows the river for many miles, it was like being on a roller coaster with the step grades going both up and down. 

Plants on Lost Mine Trail

Big Bend Nation Park Visitor Center

Road Runner

Rio Grande River

Entering Big Bend National Park

Lost Mine Trail

Big Bend National Park

San Nail Range

Mule Ears Peaks Rock Formation

Old Ruins 

Santa Elena Canyon