Remember ... Only You

We’re spending a week or so in Capitan, NM.  Capitan is just down the road from Ruidoso. 

There’s not a lot to do in Capitan but there is one historical point of interest.

When a human-caused fire in 1950 burned 17,000 acres of forest in the Capitan Mountains, a little bear cub was found in a tree, with badly burned paws.  The Santa Fe newspaper called him Hotfoot Teddy.  The little bear grew up to become a celebrity, Smoky Bear.

A few months after Pearl Harbor was bombed, forest protection became important when an enemy shelling occurred near Los Padres National Forest off the cost of southern California.  The War Department considered lumber nearly as crucial as ammunition.  In response to the danger, the U.S. Forest Service organized the CFFP (Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention) program in 1942. 

We spent some time going though the Smokey Bear Museum.  It’s a nice, small museum.

Some early posters:

Smokey Bear retired from the forest service on May 2, 1975.  He was 25 years old, which, in people years is 70. In those days 70 was the mandatory retirement age for all Federal employees.  Smokey was honored as the first bear to become a full-fledged member of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees.

Smoky lived at the Washington Zoo where on November 9, 1976, at age 26, he died peacefully in his sleep of old age.  His remains were moved to Capitan. The boulder that marks his grave was brought down from the forest where he was found.

If you find yourself in Capitan, New Mexico, stop by this interesting little museum.

Teri

Valley of Fires

We are staying in Capitan, NM (near Ruidoso) for about a week. This is an area that we frequented while we were still working, as it hosts the nearest mountains to central Texas and was always good for some cool summer weather. In fact, we awoke to 41 degrees this morning, so why not hang around for a bit?

We visited the nearby Valley of Fires for the first time. This is one of the youngest lava flows in the continental U.S., having occurred 1500 to 5000 years ago, This flow is 2 to 5 miles wide and 44 miles long. In places it is up to 165 feet thick.

Valley of Fires

We hiked a well-marked nature trail through the flow, The ground is highly irregular as the flow is pushed up into a series of pressure ridges separated by low spots.

Pressure Ridge

 It is amazing that there are any plants growing on this exposed rock, but there is actually quite a bit of variety out there.

Sotol

Walking Stick Cholla

The most fertile areas were the low spots caused by collapsing lava bubbles.  These areas trap soil and moisture, and provided some shade from the intense sun. 

Collapsed Lava Bubble

We did find a few non-spiny plants on the moister areas, including this pretty little Mallow.

Salmon-Pink Globe Mallow

We were there mid-day so didn't see many animals out. But Teri did spot this lizard catching a few rays. 

Desert Spiny Lizard

Mark

Bosque del Apache Critters

Our last blog mentioned that we were near Bosque del Apache NWR, and we took the opportunity to check out some of the critters on the refuge. The first thing that we noted was how green and lush the refuge was. We were told by several folks that New Mexico was enjoying an unusually wet summer.

The first thing we saw was this pair of Raccoons fishing around in the shallow muddy water of a pond. We never saw them catch anything, but they certainly kept at it.

Raccoons looking for a snack.

There was a small flock of White Pelicans on the same pond, with a Great Blue Heron patrolling the mudflat.

White Pelicans

We also saw a few American Avocets sweeping the water with their unique upturned bills. They are already out of their colorful breeding plumage and into their more subtle winter feathers. 

American Avocets

Back at the campground we were treated to this Gambel's Quail sentry calling over and over again from the top of a fencepost. 

Gambel's Quail

About a dozen more were on the ground, but they were doing a good job of hiding. I managed to snap this one male before he disappeared into the bushes. 

Onward to the Ruidoso area!!

Mark

Have You Ever Been To Bosque del Apache?

Seems like any time we mention we’re going to be in New Mexico someone asks if we've ever been to Bosque. 

We’ve been here several times but never as a volunteer.  Many, many, many years ago we came here during Thanksgiving to see the cranes and geese fly out.

If you've never seen it, it is well worth getting up while it’s still dark and braving the chilly weather!

We usually stop in the Visitor Center to see if we know the volunteers that are working.  We’ve worked with some of these volunteers at other refuges.  This trip, we’ll probably be in and out before the VC opens.

Since then we’ve come this direction several times.  We always stay at the Birdwatchers RV park, right down the road from the refuge.  It’s nothing special, a little run down.  But, it’s the closest RV park to the refuge and is just fine for a night or two.

We crossed into New Mexico this morning and are only going to stay at this park one night. We’re only driving about 85 miles tomorrow.  We’ll stay a few days in the Ruidoso area.

Cooling off in Arizona

We’ve been spending a few days in Heber-Overgaard, Arizona.  We’re just relaxing and visiting with friends.

We staying at a wonderful RV park called Elk Pines.  We stayed here in 2010 (see blog from May 15-21, 2010) and really enjoyed the area.  It’s also a Passport America park so the site is half off for us.

At 6627 feet elevation, it’s nice and cool.  We’re having afternoon showers.  Even had a little soft hail yesterday.

We’ve been visiting with friends Bill and Karen that we volunteered with at Inks Lake State Park (Texas) this past Winter.  They have a super cute cabin up here and we’ve spent some time playing disc golf.

Our other friends that are here are John and Karen, who were camp hosts at Rocky Mountain National Park when we were there in 2010.  You might remember the blog I posted about the beautiful sign John made for us (see blog June 21, 2011).  He also sells these wonderful (and very sharp!) knives and surprised us with these two: 

I have 3 knives that I got a couple of years ago when we met up with John and Karen and use them all the time (and, they’re made in the USA - yea!).

Mark has been doing some work while we’re here.  He bought this snazzy headset so he can talk and type at the same time: 

There are three 18-hole disc golf courses in the area and he’s played all of them (more than once):

I’m still crocheting:

We’ve been doing a little reading, in our spare time.  I have a Kindle, Mark is still old school - actual books.

And, we found our 100th geocache:

We’re leaving tomorrow for Bosque del Apache, New Mexico.  Eventually, we will get to Texas.

Teri

Arizona

We’ve been traveling for 12 days and have just crossed the Arizona state line. 

The red sandstone mountains are beautiful. 

We’re staying (only one night) at a campground just down the road from Lake Powell.

Heading out tomorrow to Show Low, Arizona.  We were in Show Low in 2010 and really enjoyed the area.  We’re looking forward to visiting with friends and enjoying some cooler mountain air.

Teri

Utah

After disc-golfing our way through Idaho, we’ve crossed over into Utah.  

Mark will be playing disc golf, we might look for a couple of geocaches, and we’ll be visiting family while we’re here.

Not much to blog about (unless you would like to see pictures of lots of disc golf courses!).

When I showed the picture of Mark’s disc collection a couple of blogs ago, I forgot to mention that he won a lot of those discs in competitions.  Some of them are souvenir disc from the various competitions. 

He either won or received 15 disc just from his last competition!

He’s also started collecting the mini disc (they have the name of the course or state printed on them).  When you live most of your time in an RV, there is not a lot of space for collections!

I also finished my 29th afghan of the year: 

After Utah we’ll be heading to Arizona where we will be visiting with friends and playing more disc golf.

Teri