Into the Gila National Forest

BETH writes - Today was once again a great day. The habitats that I traveled through were amazingly diverse from grasslands plains to dense Ponderosa pine forest and even rolling hills that resemble Vermont with different vegetation. The forty mile ride was fairly easy with one Continental Divide crossing. Mom took my trailer for the last 20 miles today so that I could make better time and go with her to pick up my Aunt Fran, who was flying into Albuquergue this evening. I entered the Gila National Forest half way through the day where I would ride for the following two days. I have heard great things about the Gila and I now know why. I rode through a beautiful canyon and into Collins Park which is a huge grassy area with mountains on all sides. I once again managed to out ride the thunderstorms and was glad I was not in a tent because it rained for most of the afternoon and evening. 40 miles of riding and 4+ hours in the car to get my Aunt made for a long day, but we were dry and in a soft bed and had a hot shower for the first time in four days.
JAN writes - This morning we were literally floating on our air matresses in a wet tent when we awoke. It had stopped raining, but it had rained so hard and so long that our old tent was soaked from above and below. We put up a clothes line and spent a couple of hours attempting to dry things before we packed up and headed out. The day was cool and partly cloudy. About 1/2 way through today's ride Beth decided she would come to Albuquerque later with me to pick up her aunt, who would finish the ride with us. She rode 40 miles - thru high plains, a lovely canyon and into the Gila National Forest. We headed to Albuquerque, but stopped in Magdalena, NH and got a motel room. We didn't want to meet Fran after 4 days without a shower! Her plane was right on time, but the 1 1/2 hour drive to and from Magdelina in an electrical storm made for a very late night. I was glad I wasn't leaving Beth out in the electrical storms alone all night!

To Valle Vences Campground

BETH writes - Ok, so Mom had every right to be worried in the Pie Town campground, but it was not people who cost either Mom nor I our sleep. Between the thunderstorms, the donkey calling, the coyotes, the owl above our tent, the highway traffic and the best of all - around 4:30 am Mom got up for a minute and when she laid back down she rolled on the car keys setting off the car alarm which took forever (or though it seemed) to turn off, we did not sleep much. After a great breakfast and two pieces of pie to go. Mom and I were off for the 30 miles to Valle Vences Campground. Early in the morning it had poured, but when I started to ride the sky looked like it was clearing. Wrong!! Once again I spent the day dodging lightning and thunderstorms. I am sensing a pattern. I spent the ride flirting with the Divide - crossing it three times through Pinion Pine and then into a Ponderosa forest. Since it had rained so late this morning the roads were still sticky with mud. The mud is not like New Hampshire mud - it sticks to the tires and creates a huge drag, especially when you have three tires. I had to stop a few times to clear the mud and a rock from between my trailer wheel and the fender. After arriving early in the campground, making cell calls, because amazingly we have cell coverage from the fire tower above us, we set up our wet tent. The we drove to Mangas Mountain Lookout just above us - at 9500 ft. Thousands of miles from home the lookout was the same, with a view that was different from NH, but not what I expected for New Mexico. There were tree-covered mountains in every direction. The only clues we had that we were indeed in NM was that many of them had the characteristic round shape and flap top of extinct volcanos. The sky had cleared just enough for us to have a view and then the clouds rolled in again. We may spend another very wet night in New Mexico, at least the rain keeps temperatures cool!
JAN writes - We had a rough and noisy night. The donkey at a nearby site was braying, an owl sat above the tent and hooted for about 1/2 hour, the coyotes were active and we heard them howling several times, and somewhere toward morning I rolled on the car keys and set the car alarm off. It took me awhile to realize I'd done it and find the keys and shut off the alarm. At about 6AM it poured. We went to the Pie Town Cafe for a breakfast burrito (and pie to go) in hopes that the tent would dry, but we ended up packing up a soggy tent and were on the road by 9:30AM. Cool and threatening rain all day. As usual, I went about 5 miles ahead and waited for Beth to catch me. We drove through beautiful countryside - 3 continental divide crossings. Beth peddled only 30 miles today so we ended up in the Apache National Forest at an area set up for camping with your horse. No water for people, but stock pens and water tanks. We were below the peak of Mangas Mountain with a fire tower and a cell tower, so we had amazing coverage in the middle of nowhere. We had not passed or seen a sole all day and had the campground all to ourselves. We set up the tent and almost immediately had a brief electrical storm. As soon as it cleared we drove to the top of Mangas Mountain and climbed the fire tower and were treated to an incredible view. At the top of the 9,500 ft. high mt. we also saw zillions of lady bugs, horned lizards and moose scat. It looked like we were in the Smokey Mountains, not New Mexico! While eating supper at the site, a herd of elk began to walk past - we counted at least 30 of them, but there were more to come. We decided to walk toward them to get pictures and realized that they were making a noise - like playing "Marco, Polo". Really funny, little grunts and squeaks. The thunder drove us back to the campsite and it started to pour and it didn't stop for hours & hours. By morning we were floating on our air mattresses!

Pie Town, New Mexico

Pie Town has a cafe -The Daily Pie - and a free campground - Jackson Park. Most "campers" live in the park - aren't temporary visitors. Facilities are lacking for tenters! No gas, no motels in town.
BETH writes - Today was the day I had been waiting for since we reached New Mexico. At the day's end, after 31 miles of riding, we would be in the ever famous Pie Town. Guess what they are famous for - my favorite!!! The ride was fairly easy on dirt roads through Pinion Pine and grasslands. I had one divide crossing which, compared to all the others, was cake, or should I say pie. Mom and reached Pie Town early to a open cafe, lunch and PIE!!! I had apple, of course, and it was worth every bit of the 2200 miles to get here, for it. Although, the pie was not the most interesting part of the day. Pie Town has a free campground which is the home to many very interesting people, for at least parts of the year. As we rode in there was a wagon and donkey to the left, a man in his car to the right and various campers scattered around. The "Mule Man" was a hoot and a half. He is a Nez-Pirece Native who has traveled by donkey and wagon for the last 41 years teaching people about the use of many wild plants found in the southwest. He is now 85 years old with his bladder bag hanging on the outside and spends the summer in Pie Town awaiting their annual Pie Festival in September. The next character we met was Edith, an elderly women from Wisconsin. She was beautiful and the people in town call her the pink lady because she has a pink hat, nails and shirt. This poor women lost her husband in 1968 and all of her three kids by 1997 and spends her life traveling by RV and staying in free campgrounds. She was also here awaiting the Pie Festival. Finally, there was John and his dog Alice. John is in "limbo" and lives out of his car. He is an interesting fellow how has two sons and is good with computers. So the story goes on with warnings about others who "live" in the camp ground. Needless to say, Mom was worried and so we went to bed with our Bear Spray and Hammer!
JAN writes - Today seemed long, but we only went 31 miles. The dirt road was rough and it seemed very uninteresting. We were in high desert, with mountain ranges off in the distance. The last 10 miles were on paved roads. We arrived in Pie Town, NM in time for a late lunch and pie at the Town Cafe. It was a busy place!!! We were able to camp at the free town campground, Jackson Park. We soon realized that we were the only temporary campers in the place. Everyone else was living there. An interesting cast of characters, including a Nez Pierce Indian with his donkey. We sat in the car during the normal afternoon shower. We are both getting a lot of reading in!

Cebolla Wilderness - South from Grants, NM

BETH writes - Today was exhausting, but extremely fun. I was again on pavement for most of the 47 miles I rode today because of flood warnings on the other roads. By taking the alternate route Mom and I were able to further explore more of the El Malpais National Monument. I would ride a few miles and then we would stop at various pull offs and go exploring. The first stop was a overlook on sandstone bluffs looking down on the lava flows from the various volcanos - miles and miles of lava! The sandstone was worn away in many places and held pools of water, which had a great amount of life including tadpoles, blood worms, and a interesting type of bivalve (small clam like creature). Most of the day I rode along these huge and beautiful sandstone cliffs. I even spotted a cliff that looked like a Bull Dog head - very cool! The second stop was at the La Ventanna Natural Arch - "the window" is the largest natural arch in New Mexico formed from wind and rain wearing away the rock. (see pics) Stop number three was the best. We hiked on the lava flows for over a mile looking at the 15 foot deep cracks, lava tubes, sink holes, lava flows and huge walls of lava. We definitely felt like we were walking on the moon except for the small junipers and cacti that littered the lava where their seeds could take root. We had to rush our exploration because of the lightning that was moving in all around us. I had 4 miles to where we were going to camp and those miles were adreniline filled!! The lightning was impressive, but way too close for comfort(still several miles away) and the thunder was enough to blow your socks off. I quickly reached Mom, the Jeep and our camping spot to sit safely in the car and watch a better light show than the Forth of July! WoW!!!!!
JAN writes - Today was really fun. We were driving along the El Malpais (which means Badlands in Spanish) National Monument and Wilderness. We made several stops and hiked or explored. The ranger station had interpretive information and exhibits, including binders of wildflower samples put together by a volunteer. That helped us identify several of the flowers we'd been seeing. We climbed to the top of sandstone cliffs overlooking the lava flow that filled the entire valley. We hiked to the 125 ft high natural arch - La Ventenna. That means, "The window". We also hiked over 1 mile on the lava flow. It was amazing to see how small plants and trees were spouting and growing in the lava! There were crevasses that were at least 15 feet deep in the lava. The flow went on for miles and miles and miles, so one can't even imagine how much was spewed out of the volcanoes. The thunderheads were threatening, so we stopped to camp in the (see pic) Cebolla Wilderness area, not a formal camp ground, but a primitive site area. Challenging road to get into & out of that area! We sat in the car, with it pointed at the storms and had an amazing light show for hours. You could see for miles, so we saw storms coming in the distance. Incredibly, we only got occasional sprinkles.

Grants, New Mexico & El Malpais National Monument

Grants has just about anything you need. There are several motels, gas stations and restaurants. A laundromat. A large Walmart & a Pizza Hut is out near the expressway. We stayed at the Sands Motel, just off Santa Fe Ave. - inexpensive & included a continental breakfast. There is an internet cafe just up the road from it. An easy worthwhile side trip is to the Ice Cave & El Malpais National Monument from here.
BETH writes - Today we woke to a beautiful sunrise reflecting off the banded sandstone. After packing up the campsite we took a much better road out of Chaco Canyon and I started back on the paved road, around 10am, for my 54 miles of riding to Grants, New Mexico. The day remained cool and I managed to finish before the thunderstorms hammered through. The road crossed the Continental Divide four times today, so even though the elevation gain was small I felt like I climbed for the first 30 miles of the day. The scenery today was monotonous and there was very little human presence or wildlife. I spent most of the day traveling through th Navajo Reservation. It make me sad to realize the extent of the poor quality land that was given to the Native Americans by our forefathers. The last 18 miles today was a gradual downhill where I powered through at a speed of 17 miles per hour - It was wonderful!! Shower and a real dinner were a great reward for the day.
JAN writes - we packed up and headed back to where Beth left off riding on Saturday. Again the day was partly overcast with rain threatening on and off. We were again on the Navajo reservation and in spite of the fact we were on a paved road, we seldom saw a sole! We wnded in Grants, NM today - in a motel. We are learning that after 3 days we really crave a shower and real food! Picture is of a collared lizard who was just hanging out.




BETH writes of Aug. 9th - Grants is the largest "city" we will be in for the next 6 days, so we took the day off to do laundry and food shopping. While we were here we decided to be tourists as well. Grants sits in the middle of a field of 21 volcanos whose eruptions ceased as early as 1000 years ago. We spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the Bandera Cider Cone and the ice cave near by. Very COOL!! The Bandera Volcano is known for its 23 mile long lava tube, where lava flowed and the outside hardened before the middle, part of which has caved in and is an ice cave. The ice cave has ice that is 20 feet thick and remains at a constant temperature of 31 degrees year round. The ciders, lava that cooled in chunks before reaching the ground, are a variety of colors depending on the minerals found in them. Some of the most common minerals found in the ciders are Calcium (white), Iron (red), Sulfur (yellow), and Sodium (orange). We also spent some time in El Malpais National Monument (the badlands in spanish) looking at sink holes and Java Cave which is a lava tube 3,000ft long and over 100 ft deep where if you had the proper equipment you can go into. I see a very fun trip in the future with high school students!!
JAN writes - As I type the rain is threatening and we are sitting in the laundromat washing our dirty clothes in a machine, for a change. We had a nice day exploring El Malpais National Monument. A large park encompassing over 20 volcanoes-cinder cones, lava tubes and lava flows, sink holes and an ice cave. The picture is of Bandera Volcano. It erupted only 1,000 years ago and is now filling in with debris that has fallen from its sides and blown in. Amazingly, trees and plants are growing in the cinder. We explored an ice cave in the park. 31 degrees inside year around! We were helped by two lovely ladies at the park visitor center. They showed us pictures of flash floods and cars stuck on roads that we are supposed to drive on tomorrow, so we may alter our plans. We will stop at the BLM office tomorrow for the final word on road conditions. It is not hot today as they are having their "monsoon" weather. It stays partially overcast and then the thunderheads build and let loose. After laundry is pizza - amazing what you miss when camping!