February 25, 2024

Our 50th day.

This past week we did a little hiking at a local state park and again at the Carlsbad Caverns. The state park was just a flat open desert area out side of Carlsbad. An easy walk of about 1.7 miles but we got our 5000 steps in. After the walk we hopped in the Jeep and drove through some of the area we just walked and came across a dried up river bed. What was interesting about this river bed was a concrete barrier that would slow the water when the river bed fills during their raining season. 

 

Local schools and perhaps gangs tagged most of the barrier and side walls. Typical in New Mexico and Texas are the dried up river beds or washes. Many are 10 to 20 feet deep to manage the water when it comes down off the mountains. With the rocky surface little soaks into the ground.  I did end up in the briar patch with the Jeep as we continued to navigate through the washes. 

We visited the Living Desert and Zoo also outside of Carlsbad, a State Park. The walk through the outside exhibits was a little over a mile and an easy walk but it was in the 80"s that day. They had a Bald Eagle in one pen and when the care taker came by it recognized him and started to screech. The birds there are all injured in some way. The eagle had broken its wing when it's nest collapsed and the bird fell.

There were elk, Javelina, reptiles and wolves, but many of the exhibits did not occupied. A disappointment as they had a beautiful park. All the native plants to New Mexico were planted in and around the exhibits. One enclosed area for cactus was heated to 120 degrees, we did not stay long. 

Lastly we headed back to the Carlsbad Caverns.  This was our second visit and we were mostly doing it for exercise. We did not need to take any pictures as we had done that the week before when we spent over 2 hour in the cave. This time it took us one hour to do the 3 miles in the cave. It was 86 outside and 56 in the cave but by the time we got done we both were sweating. We passed up a lot of people on the walkway as we were on a mission. I must say it was nice when we got to the elevator at the end of the walk and rode up the 800 feet to the surface. The previous week we maybe saw 6 to 10 people in the cave but today it was a 100. School kids must of had off work schools also. It was a good day. 

Buddy got a bath at the groomer this week but could not get a cut as the girl was not fully licensed. As always he was happy to get the hell of the there and back to the RV. 

Tomorrow we head for a small town outside of Albuquerque, NM called Cedar Crest and will be there for 2 weeks. We hope to get into the Sandia Mountains, maybe up the tram. They were getting snow in the area in the past week and expect rain and winds in the 60 mile range on Tuesday.