El Morro National Monument, Day 12 of Trip

We left Joe Skeen campground in the morning, drove down 117, through part of Route 66, and back up the other side of the Malpais Monument on hwy 53. Currently we are camped out at the El Morro Campground. Our second free camping spot. 

We hiked to the Bat cave in the monument and then we turned around. It was very windy and kind of boring. We did see two large sink holes about 80feet and the bat cave. All bat caves are currently closed because of White Nose Disease.

She wanted her dolly to go! 

She liked playing at the visitor center. 

Then we continued up 53 to this monument. 

This is El Morro. The pueblo is on top. I had a hard enough time getting to the top at this elevation; I can only imagine how hard it would be to carry water up every day. The inscription area is around the base of the rock. 

We did the entire loop

The water hole that provided life for so many for hundreds of years. 

Posing by the water hole. It's now 12 feet deep and holds 200,000 gallons of water. It was made larger by the civil corp. 

 The rock is inscribed by passerbys from several different eras. There are native petroglyphs, and signatures from the Spanish, Mexicans, and pilgrims. Inscriptions were allowed until 1906. 

Breckinridge was in charge of testing camels out in the dessert. The camels did very well packing gear around for the crew but the mule won out. Mules replaced the camels and were the animal of choice during the Civil War. The camels were sold to zoos and circuses and some escaped becoming ferral animals. 

I'm not sure how they were able to have such a pretty signature? 

Two different peoples, drawings and a written language

There are several that say so and so passed through here and the date

The guys below were beheaded in the Santa Fe Plaza in the mid 1600s for plotting to kill the governor. 

This bear paw tells of the animals in the area. 

Elk crossing 

Spanish bringing their church to the Indians 

The trail took us to the top of El Murro. It was beautiful at the top. What a climb!! 

Super windy at the top. 25mph winds. I had to use both hands to hold onto my phone

Atsinna pueblo. There are an estimated 800 rooms. They have only uncovered 12 and then moved to preserving the site instead of excavating it. They think about 1500 natives lived here. Many battles were fought here. The high location of the  pueblo provided protection. There is also a center canyon that they used to corral animals. It would be an awesome place to live considering we are in the desert. 

Pueblo

Pueblo

We spotted our airstream down below. 

 4 things we keep commenting on

1. We should work for google maps. We find errors all the time! We could be a valuable resource for them as we spend so much time driving and exploring. 

2. UPS is everywhere! We can we out in the middle of no where, dirt road full of pot holes and a UPS truck will come flying by. 

3. New Mexico is WINDY and dusty! 

4. We are so happy that we have a chance to do this type of exploring now. The majority of the trails we hike on most retired individuals wouldn't dare walk on. We are also thankful that we are fit and healthy enough to do these walks. Not everyone in their 30s can physically do what we do which is such a sad reality.  We both vow to stay active and set a good example for Ella. 

El Malpais National Monument

El Malpais means the bad country. There is the conservation area as well as the national monument. We are at a blm campground, Joe Skeen. We spent the day between the two areas. 

The Ventana Arch- largest in New Mexico 

Nice and windy hike! 

Lava flows 

Hiking the rim trail, lava flows below

Gordo got to stretch his legs and thankfully missed the cacti. 

Lava falls trail. It looked like a massive pile of Dino poop. 

Petroglyphs in the Lobo canyon. The drawings are different than what we have seen in utah. 

Aliens? 

Selfie with the alien petroglyph

Was the artist a woman? 

Evening fun! 

Ella's selfie at walmart. Jason bought some green spray for the stroller tires and it seems to be working. Hopefully, we will not have to buy more tires. 

Today we went on three different hikes. We all love being outdoors. Ella especially likes playing on our bed. We open all the curtains and she rolls around, climbs on the pillows and watches the trees and the birds. She will play until she get hungry and then she wants down to eat. It's fun watching her play by herself. 

Albuquerque, New Mexico , Petroglyph National Monument

We spent some time in the old part of town which is very touristy. Lots of the same types of gift stores with a few unique stores. 

Then we spent time at the Petroglyph National Monument walking the different trials. The monument is in the middle of a very busy area. It was very odd but I am thankful that they decided to finally protect this outdoor museum. 

The pueblo people were very artistic. These all are about 400-700 years old. 

My junior ranger! 

Lizard with lolly pop? 

 She loves riding on dada's shoulders

We have two more flat tires on the stroller and we even went to walmart today!!! Aahhh!! We spent so much time today in traffic and at traffic lights. We are not city people. 

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico

We really enjoy visiting New Mexico. This park was quiet, spacious and dark at night. The only thing is that the wind usually blows really hard here. We went on a nice 2 mile hike around the lake shoreline after Ella played at the playground. It was nice to stretch our legs. 

I made meatloaf pizza last night and it tasted awesome. 

The night before we stayed at Camelot Campground which was across the street from Costco!! Now we are stocked up with yummy food. 

This cute girl will be 1 in three weeks!!! She is showing off her 7 teeth. Last night she crawled into the bathroom, grabbed her toothbrush and began brushing along side of me. She is so smart and such a quick learning. She doesn't miss anything. 

I love watching her play by herself. She now grabs and hugs her dolls. Looks them in the eyes and whispers to them. It's so cute to watch her mirror our behaviors. 

She can be one messy kid too! Watch out because she mimics everything. This is especially funny when we are around strangers. She likes to mimic noises people make. :) 

Tres Rios, Glen Rose TX.

We drove to Glen Rose to stay at the Tres Rios resort because Jason thought that he had won a free three night stay. Turns out that when we arrived the place was not much of a resort and in turn for our free nights we needed to attend a 90 minute tour. In the fine print of the email it does describe that the tour is mandatory and that two forms of id are required including a credit card. I guess this is a good reminder to all that you should read the fine print and find out what type of swept stakes you are enter before filling out that little white piece of paper. 

We stayed for two nights and we left before the tour began. I'm sure they have emailed Jason wondering why we left but thankfully we never gave them any personal information. It reminded me of those pyramid scams that used to happen all the time. 

We did enjoy the area. Glen rose is a nice small town known for dinosaur tracks. We had fabulous pies in town after we shopped the antique and clothing stores. The weather our second day was fabulous. I think it reached 80 degrees! We were able to sleep with the windows open at night. We don't have an air conditioner so I am thankful our airstream has plenty of windows. 

Today while on the road Ella has gotten sick twice and required a complete change both times. She is feeling better but the strong coughs are too much for her increasing appetite. Now I sit with Ella in the trailer while Jason runs into town for another wheel barring. Thankfully, a gentlemen caught our attention to tell us something was wrong with our trailer. It was still pulling fine and at the initial look around Jason did not see anything wrong. When we were able to pull over at a safer location we both jumped out and literally saw the smoking problem. The weather is great so we are just chilling until dad returns. 

She feels special with her new chair 

Looking at gordo

Dinosaur track found near nuclear plant

What will I have for lunch today? 

Magnolia Arkansas and Caddo Lake State Park Tuesday March 25

We went for a nice canoe ride in the bayou. I've always wanted to float around the bald cypress trees. 

Family 

She wasn't too sure about what we were doing! 

Looking at the trees and turtles. 

Enjoying the sunshine 

On our way to Caddo we stopped in the little town of Magnolia Arkansas to walk around the old town and check out its stores. They had a fantastic collection of clothes, gifts and toys. We bought local honey and it's delish! 

We drove along the "boom or bust" and a "civil war" highway. There are oil pumps every where  now that we are in Texas. 

Lake Chicot State Park, AR.

Here we enjoyed walking in the park and watching the sun set over the lake. It's a rather long lake that used to be a part of the Mississippi River before it changed coarse cutting off what is now an oxbow shaped lake. 

The drive to the park was an adventure thanks to google maps. We ended up on an old dirt road full of pot holes and cattle guard crossings. Not the type of road you want to be on when pulling a large trailer. 

The park was full of families on spring break which reminded me of camping in New Zealand. 

Ella fussed all day and she still does not feel well. The only thing she enjoyed yesterday was riding in her stroller watching the kids play and watching the migrating birds fly around the lake. Traveling is tiring but it's exhausting when you have a sick baby.