Northern New Mexico

Monday we saw plenty of wildlife, including TWO coyotes up close, sniffing around for jackrabbits in our campground

We also saw several herds of pronghorns

We headed to Pecos National Historical Park which was partly archeological ruins from a mission and earlier ruins from a pueblo

We even got to go inside a reconstructed kiva

This was the fourth, and last, church built at the site, the first one which was much larger also stood on this site

We went to Fort Union National Monument and had a moment of confusion. We had already visited a Fort Union NPS site... in North Dakota! It was Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site which was from an earlier time period (early 1800s) and was part of the fur trade. This site was on the Santa Fe trail and was also a Civil War outpost--even clear out in New Mexico! (Texas was trying to claim land)

These last two pictures do not do it justice, but you could see the wagon ruts of the Santa Fe Trail

Tuesday we went to Philmont Scout Ranch to see the National Scouting Museum

It was really interesting to walk through the museum and see the exhibits about the history of scouting in the U.S.

We saw regular deer at Philmont

We headed over to Capulin Volcano National Monument

We tried to come here right when the federal shutdown happened in 2018. It figures that Mother Nature kept us from seeing the top of the volcano this time:

We did see the exhibits in the visitor center--this is a lava bomb which is a piece of lava that is thrown into the air, cools as it comes down, and has a very different appearance and shape from other cooled lava

We got a pretty good view of the volcano from the parking lot, it's a nicely forested cinder cone now

The sides of the volcano are pretty much cinder/sandy, so repairing the road was not simple or easy

Today we attended the Broadmoor Ward, Colorado Springs, Colorado Stake

Comments

Cross Country Trek!

Monday we went to Manassas National Battlefield. It was drippy and wet, so we didn't see much of the actual battlefield but the visitor center movie was fantastic and the exhibits were pretty amazing too. We learned something interesting--click on this photo if you want to read more. The stone is from the Manassas area farm of Wilmer McLean, the same Wilmer McLean whose home was used for the surrender of Lee to Grant at the end of the Civil War. McLean moved his family from Manassas to escape the battle, one of the very first of the Civil War. He could literally say the war started at his front door and ended in his front parlor! We then headed out, driving 8 hours a day. So our trip looked a little like this: Tuesday Wednesday Thursday We almost made it back to Utah before hitting any storms. There were some gloomy days, swirling snow, snow on the side of the roads (but not ON the road) until we got to west

Connecticut

Sunday we stayed put in Massachusetts where we were boondocking away from the brunt of the storm. We still had a lot of rain. Monday it rained and rained, we were able to find a campground that was open in Connecticut, we drove south in more rain.

Aloha, part 2

Day 9 -- Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona We rode the bus to Pearl Harbor. The bus in Hawai'i is TheBus, literally. We also noticed that the bus numbers matched the license plates Sights along the way, note the Hawaiian islands on the shaka hand gesture More murals The visitor center is open air, two museum galleries, a theatre, and lots of memorials The Navy runs the ferry from the visitor center out to the USS Arizona There are buoys at either end of the ship, so you can get a sense of its relation to the memorial structure Look closely, you can see a small, white buoy close to the USS Missouri and also parts of the USS Arizona sticking out of the water The entrance to the memorial You can still see oil on the water from the ship In the center of the memorial, there was an open area where you could look down directly onto the ship Looking toward the far end of the memorial The far end of the memorial had all the names listed of those that died in the attack on Pearl Harbor I di

Wandering Orbit

Search This Blog