7 posts tagged “road trips”

The rest of Saturday was hauling ass to Marfa via Carlsbad and Van Horn.  Pretty scenery but I wouldn't recommend the route to anyone in a hurry, especially Rt. 54 if it's just rained.  I hit one of the low-water crossings too fast to see it was flooded and if there had been more than 6 inches I might still be in the rental car somewhere downstream.

The rain broke Friday night so Saturday I packed up early and hit the road, looking for a good trail somewhere in the National Forest.  Drove from Ruidoso to Cloudcroft via the Mescalero reservation, which was all kinds of pretty.  So was the Lincoln Forest once I got off the main roads.

A little bit in Road 04 I found a trail marked 251 leading up into the Lucas Canyon and got out for a stroll.  Which was all kinds of pretty in itself.

It did indeed rain like hell the next day.  Before the worst of it rolled in I got out for a quick look at the Skyline campground, where I've stayed every other time I've been in Ruidoso.

Skyline is 9k-something feet up, which I now recall made sleeping a little problematical the last time I was there in 2001.  Breath comes hard that high.  Nevertheless, I poked around in the mist long enough to gather some pine deadfall for the fire I knew I'd be building back in the cabin as soon as the rain started in earnest.

Once I got done with the lukewarm eggs-and-biscuits at Penny's I headed north to Ft. Davis and the Davis Mountains before turning back east to Austin.  You might wonder why 5000 people would choose to live in Alpine, then you see the mountains around it.

OK, back from the weekend and finally un-frantic enough to post some pics.  I made a quick trip out to Marathon and back via Alpine, which is a fur piece indeed for two days.  Well over 900 miles on the rental odometer and a lot more time than I like to spend in the car, but it was worth it to see someplace I've never been.  And now I know how far it is I can plan better for next time.

Saturday included a leisurely loop through the Hill Country south and west of Kerrville.  I started seeing pods of bikers well before Fredericksburg but by the time I hit Kerrville they were all over the roads in every direction.  Don't know if it was some sort of rally or just a perfect spring cruising day but everyone I saw looked like they were having a grand old time.

I loved all the different shades of green once I got off the main road.  This was between Medina and Vanderpool.

I had to go through Utopia because as a native Yankee I felt compelled to verify that such a place exists in this state.

A great week for the carpet of native wildflowers.  This was somewhere between Utopia and Sabinal.

From Sabinal it's Rt. 90 the whole way to Marathon.  From Sabinal to Del Rio, and from Del Rio to Sanderson, the road is more than a tad dreary.  Somewhere after Comstock is when the day started to feel too long and Texas too damn big.

The drive back from Newmoonie with Sandi took six days.  The first night we set up camp just off Rt. 375 west of Rachel, NV and saw a big glow off to the south which we assumed was Area 51.

Rt. 375 bills itself the Extraterrestrial Highway.  I'm assuming these road signs are a focus of some controversy among Nevada taxpayers.

The second night we camped at Paria Cliffs outside Kanab UT.  The sunset was amazing for its last 10 minutes.

The cliffs were even more beautiful in the morning.  Then we went further up the canyon and shot at some cans.  (Yes, I am indeed recycling the one below from a few entries back but I love the picture and besides internet users have legendarily short attention spans.)

The fourth night we stayed at Chaco Culture park, my third visit and Sandi's first.  A fascinating place and not badly overrun by turistas, mostly because the road in from the south is in such teeth-jarringly poor shape.

It rained like hell that night with wind to match.  We were lucky to get a spot under the cliffs that kept the worst of it off, or rather Sandi did.  I decided to sleep in the back of the Montero which meant keeping the hatch open to stretch out fully with my feet poking out the end.  They were just a little damp by morning.

The next day was beautiful again and we toured the ruins until the early afternoon, then beelined for Jemez Hot Springs for more typical turista activities.  We were back in Austin the day after that and man... I wish I was on the road again.  Everytime I talk to Sandi it sounds like she does too.

(Note: as with the previous entry, some photos are Sandi's and some are mine and I'm no longer sure which are which.  Let's just split the credit 50-50 here.)

The last time I went camping in the desert with burners was six and a half years ago on the annual Newmoonie trip.  Newmoonie was originally conceived in 1998 by Tracey as a spinoff from Burning Man for our crowd to escape the Labor Day masses and enjoy the run of the Black Rock under the thin light of the new moon in July, but it quickly blossomed out of control and for 2001 was relocated much further out to Two Cow playa near Austin, NV.  Even so we had about 200 people in the camp that year.

I rented a Montero and drove out from Texas - still the only time I've ever been behind the wheel of an SUV - to join up with Sandi and her friend Anita and, eventually, Mang.  We learned that the Moss Shelter Wing is a pretty good ready-made shade structure for the playa as long as the winds don't kick up big-time.  Fortunately they didn't.