Part 2 - New Mexico / Arizona Road Trip

 ... and the adventure continues..... As we once again packed up our luggage into the car we looked forward to our plans for the next couple of days.... to hike to the oldest virtual cache in New Mexico, visit some aliens,  descend into the  depths of a cavern and anything else that might catch our eye.

First stop of the day was to find the oldest virtual cache in New Mexico.  It was placed in 2/2/2001 and is still an active cache.  So many of the older caches get archived so these older caches are a treasure to find. It was a perfect morning to embark on the short hike to the site as the air was crisp and the flowers were blooming. Once at the location the ritual Happy Dance was performed as we took in the views. It definitely was a good way to start our day.

Happy Dance at the oldest virtual geocache in New Mexico

Roswell, New Mexico

Roswell's claim to fame is for the alien encounters in the area.  The town has embraced the alien theme with alien statutes practically at every business corner or signage. However, as we drove around we also noticed impressive artwork depicting the Cattle King of Pecos and the Father of Modern Rocketry,  along with the Art Center and Museum.

Made a friend - take me to your leader....

Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard (the Father of Modern Rocketry, created and built the world's first liquid-fueled rocket here). He began the era of space flight and innovation.

Dr Goddard used this tower from 1930 to 1942 for launching liquid propelled rockets, to develop the means of exploring extreme attitudes.

Carlsbad, New Mexico

Carlsbad Caverns National Park - A Really, Really big room underground!

The formation history of the cavern system is unique and expansive in its own right and the final result is breathtaking. We hiked deep underground and discovered a world of amazing speleothems (cave formations) such as stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, draperies, cave popcorn and more. 

Briefly, Carlsbad Caverns were developed millions of year ago. There are petroglyphs near the natural cave opening confirming that the area was inhabited by Native American tribes. However, the first documented entry into the caverns was by a local cowboy in 1898 named Jim White. His name is remembered forever as part of the family that founded nearby White's City. After many years of of the Whites attempting to create a business of offering tours to show off the unknown underground world of the cave, some publicity about the wonders of the caverns made it to the U.S. Congress and it became a National Monument in 1923 and then a National Park.

Upon checking in at the visitor center, we chose to explore the caverns via the Natural Entrance Route.  This route is compared to walking down 75 stories of the Empire State Building. It is a steep switchback paved path with a length of 1.25 miles to the "Big Room" in the Caverns where those that do not partake in the walk-in entrance would start their journey after riding the elevator for 755 feet to the same 'Big Room'. 

The Big Room is well-named because it covers 357,480 SF - 8.2 acres. We were in amazement of spectacular views, cave formations of all shapes and sizes, and history of the 'rope ladder' (made of barb-wire and sticks) used by explorers in 1924 and even helium balloons to explore the upper levels of the caves. 

Beginning of the Natural Entrance

When a Stalactite and Stalagmite touch a Column is created.

"Whales Mouth" - Drapery and Flagstone Speleothems

An alien looking Stalagmite

A Stalagmite reaching high for the ceiling

We see an Angel - do you?

You can see the Stalactites and Stalagmites in this photo

"Dolls Theater" is a collection of soda straw stalactites and columns.
They are very small and very fragile.

Upon check-in at visitor center we were lucky enough to be informed that there was an opening on the most popular ranger-guided King's Palace Tour. So we signed up for the tour immediately. The tour goes through additional chambers not open on the self guided tour plus the tour descends to the deepest portion of the cavern that is accessible to the public. The ranger told us about the history, cave animals, geology and even turned out the lights where we could experience total darkness.  The tour gets a thumbs up from us.

This beautiful thin drapery speleothems that looks like bacon when backlight shines through it.

More 'drapery', 'Soda Straws', 'Popcorn' and Stalactites clinging to the ceiling.

 

Our cavern adventure lasted about 5 hours.  The photos do not reflect the beauty of all the formations and the massiveness of the caverns. We definitely recommend you visit the caverns.

So now we start our trek back home while stopping along the way to visit various roadside oddities, interesting history, memorials plus many geocaching stops.

 

Las Cruces, New Mexico

The roadrunner is the official state bird of New Mexico. Outside of Las Cruces a geo-cache brought us to a piece of artwork known for the materials it is made from - garbage/recycled items. It stands about 20 feet tall and 40 feet long. As we viewed it we could see crutches, computers, lots of shoes and paintbrushes and so much more.

Deming, New Mexico

Beautiful mural in Deming, NM depicting the spirit of the Mimbres culture.

Lordsburg, New Mexico

Memorial Park honoring Veterans in Lordsburg, NM  (lots of hiding places on this tank for a geo-cache)

Willcox, Arizona

 Home of Rex Allen and tribute in the Historic Railroad Avenue Park in Willcox, AZ

Dragoon, Arizona

A geocaching adventure lab brought us to some unique and neat artwork. This was definitely off the beaten path.

We were greeted by Mr. Rattlesnake. We proceeded with caution.

We were attacked by Indians

Then we were chased out of the area by dinosaurs 

It seems that this trip has taken us to many different dimensions of adventure. We enjoy traveling and sharing our adventures. Thank you for coming along.

Happy Travels,

Jack and Deb

 

Part 1: Visiting the Land of Enchantment - 9 day, 2150 mile road trip through New Mexico

Shortly after our trip to Moab, Utah we had plans to meet some friends from the Colorado jeeping group of Western Slope 4 Wheelers (WS4W) in Aztec, New Mexico searching for natural arches.  So we packed up the Grand Cherokee and we started our trip which would take us to Aztec to find arches. But...why come straight home when we could explore the rest of the state of New Mexico on the way back. So we toured Santa Fe, Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns, southern New Mexico and south eastern Arizona with a goal to find arches, geocaches, caverns, historic towns and lots of diverse scenery.

Aztec, NM

We were surprised to find out that there are actually more than 300 sandstone arches in the region surrounding the city of Aztec. Friends, Ruth and Lester  of WS4W, planned and guided our arch hunting adventure for two days.  Overall most of the arches were accessed by dirt roads which where some what 'graded' to service the oil and gas wells throughout the area. Some arches could be seen from the road and others required short hikes. We found about 23 named/numbered arches that were on our guide list and 15 arches that we called our bonus arches (not on 'the list'). In two days we would travel down Potter, Hart, La Manga, Pump and Pilares Canyons in our quest to find arches and... indeed, we found arches.

First, what is classified as an arch. As defined by the Natural Arch and Bridge Society, "a natural arch is a rock exposure that has a hole completely through it formed by the natural, selective removal of rock, leaving a relatively intact frame.". So what you will see, are many different types of arches and below is a just some of the arches that we found. 

The Colorado mountain range as a beautiful back drop

Jeep lineup of the 'Arch Hunters'

Hart Arch

This arch labeled NM-031 was a pretty tough hike to get the close up photo. Extra bonus was that we found a geocache in a nearby tree. 

Happy arch hunter and geocacher. We continued hiking to Arch NM-040 which was about 24ft in length and 7ft high.

Another photo of NM-040 from afar.

Little Delicate Arch

Saddle Horn Arch in Pilares Canyon

Outcrop Arch in Potter Canyon

Pillar Arch

La Manga Arch in La Manga Canyon

Our guide, Ruth, peeking through Drum Stick Arch

Before we departed Aztec in route to Santa Fe we visited the Aztec Ruins National Park. This massive stone structure settlement was engineered and built by ancestral Puebloans between late 1000s to the late 1200s AD. Our self guided tour along with audio narration gave us the history and detailed information on the structure and uses of each building. The buildings were mostly made of stones, mud mortar, sandstone masonry exteriors and wood roofs and consisted of over 400 rooms, ceremonial and public buildings.

Brochure photo of overall settlement

Looking across the edge of a ceremonial kiva and the living rooms in the back ground

The doorways were short - even for Deb.

Inside the Great Kiva (excavated in 1921 and rebuilt in 1934).

The wood found in place supporting the roofs in this darker area of the rooms is the original wood, that is a thousand years old.

One of many rooms displaying matates
 (a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds)

Great memories were made with friends. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Aztec Ruins and the arches in the Aztec area and hope to go back and find a couple more someday.  Now it's on to Santa Fe for a couple of days.

Santa Fe

There seems to be a common word to describe Santa Fe - 'Oldest'.  Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in the United States and the oldest European community west of the Mississippi.  We visited the De Vargas Street house which is the oldest house in the US and also the San Miguel Chapel, a Spanish colonial mission church built in 1610, is referred to as the oldest church in the US (excluding Puerto Rico).  The history is abundant in Santa Fe Historic District where we spent most of our day exploring.  We had one full day and it wasn't enough to thoroughly visit all the history, arts, museums, etc.  If you like adobe buildings you will like Santa Fe.  This will be another place we will need to come back to to explore even more.

The Oldest standing/occupied House in United States. Exact year built is unknown but noted as 1692.

San Miguel Church - Oldest Church structure in US. The original adobe walls and altar were built by Tlaxcalan Indians fro Mexico under the direction of Franciscan Padres in 1610

Interior of oldest Church

The Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi built in 1869

Interior of The Cathedral Basilica

Loretto Chapel built in the 1870's. Today it is known for the legend about it's beautiful and miraculous staircase

 

Internet photo of interior of Loretto Chapel showing the self-supporting wooden staircase.

We read that Santa Fe is known for its diverse and plentiful arts. Artists first began to migrate to Santa Fe in the late 1800s drawn to the landscape, the culture and the adobe architecture. This trend never really stopped and the city has centered a lot of the tourism around the arts. It would take days to really enjoy seeing all the different art districts in Santa Fe.

Art is almost on every corner.  We thought this sculpture was fun and had a good message.
You Can Do Anything * Make Every Day Count * Count Your Blessings * Always Believe in Yourself
 

Pioneer woman

Large 'kachina' statue outside native American arts center

Once again it's time to move on down the road.  Next stop will be Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns. So stay tuned for the second half of New Mexico. 

Happy Travels,

Jack & Deb