Colorado and New Mexico, Parts 7 & 8

Part 7:  Final Day and Night in the Southwest

We awoke Sunday morning in Raton with one full day left to explore, and one more night of camping.  Monday morning we would begin the long drive home.  Raton sits at the bottom of Raton Pass, with Trinidad, Colorado on the other side.  The Southwest Chief climbs the pass each way on its journey to either L.A. or Chicago, and it is one of the main highlights of the train journey.  We had plans to be up in the mountains when the train came up from Colorado this morning, and hoped to get a few shots of it climbing the pass.

Afterwards, we headed into Trinidad, a small tourist town that has seen better days.  However, just north of town was one of the finest microbreweries a craft beer drinker could ever hope to discover!  I spent a lovely time here sampling the many fine offerings, vowing to return.  Needless to say Deb did the driving for the remainder of the afternoon.  We eventually made it to Clayton Lake State Park, famous for its dinosaur footprints.  We had visited years ago with my parents.  This time we were there to camp, and we were able to snag the best campsite in the park!

After a very pleasant moon rise and decent sleep, we packed up the truck for good, departing early Monday morning for the journey home.

 Fisher's Peak looms over Raton Pass and Trinidad, CO.

 The Southwest Chief climbs Raton Pass, heading for New Mexico.  There is a long tunnel just after crossing the state line, and then the grand descent into Raton.

 Wall map, cafe in Trinidad, CO.

 An eye-catching van in downtown Trinidad.  A cafe and two stores were open on this Sunday.  Some tourist town!

 Dodge Creek Brewing Company, just north of Trinidad.  Home sweet home!! (They have closed since and moved to Dumas, TX.  Now called Topple Turtle Brewery).

 Troy's ESB was to die for!!  My favourite beer ever!!  I tried them all, plus a coffee stout that was busy brewing in the back.  What a great place, and super friendly!!

 Two lane classic roads took us a back way from Colorado back into northeastern NM.  First Officer Deb was at the wheel.  I kept her entertained with my witty drunken banter.

 Sierra Grande, one of many extinct volcanoes in northeastern NM.

 Rabbit Ears Mtn is passed on route to Clayton Lake State Park.  Heading eastbound, it is the last mountain seen before the great plains are entered.  Westbound along US 56, it is the first mountain encountered.  US 56 follows the old Santa Fe Wagon Trail, which brought settlers from Kansas City, MO to Santa Fe, NM.  Wagon ruts can still be seen on Google Earth, or in person.

 View from near our tent site, Clayton Lake State park, NM

We set our tent up atop this outcrop, overlooking the lake.

 Our tent was on the opposite side of our vehicle, Clayton Lake, NM

 

We had about 20 minutes of dark sky before moon rise.  It was one day past full.

Part 8: Heading Home

Clayton Lake State Park straddles the prairies and the mountains.  We said goodbye to the park around 8:30 am, beginning our first of three long days of driving home.  Original plans had been to camp the first night (Monday) in eastern Kansas, but temps were due to rise to nearly 100 F today.  We preferred an air conditioned motel room.  We drove straight through to  Lawrence, a gruelling 514 miles.  All but 99 miles of it was on two lane, so at least it was a pleasant and scenic drive.  We stopped for coffee in downtown Great Bend, KS, where it was 99 F.

Next day we plowed on till Effingham, IL, 401 miles from Lawrence.  We had lunch at Main Squeeze in Columbia, MO.  Our final day home was 462 miles, and it was plagued by detours caused by construction and freeway accidents.  We arrived home exhausted but relieved to have made it safely.

Saying goodbye to Clayton Lake, and to NM, as we pulled out and headed for home.

 The scenery never stops.  Here we are passing through beautiful downtown Sublette, KS.

Inside 23rd St. Brewery, Lawrence, KS.

 Morning in downtown Lawrence, KS.  Deb went to Yarn Barn before we left town.

At only twelve days, this turned into our shortest of the seven road trips we have made to NM.  The falling Canadian dollar had something to do with it, but I also wanted to be back on time and rested up for the next astronomy session.  The next big drive west, possibly in October 2017, will be with our telescopes as we attend the Socorro Star Party.  I'm already looking forward to that one!

Colorado and New Mexico, Parts 5 and 6

Part Five: Hikes #3 & #4

We stayed two nights at Sipapu.  They were building a new ski lift, and we were warned about an early morning helicopter coming on Friday and working throughout the day.  We were checking out that day, so we didn't mind.  We spent Thursday mostly at the resort, resting, writing, exploring.  We had a wonderful fire Thursday night in the large fireplace.  Three miles further up the road was Agua Piedra Campground.  We ended up staying here Friday night, as our Friday hike began and ended here.

We left Sipapu around 9 am, watching the helicopter carry a cement bucket up and down the mountain.  At the last minute we remembered to purchase rain ponchos at the little shop.  We drove up to the campground, selected a site, paid and parked our vehicle there.  We geared up for our hike.  This was to be the biggest of the hikes we had planned, as well as the final one.

Hike #3: Trail 19A, Agua Piedra:  The hike was 8 miles long, with nearly 2,000' of elevation gain.  We began at 8500', and it was a steady uphill grind much of the way to a high saddle.  From here we climbed further on a side trail, trying to achieve a bare summit.  However, due to in-coming storms we had to abort mission to climb the hill.  We ate our lunch at a beautiful overlook, sitting on a convenient log, then headed back down.  The torrential rains caught us about half way back.  The ponchos were life savers!

 The trail begins at Agua Piedra Campground.

Near the beginning of the hike the trail skirts a lovely mountain meadow.

 Even though we climbed to over 10,400', there was always much higher country all around us.

This should have been my summit conquering photo, but alas incoming weather sent us back downhill all too soon.  We got properly drenched before we made it back to the vehicle.

 From a distance we thought we had come across some red rocks.  However, closer scrutiny proved otherwise...

 Appearing like red rocks from a distance, the rocks were actually covered in orange lichen!

Jicarita Peak, at about 12,600', looms more than 2,000' above us. 

We were soaked from our knees down by the time we returned.  It was a big, bad storm, and thunder crashed around us and lighting flashed not far away.  The trail turned into a downhill rushing streamlette.  This trail had about 10 river crossings, where one has to pick his/her way over logs and across stepping stones (which tended to move a lot when stepped on).  So though we walked quickly back down in general, we had to really slow down at the many crossings.

Once back at the car, we changed into dry clothes and hung the wet ones on our hastily erected clothesline.  It stopped raining, and by sunset the nearly-full moon was rising.  For a Friday night in August the campground remained remarkably empty.  Besides us there was one other camper (in a trailer, quite far from us) in the entire huge section.  So we spent a pretty quiet night.  It was way too damp to attempt a campfire.  Besides, we were exhausted from our hike.  Bedtime came early.

Next morning we were up early.  It was a chilly 46 F.  We made tea and oatmeal, packed up the tent, loaded the truck and were ready to depart by 9:30 am.  Today was supposed to be an epic drive, first through the Rockies and out the eastern end, then onto the plains for the afternoon.  However, we had spied a spur trail yesterday.  Trail 19C said "Indian Lake."  We were intrigued.  We had both survived the ordeal yesterday and were ready for a lesser hike today.  So off we went!

 Hike #4:  This one came in at around 4 miles and 1,000', about half of yesterday's epic challenge.  I ended up forgetting my camera in the car!  Luckily Deb had a phone with her, and she took the next few pics with it.  Otherwise, there would be nothing to show you.  This is a beautiful walk through deep woods and up into the high country.  The pond (no lake here, my friends) sits at about 9,500'.  We were so used to altitude by now that we could breathe pretty normally up there.  Being a Saturday we expected (and got) several other hikers.  We had been completely alone all day yesterday.  However, we managed to climb to the lake, visit it, rest there, have a snack, take pictures and then begin to head back down before we met anyone else.

Indian Lake is more like an alpine pond.  Two ducks were happily swimming about!

This shot shows the incredibly beautiful park-like setting of Indian Lake.  We walked around the pond and got comfortable by one of the big evergreen trees, taking our snack break and well-deserved rest. 

 This was the view back, taken from our rest area in the pines.

 The author at Indian Lake.

 View of the high country as we prepared to descend the trail (19C) and back to our vehicle.  We still had a long drive ahead today, as we began our return east.  We would still see mountains for the rest of today and most of tomorrow.

Part Six:  Agua Piedra to Raton, NM

This is a long, very dramatic drive.  Mountains, valleys, towns, villages, high passes--it is a fabulous journey!  We climbed to over 9400' as we recrossed the Rockies, stopping in Mora, NM on the other side.  We had lunch here at a little Mexican restaurant.  They took good care of us!  Next came a stop at a yarn mill.  Deb was overjoyed!  And they had espresso!  Her feelings of joy could not be contained!  I sat on a bench and waited.

Mountain scenery and dramatic weather equals a perfect drive in New Mexico.

Baldy Mountain near Eagle Nest Lake exceeds 12,000'.  We stopped nearby at a ski resort town (Angel Fire), waiting out a bit of rain and lightning.

The Southwest Chief arrives in Raton, NM exactly when we did (5 pm)!  We've been to the little station four times on this train, twice westbound and twice eastbound.  It was fun to see it arrive and leave from the sidelines, so to speak.  Note the puddles remaining from afternoon storms.

Portrait of Deb at Raton.  We both would have loved to jump on the train and go!

View from our table and chairs at our little motel in Raton, NM.

It took us about five hours to drive from the campground to the town of Raton.  Raton is near the border with Colorado.  Though we were heading to a New Mexico campground tomorrow night, we would dip into Colorado next morning and afternoon before recrossing the state line.

Colorado and New Mexico, Part 3 and Part 4

Part 3

Hike #2 was an important one for us.  We would be hiking from the Taos Ski Valley to just beneath Wheeler Peak, the highest summit in New Mexico.  Williams Lake is a little glacial pond that sits surrounded on all sides by some of the highest peaks we had ever encountered.  Just before reaching the lake, at the hike's highest point, is the turnoff to Wheeler.  Next October we hope to turn here and continue on up to its summit.  It will be our highest hike ever, should we make it.

 The hike begins by following a small but vigorous mountain stream, the same one we slept near last night, but now over 2,000' higher.  We had our filtration bottles on this trip, and put them to good use, saving us carrying a full day's water supply from the start.

The trail up to the lake is rocky and difficult underfoot, though parts of it are standard packed dirt.  Much of it was within high altitude spruce and alpine forest.  The hike begins at over 10,000', so we were short of breath a lot on the uphill portion.  

The scenery was breath-taking during the entire hike, beginning at the ski lifts.  We were beside a rushing stream at the beginning, then entered a dark and very pleasant wood.  Mountain views were constant.  Views really opened up as we reached Williams Lake.

Near the top of our hike, we were looking up towards the trail to Wheeler Peak.  I took a few extreme telephoto shots, and when we got home we discovered there were 4 people making the ascent today.  We even briefly saw someone at the very summit, two miles away from us and 2,000' higher up.  We climbed nearly 2,000' today ourselves.  The entire hike was 4 miles long, the same as yesterday's walk near Denver, but what a difference one day can make!

Two hikers can be seen up in the saddle, silhouetted against the sky.  Two others are in the green area, but can't be seen unless the full photo size is depicted.  Hopefully that will be us next year!  This is an extreme telephoto shot (24x).

 After a lot of uphill walking, we reached our incredible goal for today.  There were marmots  everywhere!  Williams Lake is a popular hiking destination, and today was no exception.  We did have the lake to ourselves when we arrived, but during our lunch we were joined by others.  On our descent we met many people on their way up.

We ate our lunch on the boulder beneath this magical cliff at Williams Lake.  It was a wonderful area for exploring, or just sitting and gazing around.

Our elevation high point for today, and for this trip.  It came at the top of the trail, just before the short descent to Williams Lake.

 Once back at our car, we were only 45 minutes from downtown Taos!!  It is just too amazing that something like that hike can exist so close to civilization.  We had lunch at Eske's Brewpub, a favourite stop when in the area.  They roast their own green chiles, using it in their food and their beer.  I had green chile enchiladas (vegan) and green chile ale, while Deb enjoyed green chile stew (vegan) and a home-brewed iced tea which she really enjoyed.  We had enough to take with us for dinner that night.

After lunch we visited the nearby downtown plaza, where I met up with an old friend.  Afterwards, we headed to Sipapu Ski Resort, which would be our home for the next 2 days and nights.

 Part 4

Our stay at Sipapu was not as glorious as the one three years ago.  The lovely outside bar/cafe had burned down last August and had not been replaced.  No more Starbucks coffee, no veggie burger, and no New Mexico craft beer.  At least the tables were still outside by the river, and the indoor cafe was open.  Hopefully this will be remedied.  We stayed once again in Cabin 9B, enjoying a roaring fire in the fireplace on our 2nd night.

 Foggy morning view from the balcony of Cabin 9b, Sipapu, NM

 Outdoor seating area at the cafe, Sipapu.  It is adjacent to a fast-flowing river.

 Pond life at Sipapu.

Sipapu has walking trails, too.

 

 This mountain river flows through the complex at Sipapu.

 

 Sunset at Sipapu.

Continued in Part 5...