17 May


We are now heading west back towards Arizona where we plan to be at Flagstaff by Memorial Weekend. (last weekend in May). We have diverted off the I40 (Route 66) and have camped at El Morro National Monument. As were sitting out having a read the wind blew a smallish snake out of a tree into our site. We were very wary of it and asked the man empting the rubbish tins what it was. He

confirmed it was a rattlesnake and very dangerous. The small ones are the worst as when they bite they release all their venom. (unlike the big ones). It eventually coiled up under our foot stool! We had planned to ride our bikes to the visitors centre to investigate what there was to see. The snake made the trip more important. The rangers were very helpful and phoned the bloke who captures snakes about a 45 minute drive away. He eventually arrived 2 hours later. When we arrived back at “Ernie” our unwanted visitor was on the move so I watched him the whole time waiting for the ranger to arrive. He confirmed that it was very dangerous and thanked us for reporting it (and tracking it) before picking it up with a snake stick (very long handled tongs) and putting it in a special bucket. He released about 50m away as they have to stay in the vicinity. The whole experience was not as frightening as we had thought but taught us to be vigilant.

18 May.

We packed our lunch and rode back to the visitors centre. El Morro is one of the oldest National Monuments (est. 1906). It is a huge sandstone rock outcrop rising 200ft above its surrounds. Its significant is that there is a pool of water at it base which never dries up. Around it’s base there are inscriptions which various visitors have engraved. Ancient graffiti really! The earliest are the native Indians around 1200 AD. Next were the Spanish explorers and missionaries in the 1500’s. Lastly were the American settlers going west around 1849. They all stop here because of the water. After viewing the inscriptions we climbed up the path to the top of the rock giving great views, where had lunch. There also a pueblo (native village) on top of the rock. All very fascinating!

19 May

We left El Morro and headed back up to the I40. Along the I40 we diverted into the Petrified Forest National Park. This involved a 28

mile drive thru the park. The first area was called the Painted Desert where the whole desert was shades of pink. Next we came to some conical land formations called the Tepees. The area was moonlike. The most spectacular area was the petrified forest. At first glance it looked like a huge area of forest which had been felled and cut up into logs for splitting. We followed a path and as you touched the logs we realized they had turned into rocks. Some of the rocks were exactly like the trees they had been, with bark and rings and others had turned into various colours (pinks and reds) and it had a crystalline look. This area was a tropical forest 200 million years ago and the land had risen and moved and is now desert. Somewhere in this period this petrified forest was formed. It was well worth the

diversion. The last part of the drive along the I40 was unpleasant as there was a strong cross wind combined with a huge number of trucks passing. We camped at another convenient state park just out of Winslow.

20 May

A short drive along the I40 to Winslow. After a shop at Wal-mart we headed to the visitors centre and the “corner”. Winslow was a railway town until it was made famous by the Eagles with their first hit “Take it Easy” (u tube www required). There is a “Standing on the Corner” park with a bronze statue and the

“flat bed Ford”. We could not stop grinning as we had our picture taken. It is a very clever use of the town’s new fame. There was also a beautiful hotel built by the Santa Fe Railway in 1929 which we walked thru. We found the McHood Park Reservoir just out of town and headed there for the night. Unfortunately a strong wind has been blowing for the last few days but we enjoyed a 3 mile walk around the reservoir with lots of wild life evident. (Jack Rabbits, Gophers, Squirrels and many colourful birds.

21 May

Our last short drive along the I40 (mostly the old Route 66) to Flagstaff. We headed up into the hills and are now at the beautiful Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. After selecting a nice site under the Ponderosa pines, we hopped on the bikes for a short ride to the Lenox Crater Rim and the Lava Flow

Trail. The walks around the Sunset Volcano area were very interesting. There are several small volcanic cones that were formed after the eruptions about 1000 years ago. The lava flow area was nothing like we have seen before, with pitted rock formations.

22 May

A very short drive back into Flagstaff and a shop up for the long weekend here. (Memorial Weekend). This marks the start of the holidays and everyone goes camping! The camp where we had chosen to pick up our mail unfortunately had their internet disabled. Bugger! And to top it off the mail we needed to register “Ernie” past June had not arrived. We ended up ringing the Florida registration people and a very nice lady organized to do the deal over the phone once she had a copy of our insurance certificate. We had this document in the computer but we had to walk to the nearest McDonalds to email it. More problems as the lady in Florida could not read it well enough. We eventually hopped on the bikes and rode to a UPS store and faxed it to her. Unfortunately we are 4 hours behind Florida but she was able to confirm that she got the fax and would process the registration in the morning. We rode on to the centre of old Flagstaff along Route 66. This is another railway town but now services a ski area with some nice bars etc. Back at the camp we had decided to try the steak restaurant at the RV Park, which advertised a musical review. What a

surprise, as it was all the Waiters & Waitresses who got up and did various songs from the shows.(Les Mis, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Cats and many others, and even some Gilbert and Sullivan) They all had great voices and some of the choruses were very complicated and well staged. The steaks were great too. It was a fabulous night if not a little surprising in what appeared to be a cowboy bar/restaurant with about half the crowd being truckies.

23 May

We had decided to get on the road early to the Sedona region to ensure we had a camp site. (Memorial Weekend). Before we left the lady from the Florida registration outfit phoned and we completed our registration which we will pick up when we decide on a camp in a few weeks time. (Phew!!) The short drive down the steep canyon road into the Sedona region was great and we stopped at the first Coconino

National Forest camp we came to, Pines Flat. We got a nice site in the shade of some Ponderosa pines with the red cliffs of the Oak Creek Canyon all around. The camp quickly filled up and by the evening the full sign was up. There are now lots of family groups setting up camp. A bit like Show Weekend in ChCh. It gets dark here early and we were in bed by 9:30pm!

24 May

As it is Friday and the weekend will be busy, we decided to drive down thru Sedona (a yuppie town) and on to an area where we can do some hiking. The road has some of the first roundabouts in USA. There are special instructions on how to drive them. (You really have to be careful as no one indicates where they are going!) The red rocks are everywhere. The various formations rise above the valley for 100s of feet. Many of them are named but you need to have a good imagination to work some of them out. We stopped at “Bell

Rock” (very obvious) and set out for a great 6 mile walk around Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock. What a trail!!! We have worked out that there are two types of people when you visit these areas. There are the “car park people”. They get out of their cars, check their cellphone, take a picture and drive on. This is despite the fact that some of the walks are very short and on paths. The others (a very small group) actually go for a walk!

25 May

This was a stay at home day. We caught up on cleaning, vehicle checks and some outstanding jobs. I

fitted a new mains input plug (the old one was a bit stuffed). The camp is full with many families. We went for a couple of short walks around the camp and down the Oak Creek Canyon. The site has a nice mixture of shade and sun and we enjoyed a relaxing day reading and trying to organise our next few

weeks.

26 May

We set off for the only reasonable hike from this camp up the Cook-stove Trail. This was an 800ft vertical climb out of the canyon to the plateau (mesa) above. The camp host told us the best time he had heard of the climb was 26 minutes. We did in 24 minutes with three photo stops. We think the locals may be a bit soft! The views from the top were great and we could really appreciate the narrow canyon we were camped in. We put up the NZ flag to recognize Memorial Day.

27 May

A lazy morning watching the traffic going up and down the canyon. After an early lunch we ventured out for the short drive back up to Flagstaff where we are at an RV park. There is limited internet here but we have managed to accomplish most of the thinks we need to do including trying to book camp sites at the National Parks we are planning to see in the next few weeks.

6 May


We headed to Carlsbad Caverns. This is a National Park with a huge visitors centre.

After getting our boots cleaned (we had been in a cave in Europe) we chose the natural entrance. This was a 1 mile walk down a zig zag pathway into the cavern 750ft below the surface. At that level we had reached the “Big Room” which covers 9 acres. The walk around the is cave is about 1.5 miles. Unlike the many other caves we have seen this one is entirely self guided. You can wander around as you wish. To say the “Big Room” is huge and spectacular would be an understatement. We spent about 2 hours exploring the cavern. The surprise at the end is that there is a lift which takes you back the 800ft to the surface. The other surprise was that it was all free. We continued on to the city of Carlsbad where we had a big shop. Our camp was Brantley Lake State Park. New Mexico is in a 3 year drought so the lake was almost dry.

7 May

We had a long drive thru monotonous country with boring straights. The only excitements were two towns. Artesia – This was a small town set up to service the oil industry. There were many small oil rigs either side of the town with an oil refinery dominating it. The other town/city (50,000) was Roswell. This is famous as the site of the cover-up of a UFO landing in July 1947. We went to the museum and research centre. Hard to say if it is real and a government cover up, or just a weather balloon and over imagination. The case for a cover up was pretty convincing at the museum however. All very interesting.

We left Roswell and drove a long rough sealed road to our camp which is at Lake Sumner State Park. This is a nice lake with some water in it!

8 May

We had a lazy morning. There are only 3 other couples camping here. Just before lunch a couple of old sisters came over to say they had just killed a large rattle snake very near their camp. The rangers arrived and we all stood around looking at the snake which was a racoon rattler. It was about 4’ long and they had whacked the head off with a spade. It is illegal to kill snakes in the state park but the rangers did not seem to mind. They told us tales of snake

bites which did not give us much confidence. The ranger gave us the rattle. It is about 3” long and very dry and it rattles. It might be a problem going thru customs in NZ! After lunch we hopped on the bikes and rode over the dam and around to the other side of the lake. It is very low. The men at our camp go out fishing in boats. They catch Bass and Wahl eye. I have not seen these fish as they release them. This has been a nice friendly stop.

9 May

The state parks are great places to stay. For $14 US you get, water, power, a fireplace and a shelter. Each camp site is well away from the next. We drove a variety of roads towards the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We stopped at Las Vegas. Not the famous one!! Not a Casino in site. The visitor centre was very helpful and the town was very pretty. Once again we are in a state park with a dry lake. We are at 6470ft and it is quite cold and cloudy. A big disappointment was that we were planning take a scenic steam train trip in a couple of days however the brochure says that the train does not start to run until 25 May. There are plenty of good things to see in this area however.
As I write this we have just had some large spots of rain. This will be the first rain we have had since we arrived in the US.

10 May

As we had to put the gas heater on this morning we decided to head back to Las Vegas Wal-Mart for an electric fan heater. We drove increasingly narrow roads into the mountains thru beautiful forests to our State Park Camp at Coyote Creek Canyon.

We are right in the mountains at 7700ft. There was a really heavy hail shower as we had lunch which cleared quickly. We set off for a great walk on the hills over the creek from the camp returning passed several intriguing beaver dams. We had come from keeping an eye out for snakes and mountain lions a couple of days ago in the desert, to watching out for bears! It was very cold in the night and we were really glad of our new heater.

11 May

On up the narrow mountain roads to a pass at 8500ft and down into the ski resorts of Angel Fire and Eagle’s Nest. This is the third Eagle’s Nest we have been to if you count Hitler’s holiday home in Germany and Andrew’s place in Prebbleton. We drove on to Taos over another pass at 9100ft (3/4 the way up Mt Cook!) Taos is much lower and is the posh ski resort for this area. There was a great deal of traffic around as it is the weekend and Mother’s Day tomorrow. We walked around the town (a bit like Queenstown and then headed off to

Taos Pueblo, which is an Indian adobe village which has been settled for 1000 years. We paid our entry fee and took a guided tour thru the village. Some of the homes are 5 stories high made of only mud bricks. The original entries were via the roof as a defensive system. There was no cheap camping in Taos so we bit the bullet and paid $40US for a camp. This may be the norm when we get to the school holidays in a couple of weeks time. We did have internet so were able to Skype the kids.

12 May

We followed some lovely smooth picturesque roads along the foothills to our camp at Bandelier National Monument. This is an area of some cliff dwellings which we will explore tomorrow. Just out of Taos we crossed the Rio Grande. The bridge (the 2nd highest suspension bridge in the US) crosses a huge gorge 650ft below. Well worth a stop. We are also very close to Los Alamos still a “closed” area where the original nuclear bomb was designed. We have now been where the bomb was detonated and where it was designed. That may explain the pale green glow in “Ernie” at night!

13 May

The camp is up on a plateau (mesa) and the visitors centre and the cliff dwellings are in the canyon below. We drove the 2 miles into the canyon and after the usual audio visual explanation of the park we headed up the trail to the cliff dwellings. These were holes in the cliffs which the Indians haddeveloped into houses around 600 years ago. We climb up ladders to explore them. At the end of the canyon was the ceremonial cave which we climbed 140ft up 4 ladders to see. An amazing place. After lunch at “Ernie” we headed down the canyon towards the Rio Grande to see two water falls. Unfortunately the track to the 2nd fall was closed but the 1st waterfall was great and the walk was enjoyable thru different forests.

14 May

We meet a family from NZ today. They were from Masterton and had spent 3 NZ winters in the US. After dodging another snake on the road out of the camp (dodged a huge one yesterday) we drove 24 miles over another pass at over 9000ft to Jemez Falls National Forest where we are camped in beautiful Ponderosa Pines at 7900ft. After lunch we cycled down to start of the track to the falls. It was only a short walk to them and we realized that there was also a trail to McAuley hot springs. I rode back to “Ernie” to pick up togs etc and we headed off for a 2 mile down hill walk thru spectacular scenery to the spring. It was a stream which had been dammed to form two nice pools. There was no one around so we changed and climbed in.

They were about 35C and very pleasant. On our way back we meet a couple who were going the other way. The guy had a dip but the girl had seen 2 snakes and some huge spiders in the water. We were glad we meet them after our swim!

15 May

We drove down a road following the canyon with ponderosa pines and red cliffs. The canyon broadened out into the plains around Albuquerque where we are at an RV park. This was on the original Route 66 and is an old adobe road house. There is 1950’s memorabilia everywhere including a 1946 TV and a Wurlitzer organ. There are also

4 circa 1950’s caravans which you can hire. We are here because we used this address to get our number plate (tag) from Florida (1 only for the back). We still have a minor registration problem as we need to renew it in June. The 5th wheelers and RVs here are huge!!

16 May

The guy in the camp told us where was easy RV parking near the old town of Albuquerque. We did not find it but parked in a street nearby and spent a couple of hours walking around the original centre. The old plazas, houses, and patios have been converted into shops selling tourist stuff, Indian jewllery and art. We bought a route 66 number plate for the front of “Ernie”. There were flute bands playing and the whole area had a peaceful atmosphere. Before returning to our camp we shopped. The price for groceries here is fairly cheap. We think about less than 2/3 of NZ

28 April

We left Chiricahu National Monument and head into New Mexico via the I10. I have really learnt how to drive “Ernie” now using the cruise control over these long fast Interstate roads. The speed limit is 75 mph but “Ernie feels great at 60 mph. As the “I” roads are all two lanes each way the trucks and cars fly past with no problems. Just over the border we stopped at a rest area which had a tourist information and free internet. As we had had some issues with internet at Tombstone, we decided to publish a blog and check emails etc. The food store had everything but bread so we ended up having crackers and cheese for lunch. As this was just a repositioning day we planned to stop at a town called Deming a drive of about 180 miles. After a quick shop at the local Wal Mart we found our camp about 10 miles out of the town. The warm welcome was worth the extra drive. Unfortunately the free internet is still not working. A good job we used the one at the visitors centre. The camp is in the desert with the I10, ½ mile over the fence making an interesting backdrop.

29 April

They charge for electricity separately here so after a chat with the staff and an extra charge of 52 cents! We headed back onto the I10 to a city called Las Cruces where we fuelled up and Val posted a card to Mum. We camped at the Leasburg Dam State Park just out of the city. This was on the banks of the Rio Grande which turned out to be dry! In the evening things went to custard when we decided to go for a bike ride to an old fort just down the road. On the way home I suddenly had that “flat tyre feeling”. Not just the front but also the back. Val’s bike had suffered the same fate. There were 100s of thorns in each tyre. We walked the bikes back to our camp. The camp host said they were Goats Head Cactus thorns. They might as well have been carpet tacks they were so long and sharp. We spent and hour picking them out!!

30 April

Our plan today was to get to the White Sands National Monument and spend some time there. On the way we passed the USA missile testing range. White Sands is a huge area of pure white gypsum sand hills. It is also where they tested the first nuclear bomb in 1945. After the usual informative video we headed along the 8 mile loop road into the sand hills. It was a bit like being in a ski field the sand was so white. We parked and went for a short walk before back to “Ernie” and lunch. We had hired a sand disc to slide down the dunes.

It was lots of fun but the slog back up limited the number of rides. On the way back to the visitors centre, we did a great nature walk with stopping points describing the wild life and plants. Boy it was hot! 94F (33C) We enjoyed an ice-cream before heading to Alamogordo where we had great success finding a Wal Mart for tyres etc and a McDonalds where our internet worked perfectly. A short drive brought us to Oliver Lee State Park where we will spend a couple of days. We are up in the foothills overlooking the White Sands valley.

1 May

It was another hot night. We set off up a steep trail towards the Dog Canyon. After about ¾ mile of steep up hill the track levelled off and eventually opened up into the Canyon. We walked for about 2 miles to get a good view into the canyon. A great walk. After lunch back at “Ernie,” I tackled the task of changing 4!!!! bike tyres. Eventually I got quite quick at it and could now be a mechanic on the Tour De France.

It was hot today around 90F.

2 May

What a change in the night. Firstly the temperature has dropped to around 65F. There must also have been a strong wind in the night. Despite Val getting up and closing the vents, every thing was covered in red dust. We drove to the camp at El Paso. At one stage we were in a convoy of military vehicles which came out of a missile testing site. I matched their speed but after a few miles and some light flashing I realized they wanted me to pass them all. About 20 humvees. El Paso is much bigger than we thought. (650,000). we crossed into Texas and the last 5 miles to our camp, thru the spaghetti junction at 60mph was a bit scary! El Paso is on the border of the USA and Mexico. The city was made famous by the song, El Paso, sung by Marty Robins in 1961. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bwoGbpYXRw

As we had internet (Val has fixed the problem) we spent some time planning. Our registration plates have arrived in Florida and we had to select a camp we will be at to get them forwarded to us. A venue for Memorial Weekend also had to be chosen. (big holiday here). We went out to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner. It was great. I had enchiladas and Val had Tortillas. Both were delicious and the atmosphere was excellent with a lovely Mexican singer entertaining us.

3 May

The day started out with a false start. We negotiated the roads out of El Paso and onto the road to Guadalupe Mts National Park. About 20 miles out on the road it seemed increasingly isolated. As we had intended to gas up on the road we started to worry. Would there be any petrol stations on this road? We had to stop at a Border Patrol Station. This was our second we had stopped at and they are essentially checking that we do not have any illegals trying to sneek from Mexico into the US. I asked the officer if there were any gas stations on the road. He told us the nearest gas was 100 miles up the road! We had no alternative but to hook a “U” and return to the outskirts of El Paso, about a 30 mile round trip. The Guadalupe National Park was at the top of a pass at 5850ft. We checked in and will spend a few days here walking the many trails. It is quite cool here.

4 May

It was cool in the night and we had to put on an extra blanket. After watching many groups setting of to climb Mt Guadalupe (the highest Mt in Texas), we packed our lunch and set off for a nice relaxing walk along the foot hills. We have done a few desert hikes now but each one is quite different. This walk had more trees and desert flowers

as there is more water here. We passed the old original ranch and headed up to a spring high in a canyon which was an oasis of maple, oak and juniper where we ate lunch. Back at “Ernie” went to the visitors centre to enquire about the uncovering of the Mescal Roasting Pit which will happen tomorrow.

5 May

An early start as they were uncovering the Mescal Roasting Pit and 0900. It was a ceremony involving the local Apache tripe. We gather around the pit (hangi) while an older lady blessed the 8 young girls

who had gathered the mescal. This involved marking the girls with pollen and then she delivered a very moving speech reminding them of their ancestry, their responsibility to provide, and always tell the truth. The pit was then uncovered (it had been down for 4 days) and each girl (with help from their family recovered the cooked mescal which is a cactus. We were all offered a piece. It was sweet and chewy and tasted a bit like hot pineapple. Back to “Ernie” to pack our lunch and set off for a 5 mile walk to the Devils Hall. We followed up a canyon to unusual rock formations ending at a flight of natural rock steps leading to a long slot like corridor. All very well named.