State: Arizona
Titan Missile Museum Green Valley, AZ After Thanksgiving we left my brother's house in Phoenix, AZ and headed toward New Mexico. The kids had so much fun seeing their cousins (and it was nice for us big folk to have other big folk to talk to and eat with and enjoy late nights binging on Netflix together)...anyway, we all had such a good time we decided to invite ourselves back to my brother's for Christmas. Usually my brother his family drive out to our place in Los Angeles for the holidays, so it's only fair we make the drive once in awhile, right? So between Thanksgiving and Christmas we tried not to drift too far from Arizona. Surprisingly for that entire month, we only traveled on the same path a couple times. One of our short overlaps was through Tucson. This time though we buzzed through town and stopped at a place we missed last month - the Titan Missile Silo and Musuem.
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State: Arizona
Where we stayed: Lost Dutchman State Park So we've been pretty impressed with the Arizona state parks we've stayed at so far. Matt had heard good things about this one and we were not let down. First, check out this amazing sunset... I climbed up the ladder on the back of the rv and took the photo from the roof. I have to say that AZ has some pretty outstanding sunsets - between the sky colors and the wide views... wow. State: Arizona
Petrified Forest National Park We stayed at: Crystal Forest Museum and Gifts We trekked across New Mexico and back into Arizona to visit our next national park - Petrified Forest. I have to say that this was not as mindblowing a park as say Zion or the Grand Canyon. Though getting out of the car and walking the trails does put you up close to some pretty cool sites. The petrified wood (wood/organic matter that has absorbed minerals and has bascially turned to rock) was interesting and very colorful. More info on the full story of petrified wood. But my favorite part was hiking through the Blue Mesa Badlands - I've never seen purplish (is that a word?) hills like that! State: New Mexico and Arizona
On the road again... After almost a week stay in Alamogordo we decided to start heading back toward Phoenix to spend Christmas with my brother and his family. The weather wasn't looking too bad, so instead of taking the main interstate (I-10) back to AZ, we decided to take a more northern route and check Petrified Forest National Park off our list. Here's Matt sporting his 'stache and long hairdo. And yes, that's a little snow on the ground out the window. State: New Mexico
White Sands National Monument Where we stayed: Alamogordo KOA So we've been in Alamogordo, NM for about 5 nights now. Truthfully I have a really hard time keeping track of the days. Is it Sunday? Thursday? When did we get here? Homeschooling M-F helps me keep track, but now that we're starting winter break (yay!), I'm sure I'll really be lost! Or maybe I should just remember to look at the new weather/date/clock we got! With Matt's back tied up in knots, I tried to let him rest and took the kids to the place Jack's been most excited to experience - White Sands National Monument. We grabbed some sleds from Sandy, hostess with the mostess of Alamogordo KOA where we're staying and headed over to check out the sand dunes. With every new place we visit, I'm amazed at how outstanding and unique all these national parks are. This white sand was so white and clean, gorgeous mountain ranges in both directions... just awesome. The gypsum sand was so much easier to walk on than our beach sand. You don't sink into this sand as much as you would at the beach, You can see from the photos how the sand will even hold the detailed prints of a sneaker. Like any trip to the beach, we did accidnetaly end up bringing a ton of it home in the car and in our shoes. Matt was feeling a bit better the next day, so he rallied for a mile hike and even a sled ride! State: New Mexico
Middile of Nowhere Where we stayed: Casey's Socorro RV Park You may have seen these gigantic radio telescopes on tv or in the movies. We watched the movie Contact with Jody Foster to get us in the mood for our visit. :) The Very Large Array (VLA) is a group of 27 radio antenaes spread out in a Y shape over the the plains of New Mexico. There are four main configurations that the telescopes are placed in depending on what the researchers want to study. I'll have to point you to Matt if you want to know more details (unfortunately, my brain space has been compromised by grocery shopping lists and shutter speeds). I can tell you that it was super windy while we were there (not uncommon) and fuh-reezing. If you happen to be heading west from here, be sure to stop for some pie in Pie Town. State: New Mexico Coronado Campground We stayed at a city run campground in Bernalillo, a suburb just north of ABQ (Matt and I started watching Breaking Bad to learn more about the area). A deal at $20 a night (plus a $10 registration fee). We had a nice flat site with a water and electricity, and a view of the snowcapped mountains and Rio Grande. Each site had a little enclosed adobe picnic table room (great for putting your bikes if they're not already frozen onto your bike rack). Took a picture of a cricket I found in the bathroom for Kaylie's new bug collection, and decided to skip taking a shower here. We had to pull our slides in on our rv because the wind was blowing like mad and we didn't want the awnings over the slides to tear apart with the gusts. When we woke up in the morning all was calm, but there was a decorative layer of snow on everything. Luckily, the snow just lasted the morning and we were able to head out on some adventures without much delay.
State: New Mexico
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument Friday we packed up the RV and headed out of Santa Fe since the temps were supposed to drop and snow was looking likely. We decided to drop down to Albuquerque since elevation was lower and temps were a little bit warmer. Since the drive was so quick, we decided to travel separately. I left a bit earlier and scoped out a parking place off the highway so that Matt wouldn't have to drive the RV up to Tent Rocks. We parked the RV in a nicely paved, very empty parking lot for a Mormon monument. I've only seen one episode of Breaking Bad, but I did have visions of some drugged out wingnuts breaking into our RV and running off with it while we were gone. But good vibes at the Mormon monument and our RV was still there when we returned. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (let's just call it Tent Rocks) is AWESOME! This has got to be one of my all-time favorite hikes. It's got a narrow, slot canyon that's fun to squeeze through, sides to climb up, hoodoos... all kinds of eye candy. It's especially great because the kids could do it on their own too with no major cliffs for them to fall off. We had a bit of a rough start, but everyone made it back to the car without having to be carried (too long). State: New Mexico
Where we stayed: Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV Park in Santa Fe We decided to take a day trip up to Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument. As we headed up into the mountains, I had to pull over to soak in the gorgeous view. As I was looking out, we spied a few bird soaring above (anyone know how to tell the difference between a hawk and falcon?). State: New Mexico
Bandelier National Monument Where we stayed: Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV Park After visiting Los Alamos, we drove over to Bandalier National Monument. This hike was unlike any I had done before. We all had a fun adventure climbing up the wood ladders to see the ancient cliff dwellings. Even Emmett managed to climb up and down all the ladder (ack). Then we had to run back to the visitor center so Emmett could get his junior ranger badge before the office closed. We actually just missed it by a few minutes, but Ranger Jeff stayed late and swore Emmett in. Thanks Ranger Jeff! |
aboutI'll be sharing our travel plans, some reviews, cooking ideas (because I know you are all jealous of my easy-bake oven), and ... oh who am I kidding?! I'll be lucky to get our photos posted! categories
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February 2016
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