Friday
We left Marfa and continued west to Van Horn where we stopped for the night and were graced with a rainbow.
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| Pretty little Chapel in the middle of nowhere, Texas |
Saturday
We drove north from Van Horn in
northwest Texas past the rugged Guadelupe Mountains into New Mexico. Southeastern New Mexico is oilfield country. Lots of pumps and oilfield support companies.
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| Downtown Carlsbad |
We stopped in Carlsbad
where we did some shopping and on to Roswell, famous for its alien
landing. We had been through this area back in 2005 (writeup about
Carlsbad Caverns and Roswell's UFO is on our old website
www.pittsStop.yolasite.com
– 2005 Southwestern Trip). Driving into downtown Roswell, we found the
Annual International UFO Festival is this weekend. They have
scientists presenting papers and talks, authors, and film screenings
along with a load of fun activities involving strange costumes..... Got a campsite in town where we were graced with a rainbow.
Sunday
We visited the festival area on Main
Street and enjoyed the kitschy alien decorations.
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| This dry heat has really dried out my skin... |
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| Unique game of "Operation" |
Afterwards, we
drove west up into the Capitan mountains to visit Smokey the Bear
Historic Park. A nice little museum explaining that Smokey was
“invented” during WWII when careless fires were destroying needed
lumber supplies. A few years later, a massive fire in Capitan left a
small cub burned and motherless. The Forest Service employees nursed
the cub back to health and the national Forest Service folks in
Washington, D. C. decided the cub would be the perfect “real”
Smokey the Bear. He lived out his 26 years in the Washington, D. C.
zoo and was buried here in Capitan where he was born.
We continued west through the mountains
down into the Valley of the Fires Recreation Area. We got a gorgeous
site on the top of a hill overlooking the lava fields on one side and
the plains with mountains in the distance on the other side. Enjoyed
happy hour outside with a nice breeze (that kept the irritating gnats
away). Returned outside for sunset views and to watch all the barn
swallows that have nests in the picnic area gazebos.
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| Lava Fields |
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| Barn Swallow |
Monday
Walked the ½ mile trail among the lava
flows this morning. These are different than other places we have
stopped to see laval flows as this area is much older and there are
lots of plants growing in the cracks of the lava.
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| Sotol Cactus |
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| Loopey lava rock created from thin, quick-hardening lava |
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| Most of the black rock here is rough textured, formed by thick, slow-hardening lava |
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| pinyon juniper |
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| Looking up to campsites at top of the hill |
We like this area so much, we decided
to take a day off from tourist sightseeing and stay here another day
– quiet and beautiful spot.
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