Bill and Eileen's Travels: 06/01/2016

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Santa Fe/Bandelier NM/Gallup/ Canyon De Chelly (6/22 - 6/26)

On Wednesday 6/22 we rolled out of Roswell and headed for Santa Fe stopping for lunch at Clines Corners NM. The campground in Santa Fe was The Trailer Ranch Rv. This park is a quaint park just off one of the main roads into downtown. Beautiful trees, great sites, and really nice people. The owners are the third set of owners with the last two being from the same family. We have stayed in over two hundred campgrounds in the past 10 years and I would put this one in the top five. We really enjoyed our stay. Our time here was used to do laundry, have the bus washed, shopping, and great food downtown. We also visited Bandelier National Monument and a museum in Los Alamos. Bandelier is Indian ruins and a very pretty canyon.

We really enjoyed our time in Santa Fe. This is a laid back town with a lot to do and lots of culture and very nice people. If you like Indian dress, jewelry, great shopping, and good Mexican food, this is the place to come. Eight years ago we said we would return and after this visit we feel the same.

On Sunday 6/26 we headed for Gallup, NM. The RV park was USA RV Park right on historic Rt. 66. It is also a sister park of the Oasis RV park that we stayed in in Amarillo. Very nice place and very patriotic. We had planned to head south to the Zuni ruins but the owner of the park suggested Canyon De Chelly which is about 95 miles to the northwest of Gallup in Arizona. This was a really great suggestion. What a beautiful place. We road the south and north rims and viewed the valley from various lookouts. The rim is 600 to 700 feet above the valley floor. This spot is a National Monument in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. I would highly suggest a visit to this place even though it is way out of the way. Another awesome place.

In Gallup we had dinner at a famous Restaurant that has been visited by many of the movie stars who made movies in this area. It's called the El Rancho Hotel and it has been registered on the national register of historic places. The walkway above the lobby had many pictures of the movie stares who have visited here. A fun place with pretty good Mexican food.

We have been in Colorado the last two days. I will cover this great place in the next post.

Life is Great!!!

Patriotic Pool at USA Campground - Gallup NM

Sunset Rain that's not making the ground.

OUR DAY TRIP TO CANYON DE CHELLY - ARIZONA

Historic Saint Michaels Church - Somewhere Arizona

This is the view from the rim. They also do jeep tours in the valley.

The valley is still ranched today. This is a National Monument in the middle of the Navajo Reservation!

Beauty!

There are ruins all along the canyon. These are zoomed shots!

Beauty is everywhere. Even behind her!

No it's not Crocodile Dundee!

The only ruins you can hike to. White House Ruins.

One of the ranches.

Meet AC Henry my new Navajo Pottery Guy. Fair price, good quality, nice guy.

Notice the tower on the right. It must be three stories and still has the timber in it.

A Suite!

The ride home wasn't to bad either. Canyon De Chelly is a must see!!

BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT!

Our guide and folks from the great state of North Carolina.

Fellow Motor Homers!

We didn't climb up here. These were some of the Anasazi Ruins!

Starting to bloom. We say a bunch on the way up from Roswell!

Couldn't slow her down. She was anxious to hit the trail!

The Happy Hiker.

They have covered this painting so the weather doesn't take it away!

It was a pretty valley.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Amarillo/Rosewell/Carlsbad NP (6/18 - 6/21)

On Saturday 6/18 we moved on to Amarillo. We found out in the first half hour that not all of the Oklahoma swallows were trained well. On I40 at 65 miles per hour we had one, kiss the windshield.
(Windshield 1- Swallow 0). It's really strange seeing a bird coming straight at you. We said a prayer and kept moving.

The campground was a few miles west of the Amarillo area very close to Cadillac Ranch which is one of the Highway America sites. It's a bunch of old Cadillac's that were buried in the ground years ago that has become a place of interest. Go on google and enter Cadillac Ranch and you can read the whole story. One of those crazy things that people love to stop and see. We have pictures below. The people come in hoards with there spray paint cans to add their art to the cars. Crazy.

With the hot weather comes refrigerator problems. We had a guy come Monday morning and we are still babying it here in Santa Fe. The Yeti has come in handy but we have still lost some food. The poor thing is old so I understand that you will have problems now and then.

We went to a very nice church on Saturday. Saint Thomas the Apostle. The music ministry was super and there was a real open welcoming atmosphere. A real full hour mass. We enjoyed.

On Monday 6/20 after some TLC on the frig we moved across the Western part of the Texas Panhandle. This area is Gas, Oil, Nut ranching, and Beef Ranches and Processing facilities. We saw literally thousands of cattle in holding pens just waiting for the final moment. The swallow story pales when you see these pens. We went through Hereford, Texas which bills itself as the Beef Capital of the World. These ranches continued into New Mexico on or way to Roswell.

After setting up in Roswell we went in search of Aliens. We visited a few tourist stores downtown then we went to the International UFO museum. A very interesting place with much information on the Roswell incident. It's real cool to read the details about Roswell. They have affidavits from many of the people involved and you get a real sense that it was a cover up. We did run into a few aliens and also saw a few that didn't live through the landing. This was a fun day. Nice museum. It also included much information on crop circles, UFO sightings, and much more. Enjoyed very much!!

Tuesday was a super day. We drove the car about 100 miles south of Roswell to Carlsbad Caverns NP. It's about 15 miles north of the Texas border. What an Awesome place. We did the Big Room self guided tour which takes about an hour and a half. There are two ways into the caverns a walk in which goes almost straight down 750 feet or the elevator which goes absolutely straight down 750 feet. We chose to ride the elevator.

This place is fantastic. The "Big Room" covers an area the size of 14 football fields with heights from 150 to 250 feet. The pictures do not in any way capture the grandeur of this place. We probably saw 5% of the 31 miles of tunnels and caves that have been discovered. I highly recommend a visit to this park. Another totally different experience at a National Park. It was also nice to get out of the 92 degree weather and go into a 59 degree room. A really fun day.

This morning we packed up and headed northwest to Santa Fe. A short ride, only 190 miles, with an elevation change of about 3000 feet. We came here in 2008 and when we left we said we would return some day. We found a nice little campground right in the town. More to come.

In spite of sour mike it's been a great couple of days. The adventure continues.
LIFE IS GOOD!!

Enjoy the pictures.