Author: clarkfamilyadventures4

April 2 – April 7

Holbrook is the closest town to Petrified Forest National Park with reasonable accommodations, especially with some windy days and cold nights in the forecast. The town also is on the old Route 66, some interesting things to see and places to shop, but sadly a lot of places had closed down.

We spend just about everyday driving to the park and hiking. PFNP is completely dog friendly and we took advantage of it! There aren’t many trails in this park, but “suggested routes.” This meant they gave you where to hike, but there was no true path or signs to get you there. Very interesting!

April 3rd we hiked north of the Painted Desert Inn. Quite a decent down but beautiful landscape.

April 4th we hiked the Long Logs trail and visited the Agate House. At the Agate House Benat took a fall and cut himself directly between his eyes.

April 5th we hiked towards the Blue Mesa after parking near the Tepees. This was a great hike. We kind of followed an old path that has deteriorated away and sometimes perched on the crest of the hills.

April 6th we hiked near the Jasper Forest.

March 29 – April 2

What an amazing place! It is 1 of 2 “dark sky sanctuaries” in the world! It’s forest service land (cattle grazing freely) atop a ridge with 4 cement platforms (for telescopes), space for a few campers, and pit toilets for no cost!

No one was around when we got there but shortly after our arrival an older gentlemen came by. He asked how long we were staying and informed us that a school bus full of 9th graders would be coming by Thursday afternoon to spend the night and get a night sky lesson. We already knew this because the kids were coming from the charter school Chris and Harry started in Silver City!

We hiked around the surrounding area that afternoon and the following day. Beautiful views and no one around. The schoolbus of kids showed up around 4pm and Benat was so excited. He even asked the driver if he could get on the bus and he was allowed. Matt and Benat sat in some of the seats and had his photo taken in front of the school bus holding his toy school bus. (We are still talking about this weeks later!) That night Matt walked down to where a retired prof was talking with the kids (I unfortunately fell asleep too early).

The next day we awoke to some snow and sleet! Nothing lasted on the ground but it was a little crazy to have been in 90 degree weather not too long ago and now see snow! We dove to “the catwalk” which is a cantileavered metal bridge up a canyon with a river underneath it. And you can bring your dog. Dexter was a little unsure why we were walking on the bridge but he was a champ.

The town of Glendwood, NM further entertained us with their annual Kite Festival! The location was beautiful and windy! Upon arrival we received 3 tickets to their free raffle (a cool kite) and was told to visit a car near the entrance if we needed to borrow a kite. However, we didn’t have to walk all the way to that car, 2 other people were willing to GIVE us kites. One was old and we couldn’t get to fly. A couple parked next to us gave us a brand new one (they had about 5 in their car) to have.The wind was cranking and we had a blast flying kites and watching everyone else. The people in this town were so kind!

Later that afternoon Benat flew the kite all by himself back at the campground.

March 24 – March 29

Silver City is an old town in the mountains. Interesting history from multiple levels, Native American, mining, and now artists. So many beautiful colors and interesting architecture. 

After we booked our stay we were reminded that Laura’s friends, Chris and Harry, live there! We made plans to go for a hike and on the 1st day in town e hiked to their cabin 2 miles up a dirt, rugged road where the stream crossed or was a part of the road something like 20 times (serious!) the stream wasn’t too bad, was able to keep my feet dry but was challenging especially with Benat napping on my back. Their cabin was awesome, a log cabin next to 100 year old apple trees. Somehow Matt nor I took a photo of the house. It was a great hike and Dexter was so excited! He was out of the desert and frolicking in the water. 

The next day we drove up a scenic road to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Beautiful drive and interesting cliff dwellings. 

The last day we drove to The City of Rocks. Very interesting geological spot. Reminded us of Jumbo Rocks in Joshua Tree but very different type of Rocks. It is also a campground and we thought about heading there for a few days but the wind forecast was high and the site was completely exposed. Would not be fun towing days either. So we decided to stick to the plan of going to the Cosmic Campground the following day. That night had dinner at Chris and Henry’s house in town. 

March 16 – 24

Arrived in Tucson to the Desert Trails RV Park where Reve and Sue spend their winters. We were lucky to get the spot directly next to their rig in “the circle” which is 7 sites slightly away from all the other campers and direct access to the trails into the desert. Dexter was excited to explore these trails (lined with cactus!) and quickly saw a hare that he decided to chase. Unfortunately he must have ran into a Cholla Cactus and quietly returned to the camper with thorns in his face and all legs/paws. Sue, used to people and dogs encountering the cactus, quickly brought out some tweezers and started pulling them all out. There were a few deeper ones that I worked on a little later (gave the poor pup a break). Dexter really liked Sue after she came to his rescue. After that cactus encounter we decided Dexter would remain tied up while outside. When we would go walking on the trails he was quite good about staying on the trail.

Since it was so warm while we were there (in the 90’s!) we were quite mellow and did most activities indoors. On a couple other occasions we would drive to explore places (because AC in truck) while Benat was napping. At some interesting spots Matt and I would explore quickly while Sue would remain in the truck with the sleeping Benat.

• International Wildlife Museum – Started as a museum to display a guy’s trophy collection of taxidermy animals. Has grown to include many other species (local and international). An interesting spot. Benat enjoyed it, pointed out the Panda Bear (he knew what a panda bear is?!?) and must have gone around the museum 3 or 4 times (it was also his nap time….)
• Pima Air and Space Museum – planes, planes, and more planes
• Saguaro National Park and drive up A Mountain – took a beautiful drive while Beant was napping. Also got to see some Petroglyphs.
• San Xavier del Bac Mission – Another spot while Benat was sleeping, a church on the Native American Reservation.
• Tucson Mountain County Park – Mostly outdoors with exhibits of the local animals and a bird exhibition. Crows, an owl and red tailed hawk flew around while handlers talked about them. The Red Tailed Hawk was supposed to show us how he flies high into the sky and then dives to make a kill, however while perched on a cactus he saw a snake on the ground that he dove for instead.
• 2 morning hikes with Sue – One without Dexter and he hiked up hill for a superb view. the 2nd with Dexter and we had a wonderful double rainbow as a storm blew in and started raining on us.
• 1 mountain bike ride for Matt with some of the guys in the circle

It was a lot of fun to visit with the Carberry’s and enjoy their circle friends. Happy Hour every day at 5 would come so quickly! Hopefully we will be able to meet up with them again near Yellowstone this summer…..

Since the weather was so hot Matt and I decided we needed our next destination to be much cooler. He found a place, Silver City, NM and the weather forecast was in the 60’s. I was all about it and we made plans to head there next!

We were planning on spending one night in dispersed camping area on BLM land just outside of town. We got there and it was hot. We dropped the trailer and went to town to explore. After seeing an RV Park advertising $20/night rate we went back, got the camper and brought it to town. Having air conditioning would make the rest of the day and evening quite pleasant.

There was a big rock shop next door to the RV Park so while Matt got the camper hooked up and paid for, Benat and I wondered next door to look at all the rocks and crystals. We were not disappointed. There were barrels and piles of rocks everywhere. I of course was able to find many to take home but refrained and only purchased two small crystals.

That night we grabbed dinner from their local pizza joint, Silly Al’s. The spot was interesting – filled with old timie memorabilia and 2 Geo Trackers outside…

Next morning to Tucson!