Casita Trip to Oregon

We drove a little over 300 miles to the RL RV Park in Ranger, Texas (between Ft. Worth and Abilene). We kept our speed at 55 miles per hour and managed to average 14.5 miles per gallon. This place is pretty basic, but for 15 dollars we got full hookups, nice bathrooms with showers, a small lake, a few short hiking trails, and a very strong WIFI signal (which I used to update this blog).

6/11/08 - Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Last night in Ranger we saw the space station pass overhead. It was very bright – much brighter than Venus.

We left Ranger and went through Turkey, Texas – home of Bob Wills. We drove through Caprock Canyon State Park and arrived at Palo Duro Canyon where we will camp two nights. It was very hot and windy. The high temperature was 112 degrees (but it's a dry heat). There is no internet or cell phone service in the canyon.

6/12/08 - Palo Duro Canyon State Park

We woke up to the sight of deer and wild turkeys roaming around our camp site. We went on a 9 mile hike to the Lighthouse (note to Martha – we took plenty of water this time). Then we went on a horse ride through the canyon on Colonel and Annie. Colonel was very stubborn and refused to go at times. We had a steak dinner provided by the famous Big Texan Steak House in Amarillo before attending the musical drama “Texas” at an impressive outdoor setting below the 1,000 foot canyon walls. The performance ended with fireworks which unfortunately set off a forest fire. When we checked into the park we were told that a burn ban was in effect – no outdoor fires of any kind were allowed. Makes you wonder.

6/13/08 - Amarillo, TX

We left Palo Duro Canyon State Park and were relieved when the Pathfinder managed to lug the Casita up the steep winding road out of the canyon. We drove 30 miles to Amarillo and checked into the Amarillo Ranch RV Park. We got all hooked up only to find that the electric hookup didn't work. We piggybacked onto an adjacent RV spot's power hookup while the electric repair man worked on ours. This is a nice place - it has an indoor swimming pool. We drove out to Lake Meredith National Recreation area and found that the lake was all but dry. We also went to the nearby Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument. This is where Indians for thousands of years mined flint deposits in the dolomite limestone to use in trade as raw materials for arrowheads and cutting tools. Almost no one visits this place and the ranger there must be as lonely as the Maytag repair man. The nearby Bates Canyon boat ramp on Lake Meredith leads only to woods.

6/14/08 - Near Raton, New Mexico

We departed Amarillo and drove west to New Mexico. We stopped at Capulin Volcano National Monument, unhooked the trailer, and drove to the top of the volcano. All of the hills in this area of New Mexico are old dormant volcanoes. This one last erupted about 50,000 years ago and is one of the best preserved cinder cone volcanoes in the U.S. We drove to Raton and checked into the NRA Whittington Center RV Park a few miles outside of town. This is part of a 52 square mile former coal mine which the National Rifle Association took over in the 1970's from Kaiser Steel. We drove around the back roads and looked at the mine ruins. The NRA has multiple ranges for firing various weapons and has shooting competitions several times a year. Right now the Old West Shootist Association is having a competition involving firing authentic rifles and pistols from the 1800's. They also dress the part using authentic period costumes.

6/15/08 - Blanca, Colorado

After a nice breakfast of migas, sausage and toast, we left the NRA Whittington Center RV Park and drove north to Trinidad, Colorado. They were having a Santa Fe Trails Festival downtown. We wandered around the festival waiting for Trinidad Brewing to open at 11AM per information we obtained from the tourist information center. We went to the brewpub at 11 AM but no one was there. We called them and were told that they would open at 4PM. So we left.

We drove to Blanca, Colorado via the beautiful North La Veta Pass (9,413 feet). The Pathfinder and Casita struggled at speeds up to 40 MPH, but we made it. We checked into the Blanca RV Park. This place is a dump compared to last night's spot, but it has full hookups for only $1o. We unhooked the trailer and drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park. This place is similar to Monahans Sand Hills Park in Texas, but it is much bigger with taller dunes and they have no vegetation growing on them. The dunes run up against tall mountains and a shallow snow melt river runs through it this time of year.

Note on the pictures - by clicking on a picture you will see a larger version of it.