A Whole Lot of Nothing!


Today we headed North through the heart of New Mexico.  We were not that impressed.  We traveled up through the Tularosa Basin between the San Andres Mountain Range and the Sacramento Mountains.  The landscape of the area continued to be barren, very poor ranch land.  We saw cattle but have no idea what these things eat.

Continuing further north we began to realize just how poor rural New Mexico is if oil does not exist.  We traveled through Three Rivers, Oscura and Carrizozo to name a few.  These towns are not quite ghost towns, but they are coming close.  Former businesses are shut down, many of the buildings were falling down and many houses are simply abandoned.  Driving through the towns gave us an ‘eerie’ feeling.  This area is ‘dirt poor’.

We then began to climb as the two mountain ranges came together.  Next thing we knew we were on a high elevation plain where the ranch land looked much better.  There again was thousands and thousands of acres of ranch land with signs that called this open range ranches.  We think this means that cattle graze without boundaries of ranch ownership.

Today, as you can tell, was uneventful.  This region’s biggest claim to fame is that the notorious outlaw Billy The Kid spent some time here in 1880.

We are just outside of Las Vegas…no I did not spell that wrong…we are not in Los Vegas…in a KOA.

Distance Traveled = 384 km.  Wildlife Sightings = American Robin, Lesser Goldfinch, Rabbit, White-winged Dove, White Tailed Deer, Red Tailed Hawk (Harlan’s Morph).


Sunrise over the campsite... too bad about the electrical wires


Prickly Pear Cactus


Landscape on top of the plateau

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Family Connection to Plantation/Slave Ownership???

Image
Wednesday June 5, 2019 We were off to visit a sugar cane plantation today and made an interesting discovery…more later. We visited the Destrehan Plantation, a large plantation along the Mississippi River.   We joined a guided tour of the original plantation house built between 1787 and 1790 by only 8 men.   Our tour was with a bus tour…no we were not on the bus tour…we just had to endure the presence of a large group of people…and you know how much I like crowds…not!!!   The plantation has a long and storied history.   It began as an indigo plantation and by 1800 switched to the more profitable sugar cane.   It was large…one mile wide and stretching 8 miles from the banks of the Mississippi River.   By the beginning of the Civil War, it had 200 slaves. It continued growing sugar cane until the early 1920’s when it was sold to a Mexican Oil Refinery.   It then became their headquarters and was abandoned in the late 1950’s and sat vacant for ov...
Read more

Back in Canada

Image
It was strange to pack up the tent trailer for the last time in a campground.  Mixed emotions actually.  We have returned across the border.  It was an uneventful day as we crossed the rest of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. The blog will go quiet for a few days until we get home.  Check back in a few days for a wrap up of our adventure. Distance Traveled = 198 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Chipping Sparrow, Robin, Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Sandhill Crane, Crow, Raven, Chipmunk, Deer. Sue put these up again...first night and last!
Read more

A Boat Ride

Image
We took a 30 mile boat excursion today out into Lake Superior.   It could not have been better weather.   The sun shone, the wind was light, and the swales were only small ones, which we suspect is rare when venturing out into Lake Superior. This area, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, is made up of sandstone cliffs that can only be viewed from the water.   The name, ‘Pictured Rocks’, comes from the streaks of mineral stain that decorate the faces of the cliffs.   These streaks are caused by groundwater leaking out of the cracks.   The dripping water contains iron, manganese, limonite, and copper as well as many other minerals.   They are something else.   I hope that our pictures can tell the tale. It is time to move on from here.   Tomorrow we will return to Canada.   We have been on the road since May 12.   We have experienced so many things on this adventure that in many ways it will be a sad day to pack up the ‘little ten...
Read more