Our Version of a white Christmas in New Mexico

We do not expect to have a white Christmas in our part of New Mexico, although there are locations in this state that will have snow, so we chose to have a white tree.

We decorated with all blue trimmings in reference to Elvis's song. We'll have a blue, blue Christmas with out you.

This blog post is to show all our friends, family and visitors the many decorations Margaret puts out at Christmas.

Here is the coffee table that is the center piece of our decrations.

These are some of my favorite pieces.  They are little reindeer with Mr. and Mrs. Santa.  There is another larger Santa off to one side that is my favorite of all the Santas we have.  We actually purchased it several years ago at a Cracker Barrel in Arizona during one of our trips across the country.

This is the other end table with a miniature nativity set and some snow men and other pieces on the under shelf of the table.

Here is the larger nativity set.  It is on the top of the China hutch table.  Margaret made both of these out of ceramics.

These two ceramic snow men on top of the China hutch were gifts from friends.

Even the plants, placed near the windows for sun light, are graced with Christmas decorations.

The kitchen table does not get left out.  It's graced with a Santa table cloth, seasonal napkin holder, and a tiny little Mr. and Mrs. Santa.

More decorations on the end of the island kitchen counter.

This snowman cookie jar hangs around on the end of the kitchen counter because sometimes it's full of yummy cookies.

Looking through the window it almost looks like snow, but it's just the sun reflecting off the barren sandy back yard.  There are decorations on the window sill, and a small wreath in the window.

Wreaths and decorations grace the fire place, and Mom's and Dad's stockings (made by Mom) are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Saint Nicolas soon will be there.

Santa and snowmen can be viewed even while watching television.

We wish that all our friends, family and visitors have a very merry Christmas and a happy peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Final part of our Carlsbad trip.

We continued our trip to Brantley Lake State Park and Bottomless Lakes State Park with an eye to scouting out future camping sites. There was also a side trip to Capitan.  That was the birth place of my mother, and was known at that time as El Capitan at the time of her birth.

This is a picture of the dam taken from the driveway of the park.

Brantly has a nice play ground for the children.

These are a few of the campsites in the first-come-first serve sites. There are several that are easily accessible, and could be backed into without too much trouble.

We will definitely keep this park on our list of possible campsites. It offers a good kayaking experience also.

This is an overview of Lea Lake and the campground at Bottomless Lakes State Park.  It is one of many of the lakes.  They were formed by the collaspe of the caverns etched out below the ground.

There are several lakes and some primitive camping available, but this was the only one we saw that had improved camping available.

Here is a view of some of the reservation sites available.

There plenty of non-reserve sites that have easy access.  The campground was sparsely populated, but we were getting into some pretty cool weather at this time.

I did not take pictures of Capitan, except for this picture of the display sign of the Smokey Bear Museum.  

Here is another photo of the museum with out pickup parked in front.  It is typical for us to formulate images of places we have heard about, and Capitan was no exception.  I imagined it would be a larger and more densely populated town.  It is a small village with its current claim to fame being the birth place of the real Smokey Bear.  It is also the burial place of Smokey.

My mother was born there in 1919.  New Mexico became a state in 1912, but had been a territory of the United States since 1859, so even if she had been born in 1912 or earlier she still would have been a U.S. citizen.

Our trip to Carlsbad Caverns, Brantly Lake State Park, Bottomless Lakes State Parks and Capitan, New Mexico

We had planned on making this a two to four week trip staying at each of the above named state parks while we explored Carlsbad Caverns, and camping and kayaking.  However, the weather had turned cold so we decided to make a two day trip and treat ourselves to over night stays in motels.

I will feature the state parks and Capitan in the next post.

The trip to Carlsbad was by way of El Paso.  The Texas desert is flat and occupied by a forest of yucca plants.  Our route took us past the Guadalupe mountains.

This photo shows the highest peak of the Guadalupe Mountains, which stands at over 8200 feet.

From the parking lot of the caverns you can see how flat the desert is as you drive past the entrance to them.  I was surprised by this because I had imagined we would be driving more in the mountains.

This is Whites City, which is the entry way to the caverns.  The caverns are seven miles up a winding road.

The road up to the caverns is quite scenic.

There is ample parking and easy access to the caverns, even for the handicapped.  Kennels are provided for pets.  Leaving them in vehicles is prohibited because of the extreme temperatures in the summer.

The visitor's center has a load of information about the cave.  This is a cut away display of the cave so you can get an idea of what is ahead.  There are several tours one can take, guided and self- guided.  We chose the self-guided tour which took about two hours.

It is 170 feet to the bottom of the cave.  Fortunately, there is an elevator to the big room that we explored.  

This is the path that leads from the elevator to the big room.

Every view is just spectacular.  There lights strategically placed along the pathway, but some of the sights show up better with the camera flash.  I recommend taking a good spot light type flash light.

Stalactites "grow" down from the ceiling and stalagmites "grow" up from the floor.  This one was given the title of Lion's Tail.

These stalactites were not given a name, but were so beautiful I had to include them.

These stalagmites are in the Hall of Giants.

Every vacation deserves a touristy photo.  Unfortunately these were out of focus, but we were there.

This beautiful display of stalagmites is titled Temple of the Sun.

I love the beauty of this stalagmite.  Tourist are asked to refrain from touching anything, and food and drinks are forbidden, except for water.

This ladder was used by early explorers to the lower reaches of the cave.

This display refers to the 1924 expedition by Dr. Willis T. Lee.

We found this little tunnel along the path.  The pictures are from each end of the tunnel.

Crystal Spring Dome

The Rock of Ages, one of the most spectacular stalagmites in the caverns.

These stalactites are formed by water running down the wall, and are called draperies.

Dolls Theater containing "soda straws and small columns."

These are just a few of the many sites we saw in our tour of the big room of the cave.  I took about 200 photos.  They don't do justice to the beauty of the caverns.  One must see them for their selves.  We were told there had been 3000 visitors the week of Thanksgiving, so pick your visit time carefully.

We continued our trip

We continued our journey to Lake Roberts and passed through the Mimbres area.  We were pleasantly surprised to find an oasis in the middle of the desert.

We watched these deer as they headed for the trees.

 

You have to look close to see them.  They are heading straight towards the barn in this photo, and then veered off into the trees. 

We were driving around the U.S. Forest Service campground at Lake Roberts when we spotted these deer.  They were completely unconcerned with our presence.

They appeared to be a doe and this year's almost grown fawns.

 There were five fires going on in the area so when we arrived we found one end of the lake cordened off so helicopters could pick up water to drop on the fire that was threatening homes.

This larger helicopter came in to load up just as were were leaving to go to the Gila cliff dwellings so a snapped a quick picture of it.

We arrived at the Gila cliff dwellings at the end of the day just barely in time to be allowed to hike to up to them.  This spiney cliff lizard posed for us.

This is a distant view of the dwellings.

These are a few of the close up views of the dwellings.  They are not as spectacular as the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, but it was well worth the visit.  They were built by the ancestors of the Peubloan people.

As we headed home I took this photo of the rising smoke from one of the fires.