Annual Festival of Lights

The Friends of Rock Hound State Park presented their annual festival of lights on Saturday night, December 9th.  The public was invited to stroll amongst the 1100 luminarias lighting the walkways, adobe walls, native garden, and the labyrinth of the park's visitor center.

They were treated to hot cider, cookies, and a visit from Santa. Toys for tots were accepted by the Marines.

This is the view of the luminarias that reached clear down the road to the pay station at the entrance to the park.  I wanted to show them before dark so my blog visitors could get an idea of how many there were.

Here is a view looking up the road towards the camp ground.

This is the entrance to the visitor center parking lot.  People were already arriving.  We estimated between 250 and 300 visitors.

This is a path that surrounds a garden just above the center.  Luminarias were placed everywhere, including on the roof of the visitor center.

On the side of the hill along the east side of the visitor center rocks were placed to spell ROCK HOUND.  Luminarias were placed all around, as you can see.  I was hoping they would clearly spell out the sign once it became dark, but the light did not cooperate as can be seen further along in the blog pictures.



Santa was getting ready for the children.  I did not get any pictures of him with the children because Margaret and I were on duty in the visitor center meeting guests and answering quetions.

Guests were enjoying the campfire and the hot cider.

Here is the ROCK HOUND sign as it began to get dark.  The lights sort of spelled out the words, but not as clearly as I had hoped.

This another view of the roadside looking towards the campground.  I found it very difficult to focus my camera after dark.

Here is the view back towards the entrance as it was getting dark.

Welcome to the visitor's center.

This is the garden west of the center.

Our Ranger had to check the lights on the roof and make sure all were still lit.

The entrance is now lit up and the visitors are gathering.

Here is a picture taken from across the road from the center.  Nothing compares with actually being there.  The Annual Festival of Lights turned out to be one of the unexpected perks of being a camp ground host at Rock Hound State Park.  Thank you, Friends of Rock Hound and Mr. Robert Apadaca, Ranger and Mannager of the park.

Things are bigger in Texas, or are they?

Texas is a huge state.  I once had to travel from Dallas to Longview on one of my research projects with one of our field representives when I worked for Eli Lilly & Co.  Longview is near the Louisiana border.  I thought we would never get there.

Texans some times brag about how big every thing is there, so when I spotted some of the creatures featured in this blog, I naturally figured they must have wandered over to New Mexico from Texas.

The Road Runner is the state bird of New Mexico.  That's probably why this one came over from Texas.  That is Picacho Peak in the background.

This is a slightly different view.  There is a farm in the lower right of the photo.  This was taken at the Rest Stop as you approach Las Cruces on highway 10.

Road runners are members of the cuckoo family.  They have zygodactyle feet, and are capable of running 20 miles per hour.  They will hop up into branches of shrubs and trees, but are capable of flight.

We located a small herd of Texas Longhorns just below the park.  Notice the sign on the upper right corner of this photigraph.  It is pointing the way to Spring Canyon.  Spring Canyon is a day use area that is part of Rock Hound State Park.

This beauty posed for me, as if to say "no, I'm not really from Texas".  I was a little nervous getting out of the truck to take her picture, but she did not seem to mind.

Long Horns come in various colors.  This one has a particularly pretty coat.

I did not see a bull in the herd, but here is another beauty.  It actually makes sense that there was no a bull present, and if there had been, my photography adventure might not have been so peaceful.

This is an open range area, so one sees these cattle in various places along the road.  The fence that keeps them out of this part of the park was broken, so one time we found evidence they had been there also.  They are allowed in the Spring Canyon Park.

I usually end a blog post with a sunset.  Today I am showing a sun rise reflected onto the Florida Mountains to the west of our camp site.  There is a recreational vehicle visible at the bottom of this picture.

Not every day is perfect here.  This view was taken on the same morning as the sunrise in the photo above.  I pointed the camera slightly northwest towards Deming.  You can see considerable smog.  We have not experienced any ill effects where we are.  The wind blows both up and down the mountain to the east of us (not at the same time:) ) and keeps the air pretty clean.

Depending on how good my internet connection is, I will be back soon with another blog post.

Ibex Hunting near Rock Hound State Park

After spending ten days at Rock Hound State Park in June, we decided we liked it so much we would return here during the winter months.  We were fortunate enough to receive a camp ground hosting position, so we will be staying here for the winter and will not have to move every two weeks.

Here is a photo of our camp site.  There is plenty of shade and privacy.

Here is the view from the north end of the trailer.  All the campsites are above us to the East.

This view of the Visitor's Center also shows the Florida Mountains to the south.  We work in the Visitor's Center part of the time, and the rest of the time we serve as Camp Ground Hosts.  We work four days on and four off.  On our off days there is a single man who works four days.

I am going to skip ahead on my posts and feature a successful Ibex hunt.  We met Jack Ellis in September and he told us about the up-coming Ibex hunt.  He promised to let us know if he was successful during the bow hunt in October. 

He was good for his word.  When he came back he was accompanied by his two sons, Caleb and Josh.  They hunted mostly in the Florida mountan range.

Here are some of the Ibex that they were hunting.  They were out of range for the bow in this picture.

Josh and Caleb almost imitated the goats to get a better view.

Their approach to stalking the Ibex was daring and breath taking.

In the long run, it was all worth it.  They had movies on their i-phones they shared with us, but I do not know how to put them on the blog.

Thank you Jack, Caleb, and Josh for sharing your hunting experience with us and allowing us to share it with our blog visitors.

I will close this blog post with another beautiful sunset view from Rock Hound State Park.

Return to New Mexico

We left Roy, Utah around 1:00 pm, which was not our plan, because I went to the shooting range with our son.  It was worth the delay.  Because we got started so late, we hit the rush hour traffic through Salt Lake City.  We arrived in Price, Utah in time to find a spot in the Walmart parking lot.  Dinner was a trip to the in-store Subway.  Do not plan on camping in the Walmart parking lot if you expect quiet.  A Semi refrigeration truck pulled in close to us with his motor running all night.  We moved to another location on their lot, but it did not help much.

This was our first rest stop at Tie Fork.  It is surrounded by some beautiful rock formations.  Behind the building in this view is a nice grassy area with benches and an old re-stored train.

Engine 435, the restored narrow gage train that ran out of Helper, Utah.

As you can see, the engine was restored, or created to be like the original by Original Creations, INC., Helper, Utah.

This interesting rock formation is visible from the parking lot of the visitor's center.

Here is a typical water tower for supplying the water for the steam engine.

We traveled through Moab without a stop and headed for Farmington, New Mexico.  We were hurrying because we wanted to get there before the DMV closed.  We thought we needed to get our new pickup and trailer inspected and licensed.

Before we arrived in Farmington we received a call from an angelic like employee of the New Mexico DMV informing us our pickup was licensed and our registration was being sent to our address.  She also emailed us a copy so we could show proof of registration if necessary.  Because it was for a new vehicle, no vin inspection was necessary.  The same was true for the trailer but it took longer because the dealer took his own sweet time sending the inforation to the DMV.

Our next stop was at Navajo Lake State Park in New Mexico.  It is one of the largest lakes in the state, and it spans the border of New Mexico and Colorado.  I thought it was ironic since we had kayaked Navajo Lake, Utah with our son, Ben.

This photo was taken from the dam across the Colorado River that forms Navajo Lake.

It is a beautiful lake, but we did not spend much time here because we could not find a suitable camp site.  We were able camp for one night in a reserve site.  There was a site we could get into on Friday.  We had arrived on Wednesday, but could not find a site for Thursday so we headed for Heron Lake State Park.

There were no First-Come sites available at Heron so we went on over to El Vado Lake State Park.  We camped there for 10 days, then moved over to Heron on a Sunday morning and found an almost perfect site.  It was a pull-through surrounded by trees and shrubs, affording us privacy and quiet.

At El Vado we were kayaking when we got caught in a thunder storm.  In one cloud burst we got drinched.  It let up, and before we got back to the dock another storm moved in.  Lightening stuck the side of the mountain about a mile from our location.  We were holding our breaths and silently praying we would get back to shore safely.

We took up our hobby of hummingbird watching at Heron.  This time we had our own feeder.  In this view you can see a Roufus hovering by the feeder.  This little guy was very territorial and shelfish.  He fought off as many other hummingbirds as possible.  One time he actually locked feet with another mid-air, and they fell to the ground.  Both got up apparently uninjured and continued to fight for a sip of sugar water. 

New Mexico sun sets are always beautiful, and a good way to bring this blog post to a close.  The next post will take us back to Leisburg, Manzano, and Rock Hound State Parks.

Willard Bay South Marina

Todays post takes us to Willard Bay's South Marina near Roy, Utah.
Willard Bay State Park has two marinas and campgrounds.  We were using our OnStar for directions as we came in from Idaho.  It gave us directions to the North marina.  We missed the turn off and went into the South Marina by mistake.

There was one first-come, first-serve sight available, and we took it.  It turned out to be the right decision because it was closer to our son's apartment in Roy, Utah where we wanted to be.

We enjoyed kayaking in between our trips into Roy to visit with him, but I did not think to take pictures with our camera.  We did get some photos with our phone. 

This picture of a hawk that flew from post-to-post and posed for us also shows the marina in the background.  In the distance to the left of the marina is the campground behind the trees.

This photo was taken at Antelope Island, also near Roy, Utah.  Our son took us on a tour of the island.  We watched these bison for a while, and he played a recording of a bison call over a speaker.  It was a recording he downloaded from the internet.  It must have been part of a mating call because the bull immediately went to the female bison and began sniffing her.  She showed no interest in him.

My next post will be our trip back to New Mexico by way of Navajo Lake State Park, Heron Lake State Park, and Elvado Lake State Park.

Flat Head Lake and Big Fork, Montana

Our adventure continued northward to Montana where we had a short but joyous visit with our daughter, granddaughters, and great grandchildren.

This a view of the marina on the north end of Flathead Lake, Montana. Our daughter, Mary, purchased the use of a pontoon boat for the day, and treated us to a trip on the lake.  We enjoyed a relaxing trip and picnic aboard the boat.

Captain Tony steered us out of the marina onto the lake.

Here is a good view taken as we left the marina.

We went out onto the lake along the Northeast shore.

There are some beautiful homes located on the hillside along the shoreline of the lake.

Right along the shore we spotted some very nice homes.  Our whole family could fit into this one.

It was a very hazy day, but some people were enjoying fishing anyway.

This is an expansive view of the lake as we headed Northwest.

This is an island on the North end of the lake.  It took us about two hours to get this far.

Some folks choose a more primitive way of getting from place to place on the lake.

I always love to capture images of Nature's creatures.  These two are enjoying sun bathing on a private dock.

After our adventure on the lake, we enjoyed pizza with the family and watching the deer mow the grass in the yards surrounding Robyn's house.

This mother had to keep protecting her twins from a yearling doe that was most likely her fawn from the previous year.

We also took some photos of our family.  I hesitate to post them because I don't want the blog to become a family album.  Never-the-less, here are some picture of a couple of our granddaughters and their beautiful children.

Becky, Colton, Wyatt, Robyn, and Scarlett.

Grandma and Sean were added.

Grandpa and Sean joined for the photo-op.

We posed with just the great grandchildren.

Becky joined us for this one.  We greatly enjoyed our visit with all of them.

On the next blog post, I will show a couple of pictures of Antelope Island, Utah, and Willard Bay State Park, Utah.