Adventures beyond New Mexico

Because my internet connection has been so slow, I quit posting on my blog.  My last posts were made when we were staying at our son's place in the Bryce Woodland Estates.  At that time I had featured two lakes that I had kayaked, Navajo and Tropic Resevoir.

This post will feature Panquitch Lake.  It is located about 27 miles southwest of the town of Panquitch, Utah. Below is one of several pictures taken when my son, grandson, and  grandson-in-law took an outing to the lake.

We loaded our kayaks and headed for the lake. My intention was to just kayak the lake, but my son and grandsons were intent on fishing.  My grandson discovered he did not have a valid fishing license, so he and I took turns in my kayak while his father fished from his kayak.  Justin, the other lad, fished from the shore.

This is Ben paddling to a different location.  The kayak is one that I built while in graduate school.  It has been across the United States and back, and has been re-covered three times.  It is about 55 years old.  Quite durable.

Joshua was taking a turn in my kayak.  The water was a little too choppy for fly fishing.  The lake is rather small.  It only takes a few minutes to cross from one end to the other.

At the far south west end of the lake there are some nice summer homes and a boat dock.

The next blog post will feature pictures of Bryce Canyon National Park.

Plants and critters at Rock Hound State Park

On this blog entry I want to display some of the wild life and plants we enjoyed around our campsite.  When we first arrived there was a horned lizard right in the site into which we were pulling.  As a child growing up in Northern California, we always called them horn toad lizards, although they are not toads.  I did not have the camera handy and looked everywhere for one.

While trying to get a picture of a different species of quail, I spotted this horned lizard in the middle of an unoccupied campsite across from  ours.  I followed him to these rocks and continued to photograph it.

It was soon joined by a companion.

Yes, they are indeed companions.  I was thrilled to get this photo of them together.

Here is another very colorful lizard that walked across our campsite.  Notice the injury to his right hind leg.

I captured this picture of this little fellow on a foot bridge along one of the paths I hiked.

Cicadids were out in force while we were there.  Their sounds are loud and piercing.  While hiking one made a screeching sound right beside me, and flew up in front of me.  I was on the alert for the sound of rattle snakes, so I jumped back a couple of feet.

We did not see just reptiles and insects.  If you look closely, you can see the backside of this little cotton tail rabbit.  I tried several times to photograph a species of quail that I had not seen before.  Unfortunately for me, they were just too shy.

I did get this one picture of the quail, but it is not too clear.

Following are some of the plants that are around the park.  Some are labeled.

This is Occotillo, although the sign is out of focus.

I will conclude this blog post with a note that there is a lot to see and do at Rock Hound State Park.  I seem to have reached a limit to the number of photos I can upload to the blog.

Our next blog post will take you on a tour of Willow Beach Campground, Lake Mead Arizona.

Finally getting back on our blog

We have been on the road and out of internet contact so we have not been able to make any updates to our blog.  Our first stop on our new RVing adventure was at Rock Hound State Park near Demming, New Mexico.  

We enjoyed beautiful starlit nights, walking the trails, and beautiful sun sets.

Here is a view of our campsite, with Margaret sitting in the shade of our awning.  Notice the blue pickup with our two kayaks loaded on the carrier.  We drew a lot of attention from other travelers who wanted to know where we found kayaking water in New Mexico.

Actually there are a number of lakes in New Mexico suitable for kayaks and other water craft.

I hiked the trails around the park and enjoyed the cacti, flowers and wildlife.  I was quite happy not to have come across any rattle snakes.  The camp host told us they had a brown banded rock rattler show up in the lady's shower, although we could not figure out how it got there.

The following is a series of sun sets we enjoyed each evening. Each day the sun set was different.

We invite you to make a comment in our comments section of this blog, and let us know which sunset is your favorite.

I took this photo just to show people we were not the only ones transporting kayaks.

On my next blog entry, I'll show some of the mountains surrounding Rock Hound State Park, and some of the interesting flowers and wildlife we captured on our camera.

Until then, enjoy our RVing adventure by following our blog.