Return to Valles Caldera

Friday was again spent in the Valles Caldera area, which I must say is one of the most beautiful places in these United States. Having secured the last of twelve reservable backcountry access spots the day before, I arrived at the visitor center shortly after 9AM. I told the guys there that I thought it would be a waste of three perfectly good car seats for me to drive in alone, so I told them I was willing to hang around for a while to see if anyone wanted to drive in with me. This wasn't entirely altruism on my part; driving in with more people & more pairs of eyes would increase my chances of spotting wildlife. Also, it gets boring to drive in to a place, even one as purdy as this, alone.

So I hung around, waiting for the daily quota of 12 cars to fill up. I waited and waited and waited. Dozens of people came and went, but no one wanted to drive in with me. I dunno if it was my deodorant, my citizenship or my appearance that scared people off, but polite rejections was the order of the day, it seemed. I talked a lot to the very nice people at the center, and there were a lot of jokes and banter as the hours passed, and they seemed genuinely surprised that I couldn't get a single person to go in with me.

Finally, at 1PM - four hours after I'd arrived - I told them I was going to drive off. I went out to my car, which had had the windows open, and found my entry ticket gone. I later found that it had simply blown out and was lying on the ground, but this brief crisis delayed my leaving for just long enough for some people to FINALLY accept a ride. And what a trip that was! The next three hours was spent in wonderful conversations with a family of three from Albuquerque, who owned a cabin up in the Jemez Mountains. We talked and joked and laughed and took pictures and just got along splendidly.

At the end we exchanged email addresses and they even wrote down their street address for me. So now I have a standing invitation to stay in Albuquerque the next time I'm in this area. As I've said before, good stuff keeps happening over here.

A skeptical selfie (skelfie?) at the Longmire cabin.


The Longmire cabin again. Wantses!


This is the view from the porch. Oh, I could live here.


A bunny just outside the Longmire cabin.


You can rent this large cabin. It has half a dozen bedrooms and a large living room with a fireplace in the middle. There are stone benches and grills outside. Oh, the parties I could have here.


Another skelfie from several miles inside the preserve.


Saw a couple of birds along the way and dutifully photographed them.




We saw some elk too. This one was grooming herself. It's a tough life in the tourist industry.


We had great seats to an incredible thunderstorm all around us. We actually witnessed a bolt of lightning strike down just across a narrow valley from us, with smoke and everything.


More landscape pics from this incredibly beautiful area.








In some places the rain had wreaked havoc with the roads.


Some swallows photos from the visitor center. Cute lil' featherballs.




You looking at me? I don't see anybody else here?


This prairie dog looks like the guilty kid at fat camp, wolfing down a Mars bar when he thinks nobody's looking.