Friday, July 26, 2013

Road trip adventures

Last week we had the good fortune of taking another family vacation, this time with my parents (Pappa and Susu), sister Amy and nephew Holten. We've been very blessed this summer to go on several trips and this one was a ton of fun.

Our overall destination was Vail, CO but we took our time getting there by camping two nights along the way, plus staying in a hotel in Santa Fe, NM. Most of my experiences with the Texas panhandle and New Mexico has been driving straight through it to get somewhere else, so it was nice to have several stops along the way.

Grayson was a trooper even with several days of driving...a few surprise treats may have helped. He devoured this Hershey bar in about 30 seconds. 


The first stop was Palo Duro Canyon State Park, a little south of Amarillo, TX. It was prettier than I was expecting and just about as hot as I was expecting, but luckily the canyon temps cooled off nicely in time for sleeping.

We got our tent set up, made dinner and had time for some hiking before the sun went down. We had some close encounters with a deer and wild turkeys in our campsite, plus we saw a tarantula on the hiking trail. Not exactly the wildlife of Yellowstone, but it made for some interesting experiences.

This was the view on our drive into the canyon

I was minding my own business washing my face when a young deer snuck up beside me. You can see him just to my left in the bushes. Gray loved it and tried offering him a rock to snack on. 

This guy creeped me out a bit and we made sure the tent zippers were snug that night.

A quick pic during our evening hike.


The next morning we made breakfast burritos and coffee. Our camper neighbors came out of the woodwork and everyone who walked by commented on how good our breakfast smelled. 

Here's our junior ranger exploring the visitor center a bit more before we headed on down the road. 


We stopped for lunch in Tucumcari and happened across a wind energy training center. They had a wind turbine in the parking lot and you could walk right up to it, so we had to stop and check it out. We've seen a lot of these throughout Oklahoma, but never have been able to get so close to one.




We were originally supposed to stay the night in the Santa Fe National Forest, but due to evacuations because of wildfire risks, ended up making camp at Santa Rosa Lake State Park in New Mexico. 


This picture basically sums up Santa Rosa. It's hot even in the shade and there's no reason to ever go there. The "lake" was down 50 feet or so and you could tell that even the park ranger who worked there wished he was somewhere else. Suffice it to say, it did not live up to New Mexico's state slogan, "The Land of Enchantment." The one redeeming quality was that when I woke up about 4 a.m., I looked out the tent windows and saw more stars than I'd seen in a very long time.

After fixing another yummy camp breakfast and coffee, we headed out early to explore Santa Fe. Michael and I had never been to Santa Fe before so it was really fun to see the Adobe architecture and check out the art galleries and shops.

We happened across a gallery featuring the amazing illustrator Chuck Jones who drew Bugs Bunny and many Warner Bros. characters, along with the Grinch. There were also illustrations of lots of the Dr. Seuss characters Grayson loves. Here he is by one of his favorites, the Lorax.

One of many places we'd love to call home.

A couple of nice Santa Fe police officers and their trusty steeds. The woman on the right actually picked up the horse she's riding in Pauls Valley, OK (about 45 minutes south of where we live). 
Small world. 

We met up with Pappa, Susu, Amy and Holt that evening for dinner and all stayed together at the same hotel. I must say it was nice to have a hot shower and fresh sheets on the bed, but we made lots of memories and our adventures were just beginning.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful adventure. Aunt B

Emily said...

That grill/stove is awesome! Unfortunately, I don't think I could convince my minimalist camper-husband to take it along.

Lindsay said...

You'll be glad you have one if you're camping anywhere there's a fire ban. We couldn't have fires or even charcoal in any of the places we camped. Only propane or white gas.