"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

After a very smoky night with the ash covering the sunset we awoke to clear skies and decided to head back into the forest for a few more days. The drive up route 65 is a windy climb past a few villages. The view is spectacular out over the valley past small ranches. Gallinas Canyon also had a small fire we heard from our campground hosts when we arrived; glad we didn't decide to head that way. Back "home" We set up our camp and relaxed. We enjoyed yummy meals. Will cut us some firewood; love that smokey smell. The hummingbirds came back. On Monday Jerry took his bike for a spin. Check out this art piece we found. And we relaxed.

We left camp as the day was warming up. And headed into the trail head across from the parking area outside the campground.  The half a mile or so is on private land belonging to the Cristian Camp.  The trail is wide and open following along the stream. There are three bridges that cross the stream, but you can easily walk the rocks and get across without wet feet this time of year. The aspens with their white trunks and bright spring green leaves are so pretty in this short section that looks like a road. White violets were scattered along the forest floor.  A brown butterfly stopped to rest on the trail  This is the third bridge crossing. An old chimney still stands; it is a nice place to rest and contemplate times gone, and who might have lived here.  The trail gets narrow and is a slow constant uphill  A little past the vista of Hermits Peak you come to the sign for the Pecos Wilderness. And a short distance further is an overhang cave shelter. ...

My latest and greatest iMovie is now available on YouTube. You can view it at: The Stream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aPAtH1B62U Enjoy! Will Bradley and Kathy Martinelli-Zaun "Today is a good day to drive!" visitvango@gmail.com

At the end of the campground circle our campground hosts, Jerry and Fran have their camp set up with electric, sewer dump and a tank of fresh water. They invited us to dinner. We sat around enjoying drinks and snacks when   A man and woman drove up with a frantic woman who had lost her son.  She had been drinking and her story changed to her son took the truck and was going hiking and had not returned; he and his friend are 14.  Jerry called on his radio and  someone was on their way. Jerry fishes the stream each day and has caught some rainbow trout.  Fran breaded them and they are ready to be fried for our dinner. Oh my they were so fresh and tender. As dark approached so did a caravan of vehicles and search and rescue. The boys were found at grandmother's house, the woman we think was driven there. So all ended well. Fran and Kathy enjoyed Little Penguin wine in Harley Davidson wine glasses each with it's own woozie to keep the wine col...

Everything is so dry that the only place you are permitted to have a fire is in a fire ring at a campground in the National Forest so we headed into the Santa Fe campground We found that site 14 would suit our needs and made it our home for the next 10 days. We collected firewood and started a campfire! It was Tuesday night so we had spaghetti dinner for our campground hosts, Jerry and Fran and one of the hikers, Micheal. It seems the local fire department didn't get the word that in the park you could have a campfire because they came and were telling us to put it out when Jerry stepped in and talked with them. Well, our second day a group of students arrived, about a dozen of them.  They had hiked down the mountain and were resting up waiting to be picked up tomorrow by bus.  Other than their language they were not too bad across the street.  We liked to watch them take turns sitting on The Rock.  The boys liked to throw water or frogs at the girls...