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

Today we packed our backpack and headed out to hike all day on trail247 of the Santa Fe National Forest through the Pecos Wilderness.  As we reached the steps to cross the first bridge we saw this little guy sunning. Look a yucca plant blooming in the forest! This wild rose was sure a find to these bugs! Can you find the fish? Oh the views!! And the delicate wildflowers. There are 22 creek crossings not counting the bridges. This flower is getting pollinated. Butterflies also enjoyed sunning. Some crossing were easy and others were a bit of a challenge, but we managed not to get our feet wet. Sunning flutterby. A ladyslipper! We found this oddity, someone must be on a hunt! Sueann, I bet you know what this one is called!  I had to look it up. Crossings.... A butterfly convention! Stopping for a snack. Virginia bluebells out here in NM! Curly daisy. Finding wildflowers along the way. And s...

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.

Our morning started out with a visit from a hairy woodpecker who tapped and tapped until we finally had to take his picture; then he flew off.  Actually, he was warning us of the fire that started in Tres Lagunas, north of Pecos on New Mexico Route 63.  A downed powerline seems to be the cause.  Over 900 acres have burned so far. The ash is covering the sun and the glow is an eerie glow here at campsite 14 in the El Porvenir Campground in the Santa Fe National Forest. We climbed the hill behind our campsite. And took a little walk to pick up a few pieces of choice pine to send to our friend John who will make it in to a vase. As we walked back we could see more and more smoke moving into the valley. And look who we found! The smoke was filling the area so we packed up even though the forest department had only called a stage one alert to the campground. You can see the smoke was filling the valley as we departed the Santa Fe National Forest area. T...