Feb 28 - Heading off to El Paso, Texas

  We had a really nice chat with the new owner of this RV park, who was originally from the New England area.  As we were leaving, she took the photo below of our RV, passing in front of the Florida mountain range.
  The trip to El Paso, Texas was short (relatively).  And, we didn't realize how BIG a city El Paso is. It is 35 miles across, from west to east.  The terrain, again, is changing.  Fewer sky island mountain ranges, more flat basins, more sandy soil.  The north western side of El Paso, seems to be developing in the yuppy-style.  We stopped at Whole Foods, and did our shopping--resupplying items not found at the regular grocery stores.
  The Mission RV Park, where we are staying, is probably one of the worst places we have stayed at.  It is clean, and there is a nice "club house" with laundry, pool and sauna, showers.  However, it is a parking lot in the middle of a industrial area of eastern El Paso.  So, our site is narrow, with just room to lay out our patio mat (barely) and no picnic table.  It does have full hook-up, and our water issue does seem to be resolved, for the time being.  Our "view" is of a stone wall, with barbed wire, overlooking a shipping container holding yard.  Fortunately, when we are here at the RV, we are working on our computers, and otherwise, we are out and about.  So, it works for a few days.

Leaving El Rancho Lobo RV park, Deming, NM photo:

Zoom in, that's our RV in front of the mountain range.

Mission RV Park site photo:

Feb 27 - Deming, NM and Rock Hound State Park

  We spent the morning taking care of business.  I needed to call Tiffin and arrange for us to take the RV into their shop when we are in Alabama next April.  We are having troubles, again, with our water valve that opens the valve from the city water faucet into our water pipes.  When we do that, some water also flows into our fresh water tank, and then overflows, getting things wet that shouldn't get wet.  Until then, we will have to keep the drain open on the fresh water tank when we are hooked up to the city faucet, or just turn off the city water and work out of the fresh water tank.  Oh well.
  This afternoon, it warmed up to a nice 60 degrees and sunny.  We went to the nearby Rock Hound State Park.  This park, unlike most parks that say "do NOT remove anything from the park", this parks says "take up to 15 pounds of rocks, mineral, gems, crystals, whatever you find".  They have a nice hiking trail up over a hillside, covered with prickly-pear catcus and LOTS of rocks-big, little and littler.  It gave a nice view of the basin and Florida mountain range.  As we did a long, moderately strenuous hike yesterday, we only did the 1 mile hike today, and not the 2 mile one up the mountain. 
  We needed to go into Deming to Walmart (ugh) to get Peter's prescriptions.  Then, we went to a few other stores looking for an RV part we need, unsuccessfully.  We will need to wait til tomorrow when we get to El Paso, Texas, to get them.  Since we are not hooked up to the city water, and our fresh water tank is only 1/3 full, and it is supposed to freeze again tonight, we decided to eat in town.  We found a really good Italian restaurant, in a funky looking building.  They played "The Godfather" movie the whole time.  The owner was a NY city retiree.

Rock Hound State Park photos:

Feb 26 - Driving to Deming, NM

  The drive along US-10 east was somewhat challenging.  It wasn't that long, but it traversed wide open basins, and over mountain passes.  But the real challenge was the strong cross winds.  I really needed to slow down to 60 or 65 mph, on a 75 mph highway.  And, I needed to keep both hands on the wheel.  The terrain is starting to change.  More huge, flat basins between these "sky island" mountain ranges.  More green between the shrubs on the basins.  You can see so far in the distance across these basins and over to the next mountain range.  Very cool.
  The GPS took us to the El Rancho Lobo RV Park along a 2 mile dirt road, that was like a washboard.  When we got to the park, the host said, "oh you should have called, we would have told you to take the paved road here". Our site is out in the open, with the flat basin all around.  This park has some trees circling most of the park, and they feed the birds, so there are more birds here than we've seen on our entire trip. 
  We set up, and I did more laundry.  I made dinner.  But, it was going to go down to 22 degrees tonight, so we didn't hook up the sewer or the water.  We had filled the fresh water tank at the last stop, and we have a fresh water tank heater, so we used that.  Between that and the heated RV, the pipes stayed unfrozen.

El Rancho Lobo RV park photos;

Feb 25 - Chiricahua National Monument, Willcox, AZ

  We worked the morning away, but after lunch we drove over to Willcox, AZ, to the Chiricahua National Monument.  I think this is one of my FAVORITE National parks.  It was absolutely amazing!  From the visitor center, you are climbing up a sky island-an isolated mountain range rising above the surrounding grassland "sea".  From the visitor center, you drive through 8 miles of rock pinnacles, balancing rocks, and many other formations to the summit at Massai Point.  There is a 1/2 mile trail around the rim of the peak, overlooking the canyons of pinnacle rocks.  The view is just amazing.  It is like looking at a fairy tale, or like a hillside of organ pipes, or like a scene out of The Lord of the Rings.  Rocks are balancing in impossible positions, and you wonder why they haven't fallen down yet.  The columns and pinnacles of rock are so tall and so deep.  It was just amazing.
  We then rode the short distance over to Echo Canyon, and hiked the mile trail out to the Echo Canyon Grotto.  What a trail!!  Each turn and twist had another amazing vista or amazing rock formation.  Without a doubt, this was one of my favorite parks and hiking experiences.   Since we got there in the afternoon, we couldn't spend as much time there as we could have.  There were many more trails we could have taken, but. . .
  The area around these Chiracahua Mountains was a lot greener than other areas in the desert.  We even saw ranches with cattle grazing.  You could tell, this area has a lot more water.  On the way out of the park, we saw a Coatimundi at the side of the road.  This is a black, long tailed, white faced, animal from central america -- very rare.

What a delightful day.

Chiracahua National Monument photos (there a many):

Coatimundi photo:

Feb 24 - Kartchner Caverns State Park, Benson, AZ

  We worked this morning, but then over to nearby Kartchner Caverns State Park.  In 1974, two cavers were exploring the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains and discovered an unknown "living" cave, with formations in a dazzling array of sizes, shapes and colors, dropping down thousands of feet.  It was an extraordinary find.  The owners and the cavers worked to get the caves into protection as a State Park and research center.   It wasn't until 2003 that the cave tours opened.  You can tell they are relatively new, as the facilities are all very well done, and beautiful.  The tours are some of the first that can be accessed by folks in wheelchairs.  You are taken over to the cave site from the visitor center in a trolley.  You can NOT take in any cameras, cell phones, back packs, purses, or anything that will shed.  They built the cave viewing system with short cement walls on either side of the walkways, to create a "wind tunnel" effect, along with misters, to keep the walkways wet, to prevent lint from humans to get on to the cave formations.  The cave is a steady 72 degrees, with 98 % humidity.  Some of the formations are amazing, with a big variety.  At one point in the tour, they do a light show, with music, in the "throne room" -- very impressive. 
  After the tour, we walked the Foothills Trail.  A 2.75 mile loop that surrounds the Caverns.  It goes through the foothills, through some passes, and up over the foothills.  There are some very impressive vistas of the Whetstone and Dragoon mountain ranges, and the very large basin in between.  Very enjoyable day.

Since I couldn't take my camera into the caverns, I went online and found some photos.

Kartchner Caverns photos:

Foothills Loop Trail photos:

Feb 23 - Tombstone, AZ

   Wow! Tombstone territory.  It turns out the town of Tombstone, AZ is only 25 minutes from our RV park.  We knew it would be very touristy, but decided to check it out.  Actually, the bartender from last night works at the GoodEnough Silver Mine giving tours, and suggested it.  There are several pedestrian streets, from the original, actual heyday of the Tombstone era.  It is renowned for its gunfights, gambling halls, brothels and bars.  It was a silver mining town of great wealth, during the decade known as "The Roarin' '80's" .  By 1881, due to the influx of miners and businesses, Tombstone's population reached 10,000, making it the largest town in Arizona.  It is estimated that these mines produced around $25.5 Million of silver by 1899.  However, when the silver mines played out, the town emptied out.  Only in recent years, has it been revived as a Tourist attraction.
  We walked the streets a bit, then did a Trolley ride tour of the area.  The driver was very knowledgeable about the local history, and had many interesting stories to tell.  Including the stories of Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Doc Holiday, Bat Masterson, the shoot out at the OK coral, and the history of Boothill cemetery.    We then did the tour of the GoodEnough Silver Mine.  I had never been in a silver mine before, and our guide was extremely good.  The mine had several levels, going down to 400 feet in some areas.  We only went down three levels.  But the working conditions were amazing.  Only candles for light (they had three to last for a ten hour work day), only a hammer and chisel to dig the holes for the dynamite, moving all of the rocks by hand, etc.  They were well paid, BUT...  The amount of backbreaking labor was impressive.  The engineering issues of creating a mine, then getting the silver ore to be processed, and the processing, was impressive.  AND, they were doing this while in Apache territory, where they were engaged in fighting over the land.

Tombstone town photos:

GoodEnough Silver Mine Tour photos: