NM -- Storrie Lake State Park, 14-21 May 2012

 

   

Storrie Lake State Park is just outside of Las Vegas NM.  Though it’s not really a tourist destination, there are a few interesting things in the area.  Plus it’s conveniently off I-25 and in route to Colorado.  The state park is fairly nice with a decent sized lake surrounded by a large grassy meadow.  Just west are the heavily wooded and very scenic Sangre De Cristo Mountains and east lay the beginning of the plains.  You can camp with no hook-ups right beside the lake or get a large pull through site with electric and water.  We chose electric and water and were quite comfortable.  Our neighbors were quiet, and except for a few distant barking dogs, the area was very peaceful.  We had a strong and reliable 3G phone signal, but no wi-fi.  A Walmart Supercenter is five miles away and a convenient place for supplies.  Las Vegas has some good New Mexican food restaurants that smother everything in roasted, spicy green chili…yum yum!

My parents, Sandi and Leon, made their 2012 maiden voyage from Castle Rock, Colorado.  They spent six nights camped right next to us.  Most days we would do something together for a few hours, have a good dinner, and then play a game of Pinochle before turning in for bed.  It was very nice spending time with them.  The Pinochle tally:  3 games to 2…we won!

My parents relaxing under their awning

Morphy Lake…

I visited little Morphy Lake two or three times as a teenager.  It is one of my favorite places in New Mexico.  The small lake, nestled at 8,000 feet, sits right up against 11,000 foot peaks in the Sangre De Cristos.  Back in the day, I had to negotiate a rough, pot-holed, narrow dirt road that climbed steeply the last mile or two.  To spend the night, we slept in a tent.  Now, the road is still very narrow, but it’s paved.  The camp sites are nice and could accommodate bigger RVs, but the road can’t so the signs say no RVs greater than 18 feet long.  The state does a good job of keeping the lake stocked with rainbow trout.  Nearly everyone caught fish.  We had lots of hits, but had trouble keeping them on the hook.  However, I kept four, the biggest was nearly 15 inches…a great catch on this little lake!  Arleen grilled them up just a few hours after they were caught.  It was a great dinner!  We liked the lake so much, we took my parents up a few days later.  They had a pleasant picnic and we did a little hiking.  People unfamiliar with New Mexico could mistake this area for Colorado or Montana…it’s gorgeous.

   

                   Arleen paddling around scenic Morphy Lake                                      Great place for a picnic

   

                                                                                                           Fresh rainbow trout for dinner!

Pecos River, a great lunch, and Pecos National Historic Park…

The Pecos River between Santa Fe and Las Vegas is the other area I learned to fly fish.  My fishing buddies and I made many trips to these pretty mountains to camp and fish.  We nearly always slept in the back of a truck and ate cold pizza and chicken all weekend.  I also camped here a few times with my parents and have many great memories.  We kept going back, because not only was it very pretty, we nearly always caught fish!  Small spinners or various flies worked without fail.  Grasshopper flies produced splashy surface hits late summer and fall…it was fun!  The rainbow trout averaged 9-11 inches…anything over 12 or 13 inches was huge. 

Leon graciously took us on a day trip to see if the area had changed much in the last 20 years.  It hadn’t!  The road is paved farther into the mountains making access easier and the campgrounds were like we remembered.  We stopped at Mora Creek campground where I made a few casts.  And just like the good old days, the trout couldn’t resist my little spinner.  I caught and released three pretty trout in short order!

On our way back through the little town of Pecos, we stopped at “Frankies at the Cassanova” for a great lunch.  The old west décor was nice and the New Mexican food smothered in hot green chili was very tasty.  My parents even bought a jar of their green chili sauce which we enjoyed on pork chops and fried potatoes a few nights later.

One more stop:  Pecos Historic National Park.  The Glorieta Pass area between Santa Fe and Las Vegas was inhabited by Pecos Indians whose population peaked around 2,000 in the mid 1400s.  Their rock and mud fortress was five stories high with 15 or 16 room houses arranged in blocks.  Spaniards began to explore the area in the mid-1500s and built the first church in the early 1600s.  I found it interesting that the Indians intentionally guided the first Spaniards away from their region and east into present day Kansas intent on leaving them there to die.  The park’s 1 1/4 mile trail was well done running through the historic settlement.  As we stood just outside the fortress walls, we could envision the large open meadow full of different Indian tribes and Spaniards wanting to trade with the Pecos Indians.  We enjoy and appreciate history so much more when we can be there and absorb it.  We have learned a bunch since we hit the road. 

   

Mora Creak where it meets the upper Pecos River

   

                                 Stealth fishing on Mora Creak                                             Typical 10 inch rainbow trout

Remains of second Spanish Franciscan church built in early 1700s

   

        The mission complex and “convento”                                                 Inside a kiva

   

       Showing the National Park Passport to my parents                     Leon taking a break from site seeing

Hike up Hermit’s Peak…

Our last tough hike was at the Grand Canyon about a month ago.  It was time to kick our butts!  A little online research lead me to Hermit’s Peak.  It’s history was interesting as a “hermit” claimed it as home in the mid 1860s.  The trail climbed about 3,000 feet in roughly four miles and sufficiently kicked our butts!  It was shaded most of the way by pretty ponderosa pines, douglas firs, and aspens near the top.  Unfortunately, most of the trail consisted of loose rocks.  Each step, especially headed down, could easily result in a turned ankle, twisted knee, or worse.  Near the top, not far from Hermit’s Spring, thousands of moths flew out of cracked tree bark.  As we neared trees, the moths took flight, bouncing off us in swarms.  I thought it was cool as long as none flew into my mouth so I made a point to keep my mouth shut.  At one point, I kicked a tree sending tens of thousands of moths into the air.  Arleen panicked and tried to run away.  That’s when a downed tree stump reached up and grabbed her leg and sent her crashing to the ground!  Blood flowed from her elbow.  She was in pain, but “soldiered up” and marched on…she’s tough!  She was just a bit on edge when a few turkey vultures buzzed us and seemed to smell the dripping blood and were assessing how damaged she was. We reached the top, enjoyed the view, had a snack, and treated Arleen’s wounds.  On the way down, we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a partially hollowed cliff face with waist high, hand built rock walls and a fire ring.  Could this be one of the hermit’s resting places? or even sasquatch?  We felt a connection to the peak and the hermit who lived there.

   

           Interesting history of Hermit’s Peak                                       The route up Hermit’s Peak

   

                                                                                                                 Loose rocks made up most of the trail

   

             Wounded!                                            The hermit’s drinking source at 10,000 feet

   

       See Oklahoma?  Looking east from the saddle      At the top, looking northwest towards Morphy Lake & Taos

 

WHERE WE GOT OUR MAIL

Las Vegas NM

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY…As of this week, we have lived in our trusty Arctic Fox Travel Trailer one year!  We have zero regrets and thank God every day for this amazing opportunity.  Life is great!

Next we will spend 10 days at Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton NM. 

 

Short-horned lizard

 

Our sad picture of the eclipse:  20 May 2012 at 7:25pm

NM -– Albuquerque, 10-14 May 2012

 

 

Just four short days in Albuquerque to visit family and friends…

We stayed at the KOA in Bernalillo, about 10 miles north of Albuquerque.  We wanted to avoid driving our home through the crazy city streets and it worked out well.  This was our first KOA and we were impressed.  It was well kept, had all amenities, and we were comfortable.  They even served fresh pancakes every morning!

I graduated high school in Albuquerque over 20 years ago.  Though I visited a few times over the years, I was unable to find my friends…they all disappeared!  Recently, thanks to a certain well known social media web page, we finally tracked each other down.  After some coordination, mostly by Brent, we set up a reunion BBQ at his house.  It was really cool to meet each other’s wives, talk about the last 20 years, and tell stories about our high school days!  At one point, we even cranked up old 80s tunes and the gang tried to conjure up the old dance routines!  We laughed so hard, I was a little horse when we left late that night!  It’s true “you can never go back”, but you can have a blast reliving those glory days!

THEN

   

         From left:  Brent, Brian, me, Marque, Greg, Kevin                                 Wes, Marque, Brian

NOW

   

Top row:  Brent, me, Greg     Bottom row:  Marque, Wes, Kevin

40 or 18?!? Greg, Marque, Brent

 

Greg, Kevin, Marque, and Brent

 

Greg, Kevin, Marque, Brent

 

Greg, Kevin, Marque, Brent

NOTE:  I couldn’t dance then and sure as heck can’t dance now!

I also got to visit some of my family.  We had a great New Mexican dinner at Sadies…yum yum.  Thankfully the family is doing well, though it sounds like they could use a break and spend some time relaxing with us in the wilderness.

   

                                            Top Row:  Khyira, Shasta, Darren   Bottom Row: Uncle Mike, Grandma, Uncle Skip

   

On Mother’s Day we went to the big Flea Market with my Uncle Skip.  I couldn’t pass up a smoked turkey leg!  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon with my grandma and Uncle Mike.  It was nice spending time with them.

 

Next we meet my other set of parents at Storrie Lake State Park near Las Vegas NM.  Hopefully all of you moms had a great Mother’s Day!

NM -– San Juan River, 22 Apr-10 May 2012

 

We spent three great weeks at Navajo State Park and the San Juan River in New Mexico.  My Dad, Tom, and Step Mom, Wanda, even joined us the last eight days!

We stayed at Navajo State Park just above the pretty lake.  Like many campgrounds, it was likely built in the 70s, so space was limited for large RVs and vehicles.  There are quite a few camp sites with electric and water, but only a few had full hook-ups.  We had a strong and reliable 3G cell phone signal, but no wi-fi.  Reasonably priced supplies and laundry facilities were 15-30 miles away in Bloomfield, Aztec, or Farmington.  We reserved one of the full hook-up sites well in advance and we’re glad we did.  The place filled up the two weekends we were there.  In fact, it was a bit of a zoo with bon fires, music, and crowded campsites.  It was our first taste of summer camping and was a little hard to take after so many peaceful nights in mostly empty campgrounds through the winter.  Thankfully, sanity was restored each Sunday afternoon when the campground emptied.  Overall, we were content and will gladly return. 

   

Navajo Lake at sunrise with San Juan Mountains in the distance

If you’re a fly-fisherman, you are familiar with the San Juan River.  You’ve either fished it, read about it, or seen it featured on a television program.  The San Juan’s far-reaching reputation is well deserved… It’s some of the best trout fishing in the US!  The “tailwater” flows from the depths of Navajo Lake and provides the trout optimum mid-40 degree water year round.  It’s also a food factory with a plethora of small insects that the trout gorge themselves on.  The average trout is a fat 16-18 inches and fish over 20 inches are fairly common.  There are places where you can catch these guys in small, knee to waist deep pools.  It feels like you are fishing small water for big fish.  The San Juan River is special. 

The famous San Juan River below Navajo Dam

Back to my old stomping grounds!  I learned how to fly fish in the Pecos and San Juan Rivers in New Mexico when I was a teenager.  Once I started to get the hang of it, and became hopelessly addicted, I made many weekend trips to the San Juan.  Sometimes I was fortunate and camped in a comfortable trailer with my parents and ate good food.  Often it was just me and a fishing buddy sleeping in the back of a truck and eating cold pizza or chicken all weekend.  Either way, I have many great memories. 

It had been about 20 years since I last fished the San Juan.  I was eager to see if it lived up to my memories, make some new ones, and share this special place with my special girl.  It was a success on all accounts!  Overall the river and the fishing were much like I remembered them.  In fact, due to a recent river restoration project, the fishing may have even been better!   This past fall, a few new holes were dug and dirt berms and logs were placed to make deeper channels.  The end result were lots of great new holes for the fish and a very satisfying experience for the fisherman!

We fished most of the “new pools” and really enjoyed it

The fishing summary…Some days it was hot and some days we had to work for them.  Fishing was often best roughly 9:00-11:00am and then again the last hour or two before sunset.  We used leaders tipped with 12-18 inches of three (6X) or four (5X) pound test line.  We were most successful with miniscule midge pupas size 24 or 26.  Other productive flies were red annilids size 18-22, midge emergers size 22-26, and WD-40s size 20-24.  Most afternoons the fish would sip these itty bitty flies off the surface, but our eyes aren’t good enough for that type of fishing.  That was often our cue to take a break.  When the fishing was hot, we would hook about 10 fish in an hour.  We’d only hook one or two an hour when it was slow.  The trout would also bite in spurts… boom boom boom over a short period and then nothing for the next 45-60 minutes.  The trout size varied and depended on where we fished.  In our most successful hole, “Arleen’s Hole” (our name for it), the fish averaged 10-14 inches with a few fat 15-17 inchers mixed in.  In our favorite hole upstream, the “Pro Hole” (our name for it), the fish averaged 15-17 inches.  The biggest trout caught:  three 19 inchers, a 19 3/4 incher, and one 20 incher.  I couldn’t wrap my hands around one of the obese 19 inchers…it was the heaviest fish landed.  I caught it fishing the “Texas Hole” in the dark around 10:30pm with a size 10 black wooly bugger.  Speaking of fishing in the dark, it was a freakin’ blast!  Unlike the delicate finesse midge fishing during the day, there was nothing subtle about this.  Chop off the three pound test line, add six pound test line, a big dark fly, cast as far as possible, let the fly sink, bring it back slowly, and hang on!  The big ones feed at night.  You fish completely by feel and never know what you’re going to hook.  It’s very exciting!

Posing with the fish… We caught a lot of nice trout and attempted to take many pictures.  I say “attempted” because, each time we’d gently pick up the fish and pose, the slippery trout would wiggle and slip out of our hands before the photographer, usually me, would snap the picture.  So here are the fish pictures.  Everybody caught bigger, prettier fish than the ones we got pictures of…

   

Fishing “Arleen’s Hole”

     

Success in “Arleen’s Hole”! 

   

Fishing the “Pro Hole”

       

Success in the “Pro Hole”!

   

                 Fighting a nice one in Arleen’s hole                                                  A fat 18-incher

This happened a lot!

   

       One of four brown trout we caught                                          A chubby 19-incher

Birds…We don’t consider ourselves “birders”, but we appreciate them more and more as we spend time in the outdoors and observe unique things.  The birds along the San Juan River provided much entertainment and cool memories.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the bald eagle or the thousands of cliff swallows that occasionally invaded the river to feast on midges.  When the cliff swallows were active, the fish were active… a sure sign!

   

          Fred and Wilma, our goose friends                                          Six eggs in their nest

   

        Red winged black bird…they are very vocal                          Great blue heron looking for a meal

   

             Turkey vultures circling the cliffs                                       Osprey and a nearly full moon

Osprey with a nice trout

An osprey dives for a trout on the San Juan River.

 

A great blue heron eats a 12 inch trout on the San Juan River.

Hikes…We did a couple of hikes near the campground.  The road to the primitive campground loops was closed and made a nice place to walk.  It was just over three miles round trip to the end of the road and around the loops.  Pretty flowers were everywhere and the view of Navajo Lake and the distant San Juan Mountains was great.

  

Mesa Verde….We took a day trip to Mesa Verde National Park.  It was a pleasant 100-mile drive that routed us through the outdoorsy town of Durango CO… Cyclists and kayakers were everywhere… Our kind of place!  At Mesa Verde, we checked out the “Spruce Tree House”.  The Ancestral Puebloans moved to the area around AD 550 and mysteriously disappeared around AD 1300.   Initially, they lived on top of the mesa, and then around AD 1200, built and moved into the cliff dwellings.  It’s amazing that they only occupied the cliff dwellings for a generation or two.  Arleen and I also did a hike to see petroglyphs.  Due to the long drive and some stops, we were only at Mesa Verde a few hours… Not nearly enough.  Someday we will go back!

   

The Spruce Tree House

   

   

    Standing above the cliff dwellings                                    Crazy calves and petroglyphs

Tasty treats at the Vanilla Moose in Aztec NM

Though Arleen entered the world near here, she left shortly after she was born and had never come back.  I am addicted to the famous river and hope to keep coming back.  I slyly suggested that we enroll in New Mexico’s VA medical program and get annual check-ups at the Farmington VA clinic.  It worked!  The Farmington VA treated us great and confirmed that we are in good health.  Now each spring or fall when I get the San Juan itch, I might be able to convince Arleen to come back for doctor’s appointments…wink wink!

 

WHERE WE GOT OUT MAIL:

 Navajo Dam, NM

Since I joined the military and left home over 20 years ago, I really missed camping trips with my parents.  It was great to camp and spend time with them again.  It had been far too long!  

Next we head to Albuquerque to visit family and hook up with friends that I haven’t seen in 20 years!

Miscellaneous pictures…

       

                         Desert spiny lizard?                                              Henry the beaver…he was huge!

That’s steep!  Going down the dam road…

 

Supermoon over Navajo Lake