Friday, February 3
35 degrees at 7 AM this
morning. We had a comfortable night with
the heater set low. We are parked in the
street in front of Tom’s house and are plugged in via a long extension cord- not 30 amp but enough
to run the fridge and the heater!
Everyone eats breakfast when
they care to and Chap and Mam are first to leave, heading to the Gem show. Kevin is heading that way this morning too as
he is looking at cutting tools among other things. Tom has a golf tournament with friends. So Anita, Greg, Sue and I head for the
Coronado National Monument to do some exploring.
We travel about an hour south
and after a quick stop at the Visitor’s Center, we head to the Coronado Cave
Trail.
Coronado and his troops explored
through this area which is why you find his name on many geological features,
trails, etc.
Armed with headlamps and
flashlights, we hike about ½ mile up a mountain to reach a dry cave and clamber
down into it.
It is very dry and once it
levels out it is easy going, although there is a lot of dust. It is a large cave – 600’ in length with up
to 20’ high ceilings. Some old cave
formations remain, showing that it wasn't always dry. I used flash to capture some details.
There is no trail, railings, lights, stairs or
other man-made features, so it is cool to scramble inside. When our lights are off it is pitch
black! And we are the only people here. Supposedly there are some bats but we don't see them.
After retracing our steps,
Greg drives us along a rugged 1-1 ½ lane
road to Montezuma Pass Overlook which gives us quite a view of the San Rafael
and San Pedro Valleys.
From here we take
the Coronado Peak Trail to the highest point at 6864’. Awesome view! We are quite close to Mexico and can see the
infamous “Wall” snaking across the valley.
 |
| San Rafael |
 |
| San Pedro into Mexico |
 |
| Greg (blue) in foreground. Black line in distance is wall. |
 |
| Anita and Sue |
We turn towards Benson and
stop for a late lunch at Pizzeria Mimosa, a favorite of Tom and Sue’s, where we
enjoy sharing a pizza with fennel sausage and pine nuts and a wonderful
calzone.
After a quick grocery stop,
we go back to Tom and Sue’s, where Tom and Kevin are waiting. We chat and look at photos. Anita & Kevin have a new camera and Anita
has taken some great photos.
I make some rosemary pull apart yeast rolls and jalepeno poppers to go with a
big salad filled with chicken and lots of veggies. We eat at 7:00 when Chap and Mam arrive home
from their busy day and enjoy catching up on everyone’s day.
Tom and Sue have nice views
of the desert sunrises and sunsets. They
have a couple of bird feeders which many birds appreciate, and they put out
feed for the local deer population as well.
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