Monday, July 6
Despite the heat, or maybe because of it, we've decided to head north for a bit. Heat has been oppressive all over the country on and off. In Houston, it will be "on" until late September.
This is a trip with lots of driving and day one is just that. From home to Amarillo, over 500 miles through familiar Texas terrain - wind turbines, ranches, some hardy wildflowers and a few oil jack pumps. Towns like Willis, Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, Childress, Waxahatchie, and finally Amarillo.
Tuesday, July 7
Onward, past the Cadillac Ranch, Big Texan Steak House (free 72 oz steak if you can eat it all). Turning northwest, we enter New Mexico around 9AM and take smaller roads. The mostly flat terrain gets a few hills and the scrubby grassland terrain turns from mesquite to cactus and then back to mesquite and, finally, as we reach the cooler area, juniper. We are headed for a familiar campground called Tolby in Cimarron Canyon State Park.
We saw a few antelope in the more arid area as we went through Kiowa National Grasslands.
It takes acres and acres to raise cattle in this terrain and cattle fences don't deter most deer and antelope. Mostly all of the land we pass is fenced, which reminds Beth of an old ballad she learned in Girl Scouts which goes "I'm going to leave old Texas now; ain't got no use for the long horn cow. They've plowed and fenced my cattle range, and the people there are all so strange."
Fence poles range from kind-of-straight trimmed branches to wooden posts to metal poles, all with the requisite barbed wire. We rumble over cattle guards now and then - metal rods spaced so that cattle won't cross them to escape their fenced areas by road. Can imagine open ranges long ago with lots of buffalo.
Many of the roads are flanked by telephone poles, which make convenient perches for birds and we see many hawks searching for their next meal. This is a swainson's hawk (which I know only cause Merlin, my bird app, told me).
Signs of civilization now and then, like this old 1908 church with adjacent water tower and some rock outcroppings. Another small-town water tower. As you can imagine, water is a very important topic here!
The telephone poles bring to mind an old Glen Campbell song called Wichita Lineman as we think of all these wires in wide open country that need installation and service.
We pass by Philmont Scout Ranch and find Cimarron Canyon State Park. Tolby Campground, one of several in the state park, is inviting, with shade trees and a beautiful stream where there are a few fisherman looking for trout.
Greg talks with one guy who is just doing "catch and release" and admire his technique, whipping his pole and casting again and again into the deeper pools of the stream. He says he's caught 8 so far.
Beth wonders around and finds quite a few birds in the area.... this is a fly catcher
and this a beautiful bluebird.
There are also robins, which always seem to want to be photographed, including this one showing off his hunting prowess.
Quite a few hummingbirds in the area and they keep coming to Beth to check out her red shirt. Finally, Beth puts the shirt on a post in hopes of getting a photo of them. Several come to check it out but they are speedy little buggers and this is the only shot she gets.
Lots of pretty wildflowers as well! You can see why Beth loves this campground.
We chat with a neighbor, Les, who is from Raton (at the border of NM and CO) and just getting away for a few days. Share some cherries and talk about fires and wildlife. He tells us about a nearby trail, which we decide to try tomorrow morning.
Beth runs into a guy from Seattle when walking. He was visiting in OK and is making his way home. They discuss hummers, as she is still in red and attracting them. He says they have a lot in Seattle too and he is looking forward to cooler weather.
Greg comments on the beauty of the contrast of evergreens and blue sky and we try a few "Where the trees meet the sky" pictures from where we are at the bottom of the canyon. Pictures just can't capture it.
We do a cold dinner of tuna sandwiches, carrots and chips for dinner and as we finish the clouds have moved in and we get a bit of rain. The breeze feels good and moves the clouds on so the rain doesn't last long.
Beautiful 60 degree evening, nice breezes.
