Travels with Dennis and Mike

Sunday, September 5, 2021

In response to the current surge in Corona virus cases resulting from the Delta variant, we decided to escape into the woods, the Lincoln National Forest to be specific. We felt that we would be safer cavorting with the woodland creatures than staying in town. On this trip we explored the community of High Rolls. It is about half way up the mountain from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft. Passing through it on the highway we were never very impressed. This time we left the highway and discovered magnificent canyons, fruit orchards and an amazing organic farm. It rained nearly every afternoon so we had the perfect excuse for a nap, as if one is needed in retirement. Every time that we return to the national forest there is more to discover. Here are some photos of what we saw this time.

Low chance of fire, high chance of friendship

Lincoln National Forest

Agaricomycetes Class of Fungi

Oyster Mushrooms

Brittlegill Mushrooms

Common Gilled Mushroom

Bracket Fungi

Moss, downed tree trunk and oak leaves

Common Gilled Mushrooms

Slippery Jack Mushroom

Rustgill Mushroom

Moss

Thistle

Wild Rose

Nodding Onion with their heads still held high

Mike in a meadow of late season wildflowers

An Afternoon Thunderstorm in the Lincoln National Forest

Drawn by Michael

A camper's work is never done.

Sleepy Orange Butterfly on a Pineywoods Geranium

Scarlet Skimmer Dragonflies

White-Lined Sphinx

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Campfire on the edge of the deep woods

A visit to an organic farm in High Rolls, New Mexico

Water Lilies in fish pond

Shubunkin Goldfish

Dennis picking fresh corn

Thistle

American Aster

Meadow Goat's Beard (Tragopogon pratensis)

Barberries

Mike out behind the woodpile

Yearling Mule Deer

Canyon Towhee

Bull Elk

Steller's Jay

Checkered White Butterfly

Plateau Lizard warming in the morning sun

Turkey Vultures warming on utility poles

The Sacramento Mountains

An abandoned ranch-house in a canyon near High Rolls, NM - with White Sands in the distance

Mike on the Bridal Veil Falls Trail.

There are several rails-to-trails routes in the area, and that is a decaying trestle on the right.

Tall grasses along the trail

Afternoon sky over the Sacramentos

Sunday, August 15, 2021

We often do short trips to Truth or Consequences, NM to soak in the hot springs there. It is also a nice town to walk about. It's trying very hard to be an artist colony, and although there are lots of things going on in the arts, it is still basically a village of desert rats: Perfect!

Dennis at the Riverbend Hot Springs Resort. There were some other people around and the pandemic is back. But most of the time we were wandering alone.

Driftwood sculpture: Horse and Wagon.

Mural of T or C painted on the back wall of an empty building - in the alley.

Sidewalk bench in front of an apartment.

And a motel around the corner

On a partly cloudy day.

Detail of a mural on Main St.

Old, rusted and rotting Mormon cart, at the Geronimo Museum.

Mike with Geronimo at the city park on Main St.

And with a Quail sculpture.

Main St. (Note the spider on the wall.)

Like many downtown businesses, the Giddy Up is only open 3 days a week - when tourists are in town.

Now this is important: Many of the sidewalks are marked as having been laid by the WPA in 1939. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a Depression era public works program, like the CCC.

Wall art is scattered around town.

A BIG sunflower and bumblebee.

And they even have Hummingbirds.

Friday, August 6, 2021

I took a walk on a summer morning in early August. Dennis was being responsible, doing yard work at home. I was in the mood to ramble in the desert. New Mexico has had a rainy July this year. The hillside behind our house was unseasonably green. It was alive with plants and animals. Here are some photos of what I saw.

The very green hillside behind our house