So I've been gone from the place for a little under two weeks now. If anyone has been wondering what I have been up to, I've been in New Mexico most of the time (which is two days worth of driving from the Houston area) A friend of ours owns a cabin up in the Pecos forest so we get to go up there at a discount. I had a great time and took close to 500 pictures along the way.
We started out earlly on a Friday morning and drove up through Fort Worth, Witchita Falls, and Amarillo. On the second day we made it in to Santa Fe (That was on a Saturday). Downtown Santa Fe was really busy, that weekend was some little arts and crafts showing, so the Plaza was filled with tents and people selling their unique stuff.
I got a picture of a Bald Eagle down in the Plaza.
For the first few days we stayed in Santa Fe at a nice little adobe Casita. The second night we were there we had a totally awsome sunset. I took quite a few pictures of it.
This is where we were staying (note: all pictues are at least 1/4 original size)
And this is a really cool picture of some clouds at sunset.
The next morning we went down to the art area (Canyon Road) and visited a lot of places selling wonderfull paintings and sculptures. I took some pictures of the different sculptures and of some of the flowers growing there.
Here is a sunflower I took a picture of.
After we walked around for a few hours, we sat down for lunch at a nice little place called the Apple Hat Bistro. I had a buffalo burger there and got to rest for a bit.
Here's a picture of me after eating "pretending" to look like a dork.
After eating we drove out of town, up one of the mountains out there. It was only about a 30 minute drive, and the view was great. After living in triple digit heat for the past few weeks, going up to the 58 degree weather at 10,000 feet was great.
This is a shot of Santa Fe from the Mountain.
The next day we drove out to Pecos to spend a few nights at our friends cabin. It was right on the Pecos river, nestled between the mountains. There was a little forest fire while we were up there, but it was put out by a rain storm.
This is a shot of the Pecos river from the cabin.
On one of the days we were out there, we drove up to the end of the road and went hiking in the Pecos Forest. I took a 2 mile trail up to Hamilton Mesa and got some great shots of the surrounding mountains.
Mesa shot #1
Mesa shot #2
Mesa shot #3
These are some aspen along the trail leading down of Hamilton Mesa.
Here's a close up of a bee on a flower, it was in one of the meadows up in the Hamilton Mesa area.
That blue-ish blob is me coming down from one of the other trails out in the Pecos Forest
On our way down to the cabin, we ran into some road work. The Winter snows and Spring melts are always destroying the road, and all summer and fall there are road crews out there repairing the road (finishing just in time for the new snows)
This picture shows the rains blowing in over the mountain while we waited for the road crews to finish up. That bare hill is a state funded mine reclamation area. Apparently a small area had been strip mined up there (many years ago), and the state filled it in, shaped it, and covered it with mulch to keep the dirt from washing away while new plants start to take hold.
After all that fun, we headed back home this last Saturday. It was a two day drive back, with lots of stops at different Braum's for ice crea, lime-aid's, breakfast sandwiches, and hotdogs at lunch. I got back yesterday afternoon (Sunday) and have been unpacking ever since.
I wouldn't say I'm glad to be back to 98 degree weather with no rain, but it is nice to be back home (i.e. have internet access :p ).
