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Winter Trip - January-April 2017
Road Trip

Road Trip Itinerary
  Texas Visitor Center
  Gen. George S. Patton Museum: California-Arizona Maneuver Area Memorial
  Joshua Tree National Park
  Death Valley National Park
  Nevada
    Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
    Valley Of Fire
  Arches National Park
  Canyonlands National Park
  Albuquerque, NM
  White Sands National Monument
  Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo

Texas Visitor Center
We left Florida and started west on I-10. After passing through Alabama and Mississippi we spent the first night in Covington, LA. The next morning we drove into Texas, at exit 880 is the Texas Visitor Center. Exit 880 is correct there is more that 881 miles of I-10 in Texas. On a previous trip along I-10 we stopped at the visitor center, since there is a boardwalk that goes through a wetland area we stopped there again on this trip. Going out on the boardwalk we saw a few soft-shell turtles. Reaching the end of the boardwalk we started back thinking that even though we did not see much it is a nice break from sitting in the car for a long distance.
Then Ernie saw a snake swimming in the water on the right side of the boardwalk, he called to Dale as the snake passed under the boardwalk. It came out the other side. From the pictures we saw on one of the signs we determined it was a diamondback water snake. When it was swimming in open water it moved really fast. Upon reaching a grassy area it would stop and look around before quickly darting across the next open water.
A little further along we both spotted an alligator simultaneously. It was swimming rather quickly, but then stopped in a area near the visitor center building. We were able to point it out to some others. One oriental man asked Ernie if it could jump up onto the boardwalk, which is a good 6 feet above the water. He said to Ernie "Don't they jump up for food?" Ernie told him that is just in the movies, Dale later thought maybe he had been at a place where they feed alligators holding a stick, with food on the end, out over the gators and they stretch there bodies up to get the food. (Pictures)

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Gen. George S. Patton Museum: California-Arizona Maneuver Area Memorial
After a couple more nights on the road we spent a night in Blythe, CA near Joshua Tree National Park. We spoke with Ernie's sister Joanne, who asked if we were going to visit the memorial to the people who tested equipment and trained for fighting in the desert during WWII. Ernie's dad was amongst the first soldiers sent to the "California-Arizona Maneuver Area" to test equipment. Our dad did this testing in the desert near Needles, CA. We went on line and found out that the memorial is at the Gen. George S. Patton Museum and the museum was one exit off I-10 before where we were to get off to go to Joshua Tree National Park. We went to the museum and saw the memorial then continued onto Joshua Tree National Park.

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Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park is an area where two deserts meet, the Colorado Desert which is a low desert and the Mojave Desert which is a high desert. We drove through Joshua Tree National Park stopping at turnouts along the way. Most of the turnouts did not have a name nor signs saying what we were looking at, but some of them did. The first place we stopped was Bajada Trail which had many signs describing what was there. There were some roads we would have liked to explore, but decided it was wiser not to since signs indicated it was best to do so in high clearance vehicles which we do not have. Other stops of particular interest were:
More than 25 years ago Ernie had visited Joshua Tree National Park and saw a lot of people climbing on the rocks. They had equipment they would use to climb sheer cliffs on mountains. One of Ernie's co-workers was a serious rock climber, when Ernie returned to work he mentioned that he saw these people using this equipment climbing relatively short rocks. When the co-worker heard Ernie had gone to Joshua Tree National Park, he told Ernie he really wants to go there to rock-climb. Though the rocks are not really high, there are angles to the rocks that you would not find else where to practice on. We saw a few people rock-climbing on this trip, when we talked to a ranger about it he said that people use to practice there in the winter, now it is actually a favorite destination for world class rock-climbers.
On the way to the motel we saw a beautiful sunset. (Pictures)

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Death Valley National Park
On our way to Death Valley National Park we went through Trona, CA. Trona's main industry is mineral processing. As we went through we saw these areas that looked as if they were covered with snow, we assumed it was some minerals. When we were going through Death Valley we stopped at an old Borax mining company and realized most of the white substance is borax.
As we approached Death Valley we saw a sandstorm off to the right up ahead. As we neared the sandstorm we realized it was apparent the storm was going across the road. We drove through about 10 miles of sandstorm, sometimes it was like driving in a heavy mist. During the worst we could see 3 lines on the road as we passed the first of these the next line would start to come into view. Later going through Death Valley we experienced more blowing sand, including one section where we could only see one line on the road and then just brown. When we entered the 0% visibility Ernie said "I can't see anything.", a few seconds after saying this we had passed through the 0% visibility and a couple of minutes later the air was clear. Luckily Ernie had stayed in our lane on the road.
We stopped at "Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes". This area reminded Ernie of when he was in the desert in Cairo Egypt, but it did have some scattered vegetation where the desert near the Pyramids has no vegetation. We got out and walked a little ways out into the dunes. It was really enjoyable to be there, even though Ernie had shorts on and the wind-blown sand was like a sand blaster on his legs.
Our next stop was "Harmony Borax Works Interpretive Trail". This was a really interesting stop with information about the mining of borax in the area.
After driving a way enjoying the scenery we came to "Furnace Creek Ranch". There is a place to eat here so we went in and did not see anything we wanted, so we decided to eat the sandwiches Dale had made. The wind was so hard we did not want to find a picnic area at which to eat, so we sat in the car in the parking lot. There were gusts of wind so strong that they would shake the car. There were palm trees near where we were parked that were wildly swaying the whole time and bending way over when the gusts came up. It was after leaving here we experienced the worst of the sandstorms.
Our last major stop was at "Zabriskie Point". The sign at the beginning of the road to the point said it was 13 miles one way. We decided that 26 miles roundtrip was not too much. The grade of the road was increasing as we drove, then we came to a sign that said the last ¼ mile is a 15% grade. Going up was not bad, but coming down Ernie put the car in low gear and tapped the brake as we neared the hairpin curves. There were several hairpin turns, because if the road went straight down it would have been a free fall. By putting all the curves in we drove back and forth across the slope of the mountain, switchback, instead of straight down it. The view from the top was amazing, but it was so windy we could only stay up there for 5 or so minutes. If we are ever in the area again on a less windy day, we will return so we can enjoy the view for as long as we want. The point is named for Christian Brevoort Zabriskie who was vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company in the early 20th century. He was the main influence in having Death Valley named a National Monument which it was before becoming a National Park.
At one point we were 100 feet below sea level, the furthest below sea level we had previously been was 18 feet during a helmet dive in St Thomas USVI. (Pictures)

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Nevada
We decided to stay in one place for a while to rest up. We stayed in Nevada, just relaxing for a few days and visiting a couple of smaller parks on other days. We just spent a few hours at each park. We were really impressed by the many different features at each park. We were near Las Vegas, but neither of us has any interest in going to "The Strip", so we stayed far away from it.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area:   We drove through Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area enjoying the scenery and taking pictures as we drove through. We did stop at some turnouts to take pictures. We started walking along one trail that people there said led to a waterfall, the trail became steep with large rocks that we had to get over. We decided this did not go along with us wanting to take it easy and turned back before reaching the waterfall. The scenery in the park is very beautiful. (Pictures)

Valley Of Fire:   At Valley of Fire, which is a Nevada state park, we again rode around enjoying the scenery stopping at some of the turnouts. We asked if the name was because of the red rocks or because of the heat. We were told, "Both". We watched what we thought was a desert rat, but may have been a ground squirrel digging a tunnel. We had fun along with other people trying to determine what some of the rock formations look like. We took a trail to Elephant Rock that was the long way around and moderately difficult, there was a shorter much easier trail and the rock is right next to the road. We had to stretch our imagination to see the elephant. (Pictures)

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Arches National Park
After our rest in Nevada we went to Moab, UT. Arches National Park is about 8 miles from where we were staying. The most famous feature of the park is the arches, but be both were even more impressed with the awe inspiring rock formations and breath-taking scenery. We went to view most of the arches. We stopped at all the turnouts and went down the paths that we did not consider overly long.
When we stopped at the trail to the "Double Arch", there was also a sign for the "Parade of Elephants". Neither sign had a picture so we did not know what to expect. As we walked along the trail we saw a rock formation that with good imagination looked like when circus elephants sit back to back in a circle. Though we did not know why it was considered a parade, we thought this might be the formation mentioned on the sign. After reaching the end of the trail to the "Double Arch" we started heading back, then we saw three rock formations in a row each of which looks like an elephant, obviously the correct formation.
There are a lot of named formations, some of which, no matter how we stretched our imagination, we couldn't see why they were so named. There were many formations without names that we thought were impressive, we gave names to some of these.
There is a formation named "The Balanced Rock", but there are many balanced rocks.
This was the best day at a park so far on this trip. (Pictures)

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Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park is about 25 miles from Arches, so about 33 miles from where we were staying in Moab. The scenery driving through Canyonlands is not as impressive as some other parks we have visited, but when we stopped at the overviews we were completely awed by the views.
We met several really nice people at Canyonlands. One young lady (Carol) & her Dad (Ralph) we had seen at Arches. At Arches she was wearing a shirt with a scripture passage and information about a ministry. Ernie noticed the shirt and pointed it out to Dale, later Dale asked Carol about it. The next day at Canyonlands Carol came over to us saying she really liked what was on Ernie's hat, "GOD is in control/Revelation 19:6". We had a very nice conversation with Carol about the organization on her shirt the day before and some mission trips she had been on. At the overview that was the longest hike away, we met 3 young men, we did not exchange names with them. One had graduated from college a couple of years ago and was now a youth consular for college age youths at the church he attends. He had brought two Washington State University students on a spring break tour. We had a nice conversation with them about mission trips they had been on. (Pictures)

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Albuquerque, NM
Four Corners Monument: We decided to spend a couple of days in Albuquerque, NM. On our way to Albuquerque we stopped at the Four Corners Monument, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. It is the only place in the USA where four states touch each other. There is not much here, it consists of a plate marking the spot where the states meet and four pie shapes representing the states. Around this area are booths where American Indians sell jewelry and other artifacts they make, Dale found something for herself and the person covering for her on her job at the church. At the edge of each pie shape is a marker with information about that state. There was a description of the site that Dale really liked on one of the markers:
Today, the Four Corners Monument marks the point where the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, and the States of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet in peace.
Of course we had our pictures taken standing on the monumental plate. Standing together we could not each stand in all four states at the same time so we also each had an individual picture taken standing in all four states. (Pictures)
Shiprock, NM: Shortly after leaving Four Corners Monument we saw a huge rock formation standing out by itself. We drove a very long ways viewing this formation then came to Shiprock, NM, where we stopped for lunch. Ernie asked a couple of young men if the town was named for the large rock formation, they said yes. We did not think the rock formation looked much like a ship. What do you think?
Upon arriving in Albuquerque we exited I-40 about ½ mile from the motel, it took us over ½ hour to get to the motel. It was rush hour and there was a lot of construction. We could see the traffic light where we were to turn from where we were sitting in traffic, but it cycled through at least 7 times before we were able to reach the corner. Dale likes to go to Old Town when we are in Albuquerque, so Ernie reserved a room a short walk from Old Town. That evening we walked to some restaurants to discover that other than Friday and Saturday they close at 8:00 PM, on Friday and Saturday they are open until 9:00 PM. We ended up eating at a McDonalds that was close to the motel.
Old Town is in the western end of the city, in the morning we drove to the eastern end of the city which is about 12 miles. The intersection of Indian School Road and Tramway Blvd is a busy intersection. On one corner is a Walgreens, across Tramway from there is a storage facility, and across Indian School from there is a small water park. On the other corner about 200 feet from the intersection is a CVS & strip mall. Between Tramway and the CVS there is a walk/bike path and a pairie dog village. Whenever we are in Albuquerque we come here to enjoy watching the pairie dogs. We also walked along the path for about ½ mile then retraced our steps. (Pictures)
That afternoon we spent a few hours in Old Town. The next morning we set out towards our next destination. Going through Belen, NM on I-25 we saw a very large group of hot air baloons lifting-off and floating through the air. (Pictures)

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White Sands National Monument
We spent a few hours at White Sands National Monument. The feature for which the monument is named is hundreds of square miles of white dunes, which look like drifted snow. The dunes consist of gypsum sand. Showing how life can exit most anywhere, there are several types of vegetation growing amongst the dunes plus some rodents, lizards, and snakes living there.
The road out into the dunes from the visitor center is paved about 1⁄3 of its distance. Along the paved section is a boardwalk that goes out into the dunes. Walking along the boardwalk we read the signs describing plant and animal life in the dunes. We did not see any animal life during our visit. We continued along the road, beyond where it is paved it becomes a real washboard. It was difficult finding a place to drive that we did not feel as if parts would be loosening up on the car. A short ways on the unpaved section brought us to a turnout where we were able to remove our shoes and walk out amongst the dunes. It was like walking on the smoothest beach we could imagine, it would be nice if actual beaches had sand as smooth. When we finished walking the dunes, we figured there was about 3 more miles of the washboard road to the end where there is a 5 mile loop trail through the dunes. We did not think we wanted to drive the washboard that far and then have to return on it, nor did we have time to walk the trail. Because of this and the fact that what we would be looking at was just more dunes, we decided to turn back and visit the visitor center. (Pictures)

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Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo
Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo is the place on this trip that we had the most fun. There were a lot of animals to see and they were really active, especially the first few hours we were there. The first animals we saw were Artic Silver Cross Foxes, Dingos, and Artic Wolves. Then we came to the birds and the fun really began. All the birds, except the Barred Owl & Black Vulture, were very active and we had a great time interacting with them. Someone had a phone on which music was playing and one of the birds was dancing to the music. Many of the birds talked and were jabbering away.
There is a walk-about where you are in the enclosure with kangaroos and emus. The kangaroos will let you pet them. We also tried petting the emus, they would let us get close but as soon as we put a hand on their back they would move away. We saw two mother kangaroos each with a joey in her pouch. The joeys were head first in the pouch with their hind legs and tail sticking out. As we watched one joey stretched its' legs out straight, climbed out of the pouch, nursed for a while, then climbed back into the pouch.
We went to a wild life encounter. It was not very much, one bird and two pythons. Ernie got to put the larger of the pythons across his shoulders and Dale touched it while he was holding it.
There was a sheep dog demonstration. There is a dog that is trained for rounding up the sheep that performs. There is another dog that was running around trying to imitate the sheep dog. The shepherd has given up trying to keep the other dog out. One sheep's mother died and it was bottle-fed and raised in the home with dogs, so it is not afraid of the sheep dog and just wanders on its' own when the others are herded. An interesting thing we learned: sheep like many animals gather together for protection in numbers, but unlike other animals who put the young and weak in the center to protect them, the strongest sheep push their way to the center leaving the weakest and young sheep prey to the predator.
There were many other animals including a White Bison, which is actually light tan.
This is also home to the Mammoth Onyx Cave, which we toured. It is not a large cave, but it is very interesting. (Pictures)



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Last updated:   may 20 2017