Junior Rangers

We had some visitors in town for our days off and of course we just had to take them to the caverns. We saw lots of rangers there on their days off, Noelle and I amongst them. J.T. and Alaric brought the blue "caving helmets" that Noelle had bought them for their birthdays. We stopped for a quick photo at the sign outside the visitor center,

picked up some tickets, and then headed down the trail to the natural entrance.

After our orientation from Ranger Foz we were on our way headed down into the dark abyss.

The boys were both really excited, Alaric more excited about pretending to be a race car than the cavern itself.  

We headed down, down, down past Bat Cave and through the Twilight Zone. We passed Devil's Spring and the Whale's Mouth, went through the Devil's Den and were soon at the Witches Fingers. I think J.T. was impressed by the tall, skinny stalagmites.

We took a photo there and then headed deeper into the cave, past Iceberg Rock and down to the Big Room.

The boys were hungry at this point and so we headed up the elevator to get some snacks out of the car. We ate in some shade outside the visitor center. Then J.T. and Alaric filled out their junior Ranger books. Alaric didn't care to receive his badge but J.T. was excited to get his badge and take the pledge with Ranger Ellen.

With full bellies and a shiny new badge we headed back down the elevator to the Big Room. We walked around the Big Room and gawked at the Bottomless Pit and Jumping Off Place before heading back to the surface and to check out the touch table.

We then headed out to the rental car. The tired junior rangers fell asleep in the car on the drive back to Carlsbad.

Anticipation

On Monday night, Noelle and I, with some help of a few friends at work, hosted a "baby celebration" to get ready for the birth of our baby girl who is due in September. Everyone who attended was very generous, but the best part of the celebration was seeing how everyone showed up to spend time with us and celebrate the excitement with us.

We are both getting so excited to meet our little girl. It makes me wonder: What does she look like? What will her personality be like? What will she be interested in? What will she fear? A few months back when we met my parents up in Albuquerque, my mom just happened to bring along some artwork that I had made as a child. In a few years, I wonder what kind of art work my little girl will be making?

Lincoln County, NM Ghost Town Tour

After hiking up and down Gallinas Peak, I still had a lot of day to get back to Carlsbad. Last night while perusing my atlas I noticed one of the towns I saw a sign for on my drive (Ancho) is a ghost town.  Well, I got myself this idea to drive into Ancho and then follow Forest Road 72 over to another ghost town White Oaks. And so after heading out of Cibola National Forest past a few more mines I headed to Ancho.
Ancho was an interesting little town. There was a scattering of old buildings: old adobes mouldering back to the earth,

an old train station,

and an old school that has recently been converted to a church.

I'm not sure if anyone lives in Ancho anymore, but it looks like there might be one or two residents still hanging on. More information on Ancho can be found here.

From Ancho I headed into Lincoln National Forest on FR72. To my surprise I found an unexpected ghost town. There were a few buildings left including two homes,

some sort of brick structure,

a false-front store,

and a bit further down the road was an old school house.

From my atlas I guessed (correctly it turns out) that this was the town of Jicarilla. More information on Jicarilla can be found here.

Finally, I moved on to my final ghost town stop: White Oaks.

White Oaks is an interesting old mining town. They mined a lot of gold out of the hills surrounding the town. White Oaks is a bit of a disappointment though in that it is hard to navigate and figure out what is private and what is open to the public. Still, some of the old mansions are impressive, as is the old schoolhouse.

More information on White Oaks can be found here.

Cibola National Forest: Gallinas Peak

Yesterday, after hiking to Carrizo Peak and back, I headed north towards Corona and the Gallinas Mountains portion of Cibola National Forest. I found the Red Cloud Campground to my liking. It was quiet, clean, and I had it all to myself. After cooking dinner I decided to go explore the area a little bit. I had read that there are some mines in the area and so I went to see if I could find some of them. It didn't take long for me to find a mine. I walked a bit down the forest road and soon found an unmarked side road. I was intrigued and so took the road. Sure enough, it lead to a mine. This mine had a deep pit shaft

and there were a few remains of the mining era scattered around.

After exploring for a bit I headed back to the campground to get some rest and prepare myself for today's hike up Gallinas Peak.

I awoke early this morning and cooked myself some oatmeal for breakfast. I then packed up camp and hit the road for Gallinas Peak. I headed up FR99 and parked near the road's junction with road that goes to the summit. I decided that even though the Subaru could make it to the top, I would rather hike.

It would turn out to be an easy 4 mile round-trip walk.

The hike went fast and before I knew it I was on the summit.

There were lots of towers up there, including an old fire lookout tower.

Unfortunately, the tower is closed and it is trespassing to even climb the stairs. Without being able to climb to the tower there wasn't much of a view from the peak. Amongst the structures on top are the fire warden's cabin

and an old shed of some type.

After a little while on the summit I started back down the road. The walk down went even faster than the hike up and soon I was back at my car.

Lincoln National Forest: Carrizo Peak

Early this morning I hit the road headed northwest through Roswell and into the Smokey Bear District of Lincoln National Forest for a hike of Carrizo Peak. I made it to the turn off for County Road A010, otherwise known as the Bar-O-Bar Ranch Road by 10 am. I passed the impressive ranch grounds and soon was into the National Forest. The road got considerably rougher as I crossed the forest boundary. Soon, I decided I could take the Subaru no further and so I parked at a grassy, pleasant campsite and continued on foot.

It wasn't much further on the road before I came to the trailhead for the Johnnie Canyon Trail.

I turned left and soon found myself in a maze of gullies and use trails. I was bit worried I might not be following the true path, but eventually the trail got more defined and headed into thicker woods. The trail definitely does not get much use. I would guess that, judging from the copious piles of bear scat, the trail gets more ursine use than human.

There were some flowers along the side of the trail and in one bunch flowers there were lots of reddish insects.

I'm not sure what they are, a fly or a bee of some type?

Soon I came to a small meadow and rock cairn. I guessed that this was the trail junction where I would leave the trail I'd been following for a while and take the Carrizo Peak Trail. There was no sign to mark the junction, but my instincts turned out to be right. The trail started to climb steeply and there were lots of downed trees across the trail. The going was pretty slow. I approached a meadow and followed the meadow up to the summit ridge. On the ridge I tagged the first of the two summits. This one was marked with a cairn inside which a summit register was hidden. I signed the register and posed for a photo and then went off to the second summit.

The second summit seems to me to be a bit lower than the first one I tagged. It, however, is marked with an official wooden sign.

I snapped a photo of it and then headed down to some shade to rest and eat a snack.

After about 45 minutes it was time to head down. The hike down went fast and before I knew it I was back to the car.

Lincoln National Forest: Sitting Bull Falls Cave

Surprisingly, I was able to get a permit for Sitting Bull Falls today, the day of our trip. Noelle, Robby and I headed into the national forest after lunch. We arrived at the parking lot and headed over to the falls.

It was the first time Noelle and I had been there in years. From near the base of the falls we walked through some shallow, flowing water to the base of the falls and a wall of travertine.

Then we started to make our way up the cliff wall.

There were some old steps that had been carved into the rock. Still, it was quite slippery.

We slowly made our way up the cliff to the cave and headed inside.

Water covered the entire floor.

In some places it was quite deep. We walked around the entire cave with some impressive formations and even some cave pearls.

After a while Robby and I decided to head into one of the deep areas.

The water was cold!

Then we carefully headed down out of the cavern.

We got back to the car and drove back into Carlsbad. Then we headed to Kaliedoscoops for some ice cream!