Day 3 / Spring Vacation

We awoke to clear skies, dry high desert air, temperature 30 degrees, in Van Horn, Texas on Monday morning, and on mountain time which is one hour earlier.  We skipped our planned, and paid for, campsite at Monahans Sandhills State Park last night, continuing on to Van Horn, and were thankful that we made that decision.

Now we are only an hours drive away from Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  We enjoyed the drive north in gorgeous sunshine and blue skies with high wispy clouds, passing by a historic ranch...

The closer we got to the Park, we could see low-hanging clouds...

However, the low clouds did not obscure our first glimpse of El Capitan Peak, a rugged rocky mountain jutting into the blue sky!

As we switch backed higher and higher we became enveloped in the cloud before we arrived at the park's Pine Springs entrance.  The temperature also dropped to 26 degrees.

  Dedicated in 1972, the park contains 86,416 acres with elevations ranging from 3,650 to 8,749 feet at the summit of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.  The park has four of the state's highest peaks, deep canyons, and a rare mixture of plant and animal life.  Access to the park's rugged interior is by hiking and backpack camping along 80 miles of marked trails.

We opted to tent camp at the Pine Springs campground near the park headquarters on U.S Hwy. 62/180.

 We chose site # 18 (out of more that 20 tent sites available on a first come-first served basis)...

 ...this wild yellow-flowered cactus bush was growing at our campsite.

It is still a little foggy as we set up our tent, but the sun would soon burn off the low-hanging clouds.  We decided to go for a hike into McKittrick Canyon.

 We drove there and parked at the Visitor Center (which was closed) trailhead.

 The trail was very well defined .....

...and the weather is perfect for a hike!

Remnants of a rock slab table...

I began taking photos of the different kinds of cactus.

Like the fossils, the Texas madrone is a remnant of another era, with its smooth rose-colored bark, deep green leaves, and round red berries.  Instead of the bark stretching as it grows, it splits and sheds, the tattered strips a food source for mule deer. 

 All along the path we side stepped the many deer droppings!

We crisscrossed this creek several times but it was mostly dry except for this crossing.

 A lot of work on the trail to guide hikers to stay on the path.

 We have made it the 2.3 miles from the trailhead to the entrance to the Pratt Cabin.

 By 1921 Wallace Pratt had traveled the world in search of oil, but when he laid eyes on McKittrick Canyon for the first time in May of that year, he knew what he had to do.  By 1929 the Pratt family owned a 16,000-acre spread which encompassed much of this canyon.  In 1930 Pratt built his stone cabin at the confluence of North and South McKittrick Canyon.

 Outbuilding/barn behind the main cabin...

 What an incredible view behind the cabin...

 ...and the view from the front porch...pretty spectacular!

 Smooth, thin layered sedimentary rock found along the front of the mountain range provided material not only for the walls but also the roof!  The 1930's were a lean time, and local cowboys who were out of work provided the labor, with ropes wrapped on the horns of their saddles, they pulled the rock slabs up wooden planks and put them into place.

Pratt and his wife, Iris, lived in the cabin off and on until their retirement in 1945.  A flood which trapped them in the cabin for days, cutting them off from medical care and supplies convinced them of the need to build a house elsewhere on the ranch.  Until 1957 the cabin was used as a weekend retreat.  It was in that year that the Pratt family made a gift of 5,632 acres of the ranch to the U.S Government for the beginnings of this national park.

For today, Tom and I enjoyed the solitude and beauty surrounding the cabin deep in the canyon on the bank of the creek, as we sat on the porch and ate a snack and drank from our water bottles.

We had not seen anyone on our hike into the canyon, but on our way back a young man carrying photographic equipment and walking a lot faster than us passed us on the trail with a quick "hello".

We enjoyed the walk back out of the canyon.  BooBoo was having the time of her life!

 BooBoo spotted a small stone bench that fit her perfectly!

 The area has thousands of sotol cactus, a member of the agave family.  Their tall spikes make good walking sticks.  Tom picked one of these walking sticks up at the trailhead and used it for today's hike. 

 So many varieties of cactus plants growing in the canyon!

BooBoo couldn't resist swinging from a stob on a Texas madrone tree!

 

I have seen photos in Texas Highways Magazine of McKittrick Canyon in the Fall when the many maple trees are ablaze with color.  Awesome!  However, we enjoyed it today just as it was.

Day 3 to be continued......

Our Spring Vacation! Day 1 & 2

Tom and I have been looking forward to this vacation for quite some time.  We assumed that by March 1st the weather would be nice.  Wrong!
When Tom got off work on Saturday, Feb. 28, we began our drive westward around 5:00 p.m.  We had a hotel reservation at a La Quinta Hotel in Abilene for the night, assuming we could be there in approximately 3+ hours, thereby getting a jump on our drive west toward Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

Thankfully Tom opted to drive first and when we left our house the roads were dry but by the time we were near Dallas all that changed.  We began to encounter icy patches on the bridges, overpasses, and any other elevated surfaces, traffic that was moving faster that the conditions warranted, and seeing the results of that all along the way in the form of many cars, pickups, and 18-wheelers that had skidded off the roadway (some over-turned) into the median and ditches lining I-20!  Sobering!  Very stressful, anxious driving conditions.  We could see that only the heavily traveled lanes of I-20 had clear tracks where traffic had kept clear, but a change of lanes required bumping up and over the frozen slush and the exit ramps and service roads were even worse, covered with much more ice and snow!

As stressful and nerve racking as it was in the daylight hours, as darkness fell it became even more hazardous driving!  Just as we neared the U.S. Hwy. 180 Weatherford exit there was another wrecked 18-wheeler blocking part of the roadway so we gently exited off the interstate hoping to find a hotel in Weatherford for the night and hope for better conditions in the morning.

Oh my goodness, there was so much snow and ice covering the secondary roadways Tom was driving cautiously, creeping along on U.S. Hwy. 180 west and when we saw a McDonalds up ahead he pulled in for a potty break, switch drivers, and check on the nearest hotels.  The doors were locked!  Only the drive-thru was opened!  Not enough workers showed up to open the dining room at McDonalds because of the treacherous driving conditions!

We then slowly (with me driving) made our way across the icy road to a WalMart which also had a Subway inside where Tom had a sandwich and we relaxed for a few minutes.  We inquired about hotels and the young gal working the counter at Subway assured us that only a couple of miles up the highway was several hotels to choose from.  Yippee!   She pointed toward U.S. Hwy. 180 when she said this, so we headed toward downtown Weatherford on U.S. Hwy 180 and made our way to the courthouse square in downtown and had only passed one hotel, a small America's Best Value Inn.  By this time we realized the gal at Subway must have meant a couple of more miles on I-20, not U.S. Hwy. 180!  We were exhausted.  Not going back to I-20.  We circled the downtown square and headed back to the one hotel we had passed, the America's Best Value Inn.  Their driveway and parking lot was still ice covered but we carefully made our way into the icy parking spot in front of our room for the night, so glad to be there, out of the car, off the treacherous roads for the night.  It sure wasn't the La Quinta in Abilene that we had planned for tonight, but we were warm and dry and thankful to be safely off the highway.

There was lots of snow and ice on the roof of the hotel and by the following morning it had began a gradual slide off the roof line.  Right onto the vehicles parked there!  We heard a crash outside and when we looked out we saw that a large slab of ice and snow had slid off the roof onto our little red car and had knocked the front license plate off!

 Tom immediately went out and dug our license plate out of the snow and slid it back into its "now chipped" holder.  There is still more icy slabs on the roof slowly sliding down.

This pickup that was parked next to us had a slab of ice impaled on its hood!

Sunday morning we faced a frozen landscape...

 ...but the driving lanes on I-20 seemed to be dry in most places, still some icy patches on bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces....

 ...along side I-20 is still completely covered in icy snow!

We made it to Big Springs and exited off at a McDonalds for a breakfast sandwich and more coffee for me.  Across the roadway we saw a huge Campbell's soup can!

As we made our up the onramp to I-20 I snapped these photos of the large evergreen trees....flocked in snow and ice!

When we reached Odessa, we stopped at the Odessa Meteor Crater Museum.  The earliest known discovery of the crater was made in 1892 by Julius Henderson, a nearby rancher.  For many years it was believed to be a "blow-out hole", caused by gas trapped below the surface erupting due to pressure.  By the 1920's, following scientific excavations, the depression was recognized as a meteor crater, formed 63,000 years ago!  The Odessa Crater, and four smaller craters, were formed when a great shower of nickel-iron meteorites collided with the earth. When freshly formed, the craters were funnel-shaped depressions, the largest about 550 feet in diameter and 100 feet deep.  In the ages following their formation, the craters gradually accumulated sediments deposited by wind and water so that now the main crater is filled within six feet of the level of the surrounding plain.   www.odessameteorcrater.com

 A 165-foot shaft was sunk in the center of the main crater primarily to locate the main mass of the meteorite, which was believed still buried.  However, the shaft revealed that there was no buried mass.  It is now known that the main mass, of an estimated 350 tons, which formed the main crater, was traveling at such a high rate of speed that it exploded and vaporized upon contact with the earth.  Therefore, the main crater is an "explosion crater".  Many tons of meteorite fragments were scattered over the surrounding plain, the largest ever found weighing 300 pounds!

 Fascinating stuff.  The crater is now only this slight depression, barely noticeable from the surrounding plain, where oil wells pump in the distance.

  
Following our sightseeing stop at the Odessa Meteor Crater, we welcomed the sight of the sun gradually burning off some of the cloud cover and the further west we went, the better the road conditions were.

We had a campsite reservation at Monahans Sandhills State Park for tonight, planning to sleep in our tent.  As the day progresses, even though the sun has come out, the temperature is still quite chilly, with a low temperature in the 20's predicted for tonight.

We decided to just keep driving.  Right past the exit for Monahans Sandhills State Park.  The roads are clear.  The Guadalupe Mountains are calling to us.  We make it all the way to Van Horn on Sunday evening, stopping at a Budget Inn hotel for the night.

We enjoyed great Mexican food for dinner at the famous Chuy's  Restaurant---"All Madden Haul of Fame"-a shrine to sports!  John Madden, former colorful television football broadcaster, designated the Chuy's Restaurant in Van Horn as his "Haul of Fame". 

 

While we were waiting for our dinner to be served, we could not resist going outdoors with our camera to capture the awesome setting sun!

What a cool way to end our long day of driving.

Tomorrow morning we head north to Guadalupe Mountains National Park!

Winter Drags On...

Winter drags on and so do I.  What is going on?  I can't remember having snow or ice lingering on after six days, ever!  Come on sunshine, where are you?  We are used to going all Winter some years without having any snow.  And when we do get snow or ice it usually warms up after a couple of days and it all melts and goes away.  That is but one of the many things I love about Texas!

If you'll remember, it was six days ago when I first posted photos of the sleet we got on Monday.  Then we got more snow/sleet on Wednesday.  Now here it is Saturday and we still have remnants of snow/ice in places!  It's been too cold for it all to melt!

There is even a thin sheet of ice on our little shallow pond!  Crazy!

This snowman looks forlorn....the ground and driveway is clear but it is too cold for the snowman to melt!

I call this one "hiker snowman"!  It's head is gone but its visor and bandana are still there AND it still has its hiking poles!  Poor thing!

On these cold winter days I spend a lot of time reading or working on a jigsaw puzzle.  It passes the time away.

When I arrived at work yesterday morning and got out of my car I captured this incredible sunrise!

I'm sure by now you are tired of listening to me go on and on about how much I dislike the cold and wet Winter weather we have had this week.  I have much to be thankful for...at least we don't live in Boston...or anywhere else up north.

 

I was rummaging around in one of our desk drawers and came across this old bumper sticker...

Reminder to myself....Stop your whining!  Spring is just around the corner!

By the way, this extraordinary quilt of the United States of America was made by hand, by Tom's grandmother.  What a gifted woman she was!