Pippin Tales: April 21, 2024

Alan and I got home to 4 Fords a week ago, and found the place in perfect order and as beautiful as ever. Unfortunately, he immediately left again for Denver to do some repairs on his mother’s house (a tree fell on it and took the power out). So the pups and I are alone, enjoying the gradual arrival of spring. Like pretty much everywhere, it’s been quite windy and dusty. There’s still a bit of snow on the hillside, but the temp hit 70 degrees today. I’m beginning to plant the garden; onions and peas are in the ground. I missed not growing anything last year, and, while it won’t be huge, I’m hoping to grow enough to put some things in the freezer for winter.

In the end, we were on the road in Pippin for over 7 weeks, starting in Durango, then traveling south into Arizona and southern New Mexico. We discovered many new places and revisited a few old favorites. We continue to be astonished by the diversity and beauty of our new state (and southern Arizona, too).

One of the highlights were the Chiricahua Mountains in southern Arizona, just past the New Mexico state line, near the village of Portal.

Other highlights were the cool rockhound areas we found. The Black Hills Rockhound Recreation Area was a large forbidding tract of desert landscape of…..rocks. Not a tree or shrub in site. A number of serious rockhounds were camped in the area. We met a young man, 12 years old, decked out in his rock hunting outfit: a canvas bag, gallon of water on a string over his shoulder, (for washing any finds), a floppy hat, big leather boots and oversized flannel shirt. He was enthusiastic and came to our camp to tell us all about jasper and creek diamonds.

There was also Rockhound State Park, a park just north of the border dedicated to…rocks, lots of rocks.

The above photo was a blast from the past. In 7th grade (maybe 6th?, I wrote a short essay about Lottie Deno after my father told me about her one night while the family watched Gunsmoke. We never missed an episode, and he had quite the crush on Miss Kitty! I liked the story about Lottie’s name, so looked her up (in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, no less.) I hadn’t thought of her since, until we came across this marker at a rest stop near Deming.

Speaking of historical stuff, we also passed the infamous McComas Incident Historical Marker south of Silver City. Alan, his dad, and his brother visited this site many years ago to unearth some family history. The McComas family was apparently the last white persons to be murdered by Apaches. I’d love to know more of THAT backstory. Chatto was a bit of a renegade among Apaches, so who knows what he was up to.

We spent over 3 weeks total near Silver City, a town and area we love and were excited to explore more. We had a reservation at The City of Rocks State Park, a truly unique place, by the way, but when we got there we were unable to fit Pippin into the site. Instead, we drove a few miles away and found the best dispersed campsite ever: miles of running room for dogs and a hot springs only 5 minutes away! What more could you want?

After 2 weeks of that, we drove south to Cave Creek Basin in the Chiricahuas, which was an amazing discovery of southwestern riparian climate, 10,000′ peaks, more amazing rock formations, and the best restaurant we’ve seen in ages: The Portal Café. We left after a week, when it snowed 6″ and got very cold.

We then returned to our familiar campsite near Silver City. The cold, windy, snowy weather made hiking in the mountains nearly impossible, but soaking at Faywood Hot Springs a pleasure! From there, we began the trip home, feeling both excited to get back and reluctant to leave the nomad life.

Before getting home, which took 10 days, we made a number of important stops:

• White Sands National Park near Alamagordo, NM;
• the International UFO Museum in Roswell, NM;
• Valley of Fires State Park near Carrizozo, NM; and finally,
• Villanueva State Park, where we camped along the Pecos River in a stunning narrow canyon.

While all were wonderful (ok, I coulda skipped Roswell), White Sands truly blew us away and we stayed several extra days to do more hiking among the dunes. Alamagordo isn’t much to write home about, but the nearby little town of Cloudcroft, at 9,000′ in the mountains, is fun, and has endless hiking trails.

From White Sands, we wandered north, landing for a quick night at Valley of Fires State Park, a vastness of sharp, crunchy lava rocks, filled with lava tubes and little caves. It was eerie.

Alan finally got his chance to see the UFO museum in Roswell. Sadly, it didn’t impress, but had some fun exhibits and great coffee mugs.

We spent our last 2 nights of this magnificent vacation on the peaceful Pecos River, in a hidden gem of a park, Villanueva. It is popular for fishermen, but there were a couple of fun and challenging hikes. Zane loved swimming in the river.

So, here we are, home again, and already planning our spring projects. What’s next? Landscaping, mostly, some gardening, and lots of relaxing. Our indoor projects of winter, such as finishing the kitchen, will likely be put on hold until hot weather sets in and I don’t want to be outside all day. My semester of teaching 7 classes ends in 3 weeks, and I am taking the summer off (well, almost). And, finally, of course, we are planning lots of hiking. I am looking forward to putting the backpack on and exploring more of this wonderful state we now call home.