We're on the Road Again!

After four weeks of staying at other people's houses, we were ready to be back in our own bed.  We appreciate all the people that hosted our stay in Oklahoma, and sad that we won't see them again for a while.  But with temperatures in the 90's, we were glad to be heading to points north and the mountains.

We headed towards Raton, New Mexico, and a campground that is at the top of Raton Pass north of town.  At 7,888 foot elevation, it is cooler than the towns in the valley on either side.  We have a camping spot that allows us to look through our huge windshield and see the mountain valley in front of us. It was cloudy on our traveling day, but we escaped the showers while we were driving.

There is a trail down into the valley to a little pond, table, and a swing.  Here is the view of our home, perched on the edge of the plateau above.  We love being back in the mountains!

There are lots of hummingbird feeders around the campground, and we hear the buzz of their little wings every time we go outside.  One male broad tail hummingbird likes to perch on the bush in front of our windshield.

We spent the next day exploring Sugarite (pronounced Sugar-eet) Canyon State Park near Raton. We started a hike beside Lake Maloya.

This is a beautiful park with a very helpful ranger staff.  There was a fire in this area in 2011, and most of the trees on this side of the lake were burned.

Four years later we see evidence of regrowth as the gambel oaks are growing well, but we saw no baby pine trees yet.  This picture of a wild rose against a burnt tree trunk seems symbolic of God's healing of this land.




Our trail took us to Little Horse Mesa, the highest point in the park at 8,320 feet.  It's a strenuous climb to the top, but we were rewarded with incredible views of Sugarite Canyon and the plains below.

As you can tell, we could see clouds building behind us on the trail.

 We have been blessed with wild flowers ever since February in the desert, and we get to continue to see them now in the mountains.  

Denisa loved this path of white daisies that lined the trail.


After four weeks of getting almost no exercise, we should have eased into a nice easy walk.  But instead, we picked the most strenuous and longest hike in the park.  Considering we aren't acclimatized to the altitude, we were out of breath many times on this 6.5 mile trail that was rated as moderate to strenuous in spots.  We were certainly tired by the time we finished, and our feet were telling us that they weren't used to hiking either.  Denisa's first reaction was to get out of her hiking shoes and into the cold water of the mountain lake.

Mark's reaction was to shed his hiking boots and take a nap on a picnic table by Lake Maloya.  Notice that he is using one of those boots for a nap "pillow."

We were tired, but couldn't help ourselves when we had the opportunity to see another more hidden lake.  We had to hike another mile and actually crossed into Colorado to see Lake Dorothy.

By now the gray clouds look angry, and it was a fast hike back to the car to avoid getting more than just our feet wet.

We mentioned that the ranger staff at Sugarite Canyon was very helpful.  They helped us select a good hike, and they also told us about other events in the area this weekend.  One of those events was south of town in the middle of a beautiful mountain meadow and is called the "Santa Fe Trail Rendezvous."  This is a week-long event for families in which they are encouraged to live as mountain men would in the pre-1840 era on the Santa Fe Trail.  When we found out that the public is encouraged to visit, we drove the five miles outside of town to a high grassy meadow to see it for ourselves.

 We found that there are 70 family units camped here for the week. Many are housed in these tents reminiscent of the 1800's.  But there was also a "Tin Tipi Camp" that included trailers from the 2000's.  Most of the participants were wearing frontier clothing, and this group was involved in a knife and hawk competition.

We were a little disappointed to find out that "hawk" is short for tomahawk, rather than a bird.  The organizers have daily competitions to keep the entire family busy.  We saw children with very primitive bow and arrows, practicing their marksmanship.  We heard a group of men firing a black powder gun that sounded like a cannon.  The organizer was very friendly, explaining the different activities that had kept the children busy all week.  There were also games for adults, including the mountain mama competition held last night.  The women had to run to the creek for water, start a fire with flint, then boil an egg.  The winner was the mama with the first hard-boiled egg, and the test for "doneness" was cracking it over her husband's head.  It sounded like a very fun event!