It's been Awesome

I thinks my stiff and sore-ness has finally ebbed away.  No the only complaint I can use is my bum is sore from sitting and playing No Mans Sky all day. Ok I have been busy doing a few other things a well but not many.

Tyler and I have been driving out to a few hiking trails to try out and get a little exercise and came home to this beautiful sun set last week. 

Looking over Barrington Straight

But for most part we have fog (and I mean wet soupy fog) until about 2pm them lighter fog until 6pm then back to dense fog for the evening and night again.  One thing about it is that it makes Cape Sable Island a lot cooler than the mainland. Where they are having heat warnings we are having highs of 24C.  Not to be fooled though that sun is still hot enough to burn through as I learnt sitting out on the deck a few afternoons ago. 

Still having fun with acrylic pours and experimenting with colors.  Here are to 2 new pictures made this past week.

Used lots of silver

Dark and moody

Tyler has been busy job hunting and working on a new program.....  way over my pay grade.  I did apply for one drafting job but am not hopeful as being out of the work force for over 10 years does not make for a great resume.  But you never know.

We have also been house hunting in Saint John for the past while and am off tomorrow to look at a few that the realtor has set up for us.  Need one with a large enough room for a longarm again.  Although wont be able to afford one until this house sells.   Hopefully in a warm house in the city by winter. Fingers crossed.  

From Sedona to Roswell

After a wonderful 7 day stay east of Montezuma's Well we headed out for the next part of our adventure and on our way to Roswell NM.

One last look down the canyon

Sedona was beautiful and red and very busy even in mid morning when we drove through.

Going into Oak Creek

The road after Sedona to Flag staff was windy, narrow and a little frosty at times.  Just enough pull outs so not to hold out so much traffic.
We stayed at Black Barts RV park in Flagstaff.  Showered (much needed) and caught up on on the laundry.  Staying in the red desert, everything we covered in red dust.  So even the blankets had to be washed.

Just leaving Sedona.

Heading out of Flagstaff we found the Sunset Crater Volcano National Park.

Lava fields all pilled up

Walked up to the top of the smallest volcano (took a few stops) The wind was howling and tried to push us off the mountain.

Had lunch and took the loop around the back side to the Wupatki National Park.  It was beautiful and what a difference in landscape from Ponderosa Pines to a vast painted desert.

Standing at the top of Locus Volcano

The drive from Wupatki National Park to Navajo National Park was windy and like most USA road bumpy and teeth chattering.  Even things we though we all tied down had a way of shaking themselves out of spaces.  We cant complain though as the desert has a beauty all of its own.  As we were driving to our next spot you could see the black clouds building in front of us and I was glad that we made it to the spot for the night.  About 15 min after we arrived at the Navajo National Park it started to blizzard.

15 min after arrival

And got cold.  We watched the temperature drop over 10 deg in an hour.

The next morning temp.

Although it did not snow more than an inch and the sun was bright in the morning it did get a bit chilly at -10 C.  But up and at it early we walked down the path to the lookout to see the cliff dwellings.

Early morning path

The cliff dwelling were pretty spectacular and well worth the stop to see.

Cliff dwellings across the canyon

Close up view

Hoping to head to warmer country we left early
which was to bad.  The campground here was free (and one of the cleanest we had stayed in to date) and we could have stayed for 14 days.  It would have been nice to explore the trails down to the bottom of the canyon.

The four corners monument was next and although the road there had a few spectacular views......

Baby Towers

Painted Hills

The Four Corner Monument was a disappointment (in the words of bugs bunny "I think I made a wrong turn at Albuquerque") and we should have turned north one more time to see the Canyons of the Ancients.  But we did not and got sucked into the one and only tourist trap we haven't avoided.  Run by the natives, it had port-a potties for washrooms and the entire center monument was surrounded by kiosks trying to sell Native Indian wares.

FYI the actual 4 corner marker is about 20 miles up a
Forest Service Road NW of here.

So instead of seeing the canyons and towers it was flat and blah.

I was a little disappointed. 

So off to the next spot and Tyler found this absolute gem of a spot called Angel Peak Campground.  Another BLM area just south of  Bloomington NM.

Angel Peak

A great spot that had white rock paths all over the top of the cliffs.  It reminded me a lot of the Drumheller area in Alberta.

360 deg of Angel Peak

Another cold night and a early start to Roswell, through the desert that went on forever.













We were lucky enough to see 2 herds of antelope on this highway as well as a buzzard, rabbits, and quite a few hawks.

So aliens of Roswell coming up. lol

Canyon Camping

We have been at Beaver Creek Camp Spot (that is the official name) for 5 days now and what a spot.  We are 25' from a canyon that is about 300' straight down below us.  What a view.

our morning window

The kitties have had a chance to go for walks without getting to freaked out,

Tyler walking Sam

and we have had a chance to lay back and do what we love to do.

Our camp all set up

But I should start a week before when we visited  Montezuma's Castle and Well.

Montezuma's Castle National Park

Cliff dwellings Montezuma's Castle

Dwellings at Montezuma's Well

Tyler on path to the bottom

Montezuma's Well a water spring in a volcano

The well was interesting and we had the chance to talk with a Park Ranger that filled us in all the details.  The water is arsenic high and only has 3 forms of waterborne life in it.  Water scorpions, amphipod, and leaches.  We had quite the discussion about what life may have been like living around the well.

Then we met another ranger that was kind enough to tell us about the open camping just 5 miles away.....and here we are.

Our first camp for 4 days was next to a hill in the open desert.  the sun sets were spectacular as they always seem to be in Arizona.

Cocktail hour... time to open one of the growlers we bought
at the Barnstar Brewery a few weeks ago.

We took one day to walk up to the V-V Ranch to see the petroglyphs. It was a pretty good hike that took us all morning but we got in our 10km for the day (or two days).

Huge wall of petroglyphs.

Old gate at V-V Ranch

Then it was off to Cottonwood to stock up on groceries and we ended buying a couple of cheap bikes in Walmart.  We thought it might be a bit faster of a way to get around to some of the spots we wanted to see without packing up the whole RV.  Then a stay for a night, get showered, do laundry and have diner out for a change.  We found a nice RV spot against a creek called Page Spring Resort.  An older RV spot with a bit of a road to get into but clean washrooms.
Back to the Beaver Creek Camping Spot and found the amazing spot on top of the cliff we have now.  The bikes have been fun and wonderful.  Yesterday we biked 7 miles yesterday up the Bell trail about a mile from here.

 Today we thought we would follow our FSR to see where it gets to and ride out some of the soreness from yesterday. 

Other things to note:
We found a cave under the cliffs below our canyon camp site that was pretty cool. 

cool find

The cats are setting in and happy.

Carl - What?

And I am still in awe over the spectacular sun sets.

From our first night at camp 1.

We have enough water for 3 to 4 more days and then will have to say by to the canyon and continue our journey.  Sad but things to look forward to at the next stop.