Angel Peak, Bloomfield, NM

Angel Peak is a hidden gem near Bloomfield, NM.  You access it by driving down an oil field road.  It is gravel and dirt but passable.  There are three overlooks: at the first one your will see some badlands, at the second a gorge, and at the third you will see Angel Peak and other spectacular rock formations.
It's so cool because as you drive along on the gravel road, you would never believe what you are going to see when you get to the lookout point.

Oil field road

badlands

Angel Peak

Gorge lookout

Salmon Ruins, Bloomfield, NM

Salmon Ruins in Bloomfield, New Mexico, is another ancient Pueblo structure.  In the same area, is the Salmon family farm and homestead.  And a reconstructed example of an Indian village.  It was very interesting to see all the ruins and the Indian buildings including a hogan and a pit house.

Outdoor oven

Pit house, located mostly underground, cool in summer, warm in winter.

Aztec Ruins National Monument, Aztec, NM

The Aztec Ruins NM is first of all, not Aztec at all. This site was constructed and occupied by the ancestral Puebloan people.  The ruins were "mistakenly" named Aztec in the mid-1800s and the name stuck. The site was excavated in the early 1900s and became a national park site in 1923. The great Kiva, a place of spirituality, gathering and ceremony for the Puebloan people, was reconstructed by the NPS in the 1930s. One of the most fascinating things about this site is that the wood ceilings are still intact in some of the rooms and you actually get to walk through these rooms and see the ceilings.  While we were there, an archaeologist was working on cataloging all the inscriptions, ancient graffiti, written on the wood beams that make up the ceiling of the rooms. He was finding hundreds of inscriptions from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Aztec Ruins is a smaller site that not a lot of people visit but it is well worth the trip. It gives the visitor an opportunity to get up close in a way that is not offered in most other ancestral sites.

Green stripes were an added decoration to this wall.

Original 900 year old wood ceilings.

Reconstructed Great Kiva

T-shaped doorway.

Looking through the connected doorways. Photo taken during the full moon night tour.

Volunteering with the National Park Service

In April and May, we spent our time volunteering at with the National Park Service at Aztec Ruins National Monument, in Aztec, New Mexico.  During our time there, we met some really fantastic people and spent 4 days a week manning the desk at the Visitors Center.  We greeted visitors and gave them a brief orientation about the site.  We also helped to facilitate many school field trips.  We were surprised at the many international visitors.  I am sure that we had people from at least a dozen different countries.  We really enjoyed our time volunteering with the NPS and are considering doing it again sometime.

My next set of posts will be about all the places we visited on our days off while volunteering at Aztec Ruins NM.

One of the views out our RV window, with a storm brewing.

Sign that we would pass each day as we headed back to our RV.  It says Do Not Go beyond this point.

Visitors Center, where we spent our "work" days

The deer would come visit us often.  There are some by the tree in the center of the photo.

Picnic shelter near the RV.

View out of our front door, on the day it snowed, in late May.

Desk inside Visitor's Center

Li'l Abner's Steakhouse, Tucson, AZ

One of our favorite places to eat in Tucson is Li'l Abner's Steakhouse.  It is a former stagecoach stop.  The first time we went there was in 2005, the menu consisted of the following: do you want a small steak or a large steak.  That was it, everyone received the same sides.  They cook your steak over an outdoor mesquite grill.  Now they have more choices including ribs.  The meals come with the following sides: Texas toast, beans, and salsa.  They do have other sides your can add to your meal. They have both outdoor or indoor tables.  Good food, fun atmosphere; we give Li'l Abner's four thumbs up.

Outdoor mesquite grill

Remains of stagecoach buildings.

Saguaro National Park, Tucson, AZ

Saguaro National Park, surrounding Tucson, AZ on the east and west sides, is home to the largest and most famous of the cactus species.  These large cacti with their arms reaching toward the sky are an iconic symbol of the southwest.  The park is divided in two sections with scenic roads to drive in both areas of the park.  These cacti only grow naturally in this part of Arizona, from Phoenix to Tucson.  The rocky hills throughout southwestern Arizona are dotted with these majestic Saguaro cacti.

Cholla cactus in foreground, Saguaro cactus in background.

Saguaro cacti grow additional arms in order to balance and not tip off to one side or the other.

Saguaro cacti marching up the hillside.

Mt. Lemmon, near Tucson. AZ

Took an early spring drive up Mt. Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest near Tucson, AZ.  The elevation of Mt. Lemmon is 9157 ft.  There is a ski area located here which receives 200 inches of snow a year.  The drive was beautiful and even though it was in the upper 70s down in the valley, it was in the low 50s at the top of the mountain.  There is a quaint little town located near the top of the mountain called Summer Haven.  The drive includes an area known as the Skyline Scenic Byway.

Mt. Lemmon