January, 2022 (Part 1)

We started the New Year with a hike at Lady Bird Johnson Park in Fredericksburg with my cousins, Nancy, Marie, Chris and Amanda.  

Ferns growing on the rocks.

Turtles sunning themselves on New Year's Day

On the 2nd, we said goodbye to Chris, Amanda, Nancy, and Marie and left Fredericksburg headed to a week in Hondo, Texas.  We are members of a camping club called Escapees and they have a park in Hondo.  It was a nice relaxing week with a few outings to explore the area. 

We hiked in the Hill Country State Natural Area, north of Hondo, near Bandera. 
We started down there in the valley, in the distance.  It was about a 5 mile hike.

Dad and I at the summit. 

Another day we took a drive through the Hill Country that took us
through Kerrville.  Kerrville has Easter Island statues....

and Stonehenge.  Mom says they are replicas, not the real thing. 😕

From Hondo, we went to Seminole Canyon State Park.  It's in west Texas, about 1/2 way between nowhere and someplace you've never heard of.  I'm not sure why they call it west Texas, because the southern border of the park is the Rio Grande River, about 3 miles from the campground, as the crow flies.  South of there is Mexico.  Doesn't that make it South Texas?  

We took a 7.5 mile hike.  It was 5 miles to the Rio Grande,
following the winding rim of Seminole Canyon and 2.5 miles back,
because we came straight cross country.

There were lots of fossils.  We saw lots of rocks like this on the trail.

There is a dam on the Rio Grande River, downstream from here. 
It causes the water to back up into the canyon near where it joins to the river.

This is the Rio Grande River.  There is a huge cliff on the US side
(left in this photo) and a good size cliff on
the Mexico side (right in this photo).

Me taking a break along the cliff above the Rio Grande river.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset from our campsite.

Another day, Mom and Dad took a hike into the canyon
with a ranger to see pictographs at a place called the
Fate Bell Shelter.  I wasn't allowed to go.  😞

Some of the pictographs

There were also some really cool rocks.

More pictographs

The highway bridge over the Pecos River.   It's 273 feet above
the water and is the highest highway bridge in Texas.  

Once we crossed the Pecos, we were in Judge Roy Bean territory. 
He was the law in the area and held court at his Saloon in Langtry.

There's a lot of road in Texas.

We went to Prada near Marfa.  I'm looking for a fashionable backpack
for hiking. Unfortunately, Prada was closed 😠

Welcome to New Mexico.  Tonight's stop, Las Cruces.

Mom and Dad decided to go back to El Paso and explore for a day.

Lobby of the Paso del Norte Hotel

Downtown El Paso

Back in Las Cruces, we hiked the Pine Tree Trail in the Organ Mountains.

Frozen waterfall

It was a long day!

Another day, we took a drive to Hatch, which is famous for Chile peppers.

  

Chile market in Hatch

Lake Valley ghost town near Hatch

Sunset on the way home from Lake Valley

Hike in Soledad Canyon near Las Cruces

Views back to Las Cruces

The hike ended in a cool box canyon

Abandoned house along the trail

Has a nice view

From Las Cruces, we moved to City of Rocks State Park, north of Deming.  I tell you more about City of Rocks in a minute.  Our first day there, we took a drive across Emory Pass.

View from the Pass

We started on a hike, but turned back because of the snow.

Mom reminded me that I saw snow when we went to Mt Rainier
in July, but this seemed like brand new.  I enjoyed playing in it.  

More views from Emory Pass

Yes, Mom was there, too.

This was our campsite at City of Rocks.

We had our own private dining area

We took a hike around the "City"

Pretty amazing where a tree can grow.

Another view of our campsite.  That's us in the distance.

We arrived in Benson, Arizona on January 23 and will be here until February 3.  I'll tell you about our adventures around Benson in my next post.