A Solar Eclipse and a Southwest Road Trip

I am aware that I just finished part two of Ecuador but, due to time constraints and a strong desire to witness the "Great Eclipse", I packed my car and headed on an indirect route to Texas with stops along the way.  I am not what I'd refer to as a 'camper' but travel, sleep and in bad weather eat in my SUV.  It works for me!

My first stop was Joshua Tree where I spent 3 amazing days hiking, driving the park road and enjoying the beauty of the rock formations and joshua trees.  What a unique and beautiful place.  My next stop was Tucson where I stayed at a state park.  I was only there one night so got in one hike before I headed off to Davis Mountain State Park near Fort Davis, Texas.  There were some great hiking opportunities there as well as some really nice people - a large percentage of those I  met being there for the eclipse.  My original plan was to camp there for 4 nights, get up super early and head south toward Uvalde/Bracketville but upon thinking about it and on the advice of a friend, I left after 3 nights not wanting to take the chance of missing the eclipse due to oversleeping or traffic or???  Well, a cool thing about Texas is that you can pull over at any rest stop, picnic area or even a pullout on the side of the road for 24 hours!  That turned out perfectly for me.  I was about halfway between Bracketville and Uvalde when I saw a few RV's and some cars at a picnic area and quickly pulled over and parked in back of a small RV.  Perfect!  I met two amazing women and the 3 of us hung out that night and watched the eclipse the next day.  It was just remarkable and what luck to meet such great people with whom I could experience this rare celestial event!  I will share photos below of the eclipse but the part that was so amazing and eerie is how dark it actually got with what appeared to be a peach/pink colored rim on the horizon in all directions.  Other than that, it got very dark, the birds stopped chirping and other than peoples' ooohs and aaahs, it was silent.  Incredible!

So onward . . . I left Texas immediately after hugging my new friends and drove to New Mexico staying in a hotel one night in Carlsbad.  It had been a long day of driving and, while the weather held for the eclipse, it started raining off and on after.  So, needing a shower and being tired, I stayed at an okay hotel in Carlsbad before heading off toward Colorado to visit friends, stopping in Roswell because you just have to if you're going through it, don't you? 

At this point I should mention that google maps is great for road trips ....... except when it isn't!  I had planned to find a disbursed (free) camping spot in the Santa Fe National Forest but that was too ambiguous for Cookie (my map girl) and I became totally lost.  I had suspected as much when I drove down a road (Route 3?) and didn't see one other car for 40 miles!  Luckily, there was a funny little state park (Villanueva state park on the Pecos River) with a beautiful campsite away from all other campers and a great hike as well!  Sometimes things just work out!

So then I spent 3 nights in Mancos visiting with my dear friends, going for walks and bike rides, going into town and hiking at Canyon of the Ancients and eating some of the most delicious home-made bread and jams, having home-made chai tea in the mornings and eating delicious dinners! I left feeling satiated, with my body and soul nourished!

I spent one night in a campground outside of Winslow Arizona and had breakfast at La Posada Hotel, a gorgeous building designed by architect Mary Coulter and well known for the many celebrities who have stayed there with their photos hanging outside of the rooms they inhabited.  I'm not sure why people would choose to stay in Winslow but it is on the famous Route 66.  Anyway, after a delicious breakfast, I posed with Jackson Brown on a corner in Winslow Arizona!  Very cool!

After a stop at the largest meteor crater in the US (it was very big!) I spent one night at a disbursed camping site near Valley of Fire State Park.  This place has unfortunately been discovered due its proximity to Las Vegas.  I'm happy I started early, did a couple hikes and left when the purple tour buses began arriving filled with people clamoring over the beautiful rocks~  I ended up at another of my favorite places - Death Valley before arriving home to discover waist-high weeds and grass which has kept me busy since my return!  I love the Southwest and don't think I will ever tire of the unusual rock formations, the colors, the canyons, the mountains...ALL OF IT!  

But first of all, the main attraction.........................

Photos I took of the eclipse

And during....

Joshua Tree

My Campsite

Split Rock

And a person who didn't run fast enough to beat the timer

Skull Rock

Catalina SP, Tucson

Vermillion Flycatcher

Davis Mountains SP, Fort Davis Texas including a sunset, photos from a hike, wildflowers, pronghorns and my campsite (75).

           

Roswell Below (as if you couldn't guess)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

creepy!

New Mexico- my campsite and a hike

Mancos, Colorado and visit with friends including hike to canyon of the ancients and a great horned owl nesting - What a great visit!

Ruins

More ruins

This is outside of Durango

A nesting great horned owl

Me & Jackson Browne standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

A balancing rock, some flowers and petroglyphs

Valley of Fire SP, Nevada

 

 

Wildflowers in Death Valley

 

Ecuador - Final Thoughts

Well, after considerable time and rather extensive contemplation on this trip, my final thought is that Ecuador demands a great deal more exploration than I was able to do on this way too brief trip to an exceptionally diverse and beautiful country.  

Beginning where I left off . . .                                                                                                                       San Cristobal was lovely and I could have/would have liked to spend more time on this small island.  I liked the size of the main town and capitol of San Cristobal, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.  I believe the population is around 8,000 people for the whole island, most of whom live in the puerto.  It was walkable with many restaurants both local and touristy and the two best snorkeling beaches were also within walking distance.  

Santa Cruz was very nice and it was there I was able to spend a day on a lovely farm full of fruit trees and walk to a lava cave passing at least twenty tortoises including one that was over 150 years old!  I was then taken to Los Gemelos, two gigantic holes in the ground where I'm sure there is a lost world!  These are extinct volcanoes where the cone sunk and became a crater and is surrounded by high cliff-like walls with incredible flora (and possibly fauna?) existing on the floor.  I'm not sure if it's accessible but it certainly wasn't for me - not enough time!  Other than that, Santa Cruz is big, more populated area (around 25,000 people) and more touristy too so, despite the tortoises, the kind people I met and Los Gemelos, I preferred San Cristobal.  

Quito is a nice city, built in the mountains and surrounded by mountains and at 9350 feet above sea level.  I liked what I saw of it but didn't spend a whole lot of time there so . . . ?

The jungle area around Tena (I was in a lodge in Cotundo near Tena and I really liked it there) was so cool!  There were Oropendola - two species.  These are the birds that build hanging nests and I spent a great deal of time watching them fly back and forth getting food for their babies and arguing with neighboring birds who wanted to invade their nests.  We went on night walks looking for animals and found several, including something that the locals referred to as a possum but had a long tail and a pointy face and looked almost like a lemur from my view on the ground as it was also raiding an Oropendola nest!  We saw tarantulas, sleeping cachalaca's (birds), and many weird insects.  During the day we hiked to a beautiful waterfall where I slipped in the mud and ended up with some VERY muddy pants!  The waterfall is a site for conducting ayahuasca ceremonies conducted by local shamans. Earlier I sat in a hammock on the porch of my bungalow and watched the most intense rain fall all around me!  Amazing!

However, if I had to pick one area to return to in Ecuador, it would be the cloud forest!  I was so drawn to this area both for its amazing beauty and, of course, the wildlife!  There are even bears, although we didn't see one.  But the mountains, the hot springs, the clouds, the birds and WOW!! the beauty of this area around Papallacta was just breathtaking and I hope I am able to return and spend some time here looking for the odd species of wildlife that inhabit this region. (Look up Cock of the Rock if you don't believe me!)

All in all, if I have a complaint about Ecuador, it's that I didn't spend enough time there!   

A Cachalaca

Hummer in the Cloud Forest

Hummer in Quito

Blue-footed Boobie

?

Night Heron

Galapagos bird at Los Gemelos

Oropendula

 

 

A pair of Frigate birds

Galapagos Tortoise (I say at least 20)

Galapagos Crabs - They are everywhere and beautiful!

Marine Iguana

 

Los Gemelos

Three waterfalls in the cloud forest

A hike to a magical place

Oropendula nests in Cotundo

A lava tube

Kicker Rock (I may have already published a photo but it's magnificent!)

Papalacta Hot Springs

Another view of Los Gemelos