Posts Tagged ‘las cruces’

Day Three: Family Day

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

Yesterday was our official rest day that was still extremely eventful. We were staying for two nights at my lovely relatives’ home who where gracious enough to put up with us, dirt balls as we where. We got to stay in their beautiful adobe in New Mexico that had a gorgeous back yard and beautiful southwestern style architecture and of course, sheepdogs. They used to show and breed old English Sheepdogs and so they have four currently living in their home. It was like having a herd of sheepdogs at all times; marvelous, simply marvelous. These fluffy monsters are so much fun and so great I couldn’t help taking a million photos of them instead of simply taking pictures of our temporary home. We where welcomed into their home with open arms and it is sad knowing that we only had one whole day to spend with them, I could have stayed forever.

We decided on our down day to still go National Park hunting so we made the short drive up to White Sands National Park.

This park is full of sparkling white dunes stretching all the way to the base of gorgeous mountains was quite marvelous. Many people take sleds out and sled down the dunes but we had to refrain, maybe another time. We did however run all over the dunes and have a bit of fun messing around in the desert.

After the White Sands National Park we headed over to Old Mesilla, a very cool section of a little town that is full of intriguing shops and great food stops. We had an excellent lunch at Josephina’s that even included eating outside in a very beautiful garden. It was refreshing and enjoyable to say the least. We spent quite some time walking around the town square, going into almost every shop there was in the area.

Everything was so beautiful and scenic; I even found some incredible doors to photograph.

After shopping we went out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and took a very interesting side trip to a Hispanic grocery store that was just too cool. It was so much fun looking at all the different foods and the eye catching decorations that where hung from nearly everything in the store.

It was a fun day and we are very sad to move on but the trip has just begun and San Antonio is next on the list of stops. The long drive across the entire width of Texas begins now, and believe me, we are none to excited about it.

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Day Two: Las Cruces

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

We began our second day adventure with Tucson, Arizona after a drive through the Sonoran Desert. The closer we got to the city of Tucson, the more cacti began to fill the scenery around us. This being so, and Tucson being home to both sectors of Saguaro National Park we decided to make a cacti stop in the Western section of Saguaro National Park.

This park is filled with unbelievable amounts of cacti, tall and towering, the stand like sentries over the dry land of the Tucson desert. Driving into the park we climb a hill that at its peak allows for a grand view of a huge valley blanketed with this type of cactus. This landscape, unique to Tucson was quite a sight to behold driving around that top corner of the peak. The quirky twisted and jumbled arms of the Saguaro cacti are amusing and beautiful. Some even looked as if they were hugging themselves. Others had beautiful flowers standing on the tips of their arms. It was quite a nice park.

This nice stop made up for our morning, which, before we reached the park, seemed would spell a disastrous day. We had a late start because we missed the alarm and got all turned around in the city itself. Along with injured ankles which were swollen, it was a worrisome morning that quickly turned around and became a long but interesting day. Especially with our epic old western stop at Tombstone, Arizona.

The sight of the OK Corral gun fight which is starred in many famous movies like the awesome old western movie with Val Kilmer and several other great actors called Tombstone which is about the story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday in the rough and tough town. This was such a great little authentic piece of old western history where reenactments are held as well as actors in character all the time wandering the dusty streets and saloons. It was “the town too tough to die”.

We spent a lot of our time in the Boothill Graveyard, which holds many famous and infamous residents of Tombstone. On the graves where the ways they died and it was truly fascinating to look into this little piece of history.

After Tombstone we headed out to visit a little national park I had never heard of before that was actually quite interesting. The park, Chiricahua National Park feels a little like a mixture of Bryce National Park and Yosemite National Park. Primarily a hiking destination we sadly didn’t get to go very in depth because it was just too hot to go hiking. However it looked really interesting and I wish we had come at a cooler time so we could go into Echo Canyon. With huge monolith like structures that look like the hoodoos of Bryce and deep valleys filled with strange and intriguing rock formations, it was a fascinating stop.

This was a last stop of the day as we made our way out of Arizona and into New Mexico where we would be staying the night with my lovely relatives in Las Cruces.

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