Thanksgiving trip

My first Thanksgiving in the States was spent in Moab, Utah. We took off Wednesday afternoon heading towards Durango for a nights sleep. On the trip we tried to only eat at micro breweries so in Durango we visited Steam Works. Durango has a very picturesque city center which we explored briefly in the freezing temperatures. We played some pool after the dinner at Steam Works.

On the second day we drove towards Blanding, UT. I had found a guide to sandstone bouldering outside Blanding on DrTopo. We had lunch at a gas station/supermarket in Monticello, which was what we could find that was open. After a microwaved burrito we were ready for some bouldering. The DrTopo guide did not have a very clear description about how to get to the boulders. We were supposed to drive a certain number of miles on a paved road and then take left into a dirt road. We missed the dirt road and had to turn around. We then took the wrong dirt road and finally decided to try out the boulders there anyway. Unfortunately, Henrik had a bad shoulder so he only hiked around taking pictures. After a while he offered to go to look for the real place and it was just a bit further back towards Blanding. The area was a bit spread out and we walked around a bit and tried a few problems but we did not find that much nice problems to climb. We called it a day and headed north towards Moab. On the way we took a detour to the Needles overlook to catch the sunset there. There was overcast so we were not sure whether the sun would appear or not. We got lucky and the result is shown in the blogs header. By the way, I had a close encounter with some deer on the way to the outlook. I was just changing station on the radio and all of a sudden several deer were crossing the road. I was able to avoid them but it was a close call. I do not think I have ever been that close to hitting something.

Sunset view over Canyonlands National Park.

In Moab we met Walt's friend Caroline and went to have dinner at one of the micro breweries. It was Thankgiving so there was a special menu for the evening. I had the turkey with gravy and it was really tasty. The plan for the Moab visit was to do some mountainbiking but when we woke up the next morning there was quite a bit of snow and really cold so we gave up the mountainbiking plans and went to Arches National Park, which has around 2000 natural arches. It is a magnifiscent place and we hiked around to the different easily accessible arches during the day.

Me under Delicate Arch, Arches NP.

Henrik on-top of Double Arch, Arches NP.

Sunset at Balancing Rock, Arches NP.

The next day we drove to the northern entrance to Canyonlands National Park. There was fresh snow and the view of the canyons was astonishing. We also visited the ... arch which has a huge drop below it. We had to wait some time before all the other I-think-I-am-a-professional-photographer people had finished their business. When we driving along the road there was a coyote that crossed the road and I had the wrong setting on the camera to get a clear picture and I forgot to change it before it was too late. I learned a lesson there. The dinner was at another microbrewery where the whole ceiling was covered in different outdoor gear - kayaks, parachutes, bikes, ...

A cairn at Canyonlands NP.

A view through an arch at Canyonlands NP.

On Sunday we were homebound but we had some stops planned along the way. The first was to drive into Canyonlands from the eastern entrance to go to the areas we had seen from the Needles overlook. We drove as far in as possible and strolled around that place for a while but it was not that magnifiscent so we headed back. On the map there was a place called Indian Creek and to me (and I guess to the others as well) this is known as the crack climbing mecka. We took a rough dirt road and continued for half an hour before we reached the creek where we had to turn around. Still no well known cracks in sight. A bit further along the paved road we saw the area to the left but we did not feel like exploring it since we already had spent an hour looking for the place and we had several hours driving to get home.

The last stop was at the Mesa Verde National Park, which is well known for its ancestral puebloan cliff dwellings. We drove around to some of the sites and worked our trigger fingers on our cameras. It would be nice to go down into the dwellings but we were too late for that and just observed it from a distance.

Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde NP.

Fountain of youth expedition to Gila

The expedition members. (Pic from Chris' gallery.)

To celebrate Liz' 30th birthday a group headed south down to the Gila Wilderness to do some hiking to the hot springs along the creek. This day was one of the last days of the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque so on the way down through Abq the sky was filled with balloons of various shapes.

It took us around six hours to get down to Silver City where we met Liz and Aaron and Jonathan and Gabby. After some lunch we drove out towards one entrance to Gila. On the narrow bumpy dirt road we were stopped by a guy that explained that they were trying to get a huge RV up the road further ahead and there was no other place for us to park while they reversed to get down. The road ahead was not of best quality and it was good that we had Jae's SUV. We reached the end of the road which now was not as far into the forest as it used to be as the river had washed the road away. After parking and getting the back packs ready we took off and started hiking. It was very hot so the river crossings in the cold water were nice.

We did not find a suitable track so a lot of the hiking was done along the creek. A good camping spot was found and we set up camp there. Aaron, who had been there before, wanted to go up along the creek to check out where the springs were so I tagged along. Also Jonathan and Gabby took off after us. Foolishly we did not bring any headlamps since it was still a lot of light when we took off. We walked for some time and were not able to find the springs and it grew dark pretty fast so we had to hike back in the dark. We had an excellent dinner around the fire place with wine and beer and even some scotch to go with the chocolate dessert.

The night was quite cold but I kept pretty warm in my borrowed tent and sleeping bag. After breakfast we walked upstream to the springs and we were probably very close to them the night before. Some springs were too hot so one had to regulate the temperature by bringing in fresh water from the creek. By the springs there was a cool overhanging rock that I played around on for a while. Jae also tried it and my spotting could have been a lot better as he fell right on his back. In the evening another excellent dinner was served and we had to finish the drinks we had brought in.

As we were packing our stuff to go back there was a real character that was heading further into the wilderness - a guy with dreads and accompanied by two donkeys. He said that he was planning to stay in Gila for a few months. On the way back we found the track so the hiking was a lot smoother than on the way in.

Someone had told us about a very good restaurant on the west side of Gila so we drove that way on the way home. Unfortunately, the place was closed so we had to go to Soccorro to have dinner. We were all starving by now so the food tasted very nice.

Hiking at Pajarito

Birch trees in autumn colours.

Today was Columbus Day so I went hiking with Chris up by the ski hill. I thought that a more strenuous hike up by Abiquiu would be to challenging for me as I just came here from sea level. This hike was nice and relaxing. It was a cold morning so I put on many layers which came off one by one as we hiked. We turned around where we had a nice view over Valles Caldera. Coming back towards the ski hill it was nice to see all the autumn colours of the trees.

Arriving and exploring the surroundings

View over Rio Grande from Overlook Park in White Rock.

I arrived at Henrik, Jae, and Athina's house at 3am yesterday morning since there were problems with the flight control system near Chicago so the number of airplanes in the air had to be limited. The flight to Albuquerque was delayed about four hours. In Albuquerque I picked up my rental car and drove north towards Los Alamos. By this time I had been traveling more than 24 hours but turning up the volume of the radio helped to keep me awake. I crashed on a futon in H, J, & A's house since I arrived so late (or early depending on the way you see it).

In the morning I had to go to do a drug test so I could be hired on Monday. Later I met Henrik for lunch at Lemongrass - a thai restaurant. He gave me the key to Athina's old apartment which I would rent to start with. They left a tv, some kitchenware, a bed, an armchair, and a dinner table with chairs. It was nice to have some furniture and stuff in the apartment from the start.

Today I have been exploring the surroundings around Los Alamos. The first stop was the Overlook park in White Rock, where you have a nice view over the Rio Grande and its canyon. I continued on NM-4 and passed Bandelier National Monument and then headed up into the Jemez mountains. There where many nice views along the way. Valles Caldera is very impressive with its grassy meadows. I turned around down by Jemez Springs and the red coloured mountains down there are really beautiful. On the way home I stopped by the Caldera again to look at the sunset.

Valles Caldera which is a dormant collapsed vulcano.