Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge…

One of the great things about wintering in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is the abundance of wildlife refuges, state parks and nature centers. One park I will be spending a lot of time describing is the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge about a 40 minute drive from our park on South Padre Island along the southern Texas coastline.

Laguna Atascosa is the largest protected area of natural habitat left in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The refuge is 98,000 acres in size and is still actively seeking additional tracts to purchase for inclusion into the refuge. First established in 1946 to protect waterfowl and migratory birds it is now also focused on the preservation of an endangered cat, the ocelot.

Ocelots are endangered in the USA only because their habitat is endangered as they thrive in very dense thorny vegetation found in a only a few places in south Texas. Most of their habitat has been turned into farmland leaving the wildlife refuges as their only havens for existence in the USA.

Ocelots are opportunistic hunters and eat a range of animals including rodents, rabbits, young deer, birds, snakes, lizards, and fish. Why am I talking about ocelots so much? Well one of the reasons we are back in the Rio Grand Valley of Texas this year is because I agreed to be a volunteer for an old college classmate of mine who is now a professor at a Texas University studying ocelots.

My responsibilities include occasional trips back and forth to the refuge because I am helping to set live traps on the refuge in hopes of capturing ocelots for study and radio collaring. We have less than 25 traps set out over a large area since ocelots have a home range of several square miles. These traps are baited with live pigeons but fear not as the pigeon are safe in a cage of their own within the trap. They also have food and water provided as they sit in their cages to entice a predator.

We fully expected to catch many other species in the process however ocelots are the main goal. Bobcats are also being studied when/if they are caught and will be radio collared as well. The traps have been out for a couple of weeks off and on  dependent upon weather conditions.

What have we caught? We caught and released lots of raccoons, opossums and skunks as well as a wood rat who somehow encaptured himself. We also caught three bobcats so far and one ocelot. What I enjoy the most about this project besides the ability to see my first ocelot is watching the vets and scientists process the cats collecting as much data as possible before the cats wake up from their anesthesia.

Also fun is watching the cats wake up and leave their traps with their new radio collars. This project will last into March and we hope to catch several more ocelot's. I am also looking forward to following the tracking data these collared cats will provide the scientific community.

I am not at liberty to provide pictures from the actual project so I have instead included some photos of the refuge and from the internet. I will say that I have really enjoyed this opportunity!

NOTE: We are currently in South Padre Island TX until March 1st…

Staying with friends at Lake Havasu City AZ…

With another Vegas trip behind us we headed south to visit friends we met on the road in Quartzite several years ago. They RV’ed for long while before settling down in Lake Havasu City Arizona.

They invited to stay at their place as they have RV hookups behind their house and have had as many as four RV’s in their backyard!!! We made our way along the scenic river and finally pulled into the backyard of our friends Paul and Sue P. With Paul’s initials being PP they have called their home the PPPP or the Paul and Sue P. Party Place! We are so glad they invited us to visit the PPPP.

We set up and had a grand view out our front window where we can see a slice of Lake Havasu below. Paul and Sue invited over to the house for a great enchilada diner and happy hour. It was really fun catching back up with our friends.

They told us before our arrival that their daughter would be coming over to their house for the weekend. They assured us she loves their friends and not to worry. Their daughter, Jessie was as hospitable as they were and she is a great person as well. They offered to take us out for a boat ride on Lake Havasu since their daughter also wanted to jet ski behind the boat.

We donned our swimsuits and drove a few miles to the boat ramp. They have a really nice pontoon boat and once we got the boat and the jet ski in the water the fun began. What a great boat ride we had riding around the lake. We stopped at Havasu Springs for lunch before continuing our boat ride.

After a while we stopped at a BLM beach pullout where we enjoyed the water and took turns taking the jet ski out. Once I took the jet ski out and tucked my hat under my legs so it wouldn’t fly off. I had a blast out on the jet ski but when I got back I realized I somehow lost my favorite hat… sigh.

Sharon wanted to go out on the jet ski but wanted me to drive so off we went. When we were out in the middle of the lake I noticed something floating on the water and as luck would have it I found my hat. Snagging it with my toes as we rode past it my favorite hat and I were reunited. It is hard to believe how lucky I was to have found my hat!

Another afternoon Paul and Sue took us out on their ATV to ride out in the desert on some of the trails out behind their place. They took us to a hole in the rocks known as the dragon’s eye where we climbed up into the eye to admire the views. We had another great afternoon riding the ATV and it was the first time Sharon had ever ridden one so she had a few oooohs and ahhhs as we tackled some steep inclines

Well the time at Lake Havasu City passed by too fast and it was once again time to move on…

NOTE: We are now in San Diego CA for a two months before spending the rest of the winter

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, AZ…

We actually enjoyed our first stay in a Walmart parking lot , not because of the great site but because we needed to get groceries, be close to Antelope Canyon and we needed somewhere to stay the night! Thanks, Walmart for letting us use your parking lot. One night was all we needed so the next the morning we drove over to Fredonia Arizona.

We pulled into the “no frills” but very reasonable Wheel Inn RV Park. We got up and just chilled the rest of the day enjoying the high speed internet at the park. The next morning we were off and running as we headed south for a long driving day to visit yet another bucket list place. Our target was the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.

We had been to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon but not the north. The drive to the North Rim was long but very scenic as there were many glimpses of the golden leaves of Aspen here and there. Once we pulled into the visitor center parking lot we headed down a the Bright Angel Trail.

Wow, wow and wow… the views everywhere were spectacular. We hiked down the trail knowing full well that we had no intention of going to the bottom. It was very chilly (temps in the low 50’s) and the wind was gusting upwards to 40 mph knocking my hat off a few times.

 

There were lots of nice spots to pull off the trail to take the obligatory photos. We surely were enjoying ourselves as we turned back toward the North Rim Lodge. Just below the lodge we discovered a viewing room where I took a perfectly framed photo of the canyon (header picture). After soaking it all in we went up the steps to the lodge and sat in the Adirondack chairs outside to again to enjoy the panoramic views.

The lodge itself is pretty cool and worth a look. There was a long line waiting for the restaurant to open but we planned to have lunch at a another viewpoint of the canyon. We found a perfect place to have lunch and afterward took a short hike to another viewpoint. Between the sunlight on the canyon and the different contours on the canyon walls it seemed as though we were seeing a different canyon every time we shifted our eyes.

We decided on the way back to take some backroads to see some of the more out of the way overlooks. However, between the wind and an ever present fire on the North Rim our plans were thwarted. We met up with a fire official who warned us of several overlook closures and  I told him of a road with a tree down. We decided between the two of us we could probably pull the tree out of the road and so we did.

Hoping that we could see another overlook we set off down this road. Once again we were denied so we decided to just follow the dirt road back into Fredonia. While we missed out on on some other overlooks we did enjoy the slow drive back to town…

NOTE: We are currently near St George UT for a while, then on towards Nevada…

Lower Antelope Canyon–WOW!!!

Several years ago a blogger I follow posted a blog about Antelope Canyon, a slot canyon near Page, Arizona on Navajo land. I knew after seeing the photos that this was going on my bucket list as something I had to see for myself.

We spent the night before our tour in the Page Walmart lot!  Yes, this would be our first ever stay at a Walmart but we had little choice as everything in Page was booked! I can say that staying in this Walmart was great as it was level (no need for levelers) and mostly quiet and close to Antelope Canyon.

There are two parts of Antelope Canyon available for tours. They are called Upper Antelope Canyon (Tsé bighánílíní, 'the place where water runs through rocks') and Lower Antelope Canyon (Hasdestwazi,'spiral rock arches' ). Both slot canyons are located in the Navajo Nation and are only accessible by guided tours ever since 1997 when the Navajo Tribe made them part of a larger Navajo Tribal Park

Antelope Canyon was formed by water erosion of the Navajo Sandstone layer. Monsoonal rains causing flash flooding accelerates this erosional process. In fall of 2006 a flooding lasting 36 hours caused the closure of Lower Antelope Canyon for five months!

I read that doing the lower canyon was better in the fall and the upper canyon better in the spring so I kept an eye on the tour sites to see if I could make a reservation for Lower Antelope Canyon.  The lower canyon is supposed to be a more difficult hike and is longer and narrower in spots so I figured this one would be the most enjoyable to us. Happily my patience and persistence paid off, we got a reservation!

These tours aren’t cheap and the web sites state the tour costs $40 per person. Well after adding taxes, park entrance fees etc. we paid about $104.00 for the two of us.  By the way we selected Ken’s Tours and there is only one other tour agency. They both got great reviews.

We left the RV in the morning to drive over to Ken’s Tours, parked and went to the ticket window with our reservation info in hand. The clerk verified our reservation, gave us a tour assignment and told us to be in the main tour room 15 minutes before our tour start time of 12:30. Each tour group had 10 people and a tour guide, Our tour guide was a very friendly native Navajo young man named Preston.

Man there were a lot of people in the tour center speaking every language known to mankind! When our time came our group followed Preston down a mostly sandy trail to the entrance of the slot canyon. I should mention that no backpacks or bags of any kind are allowed in the canyon nor are tripods or selfie sticks. Preston reiterated the rules and went to everyone in the group offering advice for capturing the best pictures.  He adjusted Sharon’s Pixel 2 phone to the proper setting (Cloudy) which she very much appreciated.

We had a bit of a wait to enter due to the steep staircase going down into the canyon. Here there were five flights of stairs we had to take to reach the bottom of the canyon floor. Even as we dropped down the glowing reddish orange canyon walls came into view. Once we reached the bottom the crowd slowly dispersed into the slot canyon and the crowd became much more manageable. Even with the narrowness of the canyon there were plenty of times we felt mostly alone and were able to capture photos making it appear as if we were the only ones there.

What what a fabulous slot canyon as the colors and hues changed constantly as we meandered through the canyon. Faces and animals seemed to be everywhere as the rocks took on the features of people, sharks, bears etc. Preston pointed out many key features and a few times grabbed Sharon’s phone to take some angles of special sights that may have gone unnoticed by us.  He also showed us photos of snow in the canyon, of a mountain lion seen there, showed us evidence of flooding and told us about how a snake fell on a tourist during a tour a few years ago. He really added to the experience with his engaging personality.

The details of the curved and smooth rock make this canyon a very, very special place. About 50 or so minutes into the tour we were told we were nearing the end. While the canyon hike is only a bit more than a mile on sand there are some challenges to those afraid of heights or tight spaces. The uneven ground, narrow passages and steep and uneven stairs could be challenging but Sharon who has a fear of heights had no real problems with this tour.

One by one we emerged from this slit in the bowels of the earth knowing full well we all wished we could do it over again. It was amazing to look back and see that very thin crack in the surface of the earth especially knowing the enchanting beauty it hides below…

WOW! Was it worth it? It certainly was to the both of us. Check another one of the bucket list! Wow, what a really great day on The Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are currently near St George UT for a while, then on towards Nevada…