Experiencing Snow Melt

Hello Family & Friends,
We went exploring a little today after our chores of cleaning the bugs off Zoe's (RV) front overhang and the Bo's, (truck) front grill -- You cannot believe how many winged insects find their demise on the front of our rig and truck!

So here's a few pics as we are watching the waters rush down the Rio Grande and the supporting creeks (we panned on one of them last year).

Rio Grande keeps rising, more flowing this morning!

It has surrounded the trees to the side of the access road.

We traveled up the forest road to Embargo creek and could see the snowcap in the distance, look really hard at the center of the pic....beautiful clouds today!

This is Embargo creek where we panned last year with the Woodrow's, and it is flowing fast and cold.

More rapids along the twist and turns -- it is amazing to see how much water compared to last year -- I will try to find a comparison pic on the next post.

It was a beautiful day mixed with sunshine, clouds and a pop up shower.  There are some rain chances for the rest of the week, and continued flood warnings and watches through Friday with the snowmelt continuing to melt.

So until our next adventure, sending our love,

Susan & Darrel

Hello Ute Bluff Lodge, South Fork, CO

Hello Family and Friends,
With safe travel and uneventful travel, we arrived for year 2 at Ute Bluff Lodge, Cabins and RV Park.  It is quiet here with a few of us hardy RV'ers!!  With all the snow melt from the winter season, the rivers are running high (including the Rio Grande across the road) and we are keeping an eye on the flood watches and warnings, in case we have to depart quickly.

We arrived around 1:00 pm-ish (mountain time) and finally unloaded and settled in around 7pm.  We headed out from Sky City around 5:20 am so it was a LOOONNNGGG day!!!

Here's a few pics I snapped of our site for the next few months and I cannot say enough about the weather -- 73 degrees here today, beautiful skies and a light breeze -- we still see snow on the mountain caps and the nights are cooling off into the 40's.

Driving up Highway 285 as we near Alamosa, yes, that is the snowcapped mountains peaks!

Once again, Susan hanging out the truck window trying to capture the snow!

Almost too far away to see all the snow capped ridges!

They are so green, so the snow/rain has been good for Colorado.

Here we are backed into the Bluff...

The sun was starting to set when I ventured out to take some pics...

Here is the roaring, rapid filled Rio Grande (located across the street)

Looking over the bridge into the water (there is a road just in the upper left and the water is close)

Caught the sunsetting and the reflection on the high running, Rio Grande!

Good night from South Fork, CO

Thanks to all our family and friends' prayers for safe travel, it was good travel and we found some cheaper diesel fuel in New Mexico!

Love to all, sending blessings your way,

Susan & Darrel

Say Goodbye to Arizona Heat!!!

Hello Family & Friends,
The clock is ticking down on our departure to Colorado and I am writing this post sitting under the 5th Wheel overhang to have some shade.  The RV gets to 99 degrees until the sun gets further west and then we turn on the AC when the lot becomes shaded.

Here's the Congress forecast ---

If you cannot see the numbers, there is a 101 degrees for next Wednesday!

Here's the anticipated temperatures for South Fork, CO -- I am arriving in 65 degrees, probably about a 30 degree change in temps!!!

So with limited regrets (will miss our new lot, Bob and Ruger, along with the quiet of the park with everyone gone for the summer heat) -- we are excited to be in extreme cooler temps.  However I did find these pics from one of our rock collecting expeditions and wanted to share a good-bye post from AZ.

Bob found a new location, a ridge that had some beautiful views while we looked!

And a few ravines to climb around looking for rocks!

Someone added a bench with a collection of rocks (as you can see, you try to find shade but those craggy bushes just don't provide enough coverage).

It was a quaint bench with the word PEACE spelled out in rocks -- I guess someone found some time for Peace.

So we are mostly loaded, this will be the last post until we reach Colorado and get settled in -- sometime next Wed. or Thursday --- I am sure I will have pictures of our travels and hopefully an uneventful travel journey.  We have mapped out our fuel stops which always is a challenge and hope to find cheaper gas as we travel (paying $3.05/diesel in Wickenburg).

Here's the UTV in the garage (1st time to take it to CO -- will see how that goes for use on the Rio Grande National Forest trails)

So until the next post, sending love and hugs your way,

Susan & Darrel, ex-Arizonans (soon to be Coloradans)

New Surroundings and Garage Loading

Hello Family & Friends,

As we are getting acquainted with the new lot, I am finding new creatures to photograph.  

I happened to catch a tiny baby rabbit among the leaves of an Agave cactus -- look closely, it is almost in the middle of the picture tucked in close to the base.

Here is a family of quail in the neighbor's back yard -- you can barely see the babies.

Here's a better shot with 4 babies behind an adult....mom or dad?  Your guess is a good a mine.

Babies stay close to each other.

They are so cute and little, usually around 10-12 following 1 adult and sometimes an adult at the end.

OK, so I mentioned we are packing for the journey to Colorado.  We decided to take the UTV vs. the motorcycles with us so that means a new loading strategy in the garage -- what will fit, how to tie it down, etc.

Here's a few pics of Darrel figuring it out!!!!  We tried backing it in to see if there was more room and decided that it fit better and better tie down angles if we front loaded.

Oh boy, the fun begins!

One more squeeze to see if we have better bunk access???

Looking out the side door to see where it aligned when we try the next time we load.

OK, believe it or not, it FITS!!!

So front load makes it easier to drive in for sure to not hit anything too important.  As we travel we will check the tie downs to make sure it stays where we put it -- first time traveling with UTV but will be a better use in Colorado on the mountain roads.

So better run, headed for bed and more fun filled days of packing the RV.

Love to you all, 

Susan & Darrel

Home, Home on the Desert!

Hello Family & Friends,
Big News!  We decided that we liked the North Ranch community that we decided to purchase a lot and make it our winter home base.  We finished our lot sitting May 31st and moved down to our lot on S. Running Horse Rd -- Lot 24.

This is from the street corner 

(yes, we have a corner lot -- said we would NEVER do a corner lot again 😉) 

Yes, it is a yellow house, next to us as the neighbors like to remind us!

From the South side view, we have 2 types of trees, Palo Verde (to the left by truck) and Mesquite (near the back of the lot, neither require us watering them)

Along the southeast corner

East side, you can see the storage shed that was on the lot already.  We will replace the "M" and put a "P" on it when we return next Fall.

The Palo Verde trees where Bo tries to catch a little shade.

At the curb, you can see the rocks we put in to keep the smaller gravel in the lot vs in the street.

We are excited and hadn't really planned to do this, but the lot we were on was for sale and sold the end of April.  We figured it would only become tougher to find the lots to sit on each winter and the campground is really close quarters.

We have some electrical upgrades to do and possible additional water/sewer locations but we'll see what we think after we are here next year.

I cannot believe we will be heading to Colorado next Sunday with an overnight in Acoma, New Mexico. We are looking forward to the mountains and much cooler temps.  We are in the 90's by 11:00am and it is hot until the sun sets.

We'll keep you posted of our travel and please keep us in your prayers as we head out -- always a busy travel which adds a little stress when we move Zoe around.

Love to you all, and we'll check in from Colorado next week.

Susan & Darrel

Exploring Martinez Wash

Hello Family and Friends,
OK, one more post as I am catching up from slacking for two weeks!

We took a morning to go rock finding.... along the Martinez wash!  It was a little warmer, only needing a long sleeve shirt to keep the breeze away.

The flat-top mountain is Yarnell and you use it as a landmark to find you way back to North Ranch

It is still really green in the desert.

Round mountain is another landmark for remembering where you are at.

So many rocks to look at to find a treasure or two

Another pic of Yarnell mountain with some fluffy clouds along the ridge

I love catching the "cloud shadows" racing along the mountains -- usually the skies have few clouds...

At sunset, the shadows take on pink and orangish hues....such a lovely day to be out!

Now you are all caught up, our days are quickly running out at North Ranch before we depart for Colorado.  The cooler temps were are having are spoiling us with not wanting to leave just yet, but we know the heat is coming and will look forward to the cooler temps in Colorado.

We wish you all a Happy Memorial Day weekend (again) and stay safe in the summer travels.

Love, 

Susan & Darrel

Petroglyphs near Congress

Hello Family & Friends,
We went back to the area behind Congress to find the petroglyphs we went looking for a couple of weeks ago.  John went with us to help us locate them.  It was an out of the way place, and unless you knew what you were looking for, you would have missed them.

I wonder what they are saying?

A closer shot

The rock is lodged against other rocks, how did they get that way?

I think they are talking about animals in these drawings

So I climbed the rock for a discovery picture, yes, it was cold and windy, and yes, I am wearing a winter jacket and stocking cap we dug out of storage!

Around the petroglyphs, you will find the grain grinding holes in the rocks

I

Be careful because you have cacti and sticker bushes around the rocks

Darrel (in red), Bob to the right, and John behind Bob, plus Ruger in the UTV bed, 

meeting of the male minds! (John's the one that knew the way to the petroglyphs)

Saguaro blooms happen in May and you can see them on the barrels

Not all barrels have blooms -- blooms are usually white but can be yellow

Closer picture of the blooms, I am not sure what the two black dots are?? 

Maybe insects in my zoom mode?

Here's another really tall one, with blooms at the top and side barrel.

I just like the greenery in front of this lonely saguaro, plus the blue skies and puffy clouds!

An then we found this saguaro with many twisted barrels, full of bird holes -- amazing!

We then journeyed around Indian Rock and I got to drive John's UTV which has power steering. Darrel wanted to me to see if it made a big difference in driving, and you can tell, mostly when you are hitting the rough spots and the wheel doesn't jerk as much!  Maybe the next UTV will have the power steering feature??

Better run, adding one more post to catch you up with the happenings!

Love and sending blessings,

Susan & Darrel