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VLA

10/28/2014

          On our drive east through New Mexico on our way to San Lorenzo Canyon, we stopped for a few minutes at the VLA (Very Large Array), which is quite impressive. We arrived shortly before 10 a.m. and our timing could not have been better because we got to watch the realignment of the dishes. So cool! The whole process took several minutes as one by one each dish was adjusted to a new position. I don't know if they realign the dishes the same time everyday, or if we just happened to be there on a day they were moved, but we sure felt lucky to be able to witness the process.

       The Array sits in the high desert at an elevation of 6900 feet on the Plains of San Augustin about 50 miles west of Socorro. 27 dishes have been built atop an impressive Y-shaped rail system which allows each 82 foot wide dish to be easily moved along 13 miles of each arm of the Y. The radio astronomy observatory has been used to study black holes, supernova remnants, and pulsars, and is a great place to take children who might be interested in learning about space.

          The following is a cool video I found on You Tube you might enjoy, which shows the array and some of the cute long eared residents of the plains.

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Grasshopper Canyon

10/10/2014

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Just one of several grasshoppers that landed on my truck as we were driving through the canyon.

      On the first leg of our Journey, we made it to Cibola National Forest in New Mexico and decided to stop for a couple of days at a place we have nicknamed Grasshopper Canyon. Using Forest Service Maps, we found a road that was designated as a dispersed camping corridor, and decided to explore the rugged terrain of the Datil Mountains. As we were driving through a picturesque canyon, I had my window down which was a big mistake as we were besieged by a swarm of grasshoppers, that covered the road. Even at a speed of 5 mph, I felt like I was parting the Red Sea, as the Blue Goose cut through the sea of grasshoppers.

     Several grasshoppers had flown inside the cab of the truck and little Breezy, who was sitting in the passenger seat was going crazy trying to catch the flying insects some of which landed on her nose totally freaking her out. I eventually had to roll up my window to keep the pests out. Even so, there was more than a dozen hitching a ride on the hood of my truck and windshield. We stopped at a little grove of Pine trees and I told Don, I thought we might have to find another place to camp for a few days because the Grasshoppers would be into everything - our hair, clothes and even our food!

One of the few shady areas in the canyon to set up camp!

We decided to drive deeper into the canyon, and came to several forest service gates which Don was kind enough to open and close for me so I didn’t have to get out of my truck and fight the grasshoppers. We eventually found a nice shady area with several pine trees. There were a few grasshoppers flying around, but not nearly so bad as what we had encountered earlier. At least in this place, I wouldn’t be afraid to yawn for fear that a hopper would fly in my mouth! We got our tent set up just as the sun began to set. The next day, we pretty much stayed in the tent playing chess, because it rained off and on most of the day. I couldn’t wait for the sun to come out so I could do a little hiking. There was a dry river bed running alongside our camp that cut deep into the Canyon floor that just beckoned to be explored.

Looking up at the rim of the canyon.

Just some of the interesting rock formations in the
canyon.

The deep crevices & caves in some of the rock formations looked like perfect places for mountain lions to make a den!

On our third day, after the storms had passed we were besieged again by a swarm of grasshoppers who became more active at the sun began to dry things out. Poor Don, I didn’t tell him about the grasshopper that accidentally landed in the pancake mix when I was fixing breakfast that morning – or the one that landed in the soup we had for dinner. Well a little extra protein in your food is good for you, Right? Besides, I’ve heard that grasshoppers are actually considered a delicacy in some parts of the world.

It was quite difficult keeping the grasshoppers out of our food. I think this one is doing the backstroke in our soup.

The grasshoppers were so thick in camp you couldn't take a step without flushing out 20 or more.

Some of the grasshoppers were quite colorful with their bright red legs.

The following video shows Rocket chasing the grasshoppers in camp. Cricket was actually afraid of them and would hide in the tent when they began swarming.

This video shows one of the swarms that would periodically descend on our camp when things began to dry out.

While we were camping we were visited by a rather large herd of black Angus, who were quite interested in our trucks. One of the poor cows looked like it may have been attacked by a mountain lion because she had several fresh wounds on her side. This really didn’t surprise me because the canyon with its high rocky cliffs seemed like perfect mountain lion habitat. I scanned the cliffs frequently with our binoculars during our stay hoping to see a mountain lion surveying the canyon from on high but caught not a glimpse. Yet the fresh scat I had found in the river bed told me there was one in the area.

Just a few of the youngsters that took an interest in our camp.

Even though we didn’t see any deer or elk in the area, we did get to watch a family of 4 Red-tailed Hawks that had made a nest on top of the cliffs above our campsite. A mated pair had raised 2 healthy chicks, and were in the process of “kicking them out of the nest”. Several times, when the parents arrived back at the nest with a tasty rodent for a meal, the chicks cried out with excitement, thinking it was dinner time . They would try landing near the nest just to be rebuffed and chased away by both parents. The chicks although a little smaller than their parents should have been old enough to catch their own food. It was quite interesting to watch the interaction between the parents and their young.

On one of my hikes, I followed the dry river bed that ran by our camp.

Don found this old model T on one of his short hikes.

These are the rock formations just above our camp which I continuously scanned with the binoculars looking for cougars and bobcats.

These are the cliffs upon which a pair of Red-tailed hawks had built a nest.

As nice as Grasshopper Canyon was to explore, I was happy when we decided to pack up camp & embark on the next leg of our road trip. Hopefully the next place we camp at won't have so many flying insects! But I won't be holding my breath because we will be leaving the nice cool pine forests for lower elevations and the dry New Mexican deserts. As we left the area, we made a short stop at the Datil campground to fill up our water jugs, on our way to our next stop at the VLA which I will write about in my next post. It is such a cool place to visit – especially if you have children who are interested in Astronomy!

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Aspen Creek Elk

10/2/2014

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The following videos are the ones I have been trying to post for the last several weeks, and shows the large herd of elk we were tracking and studying in the White Mountains of Arizona. I have never seen such a large herd of elk before in my life - even when we were camping in Yellowstone, which is famous for its elk.

The second video was taken early in the morning before sunrise, and shows 2 bulls from the Aspen Ridge (F301) herd which I watched for several minutes, grazing and occasionally sparring with one another. I feel so blessed to be able to spend time with and watch these majestic beasts in the wild!!

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If a Tree falls in the Forest........

10/2/2014

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     Does it make a sound, even if there is no one there to hear it?? Don and I have a running debate over that very question. He insists that sounds require both a sender and a receiver, and I totally disagree. I believe that just the act of the tree falling creates sound waves, and even if there is no receiver, the sound still exists.

      Anyway, Just before leaving Aspen Creek,  I decided to go on a very short hike up the forest road we took to get back to our camping spot. The afternoon before, Don and I were sitting around the campfire when we heard a tremendous crash, that echoed off the ridges surrounding the meadow. We knew instantly that a large tree had fallen, and we both instinctively looked toward our tent. A couple years before while camping in Texas, a large pine tree fell down and missed our tent by inches during a wicked thunderstorm. I even slept in our truck that night because the wind was so bad, and the next morning we found a rather large rip in our tent.

     We had no idea that we were trapped back in the thick woods of Texas, until we had to run to town for supplies - Was kind of wondering why we hadn't seen any other campers drive back since the storm had hit......... As it was, during that camping trip we ended up calling the rangers to come and rescue us because 3 large trees had fallen during the storm and were totally blocking the road. A crew came back with a chainsaw and a mini-bulldozer, and quickly cleared the road. We were lucky in that we were camped within 1.5 miles of the ranger station, so it didn’t take them long to get to us with the heavy equipment.

The following 3 pictures shows the large trees that were blocking the road when we were camping in Texas.

So after hearing the crash Don decided to walk up the road to see if it was blocked, and came back and told me that we had lucked out because the tree missed the road by about 15 feet. He said it took several young aspens with it when it fell. Anyway, the next day my knee was feeling better, so I decided to take Cricket for one last walk through the Aspen Grove, before we had to pack up camp. Walking up the dirt road, I found the large tree that had fallen the afternoon before.

The road to Paradise and our secluded little campsite!

The following 2 pictures are of the large tree that fell, and gave us such a fright!

When we first drove down this road we thought we came to a dead end because a large tree was laying across the road.

As we got closer we discovered that there was a way around!!

As I sat down on an old log that at one time blocked the road, a slight breeze came up. I turned my face into the wind and it was really rather soothing sitting there listening to the aspen leaves quaking in the wind. The whole grove was alive with excitement, and It was almost like they were talking to one another, sharing ancient secrets unknown to man. I suddenly became aware of the timelessness of the seasons and took comfort in knowing that even after I am long gone, this special place will still be here - Generations of baby chipmunks will play and forage among the rocky cliffs. And the elk will continue to come down from the mountain ridges to graze and frolic in the meadows. What a beautiful thought………..

The beautiful grove of Aspen trees at the back of our camp.

This is major pet peeve of mine! I really wish people would think twice before marring
Birch barks with graffiti!!

I have absolutely no idea what species of bird this is?? They are hard to miss because they are quite flashy when they fly. They are comparable in size to Stellar Jays.

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VLA

Grasshopper Canyon

Aspen Creek Elk

If a Tree falls in the Forest........

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