Barb Masinton

Escapito #6: Summer Sequel …. A Desert SW Escape Part 2: Luna Lake, AZ to Clifton, AZ

October 20/21, 2022

Even though we had a mere 97 miles to travel today, we knew the road would be long and winding, up and down, as we dropped over the Mogollon Rim at 8000 feet to the Northern Chihuahua desert at 4000 feet. And yes indeed, it was a slow go, but worth the drive as we passed through the Apache-Sitgraves National Forest. This dry forest, dominated by old growth ponderosa pine, had recently burned in many places turning visually impenetrable mountains into scenic, long distance views. As we neared the town of Morenci towards the end of our day, the country literally fell apart due to a gigantic open pit copper mine. We passed by the remains of leveled mountains reconstructed with overburden, impossibly deep terraced pits, and parades of the largest dump trucks ever, carrying freshly blasted raw materials to be processed into copper plates. Morenci is Freeport’s flagship copper mine (Freeport is part of a gigantic international mining conglomerate) and at 62,000 acres in size, there’s every indication of continued expansion. Wow.

It took about 45 minutes to wind through the countless open pits before we actually reached the town Morenci with Clifton just 10 minutes beyond. We had arrived; surrounded by desert, with the forest of trees behind us just a memory.

Roy and Luna showing the tire size from one of the dump trucks used at the mine

We stayed at a very nice RV park in North Clifton, being lucky to snare the last available site (all other sites were occupied by miners and their families). The park is advertised as being along the beautiful San Francisco River, which looked like rapidly flowing chocolate milk, but the canyon provided plenty of hiking opportunities …. and we spent the afternoon and following morning exploring, before journeying deeper into the desert.

Date palm growing beside the San Francisco River

Velvet mesquite growing alongside the San Francisco River

Stay tuned for Part 3: Clifton, AZ to Indian Bread Rocks, Bowie, AZ

Escapito #6: Summer Sequel …. A Desert SW Escape Part 1: Tijeras, NM to Luna Lake, AZ

October 19/20, 2022

A long first day drive (250 miles) towing The Felix, fully laden, on slow and windy roads. West then south through scenic el Malpais, Quemado (a Catron County stronghold), and into Arizona, all while enjoying beautiful high desert scenery, mountain islands like the Sawtooths (Escapito #3), and open grasslands dotted with pronghorn. First stop, Springerville for fuel and sticker shock! With only 2 places to buy gas, the Circle K coming into town and the Circle K leaving town, we settled on Circle K. Hahaha! Fueled up we were back on the road heading south to the pretty little village of Alpine, AZ 8,000 feet high in the Apache-Sitgraves NF. From there it was a short 5 mile hop back east where we found Luna Lake and our forest campground for the night. The Forest Service closed all but one loop, shut off the water for the season, and didn’t charge for camping! Other than 2 other trailers, we pretty much had the place to ourselves and picked a site with a view of the lake.

Anecdote …… Pins and Needles or The Case of the Wicked Seed: after a long drive we were ready for a hike. But choosing a cross-country trek through tall vegetation was a mistake. Nearly all the wildflowers and grasses had dried and gone to seed, and being fully loaded with ripe seeds, our pant legs, socks and shoestrings provided them an ideal way to disperse. One seed in particular was especially wicked! About 1.5” long and skinny, this hard bugger was tipped with 2 hooks on fork-like tines. Any whisper of contact with these seeds resulted in them leaping out from the seed head and hooking on for a ride. I’m not sure how their grabbers release their grip and drop to the ground, because when we returned to The Felix, we must’ve been carrying 100s of them embedded in our pants with the bottom ends of the hard sharp-pointy seeds lined up like soldiers ready to attack at the slightest threat of extraction. Ouch! After a consult with iNaturalist, submitting only seed photo, the database turned up one possibility ….. Spanish Needles! A brilliantly named member of the sunflower family. I’ll take dandelion fluff any day!

We enjoyed our stay at Luna Lake …… in the morning we woke to the sound of elk bugling in the distance, owls hooting overhead, and a respectable coating of frost in everything. A brisk 1 mile hike on Forest Service roads covering all the campground loops (we weren’t about to venture into the grass ….. oh no way!) warmed us enough to pack up camp and head south in search of summer!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Luna Lake to Clifton, AZ

An excellent cluster of Santa Rita Hedgehog cactus (no matter where you are in the desert SW, watch your step!)

Chapter 221025: Flambé’s latest Misadventure ………. Fall Breeze …. Autumn Leaves

October 25, 2022

Of course dogs love a romp in piles and piles of fallen leaves. But kats? Flambé knows so! What do you think?

Welcome Autumn!

So much rain! Not complaining ….. we need the moisture. But with days of drenching rain falling in the East Mountains and the Sandias this entire week, summer seemed to flip into Autumn in a matter of days.

Trying to capture the last remnants of fading flowers, I was inspired by a remarkable naturalist and artist, Jean Mackay, to get out there and rescue blooming bits before everything turned brown and crunchy.

Thanks Jean, for the encouragement, and always helpful tips and techniques in creating interesting journal pages. My hike this morning revealed some surprise bloomers that I wanted to remember in my nature journal.

And thanks to my many followers for your continued interest in my discoveries!

Escapito #5: Public Lands Boondocking through central New Mexico

“The Felix” was loaded and ready for a fun boondocking adventure through forest and desert, ghost towns and lava flows, rainbow colored ridges and badlands.
Central New Mexico is a splendid place to explore and discover wildlife, geology and spectacular scenery.

Come on along with us for 4 days of camping fun in the Land of Enchantment.

Kowabunga! Desert Nomads

Observing nature, especially in a desert environment, requires cautious peering under scrub oak and cholla. It’s always wise to gently part the razor sharp leaves of plants like beargrass and banana yucca with a long stick. Everything seems well armed with spines, thorns or prickles. But look you must, because you never know what you might find cooling off in the shade of a big leafed buffalo gourd or making a noon meal of a prickly pear fruit in the shadows of fan-shaped pads.

But when exploring it’s wise to always, always remember you might be surprised by a snake. So imagine our relief and delight when on a stretch of dusty trail we encountered our very first desert box turtle!

A true nomad of the southwest.

Chapter 220910: Flambé’s latest Misadventure ………. Pattern Farmer

September 10, 2022

Flambé has returned from a month-long holiday in France visiting her absentee lover, Cognac. She was hoping to rekindle their love affair, and perhaps entice Cognac to come west where they can become hopelessly en-Tangled in a series of curiously new MisAdventures.

Maybe if Flambé takes up a steady occupation, like farming, Cognac is thinking he can carry on his Tom-foolery and have a furry feline to come home to each night (or day, as the case may be). Flambé discovered she’s still smitten with this wild kitten, and was willing to give farming a try.

Really? Ag Kat? Would you do crazy things to woo your lover?

Grumpy G. Gus …. A Sandia Mountain Sentinel

Sandia Mountain granite! Such distinctively gnarly gargoyles, whimisically odd and judgmental, critter and caricature mimics ……. There’s nothing like these boulders! This is a short story about one of a cast of thousands; Grumpy G. Gus.

But there’s a longer story too. Underneath the often comical-looking and recognizable characters that can be envisioned in these boulders, there’s an even more fascinating tale that tells volumes about the geologic history of central New Mexico. Come along and meet Gus and learn a bit about Sandia Mountain granite.

Summer Bugs and Botany: Cochineal Dye Making

It was a rainy day in most of NM, but what a welcome relief to be getting moisture! As we hastily hiked the lower Copper Trails, we noticed the prickly pear seemed to be draped in a more-than-usual white fuzz, and it wasn’t cotton ball shaped but dripping and running down hundreds of cactus pads. Every direction we turned we found nearly every prickly pear to be covered………………….
And then we spotted hundreds of thousands of brilliant scarlet red bodies of the cochineal insect ….. exposed, naked and frantically trying to hold onto their food source, the vertical surfaces of prickly pear pads. The rain had “melted” their protective coats of fine white wax and the green pads of the cactus looked white washed.

Opportunity!

Summer Botany: Wild About Wild Potatoes

One of the weediest places we camped during our recent Reservoir tour, Santa Cruz Recreation Area, became a floral hot spot of discovery, at least for me. I shared a photo sampling of some of the flora in my last post……

Two new-to-me members of the Potato family really stood out. A plant called Greenleaf Five-eyes and another simply called Wild Potato.