Trinidad Hiking

We have been able to do quite a bit of hiking during our 5 days here at Trinidad Lake State Park.  I wrote about Capulin Volcano.  We also walked the Sunset Trail along the lake two days.  This morning, on our last day here, we hiked part of the Levsa and Reilly Canyon trails.

From the campground, we picked up the rock-strewn trail through the Pinon, Juniper and Lodgepole Pine forest.

At times we had good view of Trinidad Lake.

Trees and tree trunks are fascinating.  If you look at the dead log extending to the right, you can see what look like strands of rope, all in a bundle.   This tree must have broken and fallen over years ago.  On the left side you can see how those rope-like strands made up the trunk of the tree.  I can almost see each strand as a straw, drinking up water and nutrients from the soil.

John took this photo of me on our hike today.

I'm not sure this photo shows how each needle on the tree shines or reflects light.  It was almost like it was covered with dew, but it was late enough in the morning the dew had dried up.

As we returned from our hike, we had a good view of our truck and trailer down in the campground.

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The Oregon Garden

The Oregon Garden near Salem is an 80-acre botanical garden featuring plants of the Willamette Valley in central Oregon.  Not only do they have 4 miles of trails through the garden, we saw many beautiful plants, flowers and trees.

I had never seen conifer trees with healthy yellow needles on the ends of the branches.

I know that some of these plants are called hen and chickens but I don't know what all of them are named.

One area featured artistic pruning of the trees.  Look at this branch.

Lovely

The wetland area included flowering lily pads.

These flowers are very fragrant.  I wish I could remember what they are.  I don't have our tree book with us. It doesn't do me any good here when I leave it in Arizona.

These are delicate and pretty.

I like this mass planting of marigolds.

We saw some really interesting sunflower-shaped flowers.

The roses are spectacular in the garden.

Very attractive ground cover.

This was interesting moss.

We saw several nice water falls.

These bell-shaped flowers grow all over Oregon.  Anyone know their name?  The inside of the pink flowers are spotted.

We even saw Tinker Bell in the children's garden.

In Arizona, poppies only bloom in yellow.

We spotted the lock ness monster in one of the wetland pools.

The California Giants

It has been 17 years since we visited Sequoia National Park in California, home to the largest trees in God's creation.  The Sequoia has the largest volume of wood of any tree.  According to the park brochure, at least one tree species lives longer, one has a greater diameter and three grow taller. The sequoia grows naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Range between the altitudes of 5,000 and 7,000 feet.

The General Sherman Tree is estimated to be 2,200 years old.  Every year it grows enough new wood to produce a 60-foot-tall tree of usual size.

Yesterday was rainy and, at about 6,000 ft and above, snowy.  We didn't make it to the General Sherman Tree.  Because of the weather, we drove through part of the Giant Forest but turned around before we got that far.

Just look at these photos of the trees.

The bark of the Sequoia is up to 31 inches thick, providing good protection from fire.

Here is a photo I took of one of the trees.  Notice the fire scars on the bark. 

Those 4 people don't take up as much room on the forest floor as even 1/3 of what the tree trunk uses.

John took this picture of me, dwarfed by the tree.  Notice the snow at my feet.

We are staying in Visalia, a town on Highway 198 west of Sequoia about 35 miles.  The temperature in the park got down to 33 as we drove higher in the park.  And just look at the curvy road.  No wonder they recommend no vehicle over 22 feet drive there.  We went through numerous 10 mph curves.

At times this was our view of the trees as we drove along  Notice the slush on the road and snow on the edges--on May 21!

 

The Marble Fork of the Kaweah River flows through the park.  It was full of rushing waters.

Kings Canyon National Park is north of Sequoia and in good weather you can drive from one park to the other. It was not possible yesterday because of the road conditions. We remember that park as being beautiful, but being from Colorado, mountains and canyons aren't quite as special as the trees in Sequoia so we didn't plan on visiting there again this trip.

In 2002 on our visit to California, we also went to see the Redwoods that grow near the coast. We won't be going there this time as we are going to head north up the middle of California, then Oregon and Washington. We haven't spent as much time in that part of these states in the past and want to explore some new areas.

Going to Gruene

Gruene (read "green") is an old community in Texas that grew up during the cotton boom in the 1870s. Today is it part of New Braunfels here in Hill Country. We have been there before but enjoyed another visit. It is full of shops and restaurants and bed and breakfast inns, all located in old, really old, buildings. Some have been restored, some have not.

This is Gruene Hall, the oldest continually operating dance hall in the state, built in 1878.

You know you are near Gruene when you see this iconic water tower.

John took a number of what he describes as "artsy fartsy" pictures during our visit, including buildings

Then were were the trees--live oaks with massive branches, sometime so far extended from the tree they need to be supported or they will break off.

This one had the largest set of wind chimes we had ever seen.

This old truck is a great item in the town. We also saw one about this age that was actually still in use.

Some stores and restaurants have more modern things.

I spotted these plants (weeds?) growing in a rain gutter.  You sure wouldn't see that in Colorado.

It isn't long till Christmas. Look at the ropes around this tree, they aren't made of tinsel or popcorn or cranberries, they are lariats.

This will be the 7th year we have been away from Colorado for Christmas but looking at some of the antique decorations for sale in Gruene made me long for the days when we had children or grandchildren to the house for the holiday.

The Trip Begins

We will be spending December in Texas and we began our travels Monday, driving from Gold Canyon to Willcox, Arizona. There are interesting sights along the way. These are the rock formations in Texas Canyon along I-10.

Today we drove from Willcox to Anthony, Texas, just west of El Paso.

We saw these mountains near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

This roadrunner statue was on a hill above the interstate.  The real roadrunners are one of the wonderful sights in Texas.

It is still fall down here, with trees turning yellow.

These mountains lined the route east of Las Cruces.

 These yucca plants were the tallest vegetation in Southeastern New Mexico.




Not far from Anthony, we passed a sign that read "Eat More Ice Cream, Drink More Milk." It wasn't long before we came to this dairy farm.

The wind picked up as we approached the El Paso area.  We could hardly see the mountains and realized there was a lot of dust in the air.  Then we passed a sign warning of dust storms for 15 miles.

We have a lot more to see and do between now and Christmas.