Leaving Ruidoso headed to Bosque del Apache Nitional Wildlife Refuge

Thankfully the winds have died down somewhat so we are able to leave Ruidoso this morning, April 29.  We did a little back tracking so we could go down the mountian that we had gone up the other day.  Because, going down you can see all across the Tulerosa valley where White Sands Missle Range and national park are.  It is really a beautiful sight but not today as all the wind has kicked up a ton of dust and we couldn't even see all the white sand that we know is out there.  Oh well.  But by going that way we were able to travel on highway 54 from Tulerosa to Corrizozo, which is a cute old town on the southern Pacific train line.  My mom worked for the SP when she was much younger and she rembers when Corrizozo was a booming train town.  But alas not now.  We did find a nice place to eat lunch though.  Then it was on towards the Valley of Fire.  Very cool.

The Valley of Fires is a National Recreation Area.

You can see the lava flow out in the valley.

 



In this picture what looks like a cloud shadow out in the valley really is the lava flow.

 

 

The lava flow up close.

 

I was able to get up close to some pretty cactus.

  This member of the Prickly Pear is getting ready to bloom.

 

 Another Prickly Pear

 

I love the yellow halo on this one.

 

Hedgehog flower close-up

 

Small herd of horses.

 

Here we are near Bosque (boskee) del Apache and look we are the second rv here, in a huge rv park and we parked by this great tree.  Within 2 hours there were three other  rvers here too and they all parked right next to us.  What is it with people?  All this wide open space and they need to park next to us.  We had to close our curtins so no looking at stars through the windows.

 

 

Bye for now from Bosque del Apache, 45 degrees 8:15am, mountian time zone