Thursday, November 18, 2010

Caverns of Sonora, Sonora TX

       CAVERNS OF SONORA TEXAS

  On one of my first trips west travelling
on Interstate 10,I was tired,
it was dark and all I could
see was natural gas fires burning
off in the distance. Finally I
see a sign Caverns of Sonora
campground, next exit!
It is about 8 miles off the interstate,
I was sure I was lost when finally a
small hand painted sign pointed a left
turn to the campground!
This was my 5th visit! I even got to show
these wonderful caverns to my mom
on our trip west!

Caverns of Sonora are very small, intimate
compared to Carlsbad Caverns.



It is very much like walking through
a huge geode!

Only small tours each trip, usually
less than 12 people. The lady in the red shirt on the left was our tour guide. She has been leading tours since she was in high school!

At this point I handed the camera to Chuck!
I had all I could do to hang on to the railing
and climb up and down over 200 steps as we took the two hour tour through these beautiful and unusual caverns! If I can do it with my knees,
you know you can do it too! Worth every step!


If you are the least bit claustrophobic, you might want to stay on top! These caverns are also very warm
the deeper you go. Most caverns I have toured are cold and get colder as you tour down.





This was the pop corn room! Looked like
popped corn on all the walls.

Down more stairs! Everything is so close,
you can touch it all... but please DO NOT TOUCH!

One photographer busy in the crystal room.


Caverns of Sonora should be on your bucket list!
The campgrounds are beautiful, full hook-ups
are $15 a night! Deer wander the campground
at dawn and dusk along with a flock of guinea hens
and one turkey hen who thinks she is guinea!

There is only one pair of peacocks remaining
at the campground. When I first visited here...
I was rudely awakened by the strangling
scream call that passes as peacock talk!
There were maybe 12 peacocks there then.
They can be very loud in the early AM!

Just west of Caverns of Sonora you will see
Ozona Texas on your map with a 1/2 circle
bypass road. On that bypass road is an
amazing restaurant, The Hitching Post!
The best ever chicken fried steaks, or any kind of  steak for that matter! Chuck and I found it by accident last year, this year we made a point of
eating a late lunch there !

It's not fancy. But it's home cookin'
the way we like it!


The Caverns of Sonora.Located 8 miles west of Sonora, Texas off I-10. Information about the show cave, photographs, and tour information. Camping available.


1711 Private Road 4468

Sonora, TX 76950


(325) 387-3105


Open Daily 8am-6pm

Hope you enjoyed the Caverns of Sonora!
Happy Trails from the MotherShip crew:
Geri, Chuck and our Hound Herd, Scotty, DoogieBowser and Radar

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

On The Road Again!

BACK TO FLORIDA!


We finally left Truth or Consequences NM and drove 40 miles to get to our favorite little Ghost Town of Chloride NM!  LOL! Long drive! But what better place to spend Halloween than in a real bona fide
ghost town???
We love any excuse just to go there!
This year we had visitors of the UNghostly kind!
Mule deer! They came up just at dusk every night.
We had two other campers there hunting deer!
But they can shoot only bucks and all they could
find were does! These does were cautious but
not too shy.

 



We gave you a lot of photos last july when we visited Chloride so I won't do that to you again. If you want more photos you can hunt them up in the July Archives. What I will do is give you a link:


This is a great link all about Chloride NM !!!


After we finally tore ourselves away from Chloride,
we returned to Three Rivers Petroglyph Park.
This is another of our favorite places. We posted about it last year with a lot of photos so this year
I am just gonna give you a few pics and this link that will tell you all about this interesting area!

          http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/mar/poi/du_3rivers.html





You can click onto the signs to make them
full sized and readable.


If you want to see more photos you can click onto the post from last year or the link!

Our good friend from Truth or Consequences, the tie dye king! :-) Jeff Dukatt came up with a wonderful logo for TheMotherShip! We put it on while we were camped in Chloride!

We just love the Logo! Thank you Jeff!


Then when we left Three Rivers, we visited a friend
in High Rolls NM. We met her last year at the
Three Rivers Trading Post. Sue now has her own
shop in High Rolls, near Cloudcroft NM. When we
walked in, we passed by this fellow!
He became our alien mascott for the MotherShip! Now we need a name....  any suggestions??

Tonight we are in an Escapee RV park in Lakewood NM. Tomorrow we will finally drive out of NM and enter Texas! Ya'll know how long it takes to get through Texas???  A danged long time!
Especially when you follow the 4-4-2 rule like we do.
4 hours driving or 4 PM or 200 miles, whichever comes first!
That is why we still love travelling! 
We don't push it! We take our time!

Good advice!!!

Happy Trails from The MotherShip!
Geri, Chuck and our furkids
Scotty and DoogieBowser 

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Lee's Ferry AZ

Lee's Ferry
is one of those places off the tourist map.
This link
     
 will tell you more about this area than I can.
I fell in love with the whimsical rock
formations and the history 30+ years ago.

We left Lake Powell and took a day trip to
Lee's Ferry, near Marble Canyon.
Beautiful rock formations greet you at the entrance

It had rained hard the night before, giving
us muddy roads and amazing colors!

Wet rocks are much more colorful than dry rocks



Many Colorado River trips begin here!
There is also a nice campground available,
boondocking only.

The weird rocks are everywhere!


So are the pretty colorful ones


There are several balancing rocks like
this one all around Lee's Ferry.
It's hard to imagine the
size of these rocks

Until you see Chuck under one of them!

Or me !

There is an area strewn with these oddball
rock formations on the way to the river

This sign explains how this happened.
You can click onto the photo to enlarge it.

Chuck and I enjoy travelling the roads less travelled!

This will be the last blog for a month or two.
We are heading back to Florida,
we will post a few blogs from there
as we intend to camp at several of Florida's
beautiful state parks.
We sincerely hope you have enjoyed riding
along with us, road tripping the real America! As Sandy said, "I feel like I have been hiding in your closet!"
We have had a ball this summer!
We both saw places we have never been before!

We love America and we would like to urge you
to get out and vote, take America back!
Happy Trails from The MotherShip and Crew!!
Geri, Chuck, Scotty and Doogie Bowser

Monday, October 25, 2010

Lake Powell and Around Page AZ

Lake Powell AZ
and surrounding area
Oct 2010

While camped at Lake Powell we
camped at Wahweap Campground

The view out the front door of the
MotherShip was gorgeous! That rock
is the same one seen in the previous
blog at sunset! It changes colors all day!
This was taken early morning after
a night of rock 'em sock 'em
thunderstorms!

By noon, color had returned to the rock
and to the skies.

Sunset reflected off the rock!

Road tripping around Page AZ
beauty all around!


The rock formations are huge
and curiously shaped

That dark blue stripe at the top of the
photo is the Colorado River. It forms
Lake Powell behind the dam.

More beauty. The night rains just
intensified all the colors!


Horses wandering on the Navajo Rez.
They have right of way on all highways!

Seeing this semi-truck beneath the
towering rocks give you and idea
of how large the rocks really are!
That small yellow sign behind the truck
informs of a runaway ramp ahead

because we are about to go down a very
steep hill! That little white stripe across
the top is the lower 1/2 of the highway
we are on! eeeeek!
A very long way down!

Once safely down, we encounter more
horses open range!

Another tourist enjoying the sights!

More horses

Back at Lake Powell
The landscape is other worldly!


In fact, the movie "Planet of the Apes"
was filmed around here!

The water is a very dark blue because
it is so deep! These were once
beautiful canyon lands!

If you get a chance read "The Monkey
Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey.
Interesting story about the making of
Lake Powell.

Wahweap Marina at Lake Powell is
packed! You can rent everything here
from personal water craft to house boats
with helipads!

As I mentioned in the previous blog,
we are currently at our home in
Truth or Consequences NM.
I have one more blog to finish all
photos taken around Lee's Ferry AZ.
We head for FL in 2 more days so
Lee's Ferry will be the last blog for
this amazing journey that we have been
travelling this summer.

Happy Trails!
We love you all!
Geri, Chuck and our furkids
Scotty and DoogieBowser