I Climbed a Mountain

...it doesn't get any better than that, until tomorrow.

I have been pondering how to catch everyone up with all that I have been doing this past year, and it just seems overwhelming and I don’t know where to start… so I will just start with NOW.

The Rock Club season ended the last week of March, so I left Quartzsite, AZ and went to visit Cibola Wilderness Area, Oxbow Lake and met new friend Judy Crawford who is a camp host there.  She takes marvelous wildlife photos, and I’ve been wanting to visit her.

She also makes these wonderful beaded hummingbirds, and one day I must own one of them. Visit her FB page. Judy Gail's Creations – Gift Shop.  These are really wonderful.

While there I kayaked the full length of the Oxbow Lake and back.  Nice to be back on the water again.  I’ll write a blog post on that as well and update with a link here later.

Then I picked up a couple things in Quartzsite and headed Eastward, knowing I didn’t have the money to go too far. My goal is Florida to visit family and friends, and then return to AZ via Arkansas Diamond Minds by September or October.   Made it to City of Rocks and Rock Hound State Park.

A neighbor camper likes rock hounding as much as I do. We hiked both days together, he even slowed down to accommodate me.

We are headed up there…. and I believe we got to about the middle of the photo, just below the rocks/where the slope starts.

Ran into several of these... Greater Earless Lizard.

They are really neat.

And this is Yellow Bird of Paradise.

Another of the same kind, very tame.

It's that amazing?  I liked him so much, I designed and printed new business cards for myself, using his photo.  (Or should I call them non-business cards? Image at the top of this page.)

And rocks, found lots of rocks.  Way more rocks than it was sensible for me to collect.

Another Yellow Bird of Paradise.

Up is better.  Have you ever seen a nicer trail?

Poppies of some sort, everywhere.

The range of colors was amazing.

Orange  and ….

Golden yellow.

I accidentally uncovered a nest of baby mice... and then re-covered them as quickly as I could.

The purple flowers smelled really great.

Most wonderful Yucca plants.

We went a little higher than this and got into very rocky areas, where we had to actually climb up and down to go on.

The far white dot on the left in the parking area below is my big white SwankieWheels van.

Here I zoomed in on it for you.

This one really large rhyolite rock had inclusions of Jasper, Agates, Small Thunder Eggs, and other stuff.... amazing so many things could all be mixed up in one big rock.

Same rock, pink jasper.

Photo by:  Campground neighbor, Bill.

This was about as high as we went... I was pretty spent by then... and knew getting back down with 40 pounds of rock on my back would be a challenge, so I refused to go higher.

Another lizard, this one is a Collared Lizard.  "Collared Lizard is the probably Clark's Spiny Lizard. It looks like the ring goes nearly all the way around it's neck, where the Desert Spiny only goes across the top of the neck. I have the Desert Spiny out here."  (Thanks Judy Crawford for teaching me so much about the Desert.)

It was a really great hike for me, challenging me in prep for the AZ Trail Hike. Thank you neighbor, Bill, very much for your company.

While staying at Rock Hound State Park, I also visited the Visitor Center were there is a small Botanical Garden and a Labyrinth. I had a slide show here, but with the failure of LiveWriter, I had to remove it. I will post them separately. Photos of Visitor Center.

I believe I will be spending a lot more time in NM State Parks after this year.  I’ll get the Annual Camping Park Pass for Out-of-State is $225, and spend my Summers exploring NM until I tire of it… if such a thing is even possible.

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