Prairie, dogs and prairie dogs

This is my second attempt at a blog--the other is retired for various reasons etc. etc. But we'll start here.



I'm currently blogging from Canyon TX, on the big westward adventure of Rich, Marcy and Smith. I'd been asked by various people to let them know what we did, where we went, etc., and this is the easiest way to do it. We set off yesterday from Dallas with the idea of having our own Christmas adventure and hike the great places of the panhandle and much of New Mexico. We are guided by a recently-purchased Tom Tom GPS unit. The woman/automated voice giving us directions has acquired an identity of her own already, and we occasionally (secretly) enjoy not doing what she tells us to do, like unruly schoolchildren.

Today we visited Palo Duro Canyon, which is an unexpected canyon that sneaks up on you after driving through miles and miles of scrub/prairie. We did the six-mile round trip hike to the Lighthouse formation (above left) and encountered very few people. Thou gh the temperature was in the 30s (Fahrenheit) when we started, it quickly got warmer and we were hiking in shirtsleeves on the return. Smith did great, and is now sleeping soundly and resting his paws. Rich did a lot of picture-taking, and we hope to have more to share later. Above we have a couple--the nice picture above is borrowed from the Amarillo website. For comparison's sake, I've also added a picture of Rich climbing up the Lighthouse formation while I watched Smith, taken with my cellphone. It was easier not to climb with Smith, although it didn't in the end take Rich very long to get up there. Palo Duro is beautiful and serene, and while the hiking could be hard at times, it was a nice intro for us on our travels.

The only other news so far to report is that there is evidence of lots of prairie dog activity, which was unexpected, I suppose. In the city we've walked to a nearby park and had to tiptoe around the holes, and ultimately you have a hard time not punching through one into a burrow. There are loads behind our hotel as well, which makes for lots of fun for Smith when we walk him.

Tomorrow we head for Capulin Volcano and Raton, so we hope to send more as we go. If we occasionally have a lapse, it's because we don't have online access, but we promise to post something else soon.