Mexican Canyon

We are all enjoying the company of one another again and have already mapped out plenty of things to do since we are not here very long.  Thankfully, we have begun exploring some of the more interesting places near Alamogordo to include Mexican Canyon Trestle.  This old train trestle has been recently restored, but was built back in 1899 and used through 1947!!  The 65 degree clear sky provided perfect hiking weather to find critters while experiencing a new, desert-type environment high above the White Sands of SE New Mexico.

 This guy was actually caught by Trinity...by far the coolest wild lizard I have seen captured!

 The trestle view after a 1.2 mile hike.

 Another great view just down the street from Mexican Canyon.

  We started down towards the valley (as seen above), but quickly realized we should stop after our 3+ mile earlier hike to the trestle at 8600.'  Looking forward to this descent into the valley soon though!  

Family again...

Well, this blog has been quiet for some time now and that has been due to our family living apart from one another for a few weeks due to some training I am attending.  Thankfully, that time is over!!  Needless to say, we are all excited to be getting together again in a couple of days.  Time away from Crystal & the kids is never enjoyable and it certainly gets harder with each trip I take.  Expect a bit more news in the coming weeks now that we can get exploring again!  In the mean time, we have updated the photo link on the right side of the page since the apple gallery service is going away this summer (boo).  So, we have migrated to a flickr album.

I did manage to view the "Trinity site" during one of only 2 open houses they host each year.  It was a very empty environment and unbelievable to think about the nuclear age taking birth on that particular spot over 65 years ago.

The actual drop location (from a stand) marked with the monument.

Looking West to East...the shelter, a bomb mock-up, and the Trinity monument.

Getting out to Explore

Many things have happened since the last post in terms of setting up our new home. The entire house is just about in order (w/exception of the Garage) along with the walls having marvelous decorative things attached to them now.  It all came together quite nicely...so we have been able to start exploring our surroundings.  Here are a few of our notable outings thus far:

The kids enjoyed their first rodeo and blended right in!  We plan to get them involved with the 4H organization here (if you don't know what that is, we didn't either until a week ago).  It does all types of country stuff (horses, agriculture, shooting...etc.) while building all the cool character stuff kids need.  I think of it as a country version of boy/girl scouts.

This was our first "scouting" trip into the Black Hills and included a far off look at Mount Rushmore.  We also saw wild deer, bison, and many prairie dogs.  All I can say is...this place is going to be FUN!  Also of note, the bottom picture is Trinity's first attempt at a picture with the "big camera" raw & unedited.  I may actually get in some pictures now with her able to snap shots like that.

1st hike and it happened to be a birthday event for yours truly.  As you can tell from these pictures, I don't think I can recall a better one.  The character rich, old-fashioned, and delicious German restaurant located in the middle of the hills isn't even captured...or the homemade key lime pie made for dinner!  A great reminder of the wonderful blessing I have in such awesome kids and a one-of-a-kind angel for my wife.  Above is the natural cave we explored along with some first exposure to ice (below).

Caught these two back in the forest and shortly after, a snowball fight broke out...thankfully my telephoto lens permitted me to capture the action for a distance.

About 3 hours later in 30 degree weather with some occasional snow, we summited Little Devil's Tower.  What a cool hike!!  The rocks here a absolutely amazing and it's like searching for shells on a beach.  Here though, instead of shells, you find fools gold, granite flakes, all types of quartz, and many others that we have yet to identify.  Again...this place is going to be FUN!

Lastly, a sample of the local wildlife to include deer and the illusive snow angels.  We also had some great news just today that we officially have a LID date for the adoption.  This is a big deal in the adoption process and something Crystal will surely expand upon soon in that blog.  For now, I have to get ready to learn another job and aircraft beginning tomorrow.  God Bless.