Salinas Pueblos Missions National Monument
Blog 311: On to Desert Country
After a summer spent in the beautiful Northwest, we worked our way down to the beautiful Southwest—through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and into New Mexico.
Along the Way
We found many old trucks near Casper, Wyoming (they are being added to the Old Truck library). We spent three great days in Parker, Colorado, visiting grandkids (and their parents😌), we had a nice visit with our good friend, Wendy, in Monument, Colorado, and spent Labor Day with our friends, the Talbots, in Mountainair, New Mexico. We ended up at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge about 50 miles south of Albuquerque right off of I-10.
Sevilleta NWR
We are volunteers at this refuge of over 200,000 acres and help with interpretation, managing the visitor center, and doing whatever else needs to get done. If you like desert country this is the place to be. Lots of wildlife call Sevilleta home—from lizards and snakes to mountain lions, bighorn sheep, bears, elk, and pronghorn.
Prairie Dog Project
One of the Refuge’s projects is to help reintroduce Gunnison’s prairie dogs that have been forced from their homes (Albuquerque development) back into the wild. Hence, there is a lot of catching, weighing, measuring, monitoring, and releasing of these cute little guys.
Mexican Gray Wolf Project
The Mexican gray wolf is an endangered species and another interesting project of the Refuge is getting wolves ready to be reintroduced back into the wild. Unfortunately for us, there are no wolves on the refuge now, as their facilities are all being updated.
State Championship of the New Mexico Territory Cowboy Mounted Shooters
We traveled to Socorro to watch this fascinating event. Riders are timed on how quickly they can successfully shoot 10 balloons strategically placed within the arena. Not only do they have to be fast and accurate, they must change pistols (replica 1890s Colt 45s) during their trial. Sevilleta’s Renee was a contestant, ending up in the top group with a completion time of 12.3 seconds! Crazy fast and super fun to watch.
Easy Day Trip: Salinas Pueblos Missions National Monument
One morning we loaded up and took an easy 123-mile day trip to visit each of the three sites of the Salinas Pueblos Missions: Gran Quivira, Quarai, and Abo. Starting 7,000 years ago, the ancient Anasazi and Mogollons produced the earliest societies at these three sites. In the late 1500s the Spanish arrived, and missionaries started to push their views, integrating (to some degree) religions, but eventually (along with the Apaches) destroying the ancient way of life. Yet, among the ruins one can see pueblo kivas standing side by side with churches. All the three sites are wheelchair and dog friendly. All are worth the trip, but we especially enjoyed Gran Quivira.
https://www.nps.gov/sapu/index.htm
Quebradas Backcountry Scenic Byway
The Quebradas Backcountry Byway is an unpaved county road traversing about 24 miles of rugged, colorful landscapes east of Socorro. Beautiful drive.
https://www.blm.gov/visit/quebradas-backcountry-byway
Tarantula
Late one afternoon I was sitting outside when a black guest appeared. Jack and Mitzy were quite curious, but I am afraid they frightened our new eight-legged friend. Here is a pic of Terrence the Tarantula, and one of him with Bryan.
Jan’s Art
Sevilleta management asked Jan to paint a bean bag game for an upcoming family event. Leave it to Jan to take a basic project and turn it into a piece of art! The first photo shows both of the boards, and the second one is for fun.
Old Trucks & Classy Chassis
We have been seeing and shooting lots of old trucks in our travels south. Go to www.onceuponatruck.com to check out some of my latest vintage trucks. Note that by demand, I have now segmented my Old Truck Library by make, so you can check the photographs out by Ford, Chevy, International, etc. If you want to see a new, old truck photo each week, sign up for my What the Truck! blog.
A note to those of you who signed up for my Old Truck blog previously: We have moved the blog to a new platform, so you will need to re-subscribe. Apologizes for any inconvenience.
See you next time.