Our two week extension at Oliver Lee was uneventful, save a sandstorm or two. We did pick up a couple of regular guests however. This House Finch couple spent our final week attacking the RV’s driver side mirror, and all of the windows along the driver side of the coach. I wonder what they are doing now that we are gone.
Sitting there for two additional weeks staring at the mountain was too much for John. So up we went again. This time we were well prepared and planned to spend the day. We got much further along the trail and found some cool sights.
The picture below is of a mortar hole or “Indian Well”. Apache women would grind grain into flour on the rocks. When the hole got too deep they would move to a different area.They were called “Indian Wells” because they would fill up with water.
We came across different terrain as we climbed higher….
and higher…
John was a happy explorer. We didn’t make it to the top, 5.5 miles and about a 4600 foot height gain. We stopped at the 3.5 mile mark right before the 3000 foot gain. It was 3:00pm and I figured we needed 2 hours to get home.
We became friends with our camphosts Phil and Sue and their dog Niki. We spent several nights at their campsite sitting around the fire, drinking beer, wine, margaritas and company.
The day before we left they took us on a winery trip. Though we have found the wineries here in New Mexico different from the ones in PA and NY, some of them have their own charm.
Pistachio wine…who’d a thunk it? Not bad though. The winery really played up the fact that they also raised Pistachios on their farm.
We are going to miss our new friends and the variety of sunsets Oliver Lee offers. The following pictures are the different types of sunsets we observed. I think we will be back.
