Moominmama's Adventures

  In which Moominmama visits the Guadalupe Mountains, going underground at Carlsbad Caverns and hiking up McKittrick Canyon... Moominmama is mildly claustrophobic, which makes visiting caves slightly problematic. But Carlsbad Caverns are so large, it's more like walking into a cathedral than crawling through tunnels.  Taking the mile and a quarter path down into the caverns is to step down into a palace of wonders. Even the descent itself, along myriad switchbacks, is fascinating as the daylight grows more and more dim, and the strange calcite features become visible. The pathway down serves a double purpose as the entrance and exit door for thousands of Brazilian free-tail bats, who have a roost and a nursery in one of the many side caves. Moominmama arrived in this area just as the bats are migrating from Mexico and got to sit in an amphitheater just above the cave entrance at dusk to watch them fly out for a night's feeding. They eat moths and beetles, including bugs that d...

Wherein Moominmama spends a week in the rain where she least expected the damp: San Antonio, Texas... My guess is that the above photo would surprise anyone who hasn't already been to San Antonio, Texas. Moominmama can't remember ever seeing images of the Alamo that suggested anything besides dry and dusty, but the reality is that San Antonio is regularly quite humid thanks to the Gulf of Mexico.  Among other things, San Antonio is home to this lovely Japanese Tea Garden, which opened in 1919 in a former limestone quarry in Brackenridge Park. This central park, at least 350 acres along the San Antonio River, is the crown jewel of the city and connects many of the city's major attractions. In addition to hot and humid, San Antonio has been steadily overcast and on-and-off rainy this whole week, both at 90-degree temperatures and at 50-degree temperatures a few days later. The forecast gave Moominmama only a few windows of opportunity to get out and see the sights.  It also f...

  Wherein Moominmama camps near the Rio Grande and takes advantage of the chance to visit Boquillas,  Mexico... Having seen the mountains of Big Bend National Park and Santa Elena Canyon on the west side, Moominmama opted to camp in Rio Grande Village for a few days to see what life was like along the river. It came as a surprise to find there is a legal border crossing between this area of the park and a small town called Boquillas del Carmen in Mexico. So Moominmama made her first ever trip to Mexico! This involved a walk-in one-room border station on the U.S. side, then a stroll down to the river where rowboats manned by the Mexicans could ferry one across for $5 round-trip. But as luck would have it, the river was only knee deep at this spot, and Moominmama just walked across! Once across, visitors can get a ride in someone's truck or hire a horse or burro to walk the half-mile into town. Again, Moominmama opted to go under her own power. We were instructed to stop in town...

  In which Moominmama observes Texans' fight to stop Trump's wall within their national park... Signage to "Stop the Wall" is visible miles before entering Big Bend National Park, and Moominmama was fortunate to witness one of the protests while visiting the park -- including a flotilla and gathering on the banks of the Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon.  While Homeland Security has allegedly changed its mind about running a wall through the Rio Grande canyons inside the park, there's still enough federal activity that Texans don't trust that Trump is backing off. Even if the government changes its plan to build a 30-foot physical wall in favor of a "technological" barrier involving motion detectors, one Texan told me this would still involve razor wire and flood lights affecting the many animals seek out water under cover of darkness.  Other locals report federal officials are still trying to get access to land in and near the Rio Grande and threaten...

  Wherein Moominmama explores the Florida mountains, searches for an ibex and watches a rattlesnake eat his breakfast... Moominmama is in a small mountain range in southwestern New Mexico called the Florida mountains, pronounced "Flor-EE-da," the Spanish word meaning full of flowers. That's not always the case, but rains in February and again in early March encouraged the Mexican poppies to bloom full force!  These are bright, cheerful flowers that dot the landscape of grey-green brush. The blooms curl up at sunset and reopen when the light hits them in the morning. And they are all over the mountains, including Spring Canyon where I hiked to one of the saddles between the peaks. Moominmama was in search of an ibex, a Persian goat with remarkable horns, as you can see from the photo here! Imported to New Mexico, they were released into the Florida mountains in 1970 after officials determined the landscape and plant-life were quite similar to their native territory in Iran...

In which Moominmama visits the White Mountain Apache Culture Center and enjoys the birds, and library, of Portal, Arizona... One day, long ago, Coyote's wife asked Coyote to go to the salt lake and pick salt crystals from the shores to flavor their food. Coyote set out with a bag for the salt, but it was a long walk and when he arrived, he was tired. He lay down to rest and quickly fell asleep. Butterflies came upon him and decided to play a trick on him. They lifted him up by his hairs and flew him home. When he awoke he was confused, and his wife was angry. He had not brought home any salt. He set out the next day only this time he ran the whole way. Now he really was hot and tired. He had plenty of time, so he stopped to rest. He fell sound asleep, and the giggling butterflies lifted him up and took him home again. He awoke outside his den, as confused as ever, and with his wife still angry. He had no salt. On the third day, Coyote ran to the lake but this time he set straight t...