Moominmama's Adventures

  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...

  Wherein Moominmama finds feathered friends in Arizona, with growing awareness of the threats to their future... Moominmama has been surrounded by an abundance of birds, the cheerful songs of the curve-billed thrasher, the electronic chirps of the cactus wren, the squeaky-toy calls of the Gambrel's quail. And this year, add to that, the hummingbirds at the Boyce-Thompson Arboretum, blurs of color on their way to plentiful blooms, not bothered by the presence of plodding humans in the way.  Turns out there are 14 different species of hummingbirds in Arizona, including the fuscia-throated Anna's hummingbird, which along with the purple-headed Costa's hummingbird, dominated the arboretum (photos from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology since I couldn't possibly capture these guys!) One type of hummingbird not found in Arizona is the ruby-throated hummingbird because, as I learned, they're exclusive to the East.   The Boyce-Thompson Arboretum is now my favorite arboretum ...

In which Moominmama sets out on her sixth season of travel after wintering in the high desert and decides to feature libraries in her 2026 travel reports... Moominmama begins year six of her travels after a busy winter of skiing and socializing. This year brought friends from New Hampshire and Iowa for a visit, including an overlap that allowed all of us to head to the Grand Mesa for a day of skiing together.  Despite the lack of snow in many parts of Colorado, the Grand Mesa still managed to provide reasonable conditions for cross-country skiing. Moominmama even met a skier from the high peaks of Leadville drawn to the Grand Mesa because there was no snow at home. This year, it was the East Coast that got most of the snow, often in violent and frigid bursts. My New Hampshire friends enjoyed the relative warmth of Colorado, even on the snowy Mesa! In fact, we got downright sweaty on a visit to Arches National Park in February. Enjoying the popular park in the off-season is a real d...

  In which the sun sets on Moominmama's adventures of 2025 with a return to two favorite hikes in the Tetons... The Moominhouse is about to go into storage, and Moominmama will be doing only a little car camping en route to visits with the offspring and friends back east. Come winter, she will return to Colorado for some Nordic skiing until she can set forth again with her trailer home in the spring. But I went out with a bang, hiking two favorite trails, one in Idaho on the west side of the Tetons and one in Grand Teton National Park on the Wyoming side. These were both memorable hikes that I first did in 2021.  The photo above is of the Snake River in Idaho, where I had a beautiful campsite right on the river. It put me close to the Palisades Canyon trail, pictured to the left. This is how the trail starts, with the canyon walls protecting you on either side. What you can't see here is the clear, tumbling Palisades Creek that runs alongside the trail up to Lower Palisades La...

  Wherein Moominmama hits the waters of the Coeur d'Alene basin and gets a shock when she learns about its lingering pollution... Moominmama dropped down the chimney that is northern Idaho after crossing from Kootenay National Park in Canada. Her license plate caused momentary confusion to a border guard who didn't recognize New Hampshire's Live Free or Die logo. She knows she is far from home! With a population just over 58,000 people, Coeur d'Alene is one of the fastest growing cities in Idaho. One of its main attractions is the Coeur d'Alene Lake: 25 miles long, with a plethora of bays and a shoreline of over 100 miles thanks to a former glacier. This means the city and the communities around it are very much oriented to the water. Here's the lake-facing portion of the downtown with its marina, obviously in boom mode. This is one of two sky cranes I saw downtown. This whole area was shaped by glaciers. The Coeur d'Alene River became part of an ice sheet 9...