Budd said he guessed we could drive to Dog Canyon, so we stopped at the house for maps and set out. Dog Canyon is 12 miles by trail from the visitor center, but it's on the other side of the mountain range. To get there by car, you go back almost all the way to Carlsbad, then across ranch roads and back southwest into Texas, a 120 mile round trip. We left the house at about 11, figuring to get there by 1 p.m., hike a couple of hours and be back before dark. Uh, nope.
First, on the ranch roads, you can't do more than 35-45 average. They are ill-maintained, have loose cattle wandering across, and they wind and turn a lot. By the time we got to Dog Canyon, it was 2:30. We did get out and unfortunately decided to do the nature loop--my suggestion since it was measured and I was thinking about my exercise and mileage tracking. It proved very disappointing, flat, uninteresting, and burned out from a fire that occurred sometime between May and August this year. When we got back to the car, it was too late to actually get on the canyon trail, so that long drive was for nothing, and we still had to get back.
Going back we stayed on a road that brought us back to the highway north of Carlsbad a few miles. We went through gas well fields that had numerous signs warning of the potential for poisonous H2S gas to be present. They said if you smelled an odor, leave the area. The whole area was odiferous! Have you ever tried to hold your breath for 20 miles?
So on Monday, I hiked McKittrick by myself. And learned that it was a good thing we hadn't done it on the Saturday--Budd would have hated it. There was no shade to speak of for the first 2 and a half miles, it was more or less flat, no challenges at all, and no color. What's up with that? Devil's Hall had much better color. The cabin was kind of interesting, but locked, so I could only take pictures of the outside.
All the stones for this cabin were picked up at the mouth of the canyon and dragged up on sleds in the 1930's when Wallace Pratt, the oil geologist who owned the land before giving it to the park service decided to build a summer home here. If you look closely, you can see that even the roof is made of stone. I listened to him narrate a slide show when I returned to the trail head, and as I understand it this is travertine. I'm familiar with travertine as a very desirable flooring tile, so this was impressive to me. I guess if you can just pick it up and don't have it polished to a high gloss like marble, it isn't that expensive. But there were the cowboys who lugged it three miles to the cabin site to pay.
After checking my map while sitting on the front porch, I decided to push on before eating lunch. My watch was acting strangely and I couldn't rely on the time it was showing, so I decided to rely on my stomach instead, even knowing that hiking suppresses my appetite. There was a mile to go to get to The Grotto. This sign tickled my fancy.
I was going into the wilderness! Which turned out to be a well-traveled trail with more people on it at this time than the trek in to the cabin. Oh well. At least they were able to tell me I was on the right track. The trails crew had fortunately stopped the deep bed of river pebbles that covered most of the trail up to the cabin...that stuff is hard to walk in!
I met a couple of characters on this part of the trail. There was the guy in a camoflage shirt who startled me by speaking before I saw him sitting to eat his lunch on a fallen log. He was very apologetic! Then there was the guy who was off the trail down at the water's edge (where the signs ask you not to be) and who kept his back to me even as I said hi and he returned the greeting. For a while I kept looking over my shoulder for him...he gave me an uneasy feeling. After a few minutes I met a couple of other parties of two or three, who each told me I was nearly there. And finally, the Grotto.
Oddest of all in this supposed wilderness area was that there were several picnic tables and benches built of the same stone as the cabin. Here I sat to eat my lunch and admire this beauty who joined me for a minute.
The hike out was a push, as I was concerned about the time. The highway gate to the road leading in is locked at 4:30 during the winter season, and I definitely didn't want to get locked in. So, as I passed person after person hiking IN, I was pushing to get OUT. This hike was 6.8 miles, the most ambitious one I've done yet, and one that I didn't enjoy as much as the first time I've done the others in the park. I don't know whether it was the excessive length, although as it turned out I did it in just over four hours--about the same as Devil's Hall, or whether it was the disappointment after building it up in my mind as something spectacular. In any case, I didn't hike again last week.
Thursday we went to El Paso for groceries as Budd had Labor Day off. Neither of us was all that impressed, so I doubt we'll take the extra time to go back again. Saturday we went to Carlsbad for a few items we had forgotten. That's beginning to feel like a normal grocery run, an hour each way for driving.
Sunday I was set to get Budd into Devil's Canyon, but he persuaded me to take a look at the little gym they have for the employees here in one of the fire crew bays. It was impressive for what it was. I've not seen another one for NPS employees at any of our other postings. It has a couple of different cable-weight machines, a treadmill, stairstepper, elliptical, and an impressive array of free weights. There's also a basketball hoop outside, where I laughably tried to guard Budd for a few minutes as he shot hoops. I made three baskets myself, thanks to him standing to the side and not trying to block them. When he DID try to block, try didn't apply. It's like trying to shoot over a nine-foot fence!
He was happy to get back home and sleep through the Dallas/NY game, especially since he expected Dallas to lose and as a Redskins fan was not particularly happy for either of them to win. We're glad the Skins have a Monday night game this week--we don't get to watch them very often. We opted for NBA league pass so we could watch our other team, the Utah Jazz, and have just about gotten our money's worth watching them come back from deep deficits for four games in a row. But Budd says he's going to have to watch a different team, because this last-minute win habit is hard on his heart! It's lucky we have no neighbors...my screaming would be hard on their hearts.
Too windy to hike today, but I'm hoping to get back on the trails tomorrow. Maybe I'll go part-way up Guadalupe Peak to see how strenuous it really is. Also looking forward to visting Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with my mother, brother and his family.
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