Day 32 - El Morro and El Malpais

Camping in a Walmart parking lot stinks-- the bright lights blaze in constantly despite black out window coverings and cars pull in all night. Parking in the very back could've helped. Camping there did put me close to the big city of Albequerque where I got my first oil change after 5k miles in 30 days and allowed me to resupply food at Costco, securing a months food supply for my May in remote southern Utah.

Business done by noon, I drove two hours to El Morro. A whiteish towering cliff with a permanent deep watering hole, El Morro was a popular stopping point for settlers, soldiers and explorers heading West. 2,000 people inscribed their names and some petroglyphs on the rock face, the earliest inscription carved in 1609, making El Morro a unique historical landmark. Pics.

Still having three hours of the best time of day left, I drove 15 miles to the dirt road entrance of El Malpais National Monument's lava tubes. The dirt road was passable when dry but impassable when wet. With the skies darkening but likely staying dry, I set out down the lonely dirt road eight miles to the lava tubes. Lava tubes were formed by lava flowing from a fairly recently but ancient volcano eruption and going underground in tubes. Eroding over time, the top edge of the tubes have collapsed leaving wide channels of dried lava and caves. Hiking on this stuff is bizarre, resembling exploring a far off dark planet. You follow cairns, human built piles of lava rock that blend into the surroundings, around the lava tubes to certain viewpoints. It felt a bit unsafe being out there alone, getting lost as easy as missing a cairn, but I pushed on, stopping whenever i couldn't see a cairn and back tracking to the last cairn carefully, always checking my heading on my watch compass. I felt a bit lost at one point thinking in my head I should be going one way back to the car but having cairns go the opposite way. I left the cairns to check a pass over a lava tube, but not seeing more cairns went back to the cairn path and followed it back to safety. The parking lot this way sign was welcome relief. I drove back to El Morro campground and camped at their free campgrounds. I have a gps locator beacon for SOS at all times so I'm never in grave danger. Pics.

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Days 89 and 90 - Waterton

I started my journey north to Canada today. My plan was to head to Waterton Lakes, just north of Glacier, then to Calgary, then the Canadian Rockies parks of Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Glacier and a few others, then to Vancouver and finally to Seattle, all over the next several weeks. But first I needed the Internet! I drove south out of Many Glacier to a place I remembered having cell reception. I did some emailing and calling back home, did some research for my Canada trip and watched the final three episodes of Game of Thrones--wow, the final two episodes were sensational. This rainy, dreary day was perfect for such activities. I then drove into Canada late in the evening and to a campground set in the cloudy mountains at Waterton. The weather cleared a bit the next day and I was able to do some hiking around this scenic alpine lakes district. Waterton Lakes district from a high hill called Bear's Hump: The chipmunks at Bear's Bump were very interested in the conten...

Day 106 - Seattle

My July 4th started with a drive from Vancover to Seattle, arriving at the Museum of Flight by 11. The museum tour began with a display of the 27 U.S. Flags, made interesting by announcing the history of the states entry into the union. This B-17 is similar to the bomber my grandfather flew in WW2. A former Air Force One plane that Kennedy road on was another highlight. I stayed all day at the museum enjoying the history of aviation exhibits and finally space! I drove into downtown Seattle to checkout the city parks reserved for fireworks watching. These neighborhoods were crawling with people and would make horrible stealth street camping sites. I called several hostels and all were full... but then I found one with one bed left. I reserved the spot and drove to the hostel to find it in walking distance to the fireworks. I joined a group waking down to see the fireworks. We were joined by a few others. Two skydivers with fire flaming behind their path were followed by...

Day 93 - Calgary to Banff

After a very pleasant morning at Dave's house spent photocopying trail and scramble guide routes, enjoying a great breakfast and coffee, meeting some of Dave's extremely kind family members and chatting more about adventures, I set out for downtown Calgary. I thought a walk around a museum would be a nice change of pace, so I toured the Glenbow Museum. Two highlights were a Blackfoot Indian describing the meaning of their Tipi decorations and the Gun Scupture. The history of Alberta section was also quite interesting: fur trappers then cowboys then railroad builders then oil drillers. I then walked down to a nearby waterfront park, along a pedestrian only shopping street where a Christian pride rally was taking place, and then down quiet side streets to the park. Seeing people out jogging and playing on this Sunday afternoon reminded me of the real life I must one day return to. But not yet! Hungry and ready for mountains, I walked back to my van and left Calgary heading wes...

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