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Published: June 19th 2006
Kate here...
We weren't originally planning on stopping for the night in New Mexico, but Palo Duro Canyon in Texas proved to be unworthy of two nights, at least to the 4 of us.
So we found a few lakes near I-40 in New Mexico that looked like they might offer some decent camping. Santa Rosa Lake was the first stop, but it was not much to see. The primitive camping was far away from the water and had little to no shade. So we decided to take a bit of a longer drive south to Sumner Lake, which happens to be just a few miles away from the grave of Billy the Kid, for those of you interested in such things. This lake was also not much to look at, a big body of brownish water in the middle of dry rocks and tumbleweeds, but just downstream from the dam was a nice little grassy spot with some nice trees for shade. It was the Ranger's first suggestion for camping, and was very popular with the fishing folk, 3 groups of which shared the camping area with us for the night we were there. I was FINALLY able
to go swimming in Lake Sumner too. It felt mighty good after a week's worth of really hot weather and a string of lakes that did not allow swimming.
Unfortunately, as Shay already posted, I woke up in the morning COVERED in poison ivy rash. Which really sucked, because our stay at Lake Sumner was going swimmingly up to that point.
I washed myself off as best I could with some Tecnu soap that I'd brought along, but there were no showers available, so we packed up and headed for our next stop of Holbrook, Arizona, (just West of Petrified Forest) where we had reservations at the KOA campground.
As soon as we arrived here, I jumped into the pool to try and wash off any residual evilness that was still on my skin. Thankfully, a couple of dips in the pool and a few Tecnu showers later, everything started to clear up. Where I come from, the poisonous plant du jour is Poison Oak, but I managed to spend 23 years living in Northern California with only one small case of it. I don't know what the hell got my skin so upset, Poison Ivy, Sumack,
or some toxic chemical somehow seeping into Lake Sumner...but it was not a very fun at all.
This morning, we were up at dawn and headed out to Petrified Forrest/Painted Desert National Park, hoping to get some hiking in before the heat kicked in. Come to find out that our clocks were set an hour early, but we only had to wait 15 minutes for the park to open at 7am. Also come to find out, there really isn't much hiking to be done in the park, aside from a handfull of 1/2 mile loops with 10 minutes of driving between them. So that's what we did, drove around taking pictures with all of the other tourists. Eventually it got too hot and boring, and we stopped doing the hiking part. We were back at the KOA by 11:00am this morning, and we've spent the day trying to stay cool, moving our folding chairs along with the sparse shade of the nearby trees.
In hindsight, I think we both would've rather driven up into Colorado and Utah instead of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Tonight we're trying to decide if we should stick with the itinerary: 2 nights
at Hualapai Mountain Park and 3 nights at Joshua Tree...or try and go up to the Grand Canyon and shave a night or two off of Hualapai and Joshua Tree...or admit that we're done with the desert thing and move up our visit with our friends in Bakersfield. Audrey and Erin...if you're reading this...we might show up a day earlier than expected.
We both want more hiking (that isn't in arid climates with absolutely no shade) and more water. Even if I can't swim in it, I just like having water around. Hualapai sounds like it will scratch our hiking itch, but we're both ambivalent about Joshua Tree. I've heard lots of great things about it, but it sounds like it will be more of what we are realizing we don't like.
There have been no further Shadow Hound sightings so far...
Hope you enjoy the pictures. 😊
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beth
non-member comment
sigh
gogeous pics. sounds hot, but looks great! Emma is such a cutie pie!