non stop DRAMA: March 2010

So on Friday morning, the girls and I got up and headed from Carlsbad to Ruidoso. The girls had pretty much had enough of the desert, they were ready to see scenery that was alive again!

We decided to take the scenic route along the way, which was a pretty drive. We were on long, narrow, windy mountain rodes for quite awhile.

Tayler decided along the way that she had to go to the bathroom. As you can see from the pictures above, there wasn't much out there. We were driving through a mountain pass, when we rounded a corner and found a Petting Zoo! It was a cute little place at these people's home/ranch. They had a stand set up where they sold their homemade jellies and other foods, and feed for the animals. You could walk around all you wanted and pet the animals, and feed them also. The girls were excited, and we needed to stretch our legs, so we decided to check it out.

They thought it was funny to watch the goat eat

This goat looked dead - he was not. We also decided he reminded us of Harley

They found their first friend

He really liked Kati and wouldn't leave her alone

They weren't sure of the Emu - his name was Ernie

Oh yea - this was the bathroom! Tayler kept calling it an outhouse, but it was actually very clean and new looking on the inside - and did have plumbing!

Tayler really fell for this bull

Well.....what can I say?

She wasn't sure about feeding Ernie and Emu

They had gigantic catfish in the pond, that were more like Piranhas when you fed them

They weren't sure of the Donkey's - but they were hungry too

She finally got close enough to feed Ernie

Kati was feeding him, but he had no interest in posing with her

So we got back on the road heading towards Ruidoso. As we got closer, we started seeing snow on the mountains

There it is - Sierra Blanca

Sierra Blanca has the snow skiing slopes in Ruidoso. At the base of the mountain is an area where you can tube down the slopes. The girls and I decided to do this, since snow skiing was out for us. We had a blast!! Make sure you check out the videos at the end of this post!

View of a couple of the tube runs

Tayler & I in line

They had this conveyor belt that they called the Mountain Lifter. It was cool.

They went pretty fast down the mountain!

There was a storm moving in over the mountains, so when we were done, we couldn't go any further up the mountain. So instead we went back to our hotel, got dry, and then hit the town. We only made it to a couple of shops before they started shutting due to the snow. We then went to check out the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino. It was a beautiful place!!

That is an amazing Indian Medicine Basket waterfall below them

Tayler takes forever to take a picture!

This was us train tubing down. I had the camera, and I was in the back. I was trying to hold it up over Tayler's head, or to the side - but we were going fast!

This is a 2nd run, Kati held the camera in the front.

We had a great time in Carlsbad Caverns, it really is beautiful down there! As we were leaving, we spotted a gravel road with a sign on it, so we pulled in to check it out. It was the entrance to Walnut Canyon Drive. This is a 9.5-mile loop road which starts 1/2 mile from the Carlsbad Caverns entrance and proceeds along a ridge to Rattlesnake Canyon, returning to the visitor center through Upper Walnut Canyon. The sign said the drive would take about 1 hour, and it's a narrow 1 way road. The girls and I decided to check it out, and we are glad we did!

We didn't see any wildlife, much to the girls dismay. Tayler was really hoping to see rattlesnakes or tarantulas....me....not so much. She was hoping to see some, I was praying to not see any. Turns out, prayers work the best!! :)

We did see cactus...and more cactus. The views were spectacular!

This is looking back at the visitor center of Carlsbad Caverns

Will she ever learn??

Close up shot of a "bud" on a Walking Cane Cactus plant

Here is part of the drive...

Cacti...(I took this picture from inside the truck)

Kati is always posing

She was trying to decide if she wanted to hike

Tayler was on the hunt for snakes

This was a cool looking cactus plant - it actually looked like a dead tree, until you got close

It had eyes too

Cactus everywhere!

After we made our way around the entire trail (which took about 2 hours for us) we headed out of Carlsbad National Park. At the entrance is an area called White's City. It's basically a campground, a couple of motels and some shops. We stopped to get something to drink.