On the way to Silver City, this famous ghost town has a population of perhaps a dozen.  The museum has a man who appears as old as the items around him.  The drive from Alma to Mogollon itself wasn't for the faint of heart, many one lane parts of the road with hairpin turns on the sides of cliffs kept one awake during the drive!  It was worth the trip though!

/me turns in mancard

Alright, all kidding aside this area was absolutely spectacular!  The fields of wildflowers lined the roads, forests, creeks, lakes, buildings, everything!  The pictures here only represent Ink Lake State Park but I drove for many other miles and enjoyed roads lined with color! 

So, with a newly acquired Nikon Coolpix S4000 picked up from the local Walmart I tore into this park and went on both the green and blue trails.  The green began nicely but the real treasure was that blue trail.  After about a mile into it, every turn was a new delight to the senses:  sound, sight, smell and touch!  The trail was tightly crowded with flowers on all sides and the lush greenery was a wonderful change from New Mexico!

I encourage anyone in central Texas during early April to wander around Lake Buchanon and Ink Lake!  The drive from Fredricksberg to Llano to Marble Falls is a joy!

This ended the photography part of my trip as I wandered back towards Albuquerque via Lubbeck!  A very enjoyable trip!  I'll bring that spare camera next time!!!

May I have my mancard back now?

Big Bend National Park, unfortunately no real sunrise or sunset pictures because it appears that I should have made lodging reservations a year ago :)  So.. my closest lodging was at the Gage Hotel 70 miles away.

I began early in the morning and it was as foggy as pea soup out there.  So it was slow going in but as the sun rose it cleared up, although it was unfortunately very hazy the whole day.  I spent the majority of my time at the Santa Elena canyon walking through the canyon along the trail which was a great hike!  I hope to go back again some day WITH lodging in the park.  I bought a book with photos from Big Bend and it has spectacular sunrise and sunset images.  By the way, I learned early on not to travel on state roads at night, hence no sunset shots.  There's a LOT of deer and wild pigs out there crossing the road!

A short roadtrip up to Jemez to visit the ruins of the mission and the Soda Dam.  I went further north but it was still pretty snowed in so I turned around and went home.