Here are the follow-up photos of CJ’s and my humble summer (May thru August) abode. The Spring of ’09 gave us ample time for various improvements. For example, Cj sewed all the curtains and incoorporated some minor details such as Velcro closures. As for some of the fine points of additions which fall under the category of “modern conveniences” are hot and cold water, filtered drinking water, window screens, a new entrance door, outdoor shower, heat and WIFI. The upper shelf in the photos was part of the original design and runs the entire perimeter of the bus.

As the New Mexico sun sets slowly in the west.

The custom cut recycled solid core Maple Door.

The plumbing.

Our outdoor shower. Note the propane water heater mounted on left.

The foyer (drivers seat) lies behind the curtain. (Boy, the place looks a mess!)

The curtained closet and bed (which someone forgot to make) at the "emergency exit".

The office, with WIFI and the Audio Command Center.

Ahh, the thoroughly modern kitchen.

The dining room.

Roasted chile

It was mentioned in an earlier post that our friend Martha and friends were visiting, for the purpose of obtaining and processing New Mexico chile for her Mexican restaurant in Haines, Alaska. Peeling chile is a very labor-intensive activity, and it testifies to how well-regarded Martha is, that she has so many folks willing to help.They hope to finish up today (before it snows).

Deena dumps a pile of chile on the table. The peeling crew consists of, clockwise from the left: Jesse, Zahava, Martha and Sara

Many more family and friends (than seen here) attended, including Martha’s 94-year old father-in-law. Martha and company produced some wonderful riverside cuisine, and we all enjoyed sitting around the fire in the evening. It was quite a shindig, and we are already looking forward to next October.

Kathy and Steve's place on the Rio Grande

You’ll have to enlarge this photo to see the details. Click on the photo, which will bring you to a new screen (and allow you to comment on it if you wish), and then click again on the photo, which will enlarge it.

I’m posting this photo so that those of you who have not had the opportunity to visit us can see the layout. We’re located at Mile 21 on Hwy 68, in the spread-out village of Embudo (“funnel” in Spanish), about equidistant from Espanola to the south and Taos to the northeast. Our more precise location is known as “La Bolsa” (the “pocket”, in Spanish), which consists of a few homes located between the highway and the river. Additionally, our place is located on the “Bosque” stretch of the river, which begins at the County Line (3 miles upstream of us, and the take-out for the Racecourse stretch), and concludes at the mouth of the Rio Grande Gorge, at Velarde (about 8 miles downstream of us). “Bosque”, in Spanish, translates to grove of trees, most usually cottonwoods in New Mexico and the name “Millers Landing” was bestowed on our piece of shoreline by the BLM, who regulate river use on the Rio.

This photo was taken on 10/20, as it began to rain. The storm (which is now clearing out) provided the first good snows of the season at the higher elevations, which includes Taos Ski Valley. They got at least 4” at the base, and our rafting colleague John Weinmeister has reported (on Facebook) that he and crew have begun snowmaking operations there. Yeah!

The New Wave gang that headed out to raft the Green through Canyonlands NP about 3 weeks ago returned last night. They had a great time, and saw a lot of fantabulous scenery. It was the first trip on that portion of the Green for all of them. The crew consisted of: Britt Huggins, our NWR Operations Manager (and contributor to this blog): Neil Oberheide, longtime NWR guide and nephew of Kathy Miller; Patrick and Jenni Chandler, who arrived back from their Honeymoon in Italy, Turkey, Greece and Egypt just the day before leaving on this trip (they are, respectively, NWR guide and NWR Office Manager); Jesse Mogler, NWR Rookie Guide of the Year and Sara his girlfriend. You can look forward to seeing a post from Britt on this trip, featuring his usual great photography. And, he was shooting his brand-new Nikon D 90!

Also, this morning, our friend Martha Clark Stewart and husband Thad arrived. She just got off a commercial Grand trip. She’s been a Grand Canyon guide for umpteen years, and before that, she, Kathy and I worked together for the Southwest Outward Bound School, in Santa Fe. We all did a Grand trip in 1979, which preceded (and perhaps led to) her decades-long career. Thad also was a Grand guide for many years. He had just arrived from a 3500-mile car trip from Haines, Alaska. They own and operate a Mexican food restaurant there, in the summer, called Mosey’s Cantina, and they came to New Mexico for the express purpose of buying a summer season’s worth of roasted green chile, peeling it (with the help of friends), freezing it and then, ultimately, driving it and themselves back to Haines for the summer season. Wow! They spend the winter in Springdale, Utah, at the mouth of Zion Canyon, where they own a home. They and friends will be camping with us for the next few days while they peel the chile.

BLM Kokopelli sign

Here’s a place that I didn’t mention earlier, which we passed when heading home from Wyoming, in September. It’s south of  Rangely, CO, on the road to Loma. This rock art was first noticed by the first non-Native American to travel in these parts – the Spanish friar, Fray Escalante, in 1776!

BLM sign, describing the site

Kokopelli is the name that’s been given to a flute player that appears in such rock art panels all over the Colorado Plateau portion of the Southwest.

Sign showing the distribution of rock art throughout the Colorado Plateau

You’ll notice the cable that has been strung across the pictograph. This is to prevent theft. The stealing of and dealing in illegally-obtained artifacts constitutes a wide-spread and lucrative illegal trade in the Southwest.

Kokopelli pictograph

You may have already heard the terms pictograph and petroglyph, and be wondering what the difference between the two is. A pictograph is a painting on a rock surface, whereas a petroglyph is a design pecked into the rock surface. Below is an example of the latter.

A famous petroglyph panel at Butler Wash, on the San Juan river, pecked into desert varnish

I’ll finish with another panel from Canon Pintado, (which means Painted Canyon in Spanish, by the way).

Pictographs at Canon Pintado, Colorado

Our big cottonwood

I’m not the first to observe how much more you appreciate home after returning from time away. Kathy and I have traveled a lot in the last two months (and we’re probably not finished yet), but feel very fortunate to be back home at this time of year. This is the time of year, of course, when the cottonwoods go gold, bringing magic to the river banks.

The Rio Grande, in the Bosque stretch

Yesterday afternoon, Kathy and I took out our canoe, for a 4-mile trip downstream, from our place to Embudo Station, a riverside restaurant. I was up front, with my fly rod, while Kathy navigated from the rear. The river remains low and clear, good for fishing. I caught two brown trout, both in fast water. I was using a purple bunny jig, which has a lot of wiggle. The day before I landed a nice pike, along with a few rainbows, up in the Orilla Verde section – and using the same fly.

Brown trout, caught in the Bosque stretch of the Rio Grande

The mild weather we’ve been enjoying since we’re back is soon to be replaced by rain and snow at higher elevations, as a storm system sweeps in from the west. We’ll rejoice in that, when it arrives, because we’re now looking forward to our winter occupation – teaching skiing at Taos Ski Valley. If we get sufficient late Fall snows the Ski Valley could open up by Thanksgiving. If not, then sometime around Dec. 15.

Great Northern Pike, caught in the Orilla Verde section of the Rio Grande, near Taos, New Mexico

It’s likely that we’ll spend the next few weeks at South Padre Island, Texas, just a few miles away from where the Rio Grande (yes, the same Rio Grande) runs into the Gulf of Mexico. We have a small travel trailer (and fishing boat) in storage down there, which we’ll set up at the Isla Blanca County Park, in the company of the “snowbirds” (aka winter Texans), who spend the entire winter there. The main attractions of the place are that it’s practically tropical (at the same latitude as Fort Lauderdale), it’s not too long a drive from New Mexico, it’s a relatively inexpensive way to live, AND, the fishing is great!

This big Redfish puts a big smile on my face

And then, it’ll be time to go skiing. Come ski with us!

Kathy and Steve Miller, Ski Instructors at Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico

Squirrelfish, against a very colorful background of coral and other species

As boldly asserted in a previous blog, there’s nothing more beautiful than a coral reef and it’s associated marine life. A coral reef is the most colorful, varied and densely-packed natural scene one can find. Add to that the fact that the fish and other marine life usually permit close inspection. One can fin along lazily from one tableau to the other, suspended in the warm tropical sea, and watch, and watch, and watch. And what an opportunity for close-up nature photography! It wasn’t long into my diving career that I purchased underwater camera gear and started to photograph the fabulous marine life encountered on our dives. On this trip my wife Kathy got to use the camera on occasion, and took some of the best photos. So, since a photo is worth a 1000 words …

Schoolmaster snappers, Grey snappers, goatfish and blue-striped grunts

Rope sponges

Hawksbill turtle

Mutton snapper

Porkfish (right) and White Margates

Queen Angelfish

Queen Angelfish

Gray Angelfish

Longsnout seahorse, photo by Kathy Miller

French Angelfish gathering up scraps from feeding Hawksbill Turtle

Kathy Miller, on dive boat

Reboarding our dive boat after taking our surface interval (about an hour, to allow nitrogen to dissolve out of our blood)

We dove with Aldora Divers, and stayed at the Villa Aldora – altogether a very satisfactory arrangement. The Villa was great, and Aldora Divers used fast boats, large steel tanks and had very personable, knowledgeable and attentive divemasters.

More coloful sponges, corals and other marine life

Scrawled filefish

Giant Anemone

Spotted Drum

Brain coral

Banded Butterflyfish

Yellowtail damselfish

Porkfish

Rope Sponges

It's not a fancy ceramic, it's a sponge

Schoolmaster snapper

Spiny Lobster

Stoplight Parrotfish

Goatfish, Gray snappers, Blue-striped grunts and big Tiger Grouper

Sponges, photo by Kathy Miller

Rock Beauty, Blue Chromis and Bi-Color Damselfish, photo by Kathy Miller

Porcupinefish, photo by Kathy Miller

Sargassum Triggerfish

Tiger Grouper

French Angelfish

See what I mean? So, is scuba diving hard? No, it’s not hard, as long as you’re comfortable underwater. And you’ll know that a short ways into your scuba education. By all means take your lessons in warm water i.e. the tropics. You can get introduced to scuba by taking a “resort course” at your hotel and, if you like it, follow it up by taking the full-fledged course later. See you underwater!

Bison along the Yellowstone River and geyser across river

Clepsydra Geyser, in the Lower Geyser Basin

Shell Geyser, in Biscuit Basin

Hot cascade at Firehole Lake

Geyser at Firehole Lake

As the current PBS TV series by Ken Burns, on our National Parks, illustrates, it all started with Yellowstone. What a place!

My first visit to Yellowstone was in the company of my parents, when I was fifteen, in 1955. That trip also included the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Glacier. And it produced, in me, the conviction that these places were where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I spent my first summer in a National Park in 1957, when I worked at the hotel in East Glacier, next to Glacier Park. I did a lot of fishing and hiking that summer, and a pattern was set. Next was Grand Teton National Park, in 1959, where I worked at Jackson Lake Lodge and learned to climb (see earlier post on the Tetons). In that summer I also visited Yellowstone, hiking and fishing. I also worked a summer at Lassen National Park, but let’s return to Yellowstone.

Excelsior Geyser

On that first visit, with my folks, my Dad and  I rented a skiff and fished in the vicinity of Fishing Bridge, at the outlet of Yellowstone Lake. We caught a mess of beautiful Yellowstone cutthroats, and had them cooked for us at the Lake Hotel. Later on, Fishing Bridge was closed to fishing and the skiff livery also discontinued, to remove the impact of fishing on the spawning fish. More on the Yellowstone fishery further down. Kathy and I have visited Yellowstone numerous times since. We’ve hiked into 7-Mile Hole, in the canyon of the Yellowstone River, we kayaked up the Lewis-Shoshone channel to Shoshone Lake, we skied into Witch Creek and Heart lake, and winter camped there, we hiked and fished with my brother and sister-in-law all over the park, including Slough Creek, we fished the Firehole, Madison and Yellowstone in October, when we were the last campers at Madison Junction campground.

Fringed Gentians along the Gibbon River

As noted in earlier posts, this visit followed a raft trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon and some fishing in the Henry’s Fork, both in Idaho. On this occasion, we split our time between fishing and seeing the sights. Yellowstone contains not only the world’s pre-eminent collection of thermal features – it also contains Yellowstone Lake and Yellowstone River. After exiting the lake, the latter flows first through exquisite wildlife-packed meadow stretches, then over the two Yellowstone Falls and finally through the incredibly scenic and dramatic Canyon. And the park contains many other gorgeous rivers and lakes, all of which provide spectacular fishing for wild trout. Between the thermal features, the wildlife, the lakes, rivers and streams,  the fishing and the amazing diversity of scenery, you have no idea what you’re going to see next. There is just so much sensational stuff jam-packed into the place!

Rainbow Trout from the Gibbon River

But not all was perfection itself, as we discovered. When we asked about the fishing at Bud Lilly’s fly shop, in West Yellowstone, we were informed that there were few Yellowstone cutthroats left in Yellowstone Lake and River. We had been aware that an unfortunate situation had developed in the lake – namely, the illegal introduction of lake trout into the lake, sometime around 1994. As soon as the event was discovered, it was also discovered that the lake trout were having a field day with the cutthroats. Lakers can grow huge, and will prey on all other fish in a body of water.This had happened progressively over a fifteen year period, and by the time of our visit, the cutthroats were all but gone. Kathy and I went fishless in the river in two hours of fishing, and the same for the lake. Then we walked up one side and down the other of the Fishing Bridge and saw one trout. What an incredible bummer! And how I would like to keel-haul the individual responsible for it. What could have been that individual’s motive? Was it resentment that some of the Park’s waters are fly-fishing only, along with strict size and limit restrictions elsewhere? Well…the Park now urges anglers to kill every lake trout they catch in the lake, even if they don’t eat them. And, what are the lakers good for, in the way of sport? Now, there are these huge fish, deep, deep down in the lake, which can be pursued only by anglers equipped with motorized boats that can troll lures at an appropriate depth with the aid of down-riggers. So, my guess is that it was such an angler, who thought to himself: “Boy, think how big lakers will grow in this lake. And I can go out in my boat and locate those fish on my sonar and troll big spinners on my down-riggers right past them, and catch those monsters.” Whoever it was, he succeeded – and deprived the rest of us of catching the beautiful Yellowstone cutthroats out of those most beautiful bodies of water, Yellowstone Lake and River. Damn! This bothered Kathy and me more than you might imagine. It’s such a crime.

Canada geese along the Madison River

Otherwise, all was extraordinary, as always, in Yellowstone, no less today than in 1955, which is one of the great attributes of Yellowstone and all the rest of the National Park system. While the environment steadily degrades everywhere else, the National Parks stay as they always were – pristine, full of life and the wonders of nature. Here are a few more photos.

Sapphire Pool. in Biscuit Basin

Bison, Fountain Flats

Firehole Spring

Rainbow Trout, from the Gibbon River

Bison, along the double-meander of Trout Creek, in Hayden Valley

Silex Spring, Lower Geyser Basin

Bald Eagles, along the Madison River

Bull Elk, along the Madison River

Outflow from Excelsior Geyser, into the Firehole River

Bacterial mats, alongside Grand Prismatic Spring, in Midway Geyser Basin

Bison crossing road at Old Faithful

Yellowstone Falls and canyon, from Artist Point

Yellowstone River seen through mist, from the brink of the Lower Falls

Yellowstone River, from brink of the Lower falls

Lower Yellowstone Falls and rainbow in mist, from Uncle Tom's Trail

Sign at the Fishing Bridge, explaining how the trout population has recovered since fishing was eliminated at the Fishing Bridge, and how the white pelicans have returned. There is now neither fish nor pelicans there. They should replace the sign with one explaining why the fish and pelicans are now gone.

Hello again!

We’re just back from a 10 day stay on the island of Cozumel, off-shore of the Riviera Maya and Cancun, Mexico. The island is widely-known for its scuba diving, and this was our 5th trip, having first visited Cozumel in 1981. We did 6 days of diving, one day of bonefishing and one day of just driving around. The diving was as good as always, with spectacular walls, caves, canyons and pinnacles, along with coral and sponge gardens. Because the reefs are protected the fish and marine life is abundant. You nature lovers take note: you cannot find more natural beauty in the world than a coral reef and its inhabitants. It’s that simple. So, all you have to do is learn to scuba dive…

Here’s a photo. More will follow (along with Yellowstone, which I promised in an earlier post)

Our divemaster took this pic of Kath and myself