Bat Cave

Last night, I headed to El Malpais one last time while in Albuquerque.  I arrived just in time at 7:00 p.m. to head out to the bat cave. 

El Malpais is essentially a large bed of lava and the majority of it is difficult to walk on.  This part of the trail, El Calderon, wasn't difficult though which is probably good since it I was going on a night hike.  I was a little nervous about the weather, especially since I had driven one hour to get there.  The skies were threatening rain and lightning was closing in from every direction.  It did create some beautiful skies though:

So a large group had assembled and we walked out on the trail with the a park ranger leading the way.  The ranger said to expect the first group of bats to come out at 8:00, but they came out around 7:35 p.m.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a little frightning at first.  A few scout bats came towards the mouth of the cave and then apparently gave the go ahead to the rest of the bats who started pouring out of the cave.  The whole cave has around 20,000 bats, but the first group that came out was the Mexican free-tailed bat.  There was an echo-locater and it was eerie to hear their shrieks as they emerged.  There was a rustling through the air and a light sweet smell, which the ranger explained was the guano.  There was something calming about watching them gather and then fly away into the night.  They streamed out of darkness for about 5 minutes before the last few flew back inside to watch the pups. 

This picture does not do justice to the event.  It was truly amazing to see.  But as soon as the free-tailed bats were gone, the lightning started moving in even closer, from both the North and the West.  The ranger talked about white nose syndrome, which is a fungus that the bats are spreading around North America.  You can kind of see a small sign in the cave warning people not to go in because of this.  It has a kill rate of 99% sadly and if it spreads to New Mexico it could wipe out their bat population.  This would be devastating to the agriculture business because of the need for increased use of pesticides to kill the bugs that bats would normally eat.  We sat a little while longer, and then the ranger warned that we would need to leave because of how close the lightning was and the fact that we were sitting on ferritic lava.  Just then the small brown bats started coming out of the cave.  We all watched as these tiny bats whirred closer and closer to us.  They are apparently the acrobats of the bat world and had no fear of the intruders by their cave.  They would literally whoosh inches away from people and were swooping in larger patterns than the first bats.  The night ended with a walk back to the parking area and more beautiful skies thanks to the incoming storms.

Wolves in New Mexico

I just realized I forgot to post about my experience with wolves in New Mexico.  A few weekends ago, I signed up for a photo tour of The Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, which is in Candy's Kitchen, NM or pretty much Ramah, NM.  It's a beautiful drive across I-40, to Highway 53 in Grants, then a few smaller roads.  The worst part was the 3-4 mile drive along the gravel road that led to the sanctuary.  Anyway, once you arrive and get out of your car, you can hear the wolves howling, which gives you chills.  I walked in and met my tour guide.  She first took me to a fox pen to get used to being around wild animals.

It was a cute fox, but I wanted to move onto the big guys.  The first wolf pen that I went into was home to two artic wolves.  They were a little startling to see at first and I was not as confident as I would have liked to have been.  She warned me that these wolves needed to keep their distance and I could not get too close to them. 

Teton

It wasn't a problem.  For the most part they kept their difference, only coming close to smell where we had stepped.  The next pen that we entered was home to Sassy.  The tour guide warned me that she was friendly, but she apparently took an extra shine to me and was additionally friendly.  I couldn't get her far enough away from me to even take a decent picture for a while.  Finally she calmed down a bit, became bored with me and I was able to take a few.

So then we stopped in another pen, but eventually headed over to a black wolf's pen.  His name was Jaeger and he looked pretty scary even though he really seemed more afraid of me than I was of him. 

Jaeger

Next we went to the pen where I ended up with scratches/bruises.  It was another friendly wolf, but this time with a 150 pound male named Dakota.  He was so friendly, that to greet me when I entered the pen he put both paws on my shoulders and pinned me to the fence.  His paws were extremely sharp and he was so strong I ended up with a bloody arm and some cuts in my side.  He was still a beautiful wolf, but not very active so it was difficult to get a good picture.

Dakota

So my trip was over.  I spent two hours there and loved every second.  The time flew by, it was just amazing.  If you're ever within a few hours, you can't miss this one.  And definitely sign up for the photography tour.  It's one I won't forget, and definitely made me want to sign up for the tiger photo tour that is offered in Arkansas some time.  So hopefully in a few months there will be a new post on that adventure!

P.S.  There were some nice views on the way home:

El Morro and More

Today I took a day trip down to El Morro, NM.  I hiked around the El Morro National Monument.  It was a place where travelers would stop and sign their names in the stone, starting in the 1600s.  Here are a few examples

E. Pen Long

Spanish Adventurer

The history was pretty neat, but there was some great scenery as well:

El Morro

El Morro

On the way back to Albuquerque, I stopped at the Bandera Volcano and ice caves.  I met a nice German gentleman there who informed me he was spending 1.5 months driving around Colorado, New Mexico and South Dakota.  Rather interesting choices I thought.  Here are some pics:

Bandera Volcano crater

Ice Cave

The ice cave was pretty cool.  It stays at 31 degrees year round.  The crater was ok, kind of a long walk to look at a hole in the ground. 

I was really tired, but decided to stop at El Malpais.  It turns out that on the west side of El Malpais Monument/National Conservation area there is not much to do unless you want to take a 15 mile hike across lava, which was tempting, but I didn't have the time.  There are a few shorter hikes, but the lady at the information center warned me that they were all very difficult.  She recommended that I go check out La Ventana and the Sandstone bluffs on the east side instead.  I decided to go for it, and I'm glad I did.  See below:

Right next to La Ventana

La Ventana

Sandstone bluffs

The views were amazing, and well worth the 20 mile drive from the highway.  Exit 89 in New Mexico if you are driving across on I-40.  I just wish I had had more time to look around Grants for once! 

White Water Kayaking at the Taos Box

This weekend I made the decision to try white water kayaking.  It looked like fun, I had never done anything with rivers/rapids besides float trips, and it was cheap.  The weekend ended with severely bruised legs, scrapes across my hands, and a huge knot on my elbow and barely being able to sit down.  Would I do it again?….maybe.
        So we started with a “lesson” on Friday night at the indoor pool.  Five minutes into said lesson, and we were kicked out by lightning in the area.  We had enough time to practice one skill, one time, which was how to pull the emergency release if you end up upside down in your kayak.  So, it had never occurred to me that you were actually stuck, inside the kayak.  I had the idea that you were just sitting in it, legs in front of you, and if it tipped over, you just fell out.  Not the case.  If you tip over, you are trapped underwater with the kayak on top of you.  You are then supposed to tuck your body towards your legs, raise your fists to the outside of the boat and knock to alert others that you are upside down.  You then wait, until someone comes over to your boat and allows you to pull yourself up using their kayak as leverage.  This is of course, the beginner method.  Who would know that?
        Saturday morning, I lazily paddled around the river (Taos box area).  The first horrific thing to happen was a drunk man, fell off the bridge over the river, hitting his head as he came down and then not being able to swim once he surfaced.  By the time we were able to convince his friends he needed to go to the hospital despite him asking for another beer, he was in shock…really smart to play on the edge of bridge over rapids filled with rocks.  Anyway, we started heading down the river and I decided to try and catch a current.  I was promptly flipped over to my dismay.  I silently panicked before walking through the steps.  I did not hear a kayak hit my kayak.  I waited another few seconds then desperately tried to reach for another kayak but did not find any.  I finally pulled the emergency release and was quickly caught up in the current and dragged across some large rocks, but, I did still have my boat.  One of the instructors came over to help me empty out my boat and told me I had tilted the wrong way into the current – hmm, we hadn’t covered that in the 5 minutes of lessons the night before, odd.  So I survived, but was a little shaken.  I was then informed that you can actually learn what is called a kayak roll.  When you sense that you are falling, you somehow use your momentum and paddle to roll through the fall and end up upright.  They offer a class in this method which I immediately signed up for once the day was over. 

Lower part of the Taos Box

        So I spent the rest of the day trying to stay on the straight parts, twirling around in circles as I lost control of my kayak in the current and trying not to get eaten by the triranhas (trout + piranhas) – Taos joke I guess?  The rapids that we went through at the end were quite a bit of fun and easier to stay upright in than the fast moving current.  I followed it up the next day at 10,000 Waves in Santa Fe with a soak, Thai Massage and facial.  Ask for Lesley for the massage if you go.  I was finally able to sit comfortably in my car on the way back home after she pulled my limbs in so many different directions.  They claim it is possible to be taller after a Thai massage, which is kind of weird.