Among the Rocks

Last night we went to the star party held here in the park. They said it started at 7:30, so by 7:15 we were settled in our chairs. And then we waited, and waited and then the sun set and we waited some more. We knew sunset wasn't until later, but thought perhaps there was going to be a presentation or talk before. Nope. Along around 8:30 one of the guys decided it was twilightish enough to see Jupiter, so set up his scope for that. Then the troop of girl scouts showed up as did a brisk wind. I looked at Tom and said "I've seen Jupiter and this wind is making me cold, do you want me to bring you a jacket?" And that was pretty much the end of my star party, although Tom did return to the Beach House about 15 minutes after I did for that jacket after all. And around 9:30 or so we sat at the picnic table outside in the dark and just looked at the millions of stars sparkling overhead. It reminded me of camping out in the backyard when I was kid and Dad would tell us all the constellations.

This morning I watched the sunrise through the window from the warmth of my cozy bed. Too chilly for me (47 degrees) to crawl out of bed, but it was fun to watch the light come up and listen to the birds chirp as they, too, woke up. After that it was a very lazy day...and I do mean lazy...as we leisurely had coffee, read the email, downloaded the Sunday paper and ate breakfast. The wind was pretty blustery all morning, so we did not venture much outside. But by 10 or so, it had warmed up enough that we decided it was safe to trek out among the rocks on a loop circuit. This park has many lovely campsites tucked up and into the large boulders and rocks. Every where you turn is an interesting view or perspective. I had my phone with me, but it was in the pocket of my jacket, which I took off about a third of the way through the hike...so I have only one picture from early in our walk.

This area was inhabited by the early Indians and there are artifacts from that up in the rocks. Easiest to find are the matate depressions where they ground their grain on the rock.

This afternoon the wind was reduced to just a cooling breeze, so I spent the time reading, blogging, and writing a couple of emails while Tom spent most of it editing his raw footage GO Pro movies. He's trying to cut down several hours of raw footage to a few minutes of interesting video.

We'll be heading out early in the morning to avoid the predicted 30 mph winds in the late morning and afternoon. Not sure what our wifi coverage will be, but imhope to post at least once from our next destination: Kartchner Caverns State Park in Arizona.