Musical Cacti

After we made it into Arizona last month, we headed south to the border to hit one of the national monuments we missed the last time. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is apparently the only place in the United States where these Organ Pipe Cacti grow. I haven't seen a lot of organs with pipes, but apparently these cacti look like that, with a bunch of arms all stretching out of the same spot and growing pretty tall. Honestly there were a lot more of the Saguaro cacti here than Organ Pipes, but whatever. We took a long drive around a dirt road loop and stopped for a short hike into a canyon to see a rock arch. Me and the boys almost made it to the top of the mountain where the arch was, but a swarm of bees cut off the path and forced us to turn back. Nolan wanted to go off path and cut through the brush to get around them, but it seemed like the kind of place to get rattlesnaked or scorpioned, so we turned back, much to his dismay. Either way, it was a beautiful spring day to listen to the cacti play their music!

Needed some lunch before the hike...

Big ol' cactus.

That's the arch up there... that's where we're headed boys.

Don't touch the trees.

Through the sweeping landscape of the American Southwest!

A little Organ Pipe cacti... maybe they call it a Seedling?

Take my picture Dad, it'll be like "Second Day on Mars."

Up and up we go...

Didn't make it all the way, but the sun was still shining on a beautiful day...

Organ Mountains and Desert Peaks

Not to be confused with Oregon mountains, which are a long way from Texas. I didn't know Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument existed, but sure enough it does. It's only been a national monument since 2014, so it's younger than Nolan, but I'm guessing the mountains have been around longer than that. We had extra time and it was a perfect evening for a hike, so we made it to the park just before it closed and got to play around on the big rocks. The boys and I got into a few somewhat dangerous positions on the rocks, but that should be expected. We took a big loop around the park and otherwise enjoyed the perfect weather and sunset! Five stars, would recommend!

The path was all downhill from the start, which only means its uphill coming back.

They had excess energy for some reason... ran the whole way down.

Apparently a hermit used to live in this cave years ago until someone murdered him. Good heartwarming story!

A beautiful sunset over the New Mexico desert!

Guadalupe Mountains

We took a long drive to California for Spring Break, but before we got there we had to make the really long drive out of Texas. Along the way I wanted to stop a few places I'd been wanting to see (and a few I didn't even know I wanted to see). First on my list was Guadalupe Mountains National Park, way up on the New Mexico border. We cut across the state on I-10 and broke off at Fort Stockton to go north. Problem was, the roads up there are heavily used by heavy oil trucks, and they were torn up with massive deadly potholes. I hit one of them going about 65 mph and destroyed the rear wheel of the van... great times! Thankfully I had changed a tire on the van a year earlier, so I knew how to do it without having to watch a YouTube video again (it's more complicated that it should be). So that cost us half a day to drive up to Carlsbad to get a new tire. But after all that, we headed back to the park. Surprisingly, it was overcrowded and there weren't any parking spots at the visitor's center. But we found another place to park down the road and hiked back along a nice path on a beautiful spring day.

The mountain in the background is Signal Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet above sea level. It's a full day's hike to reach the top and back, so we didn't have time this trip, but we'll be back at some point!

 

They love long car rides.

We didn't have time to see much, but it was nice stop in northern Texas! Now onward down the path...

Back to the Blue Ghost

Way back in February, the two younger boys got to sleep over night on the Lexington WWII aircraft carrier for Cub Scouts! We did it a couple of years ago, but this was Nolan's first time getting to go. It's a pretty unique experience getting to sleep in the bunks the sailors used to use, and otherwise just getting to hang out on the ship after dark.

View from the lower decks.

Nolan enjoyed his burger on the ship... or more like he ate a couple bites and I enjoyed the rest.

Ready for bed!

Sunrise over the bay after a wonderful night of sleep!

So apparently I dressed them in each others clothes... but who could tell? Other than Adam's high water pants... but there's a lot of water around so that could come in handy. Oh well, they had a great time!