It’s Fair Time!

We always make a point to attend the Pinal county fair every spring.  We live in Maricopa county but we prefer to attend the fair in Pinal county (which is south of us) because it is much smaller and much more like what a fair should be.  No expensive parking here or long walks… you park in the field across from the fair grounds!  This fair is very small and revolves around the FFA and 4-H kids.  Sure there is a small midway with a few rides and a small area for vendors but the main attraction is in barns and the 4-H building.  It is so neat to watch the young kids tending to there animals and showing them before the judges.  The world would be a much better place if all kids spend a few years in 4-H as they were growing up. 

 

Chicken judging… so cute

On the way home we made a quick stop at the Casa Grande Ruins site.  While we were Valerie picked up her “America the Beautiful” pass.  If you are 62+ this is a great deal as it provides free entry into most federal parks and monuments in addition to 1/2 off on camping at most federal campgrounds.

 

Out Jeep’N

It was an absolutely beautiful day so a great day to go Jeeping in the desert.  The plan today was to explore the State Trust Land south of Florence Junction east of Hwy 79.  As we pulled off the highway there were a lot of ATV’er getting ready to go out but after heading off the main road we only came across one other person all day.  We did discover some really good boondocking sites along the Cottonwood Canyon Rd so I suspect we will bring the trailer out for a few days before the temps get too high.

This hawk greeted us as soon as we pulled off the main road..

It is amazing how green the desert is right now and a few of the plants are in bloom.  In another couple weeks it will be a sight to see.  This is a view looking back toward the superstition mountains.

Got to love Jeeps…. they will take you anywhere!

Exploring the Leasburg Dam area

Since today was the last day in the area we set out to explore the area a little.  Just down the road from the park we discovered this cute little guy.  He was about the size of a large dog.  Would like to take him home!

For many miles around the park there are huge pecan orchards like this one.  Expect in the summer it would be beautiful when all the trees were leafed out.  Today a lot of the farmers were out cleaning the orchards and burning the debris. 

This is a view of the Leasburg Dam from a trail just outside the campground.  The dam which was built in 1908 is not used to retain a lake but rather is used to divert water from the Rio Grande into irrigation canals for the local orchards.  This time of the year no irrigation is needed so the river is dried up except for a minor trickle.  From the locals, sounds like the water is stored in the Elephant Butte Lake and Caballo Lake a few miles north.

Visiting the Farm & Ranch Museum

Today we visited the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum which is in Las Cruces.  We would highly recommend this as a stop if you are ever in the area.  As the name suggests, the museum focuses on the history of farming and ranching in New Mexico starting with the Native Americans and going to the modern day.  They have a wide variety of farm animals along with several orchards and gardens.  There are numerous displays of historical farm equipment located all around the museum grounds.  They also have live demonstrations of dairy cow milking, weaving, quilting, and blacksmithing.  The cost is $5 per person and $3 for 60+ so it is a great value.  They are located within a couple mile of the interstate and have a large lot to accommodate any size RV.

Each of the blocks in this “quilt” was made from a wood carving…

This was part of a special exhibit for New Mexico’s 100th anniversary of state hood.

This was a live demonstration of spinning wool into yarn.

This is a pair of owls that spend the day in the rafters above the main entrance.

A Mega-GeoCaching Day

It was a gorgeous sunny day in southern New Mexico and a perfect day for some serious geocaching.  A look at the map showed a stretch of desert road with 100 caches all within about 10 mile.  All total we found 93 of the 100 caches which is an all time record for us in number of caches found in one day.  Don’t expect that we will ever be able to top this one…

This is the map of the road with each of the push pins representing a cache.

Lots of wide open country out here… just like we like it!  All total we spent about 4 hours in this area and only saw one other person and that was right at the beginning.  Did see a lot of cows who must be have been starved for attention as they kept chasing after us….

At the end of the road we made it back to I-10 just like the map showed we would but woops there was no interchange.  The road went under the interstate through this “tunnel”.  It was a tight fit but we didn’t leave any mirrors behind but did scrape the antenna along the ceiling.

Heading to Las Cruces

Later this week Valerie is judging a quilt show in Las Cruces, NM so we decided to go a few days early to do a little exploring in that area.  The drive from Phoenix to Las Cruces is pretty simple… get on I-10 and head east, in 385 mile you are there.  Since we were planning to stay at the Leasburg Dam State Park north of town we exited I-10 at Deming and headed up highway 26 for something a little different.  They should call this highway the alternate energy highway as about half way to Hatch there was a fairly large wind farm and a few miles up the road a huge solar energy farm. 

Of course going through Hatch we had to get a photo of the famous Hatch Chile Peppers…

The Leasburg Dam State Park is fairly nice.  The drive in from the interstate give the impression that it might not be very nice but once there we were impressed.  The sites are well spaced and each site has a cement pad and a shelter.  At $14 a night for water and 30A electric it is a good deal.

Tomorrow we have a geocaching marathon planned as there is a string of 100 caches just west of Las Cruces.  They are each about a quarter mile apart so plan to find a lot!

Peppersauce Creek

Located about 6 mile southeast of Oracle AZ on the Mt. Lemon road (FR38) is the very unique Peppersauce campground.  We have stayed in this small forest service campground a couple times and it is never very crowded and is fairly isolated.  The host for this campground always seem to be a little unusual.  For example, the current host’s rig is an old pickup camper mounted on a trailer parked next to shipping container!  What really makes this campground unique is the large Arizona Sycamore trees that line the peppersauce creek banks.  These massive 100 ft tall trees with white bark make for some interesting photos against the blue AZ sky.