Sandia Man Cave in the Jemez Mountains

The Sandia Man Cave is cave in the Jemez Mountains near Placitas that was found in the 1930's. It was excavated and the remnants of the cave were removed to the University of New Mexico. There is now a hiking trail, a fence, and a small spiral staircase that leads up into the cave. It is an easy hike from the parking area but not so easy if you are afraid of heights. In my picture you can barely see the spiral staircase and cave entrance in the upper right corner of the picture.

View from the Sandia Man Cave Trail

Baseball in New Mexico

I wanted to share a quick picture of our baseball team, the Albuquerque Isotopes, in action this past summer. We do not have a lot of major sports out here but we have some. Enjoy the pictures.

Albuquerque Isotopes - View from Outfield

Isotopes from the outfield

Isotopes Baseball at Sunset

Santa Fe National Forest - Black Canyon Campground

Just got back from a quick weekend trip to the Santa Fe National forest and it was beautiful! We chose this particular campground because they took online reservations which were easy to book. Here is the link to the reservation site, http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Black_Canyon/r/campsiteSearch.do?site=all&type=9&minimal=no&search=site&criteria=new&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70078&topTabIndex=Search. They do charge $9.00 extra for a total of $19.00 a day but it is worth it! Check out the pictures of how beautiful it is!

Black Canyon Campground in our Skamper

Very nice campground and quiet too.

Great, Affordable Idea for New Popup Foam Cushion Covers

So like most owners of older popups, we were faced with dealing with the old icky foam and cushion covers. We first thought about replacing the foam until we priced it out and realized one large piece would cost around $200. We then moved on to plan "B" which was to wash and "defunk" our old foam cushions. We were able to do this with a lot of Febreze and the hot dry desert sun. After spraying the foam with Febreze we left them out in the direct sunlight and allow the sun to heat them up and get rid of any offending odors. This worked very well for us but we also have lots of hot dry air down here. Next up were the cushion covers, they were washed multiple times. This was okay but the really bad stains and old burn marks were hard on the eyes so last year we just covered them with sheets. This year however my wife had a brilliant idea on how to cheaply recover your cushions. We used some older duvet covers that worked like a charm especially on the couch cover. One twin duvet cover allowed us to fit both couch cushions in it at the same time with enough material so it could hinge together to form the couch. Check out the pictures. We will definitely upgrade to a non Winnie the Pooh theme but that is what we had to try it out.

Twin duvet cover used as couch cushion cover in our popup

Bear Creek Canvas Update - One Year Later

It was finally time to dust off the old Skamper popup and open her up to see how she fared over the winter. Everything looked great including our Bear Creek canvas. We found some sand that found its way into some of the cracks and crevices that must still be open a little but nothing we couldn't handle with a broom. There were no signs of little critters which I am very grateful for, but I should probably thank our dogs for that because they are excellent mousers and critter hunters. We did take our popup out for one quick weekend so far and here is a picture of how she looks after sitting for almost a year.

First trip of 2012 in our rebuilt Popup

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, New Mexico

We finally decided to take a winter day trip that was well worth the drive. We went to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument near the Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico. It was a great 45 degree and sunny day to go for a hike in the foothills of the Jemez Mountains. The weather was great and there was still some snow on the ground but later on in the hike we found out that there was still some deep snow that prevented us from reaching the end of the canyon trail. Here are some great pictures form our most recent winter day trip.

Rock Formations at Tent Rocks

Snow in the Canyon at Tent Rocks National Park

Rock Formations and Snow at Tent Rocks