thefox

Me, being entirely too happy about the ultimate climb up the mountain... notice the one canteen for me and the dog. Yeah, that wasn't smart. (It was a 4 or 5 hour trek, altogether, I think. Wow... yeah, I didn't even realize it was that long until just now.)


Here's me and Nukie climbing the mountain. I have to take a second, here, to say that I'm insanely impressed with this dog's ability to climb a fairly steep, rocky mountain. I mean, I had issues getting up some areas, and was exhausted/sore after the trip. Nukie refused to let me out of his sight, and would have gone all the way to the top with me if I had continued up. This, among many reasons, is why I love him sooooo much. Not very many people will, against their better judgment, put themselves through such a dangerous and painful experience. He was pretty damned sore the next day (as were we), and slept pretty much through the two days after the climb. I. adore. this. dog.


Here is a view from where I stopped (about 3/4 of the way to the top - Nukie and I were exhausted and smart enough to remember that every step up meant another step down, so we let LittleFierceOne make the rest of the journey on his own.) The most prominent road is Sky Ranch Rd, which goes from the base of mountain we're on to highway 80, which pretty much dances along the border of NM and AZ off in the distance. The mountains opposite are actually in AZ. My parents' house and the truck (where we started) are visible in this picture.


Detail of the truck (the tiny speck in the middle):


Detail of my parents' ranch (the horizontal blur in the center to the right):


Here's a view of the desert to the right of the first one. I wanted to get "downtown" Rodeo (really, this is the town... everyone else kinda lives outside of town, but uses their post office.) We were so far away that it's not really clear, but it's a pretty shot of the valley.


A detail of Rodeo (the tallish looking thing in the middlish of the picture is the water tower, and the specks to the left and right are the town.) It's on highway 80, and if you close your eyes, you'll miss it. No stoplights. Only a handful of streets (3rd and 4th streets, in fact, have no buildings.) There's a tavern, a caf, an RV park, a post office, and a gas station, as well as some houses and a few other buildings. A few people live in town, though most live on 40 acre+ ranches (like my parents).