The 2006 Travels of Richard n Shirley

The day trip Friday yielded some very good scenery of the mountianous terran and desert. We are at 6463 feet elevation and this is truly the high desert. Where there is water, there is trees. Where there was water, there is erosion and lots of beauty. The pic below is of the Echo Ampitheatre. This is a good example erosion and the right soils. We have our Golden Age card and got in free, saved $2.00. There is a restroom there and a 1/4 mile hike. Once at the amphitheatre there are lots of stairs to go up for a better view. I did it so its not to bad, only stopped twice on the stairs and twice on the hike. There is a rest area with a sign explaining the soils and their ages and how this probably was formed.


Here is some of the soil mix. The very top looks like lava but its not. There are various layers of sediment noted by the different colors. Notice the half round "drill hole". This is not a man made effect. We found erosion in the vertical plane and we found not more than 100 ft away erosion in the horizontal plane. Its all in how the soil and water eroded.


Here is a fellow left high and dry. The soil all around him has eroded and left him by hisself. This is the Todilto formation. This was once under a shallow sea.


Here is the view of the ampitheater floor. Not what you would expect. Not a single place for the American Indians to rest, live or cook.




More of the standing rock formations. This is what we saw along the highway. And the pic below is of another formation.


And another formation. There were several along the way like these. If we ever get to Aztec, NM, there are arches for us to see.


We still have several day trips to do here at Abiquiu Lake. We will stay at the house over the weekend and let the tourists visit the area. Come the work week, we will plan another adventure down the road and see what there is for us to find. This is just a small sample of our pics. There will be more later.