Week 12: The one with all the elk!
Plus some paintings from my residency!
Hi, hello! Thanks for tuning in for another weekly update on our grand advanture! I can’t believe it’s been 12 weeks since we sold our house to travel full time.
My time as an artist in resident at Valles Caldera National Preserve is flying by and I don’t want it to end. It’s just so beautiful here and I have so many hikes I still want to hike — and things I want to paint. It’s going to be so hard to leave!
Here’s what we were up to this week:
Painting Conifers and Wildflowers
I started the week off painting in my comfort zone, that is, painting wildflowers and trees!
Since Valles Caldera is a national preserve picking wildflowers is NOT allowed — so I brought a black foam board on hikes to use as a backdrop to take reference photos.
For a few of flowers that were close by, I took the finished paintings out to see how I did! Some of the plants like the fringed sage had stopped blooming already — it’s amazing how fast they go!
I posted a few videos of my painting process over on Instagram if you’d like to check them out:
On Sunday, I finally had a chance to paint the East Fork of the Jemez River from a reference photo that I took way back when we arrived on August 6th!
Check out a progress vide on Instagram where I show all the different layers. This was so fun to paint and get lost in all the little details! (And try not to over do it!)
I still can’t get over how green everything is along the river!
Hiking Hidden Valley
On Wednesday we hiked Hidden Valley (which isn’t hidden at all y’all, no worries about getting lost!) and it was absolutely amazing! I had no idea that part of the Valles Caldera was like this.
We made the 3.4 mile hike last longer by taking the trail beyond the park boundary into Sante Fe National Forest.
The trail follows the East Fork of the Jemez River as it flows toward the southwestern corner of the preserve and it sounds so pretty. I couldn’t get over how green everything was — and I couldn’t stop taking photos!
As we were hiking back to our vehicle we saw a bunch of elk — we estimated there were at least 250 — if not more. They were running down South Mountain in 2’s and 3’s and joining the herd — I joked to Jason that it was like they were contestants in a game show running up on stage!
You’re the next contestant on “The Elk is Right!”
So awe-inspiring to see.
Hiking Alamo Canyon
Friday we got to go on another hike with Dr. Bill Sayre, geologist extraordinaire. This week we went to see Alamo Tank and Alamo Bog in Alamo Canyon, both of which are super cool!
We got rained on a few times but luckily the rain held out and we were able to keep hiking. First up, Alamo Tank:
The ripples you see there are actually bubbles. It’s a mix of gasses with carbon dioxide being the main one. The smell of sulfur was in the air — I love that smell, but I also like the smell of skunks lol!
In addition to all the super cool geothermal features of the hike we also got to see horned lizards! We’d been hoping to see one — but nada. Then we saw three all on the same hike!
First there was this grumpy guy:
Then we saw a medium sized one:
And somehow Jason spotted this teeny tiny little one — it was just over an inch long!
So CUTE!
We felt super lucky to see them — it’s been years since we saw one in Texas.
Random fact: our van’s license plate has a horned lizard on it in support of Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Then our luck got even better: as we pulled into Valles Caldera I spotted a huge elk herd off in the distance!
Here’s a zoomed in photo:
What a great day!
Nature Journaling Workshop #2
Saturday was my second nature journaling workshop and such a great group of people turned out! It rained earlier in the day and I think that kept some people away who had signed up — but we still had a blast!
Irene Owsley in the lower left is a pro photographer and a volunteer at the preserve and she took some amazing photos, including the group photo in the upper left. She’s also from Youngstown, Ohio — where I was born! What a small world.
Avery T. stole the day — and my heart — with her poem:
It was so fun getting to share my love of nature journaling at this beautiful place — and the best part was seeing people get excited and think “hey, I can do this too”!
One More Week of Cabin Life
We have one more week here in the cabin at Valles Caldera and then it’s back to van life. I plan on soaking up every minute of our time here!
Jason has been loving it too! He got a new toy — a thermal camera — and he’s been playing around with it. Here’s a shot from when we heard elk calling and ran out on the porch of the camera. The bright area in the middle to the right of the pine grove are elk!
We’re still in monsoon season and the forecast is calling for rain almost every day this week. Hoping it doesn’t put too much of a damper on our hiking plans!
We’re making plans for where to go next, so if you have any recommendations drop me a comment — we’d love to hear! So far we’re thinking about heading back to Bandelier National Monument for a bit, then the Georgia O’Keeffe Welcome Center in Abiquiú, and Ghost Ranch — depending on temperatures!
We’ve really been spoiled by the 70-80 degree daytime temperatures here and 40’s at night.
That’s it for this week! Thanks so much for following along on our advantures! — Lisa and Jason
I just saw what Suzy wrote, and second her suggestion. You are a magical part of the world. Have you toured Georgia's House yet?
Have you visited Ghost Ranch yet?