July 13-16, 2001 - New Mexico Trip

Introducing Gus the Mouse. Actually quite personable once you get to know him.

Crystal and Jeff getting ready to head out to dinner.

One more just to make sure. All eyes open, I'll settle for that.

We went up into the Jemez Mountains in search of these "hot springs" that were supposedly up there. Some lady on the airplane trip there told me about them. Sucker that I am, I believed her, yet we saw no sign of anything like that. We did find some cool spots to go hiking, though.

Cool little spot by the river.

I don't know what she's up to here. Looks suspicious, though.

Our next stop on the search for the mystical hot springs was Soda Dam, a natural rock formation.

This is a pile of dirt.

Looking down from on top of the dam.

Climbing around.

Jeff posing by the river.

Looking out over the edge. Meanwhile, Crystal's whispering in my ear: "Jump, you can make it. Go ahead, jump." Nice, eh?

A shot looking upstream toward the dam.

And another of the same.

Looking down at the river.

Crystal up on the dam in front of a little cave. Just a warm-up for what was to come.

A view inside that little cave.

A couple of Crystal's friends, Nikki and Jen, with Jeff.

And the three stooges.

Nikki, Crystal, and Jen. Nikki with her typical pose (reminds of someone else I know, actually).

This is when things got good.

I think maybe Nikki thought it was just a figure of speech when I said "Look for these on the Internet". I think not.

Jeff and Crystal after all the tom-foolery.

Driving through Roswell, NM on the way to Carlsbad Caverns: a picture of a shop selling a bunch of alien souvenirs. We gave that little Hyundai a workout on the way down because we were late. Albuquerque to Carlsbad Caverns in 3 and half, that's got to be a record.

And another shot of a shop in Roswell. On the way back (of course, when I wasn't even in a hurry) I got pulled over by a real live Roswell police officer, too. I thought perhaps she might just be an alien out for a good time until she actually gave me the speeding ticket.

My only souvenir from Roswell.

At Carlsbad Caverns. We signed up for one of the private tours where they take you down into some of the more remote caves. Here's the entrance to ours (Lower Cave) off the main path. Doesn't look like much, does it? It was basically just a three-foot hole.

Another picture from the path looking down to the entrance of Lower Cave.

Crystal descending down to the entrance of the cave. I'm sorry, but we all signed a waiver agreeing that we would not disclose the position of the cave entrance, so don't bother asking me.