Caverns of Sonora, Sonora TX

       CAVERNS OF SONORA TEXAS

  On one of my first trips west travelling

on Interstate 10,I was tired,

it was dark and all I could

see was natural gas fires burning

off in the distance. Finally I

see a sign Caverns of Sonora

campground, next exit!

It is about 8 miles off the interstate,

I was sure I was lost when finally a

small hand painted sign pointed a left

turn to the campground!

This was my 5th visit! I even got to show

these wonderful caverns to my mom

on our trip west!

http://www.cavernsofsonora.com/

Caverns of Sonora are very small, intimate

compared to Carlsbad Caverns.

It is very much like walking through

a huge geode!

Only small tours each trip, usually

less than 12 people. The lady in the red shirt on the left was our tour guide. She has been leading tours since she was in high school!

At this point I handed the camera to Chuck!

I had all I could do to hang on to the railing

and climb up and down over 200 steps as we took the two hour tour through these beautiful and unusual caverns! If I can do it with my knees,

you know you can do it too! Worth every step!

If you are the least bit claustrophobic, you might want to stay on top! These caverns are also very warm

the deeper you go. Most caverns I have toured are cold and get colder as you tour down.

This was the pop corn room! Looked like

popped corn on all the walls.

Down more stairs! Everything is so close,

you can touch it all... but please DO NOT TOUCH!

One photographer busy in the crystal room.

Caverns of Sonora should be on your bucket list!

The campgrounds are beautiful, full hook-ups

are $15 a night! Deer wander the campground

at dawn and dusk along with a flock of guinea hens

and one turkey hen who thinks she is guinea!

There is only one pair of peacocks remaining

at the campground. When I first visited here...

I was rudely awakened by the strangling

scream call that passes as peacock talk!

There were maybe 12 peacocks there then.

They can be very loud in the early AM!

Just west of Caverns of Sonora you will see

Ozona Texas on your map with a 1/2 circle

bypass road. On that bypass road is an

amazing restaurant, The Hitching Post!

The best ever chicken fried steaks, or any kind of  steak for that matter! Chuck and I found it by accident last year, this year we made a point of

eating a late lunch there !

It's not fancy. But it's home cookin'

the way we like it!

The Caverns of Sonora.Located 8 miles west of Sonora, Texas off I-10. Information about the show cave, photographs, and tour information. Camping available.


1711 Private Road 4468

Sonora, TX 76950


(325) 387-3105


Open Daily 8am-6pm

Hope you enjoyed the Caverns of Sonora!
Happy Trails from the MotherShip crew:
Geri, Chuck and our Hound Herd, Scotty, DoogieBowser and Radar

On The Road Again!

BACK TO FLORIDA!

We finally left Truth or Consequences NM and drove 40 miles to get to our favorite little Ghost Town of Chloride NM!  LOL! Long drive! But what better place to spend Halloween than in a real bona fide

ghost town???

We love any excuse just to go there!

This year we had visitors of the UNghostly kind!

Mule deer! They came up just at dusk every night.

We had two other campers there hunting deer!

But they can shoot only bucks and all they could

find were does! These does were cautious but

not too shy.

 

We gave you a lot of photos last july when we visited Chloride so I won't do that to you again. If you want more photos you can hunt them up in the July Archives. What I will do is give you a link:

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/chloride.html

This is a great link all about Chloride NM !!!

After we finally tore ourselves away from Chloride,

we returned to Three Rivers Petroglyph Park.

This is another of our favorite places. We posted about it last year with a lot of photos so this year

I am just gonna give you a few pics and this link that will tell you all about this interesting area!

          http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/mar/poi/du_3rivers.html

You can click onto the signs to make them

full sized and readable.

If you want to see more photos you can click onto the post from last year or the link!

Our good friend from Truth or Consequences, the tie dye king! :-) Jeff Dukatt came up with a wonderful logo for TheMotherShip! We put it on while we were camped in Chloride!

We just love the Logo! Thank you Jeff!

Then when we left Three Rivers, we visited a friend

in High Rolls NM. We met her last year at the

Three Rivers Trading Post. Sue now has her own

shop in High Rolls, near Cloudcroft NM. When we

walked in, we passed by this fellow!

He became our alien mascott for the MotherShip! Now we need a name....  any suggestions??

Tonight we are in an Escapee RV park in Lakewood NM. Tomorrow we will finally drive out of NM and enter Texas! Ya'll know how long it takes to get through Texas???  A danged long time!

Especially when you follow the 4-4-2 rule like we do.

4 hours driving or 4 PM or 200 miles, whichever comes first!

That is why we still love travelling! 

We don't push it! We take our time!

Good advice!!!

Happy Trails from The MotherShip!

Geri, Chuck and our furkids

Scotty and DoogieBowser 

Lee's Ferry AZ

Lee's Ferry

is one of those places off the tourist map.

This link

  http://www.desertusa.com/colorado/leeferry/du_leeferry.  

     

 will tell you more about this area than I can.

I fell in love with the whimsical rock

formations and the history 30+ years ago.

We left Lake Powell and took a day trip to

Lee's Ferry, near Marble Canyon.

Beautiful rock formations greet you at the entrance

It had rained hard the night before, giving

us muddy roads and amazing colors!

Wet rocks are much more colorful than dry rocks

Many Colorado River trips begin here!

There is also a nice campground available,

boondocking only.

The weird rocks are everywhere!

So are the pretty colorful ones

There are several balancing rocks like

this one all around Lee's Ferry.

It's hard to imagine the

size of these rocks

Until you see Chuck under one of them!

Or me !

There is an area strewn with these oddball

rock formations on the way to the river

This sign explains how this happened.

You can click onto the photo to enlarge it.

Chuck and I enjoy travelling the roads less travelled!

This will be the last blog for a month or two.

We are heading back to Florida,

we will post a few blogs from there

as we intend to camp at several of Florida's

beautiful state parks.

We sincerely hope you have enjoyed riding

along with us, road tripping the real America! As Sandy said, "I feel like I have been hiding in your closet!"

We have had a ball this summer!

We both saw places we have never been before!

We love America and we would like to urge you

to get out and vote, take America back!

Happy Trails from The MotherShip and Crew!!

Geri, Chuck, Scotty and Doogie Bowser

Lake Powell and Around Page AZ

Lake Powell AZ

and surrounding area

Oct 2010

While camped at Lake Powell we

camped at Wahweap Campground

The view out the front door of the

MotherShip was gorgeous! That rock

is the same one seen in the previous

blog at sunset! It changes colors all day!

This was taken early morning after

a night of rock 'em sock 'em

thunderstorms!

By noon, color had returned to the rock

and to the skies.

Sunset reflected off the rock!

Road tripping around Page AZ

beauty all around!

The rock formations are huge

and curiously shaped

That dark blue stripe at the top of the

photo is the Colorado River. It forms

Lake Powell behind the dam.

More beauty. The night rains just

intensified all the colors!

Horses wandering on the Navajo Rez.

They have right of way on all highways!

Seeing this semi-truck beneath the

towering rocks give you and idea

of how large the rocks really are!

That small yellow sign behind the truck

informs of a runaway ramp ahead

because we are about to go down a very

steep hill! That little white stripe across

the top is the lower 1/2 of the highway

we are on! eeeeek!

A very long way down!

Once safely down, we encounter more

horses open range!

Another tourist enjoying the sights!

More horses

Back at Lake Powell

The landscape is other worldly!

In fact, the movie "Planet of the Apes"

was filmed around here!

The water is a very dark blue because

it is so deep! These were once

beautiful canyon lands!

If you get a chance read "The Monkey

Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey.

Interesting story about the making of

Lake Powell.

Wahweap Marina at Lake Powell is

packed! You can rent everything here

from personal water craft to house boats

with helipads!

As I mentioned in the previous blog,

we are currently at our home in

Truth or Consequences NM.

I have one more blog to finish all

photos taken around Lee's Ferry AZ.

We head for FL in 2 more days so

Lee's Ferry will be the last blog for

this amazing journey that we have been

travelling this summer.

Happy Trails!

We love you all!

Geri, Chuck and our furkids

Scotty and DoogieBowser