Friday, May 28, 2004
Chaco Culture Natl Historical Park, Nageezi, NM - May 17-???
After some waiting while they removed a park service trailer that had been parked in "our" spot, we finally got settled in as campground hosts for a couple of months. If you haven't visited Chaco, it is well worth a visit. But you must be prepared for primitive camping conditions and a 16-mile very rough dirt road. The closest motels are in Farmington, Aztec, or Bloomfield, which are about 70 miles north. That's also the closest major shopping area. We are helping with the Night Sky Programs, held 2 or 3 times a week, depending on the number of people here (and of course on whether the sky is clear enough for viewing). They also set up a solar telescope several days a week. We are learning how to operate all of this equipment plus lots of other things pertaining to the history and operation of this park. None of our duties are particularly difficult, so it seems our time here will be quite enjoyable. It is a lovely location, with really special historic structures, petroglyphs and scenery.
We are more in "the boonies" than we have ever been before for such an extended stay. Our cell phone doesn't work unless we climb a nearby mesa and walk to the top of a rise. We can send/receive our emails by plugging into one of the ranger's phone lines. He is our supervisor for the Night Sky Program and is an all-round super person. All in all, we are meeting some really special & interesting people here, which is another major benefit of the job.We got here just in time for a lot of training and field trips, which are quite interesting. We have learned a lot about the NPS in general and Chaco in detail. The field trips are often into areas that are closed to the public, so we are feeling quite special.
We have been fortunate enough to have visits from two sets of friends from Boulder -- Patrick, Suzanne & Bryce Williamson for 2 days, and a few days later Mark Collier & Susan LeFever for 3 days. We enjoyed sharing our knowledge and the wonderful trails with them.Due to an unusually large amount of rain in April, Chaco is having one of its best crop of wildflowers in at least 20 years. There are fields of flowers every way you look. If you haven't visited here before, or if you have and it's time for a return visit, we would love to have you visit while we're here. We can put up guests with a tent in our space or can "save" a spot for you if you have a small RV or just want more privacy.
We feel we have forgotten to list many of the "new" birds we have spotted this year, so we are going to list them all now (non-birders just skip this paragraph). In Congress at North Ranch we saw a Western Screech Owl. At Cibola NWR near Blythe CA we saw Eurasian Collared-dove. Near Benson we saw Hammond's Flycatcher, Gray Hawk, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Scott's Oriole and Lucy's Warbler. In the Chiricahuas we saw Yellow-eyed Junco, Painted Redstart, Hutton's Vireo, Arizona Woodpecker and Black-throated Gray Warbler. Near Magdalena we saw Gray Vireo and Dusky Flycatcher. We have already seen more lifers than we saw all last year!
The cats are happy to be settled in for a while. They did NOT like the long bumpy ride into Chaco. It is nice to not be spending so much on gas also! Unfortunately, I don't think the price will go down any time soon, so we'll have to pay it eventually. The weather hasn't been really hot yet, so we are enjoying the cool mornings & evenings. I'm sure we will be using our air conditioner pretty soon.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 12:40 PM 
