Fredericksburg & Enchanted Rock In Texas

My current location is in the center of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolitan zone, known locally as the Metroplex. From the Metroplex there are several good weekend getaway and one day Roadtrips.

Roadtripping up to Turner Falls Park in Oklahoma is one. Roadtripping down to Glen Rose with a visit to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center and Dinosaur Valley State Park is another. Heading east on I-20 to Louisiana and Shreveport/Bossier City, for a day of riverboat casinos, is another.

The Daytrip Roadtrip I'm going to detail in this particular blogging is a the Daytrip Roadtrip to Fredericksburg and Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

I have gone on two Roadtrips to this area. The first time was on the way to San Antonio. The second time was an Easter Sunday. A hot Easter Sunday. The Roadtrip south was on Interstate 35. Before you get to Waco in I-35 you come to the little town of West. West is a town founded by Czech immigrants. There are a lot of Czech bakeries in West, making these really good things called kolaches. I've never driven by West without stopping for kolaches.

Waco is the next town you come to heading south. I should have listed Waco as a good Daytrip Roadtrip. Waco has an excellent park called Cameron Park. The Brazos River runs through Waco. It is very scenic. Also, near Waco you can visit the site of the infamous Branch-Davidian Massacre.

But, we are heading to Fredericksburg on this Roadtrip, no time to stop in Waco. In Austin I got off at the exit to Highway 290. Highway 290 takes you through Stonewall, the site of the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site. Worth a stop to look at where LBJ grew up and visit the interpretive center.

Wildflowers were being colorful on a scale I had not seen before, almost from the start of this Daytrip Roadtrip.

A little further down the 290 you come to the site of the LBJ Ranch, along the beautiful Pedernales River. You can stop here and visit the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park and take a tour of his ranch. We don't have time for that on this Roadtrip, but we did stop to look across the river at LBJ's Ranch.

The next thing we came to on 290 was Wildseed Farms, about 7 miles east of Fredericksburg. This is the biggest wildflower farm in America. Since it was Easter it was prime wildflower time, with a lot of people. Wildseed Farms was sort of in festival mode on Easter, with cowboys doing a BBQ cookout.

Then it was on to Fredericksburg. A very busy tourist town. There is some German influenced buildings, but not totally German themed, unlike another town I can think of, in Washington, named Leavenworth. For more details about Fredericksburg go to my Eyes on Texas webpage about Fredericksburg.

Leaving Fredericksburg, it was north on Ranch Road 965, eighteen miles to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. It was crowded, but we got in. I'd hiked to the top of Enchanted Rock on a previous visit. It is a good hike.

After Enchanted Rock, the Roadtrip continued on RR 965 to Highway 16, north to Llano, then east out of Llano on Highway 29, driving past Buchanan Lake, on the way to heading north on Highway 281 to Lampasas, heading east out of Lampasas on Highway 190, passing through Fort Hood Military Reservation and Killeen, finally getting back to I-30 just south of Temple, passing through Waco again. It's about 90 miles from Waco to my home base and the pitstop for this one day Easter Roadtrip.

Utah's Moki Dugway

I've driven down the Moki Dugway twice. Both times at the end of a Lake Powell Houseboating Roadtrip with Mexican Hat's San Juan Inn as that day's pitstop.

The Moki Dugway is, by far, the scariest piece of road I've ever driven. Glacier National Park's Going to the Sun Road is easy to drive, compared to the Moki Dugway. So is Colorado's Million Dollar Highway.

You start getting Moki Dugway warning signs as soon as you turn off UT-95 on to UT-261. The first warning sign says "10% Grades, Switchbacks, Narrow Gravel Road, 23 miles ahead."

A little further down the road is another warning sign. That one says "NOT Recommended for Trucks over 10,000 lbs., RVs, Buses, Vehicles Towing."

When you are almost to the Moki Dugway there is a sign letting you know that the pavement ends in 800 ft.

My first time down the Moki Dugway we were in two vans. The driver in the 2nd van was very scared of mountain type roads. He had a total panic attack when we stopped at the Muley Point Lookout at the top of Cedar Mesa and he could see the narrow switchbacks leading to the valley floor.

The person having the panic attack wanted to backtrack and take a long detour to get to Mexican Hat. Eventually it was agreed that a driver from my vehicle would drive the other van down the Moki Dugway. The person having the panic attack then quickly drank a lot of liquid courage and put a pillow case over his head so he couldn't see the road.

I found it all very amusing.


On the way down the Moki Dugway you do see a car or two that have gone off the cliff. That is a bit unsettling. Meeting a vehicle heading up the Dugway is a bit dicey.

As you head down the escarpment you can see Monument Valley to the south, with Valley of the Gods slightly to the north. The Goosenecks of the San Juan River is between the Moki Dugway and Mexican Hat.

Indians had long had trails up to the top of Cedar Mesa. Then in 1958, Texas Zinc, a mining company, built the Moki Dugway, in its current form, so they could carry uranium ore from the Happy Jack Mine in Fry Canyon, Utah to a processing mill in Mexican Hat.

The Moki Dugway descends 1,100 feet in 3 miles. It is the slowest 3 miles you will ever drive.

As you can see on the sign at the top, there are various spellings of Moki, actually there are 3 variations, Moki, Mokee and Moqui.

Below is a good YouTube video of a truck driving down the Moki Dugway....

Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado

I drove across Royal Gorge Bridge on the long ago longest Roadtrip of my Roadtripping career. The day before had been spent driving up Pikes Peak. The day after Royal Gorge headed in the direction of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, eventually making it to the second interesting bridge of this Roadtrip, that being London Bridge. And a hike down the Grand Canyon from the South Rim. Eventually ending up in Yosemite for the first time.

The Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge is pretty much a bridge to nowhere. It was built by the town of Canon City to be one of the tourist attractions in what amounts to being a theme park. Royal Gorge Bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge, hovering 1,053 above the Arkansas River.

In the Royal Gorge theme park you can ride the world's longest single-span Aerial Tram across the gorge. The tram travels 2,200 feet at 1,178 feet above the Arkansas River.

Traveling at a 45 degree angle Royal Gorge's Incline Railway is the steepest in the world. You ride it 1,500 feet to the canyon floor. When you get off the Incline you are hit with spray from the Arkansas River's Class 5 rapids.

Suspension bridges are designed to move a bit. Royal Gorge Bridge did some moving as vehicles crossed it. Walking across is a bit exciting for anyone with any degree of acrophobia.

Animals, like deer, wander around the park. For kids there is a carousel and the Royal Gorge Silver Rock Railway. For the really adventurous there is the Royal Flush Skycoaster, it being one of those bungee jump type things with a line attached to a tower that lifts you up high and then lets you swing. In this case you swing out 1,200 above the Arkansas River.

There are plenty of feeding opportunities at Royal Gorge, ranging from BBQ to Mexican food, to classic American fare to homemade ice cream.

There are several shopping opportunities in the park. Stryker Rich Trading Post is on the left before you cross the bridge. Royal Village Shirts is on the other side of the bridge. Colorado Country Shop is inside the Cliff Terrace. Eagle's Nest is outside the south side terminal of the Aerial Tram. Prospector Pan is at the bottom of the Incline Railway.

Tickets cost $24.00 for adults, kids 4-11 are $19.00, seniors are $21.00. You can get an annual pass. The admission ticket includes all park rides, shows and attractions, except for the Royal Flush Skycoaster and horse riding.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

We are going way back in time again to the longest Roadtrip I've ever driven, the same Roadtrip that had me driving to the top of Pikes Peak, Skycoastering at Royal Gorge and swimming in Lake Havasu, with Texas, the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, Yosemite and many others points along the way, some of which I remember clearly, others, not so much.

This particular Roadtrip took place in 1979. Judging by the photo I was a bit younger than I am in 2009. It appears I was still in my radical phase, wearing my Mao jacket and hat that I got in Chinatown in San Francisco the year before.

I remember a lot of this Roadtrip in extreme detail. And then there are parts of it where my memory is hazy. I remember the walk through Carlsbad Caverns, but I do not remember the means by which I entered the cavern. Lewis & Clark Caverns in Montana, I remember clearly, same with Wind Cave National Park and the cavern at Great Basin National Park in Nevada.

I remember being amazed at how huge the various rooms were in Carlsbad and how ornate the formations are. I remember the tour ending in a huge room with a paved floor, with a cafeteria and picnic tables. This was quite an unexpected thing to see deep in a cave. The exit from that point was an elevator ride back to the surface.

I remember a Dairy Queen near the visitors center. I have no memory of the visitors center. I have consulted with someone who has recently been to Carlsbad Caverns and who lives nearby. She tells me there is currently no Dairy Queen.

You can either enter the cave via the natural entrance, which is a short distance from the visitors center. Or you can take the elevator from the visitors center to the Big Cave, where the underground cafeteria is. From there you can follow the paved route through the Big Room. For the most part this is wheelchair accessible.

The pitstop the night before going through Carlsbad Caverns was a KOA campground in Carlsbad, if my memory is serving me correctly. What I do remember very distinctly is that night, at dusk, sitting outside at a Burger King, with locals warning us that we should get inside. They did not tell us why we should get inside. When the sun set we found out why. Huge ironclad beetles begin falling out of the sky. I'd never seen anything like it.

I had never seen so many disturbing insects ever as I did in the Roswell/Carlsbad area. Tarantulas on the road, huge long centipedes. And those iron clad beetles.

After Carlsbad Caverns it was on to Texas for the first time, just Roadtripping a slender slice of Texas, driving by Guadalupe National Park and passing through El Paso, heading towards that night's pitstop, the location of which I can not remember. I should have taken notes.

Pikes Peak Colorado

I drove to the top of Pikes Peak on the longest Roadtrip I've ever driven, the same Roadtrip I wrote about yesterday, where I talked about the London Bridge and Lake Havasu. But before I got to Arizona, on this particular Roadtrip, I was in Colorado.

Click here to watch video of the Roadtrip to the top of Pikes Peak along with other information about what you can see and do at Pikes Peak.

The pitstop the day before driving to the top of Pikes Peak had been in a campground besides a roaring creek near Rocky Mountain National Park. Driving through Rocky Mountain NP you get to some high elevations, but you don't drive to the top of any of the, what Colorado natives call, fourteeners, fourteeners being the 54 mountains in Colorado over 14,000 feet.

Being from the northwest and being used to seeing mountains, like Mount Rainier, from sea level, the Cascade Mountains look taller than the Rockies. This surprised me, til I realized the base elevation chops off a mile, as in Denver sits at 5,280 feet above sea level. That makes Pikes Peak about 9,000 higher. When you are in Seattle, Mount Rainier is over 14,000 feet higher than your sea level location.

Pikes Peak Highway is what takes you to the summit of the mountain. It's a 19 mile drive. You pay a fee for the privilege. The highway is paved to about the halfway point, then it's a gravel road to the top. The road has a lot of switchbacks, nicknamed "The W's," because of the design they seem to carve on the mountain when viewed from a distance. You will want to be sure you have good brakes before you climb up and down this steep, twisting road.

There are 3 visitor centers on the Pikes Peak Highway, located at the 6 and 12 miles marks and at the summit. The visitors center at the summit is quite large. There is a snack bar. When I was there fresh donuts were available. Somehow that seemed strange to me. But it smelled good.

Pikes Peak is the easternmost 14,000 foot mountain in the United States. Pikes Peak stands alone, unlike the other fourteeners in Colorado, thus it serves as a landmark visible for many miles to the east. You start seeing Pikes Peak soon after you cross into Colorado from Kansas. On a clear day Pikes Peak is visible from Denver.

Pikes Peak is the highest elevation I have ever had to breathe. There is 40% less oxygen than one gets at sea level. Just climbing up a few steps caused heavy breathing. Years later I would experience this again, at Silverton, Colorado, which is above 9,000 feet. I tried to pedal my bike up a mountain there. I've never breathed so hard, ever. Pikes Peak would have been much worse than Silverton if I tried to pedal my bike at 14,115 feet.

The drive down Pikes Peak is more nerve wracking than the drive up. My brakes overheated, slightly. The gravel does not provide the best traction. If driving to the top seems daunting, there are other means to the summit. One is the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway. This is a cog railroad operating out of Manitou Springs, going to the summit year round, weather permitting.

You can hike to the summit of Pikes Peak via the Barr Trail, climbing to the summit from the east. The trailhead for the Barr Trail is by the rail station in Manitou Springs. Another trail to the top starts in Crags Campground and reaches the top of Pikes Peak from the west. I can't see myself doing such a hike in such rarefied air.

The pitstop for this leg of the Roadtrip was outside Fort Union, north of Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the way to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, but not before driving across the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge.

London Bridge & Lake Havasu

On this Roadtripping Blog I am jumping back and forth between Roadtrips and Time. The Roadtrip that took me to London Bridge on Lake Havasu has us going way back in the time machine to the longest Roadtrip I've ever driven.

Over 10,000 miles, running through Utah, then to Colorado to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, then on to the top of Pikes Peak, then across Royal Gorge's incredibly high suspension bridge, then south to Carlsbad Caverns, then on to Texas, before starting to head west, eventually reaching the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a hike down to the Colorado River on the Bright Angel Trail, then continuing west to where I'm sitting in a cowboy hat in the picture, looking at the London Bridge on Lake Havasu.

London Bridge is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. London Bridge was originally in London, hence the name. It was built there in 1831. In London the bridge deteriorated to the point that, by 1962, it was no longer sound enough to support traffic. So, London sold it to Robert McCulloch, the founder of Lake Havasu City. He figured the bridge would make a good tourist attraction for the retirement town he was planning to build. The plan worked.

The bridge was deconstructed, carefully, in London, each piece numbered, then carefully reassembled in Arizona, beginning in 1968. The reconstruction was completed in 1971. When I visited London Bridge there was a shopping zone done in quaint Old England fashion. It seemed way wrong for the Arizona desert. Over the years the English Village gradually was replaced with new tourist development. London Bridge and Lake Havasu remain a big tourist attraction, though some of the locals do not like the changes.

Swimming and boating on Lake Havasu is very popular. When I was there it was late September. I wanted to go swimming. Paying the fee to enter the swimming beach area the money taker advised that swimming season was over, that the water was cold. She did not know I am a Pacific Northwest Polar Bear who likes to swim in cold water. I remember it as a refreshing swim.

After Lake Havasu it was on to Las Vegas for a short stop and a buffet, then on to Los Angeles and Disneyland, then a trek north with stops in Kings Canyon, Sequoia & Yosemite National Parks, followed by a logging road from Redding, leading to the Pacific Coast and Eureka. Scariest mountain logging road I've ever driven on.

I'll be coming back to this Roadtrip on subsequent Roadtrippings.

White Sands National Monument & Alamogordo

That's me running down an ultra-white gypsum dune in White Sands National Monument. The dune running came about during a Roadtrip that ran through Moab, on the way to Houseboating Lake Powell, then on to Durango, Silverton, Roadtripping the Million Dollar Highway and then following the headwaters of the Rio Grande River to Taos.

After Taos the Roadtrip headed south towards the Trinity Site of the World's first atom bomb explosion, then on to Alamogordo.

Alamogordo was the pitstop for this leg of this Roadtrip around the West. Arriving in Alamogordo I wondered what the rocket looking things on a hill were. The next morning I was to find out it was the New Mexico Museum of Space History, with part of it being the International Space Hall of Fame. Ham the Astrochimp is buried here. Ham was one of America's first space travelers.

The next morning, unbeknownst to me, that very day was a special day at the Space Hall of Fame, with the inducting in of some astronauts and cosmonauts. The museum is very well done. There is a garden of rockets you can walk through. I watched an IMAX movie of a visit to the International Space Station. It made me dizzy.

After Alamogordo it was on to White Sands National Monument. White Sands Missile Range surrounds the monument. White Sands Space Harbor, it being the only place a Space Shuttle has landed other than Florida and California, is to the north.

The dunes of White Sands are made of gypsum. Gypsum is water soluble. Usually it would dissolve and wash away to the sea. But here it is trapped in a basin surrounded by the Sacramento and San Andres Mountains, with no outlet to the sea. So, the gypsum is left with no alternative but to form every shifting dunes.

From the visitor center the Dunes Drive takes you about 8 miles into the dunes. There are 4 trails where you can make a trek into the dunes. There are picnic tables amongst the dunes. The sand is so white it seems brighter than snow. And just like with snow, you see kids sliding down the slopes on sleds.

Due to the park being surrounded by a missile testing area the park and U.S. Route 70, that takes you to White Sands National Monument, are closed when tests are being done on the missile range. Tests usually last for one or two hours, a couple times a week.

If you are on U.S. Route 70 don't drive by White Sands, drive in. You'll be glad you did. After White Sands National Monument this Roadtrip continued to to the Pitstop for the next leg being Douglass, Arizona, right across from Agua Prieta in Mexico. Then on through Bisbee and Tombstone on the way to Yuma for that night's mandatory rest period, then on to 4 days at the Luxor in Las Vegas.