Letterboxing~Fortune Teller

On Saturday I asked, Val of Fantastyk Voyage, if she would want to drive me to Tinkertown Museum so I could place a letterbox there that I'd created. Val, always up for an adventure, gladly agreed and we were on our way for the short drive up into the Sandia Mountains.

Tinkertown was created and built by Ross Ward and his wife Carla for more than 40 years. Ross's miniature wood-carved figures were first part of a traveling exhibit, driven to county fairs and carnivals in the 1960s and '70s. Today over 50,000 glass bottles form rambling walls that surround a 22-room museum. Wagon wheels, old fashioned store fronts, and wacky western memorabilia make Tinkertown's exterior as much as a museum as the wonders within. Inside, the magic of animation takes over. The inhabitants of a raucous little western town animate to hilarious life. Under the big top, diminutive circus performers challenge tigers and defy gravity while the Fat Lady fans herself and a polar bear teeters and totters.
Throughout, eccentric collections of Americana fill Tinkertown's winding hallways. Otto the one-man-band and Esmerelda, the Fortune Teller, need only a quarter to play a tune or predict your future. Through a doorway and across a ramp waits a big-sized surprise: a 35' antique wooden sailboat that braved a 10 year voyage around the world, captained by Carla Ward's own brother.
Ever a work in progress, Tinkertown is ready to inspire your imagination and awaken your creative spirit. (Copied in part from the Tinkertown website)
This map shows many of the visitors that have stopped by from around the world.
It's about time for Jenna's little red jacket to go a new little girl. But Jenna loves her jacket, even though it's a mite bit too small for her. For now, that's a battle I choose not to fight. If it makes my daughter happy, that's good enough for me. Winter will soon be over and red jacket will be forgotten. (Click photo to biggify the glass bottle wall)

What's cookin'?
I liked the horse art and Jenna liked the snake art.
An old Chuckwagon.

Val, Fantastyk Voyager was excited to see her trail name moniker as a metal sculpture.

I love this: "Live Life AS the Pursuit of Happiness"
The owner, Carla is a retired Hunter/Jumper Eventer of 14 years. We enjoyed a wonderful conversation about horses and she even gave me her old Parelli halter and rope. I was so surprised and honored and I now consider her a dear friend.

The entryway into the Gift Shop.
One of the plaques inside the museum.

Road Trip~West Central NM

We left Quemado, NM and headed north into El Malpais National Monument and Cebolla Wilderness. El Malpais means The Badlands due to the volcanic activity in the area. The land is covered in thick layers of rugged, black lava and lava tubes pock the area. The Chain of Craters Wilderness area is also nearby and begs to be explored.

This area is also bordered by both the Acoma and Zuni Pueblo Indian Reservations.
In addition the Continental Divide Trail meanders through the Wilderness and El Malpais National Monument as it travels the length of the Rocky Mountains from Mexico up to Canada.

We stopped off at The Narrows picnic area to do some exploring. Most of the rock in the area is igneous rock called Tuff, which is basically formed from volcanic ash that was spewed during pyroclastic flows about a thousand years ago.
Val had fun scrambling over the rocks.
I really like this photo of my dear friend Val. She looks so beautiful in this natural setting.
Like me, Val loves to hike and explore. I can't wait until I can join her this summer when my knee is stronger. (click pic to biggify)
Be careful on those curves or you'll end up like Tippy Truck!
This gorgeous Tuff was such a lovely pink color.
Through The Narrows we had black lava on one side of the road and these steep, impressive cliffs rising directly beside us on the other side.
The Sawtooth Mountains face West and we were there the perfect time of day: Sunset.
There were mysterious caves tucked into the cliffs, too.
The Sawtooth Mountains of New Mexico, touched by the setting sun, glowed a warm red, as if the color was emanating from the inside of the rock.
These gorgeous mountains stretched on for several miles.
We couldn't get enough of the amazing rock formations.
I just stuck my camera out the window, as we drove down the road, and kept my finger on the shutter, snapping photo after photo.
As the sun went down the shadows lengthened.
The road twisted and turned with breathtaking views in every direction, yet not another car on the road.
As we rounded a bend La Ventana Arch revealed itself to us in all it's grandeur.
Information about this must-see area (click pic for a larger view)
Val and I couldn't get enough of admiring all these impressive and beautiful rocks and cliffs. We were like a couple of young girls so excited.
Information on how La Ventana Arch was formed. (click to biggify)
A close-up.
Apparently there are more elk living in West Central New Mexico, than people. Over 70,000 elk call this area home.
We were amazed how these 50-100 ft Ponderosa pine trees could grow right out of the rocks in these cliffs.
These are very similar to the Tent Rocks, also formed by volcanic ash (tuff), located in the Jemez Mountains in Central New Mexico.
Check out these huge Ponderosa pine trees!
It appears as if our road dead-ends at that wall.
But then the road makes a quick turn.
We were losing light and the sun was setting.
We drove Interstate 40 through Albuquerque, on the way back home.

Letterboxing~Cerillos Hills

Last weekend, I invited my neighbor friend, Valerie to join me for some letterboxing in the Village of Cerillos, about 30 minutes north of us, and only 20 minutes south of Santa Fe. There were two letterboxes placed there within the Cerillos Hills Historic Park. You can also read about our trip through Val's blog Fantastyk Voyage

The Village of Cerrillos was established in 1879 as a tent camp between the lead and silver of the Cerrillos Hills to the north and the coal of Madrid and the gold of Placer and Ortiz Mountains to the south.The population of Cerillos is approx. 300 people. There are probably more animals living in Cerillos than humans, though. Cerillos is well known for the movie that was filmed there called Young Guns. Many movies are filmed in New Mexico and there is even a Movie Studio located in southeast Albuquerque. The downtown streets (only two) of Cerillos look like a movie set.
Cerillos Hills Historic Park with its tricultural heritage, have held an unusually important place in the history of the American Southwest. The Cerrillos Hills turquoise and lead deposits played a central role in the commerce and economy of the prehistoric Indians of the Rio Grande Valley, and these mineral deposits probably influenced the early Spanish explorations and settlement of New Mexico.The low hills contain deposits of copper, silver, lead, zinc, iron, gold, and turquoise. Beginning with the prehistoric mining of turquoise, these mineral deposits have been important to Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and American miners.We hunted for the first letterbox, but after searching for 20 minutes and backtracking to make sure we had followed the clues, we came to the sad conclusion that it had gone missing. There was a very large packrat nest over on the other side of the ridge that we figured might have had something to do with the letterbox' demise. We went in search of the other letterbox and discovered many more mine shafts to explore.

A few of the mines survived into the 20th century. The American Turquoise Company, an agency of Tiffany, New York, was active around the turn of the century, especially at Turquoise Hill on the north side of the Cerrillos.
However, Puebloan turquoise mining in the Cerrillos Hills continued into the twentieth century, with historical records showing inhabitants of Santo Domingo, Cochiti, San Felipe, and San Ildefonso all making use of the mines. Along the way, we enjoyed some of th trees changing colors. Jackson was nice enough to take a photo of Val and I. One of the mines had a cool bridge over it and was very deep. Jackson skipped a couple stones down the shaft and we were surprised with how long it took for the stone to hit bottom.We quickly located the second letterbox and sat down on the bench to log-in while enjoying the expansive views. Behind us we could see Santa Fe Baldy, to the west we could see the Jemez Mountains, and to the south (click on the photo for a larger view) we enjoyed seeing the Sandia Mountains (in the center), and the Ortiz Mountains (on the left).
Val and I were already scheming to come back to visit Cerillos Hills Historic Park because it is open to horseback riding, and the trails would be fun to take our ponies out for the day. Everytime I saw a pile of manure on the trail I got so excited just imaging me and my painted pony riding those same trails. Val thought I was silly, but she was excited, too. But not about the poo. Located at all the trail heads were hitching posts and of course we just had to have some fun playing on them.My rump's a bit too broad for the 2" wide post. I almost did a few flipping gymnastics moves while trying to get comfy. We had a great day hiking and letterboxing, and best of all was that Val decided to become an official letterboxer! You can read about her jump into letterboxing, along with her first stamp carving experience in creating her own Personal Stamp, on her blog Fantastyk Voyage. Woot! Woot!

On the way out of Cerillos Hills we passed some riding corrals with horses to rent. It was called Broken Saddle.


I had a little fun with my photo imaging program when I got home.


This really old and weathered tack caught my eye.


Broken Saddle was a pretty good name for the place..

Up Next: Madness in Madrid, NM


For more information about Letterboxing, click on the following links:
Letterboxing.org

Atlas Quest
Here you can also see my letterboxing profile if you click on 'Find Letterboxers' under the drop down menu: 'People': Look for 'Twinville Trekkers5'