kahunaburger

First things first: I’m in back-log hell. I hate being there. You end up in back-log hell by not posting when you should be posting. I have multiple stacks of photos sitting in Lightroom, waiting to be unleashed, but there is always something else that stops me from setting them free. If you were to ask me right now what it was that stopped me from sending them to the front of kahunaburger, I would probably give you a blank stare. Enough!

We went camping! Two girls, three dogs and I went out to experience one of the last few nice nights that the NM summer had to offer. It had to be in the middle of nowhere.
Years ago, on one of my solo excursions into the NM back country, I drove up “St. Peters Dome Road” and hiked up to the top of the peak. I remembered that there were some really nice camping places around it (I believe our camp site was smack in the middle of the map below; just zoom out on the map below and you know how remote things were):

Depending on your vehicle it takes about 1.5 hours from the Cochiti golf course to get up there. Put some Shake’n'Bake bags, Martinis, Margaritas, or other things that require “shaking” in the car, because you’ll get plenty of it on the way up to St. Peters Dome. We only stop a few times to let the dogs in/out of the car or enjoy the incredible view from some of the spots.

On the way up, we see three other camp sites. The one closest to us, is probably a mile away. Ahh – silence, the outdoors .. bliss!

breakfast at the fire

(the photo above is actually from the next morning, but I felt it was the right time to inject some visual candy – pictured above are pia and katherine during breakfast)

The evening is uneventful. We see a random truck coming by on the road and leaving again. We have dinner. The dogs fight and rip chunks out of each other – nothing unusual.
It’s 10:30pm and the camp fire is flickering quietly. Pia has slipped into her sleeping bag a long time ago. The dogs rest around the fire and Max’s perked ears tell me that he really thinks he’s protecting us from all the wild animals out there – too cute!

The wild animals come in pickup trucks! Not one or two, but close to ten of them. Katherine and I look at each other in disbelief when a whole freaking convoy of pickup trucks passes the camp site. It’s really 10:30pm. On a Saturday night! In the middle of nowhere!

“Ok, that was weird!” we say to each other. Things got a lot weirder just minutes later. The silence of one of the most remote spots in NM gets brutally interrupted by the sound of multiple chainsaws. We really don’t know whether we should laugh or cry. The situation is just too bizarre. Think about going up to Mount Everest and then being greeted by somebody who uses a jackhammer up there.

Trucks come and go; you can hear some trees being cut down just a few hundred yards from our camp ground. 30 minutes later one of the tree cutters has mercy with us and they stop their truck on the road next to where our tent is. The dogs go crazy as one of them approaches us: “You don’t need to worry about nothing. We just need to do some stuff here.” – ” For how long?” we ask – “1-2 hrs!” he says. And with that he walks back to his truck and continues to do his “stuff” (he really said “stuff” – he never said “we are just cutting down some trees, because we need them for some rituals that involve gerbils, snakes and the eldest eldest!”). After getting used to the chainsaw noises and being tired enough we also head to the tent and slip into our sleeping bags.

perfect smores?

What would a camping trip be without S’mores? Initial practice the evening before culminates in the ultimate S’more the next morning. By now that kid is also dirty enough to get some extra scents of needles and burnt wood whenever she sinks her teeth into the delicacy. Final score: 10 out of 10!

ascending st. peters dome

One of the main reasons why we came her was to climb up St. Peters Dome (see map above again). Climbing is the wrong word, because all you have to do is to follow a road up to the top. There’s a barrier about an hour from the top and in the dead heat of summer it is advisable to start the ascent before noon (unlike us).

high above everything else

You’ll get some great views over the landscape around you (see above) or some great views of burnt trees around you (see below):

dead trees everywhere

What you see above are the remains of trees that were burnt down 1996 during the 16,000 acre Dome Fire (some idiot did not extinguish a campfire correctly).

Pia promised to walk all the way up to the top of the hill and she really follows through. It takes some extra encouragement, but we are proud when she’s on top of the world and can see the beautiful NM landscape all around (please, don’t look at her dirty face and feet):

st. peters dome – on the top

Once we return back to the car, it takes some 30 mins to cool the dogs down: all three of them prefer to stay in the shade under the car with their heads resting inside (!) water bowls.
We “shake” down the road, finally discover the place where the “stuff” had been cut down the night before and go back to Santa Fe via Los Alamos.