Christmas In Wyoming

There is no better way to celebrate Christmas and bring a close to a year than to celebrate with family.  The joy of being around our children and grandchildren is the greatest joy!

We spent a lot of cozy time indoors, because it was beyond cold outdoors.

I had the honor of accompanying our youngest daughter, as we served Christmas dinner at the Wyoming Rescue mission.

Of course, there was some sledding fun once it warmed up a few degrees.

Keep watching, there was a lot of black and white flannel this year.

This is the first time we had most of the family Christmas stockings together all at once.  There were three missing from this picture, but the rest were here.

Our grandson got to sit in his uncle’s airplane for the first time.

We had fun swimming at the hotel.  A great way to spend a -19 degree day.

The wonderful woman at the hotel checkin was kind enough to take a family photo for us.

More black and white flannel.

We also had fun at the local elementary school.

So many swallow nests.

Snacks in the car after a few cold hours of playing at the school.

Wild turkeys crossing the road.

After all of our fun times together, all of us girls got to go wedding dress shopping, and She Said Yes to a dress!

Then our final family gathering with Steve’s brother, our sister-in-law, nephew and niece-in-law.

Our final snowstorm of the trip.  

A beautiful trip home!

And a welcome home sunset!

Volcanos, Sand Dunes and Estuaries - El Pinacate Biosphere

We had an opportunity to tag along on an exploratory tour with Sonoran Rovers of Tucson.  This tour took us to El Pinacate Biosphere, which is a large preserve in Mexico, north of the Sea of Cortez.  This area used to be open to the public, but is now only available by permit and is extremely rare to get access to.  This biosphere is in a beautiful desert setting, with more than 400 craters and cinder cones within its boundaries.  The apex of the trip was traveling and camping in old imported Land Rover Defenders.  They are incredibly capable, and oh so fun!

We explored five of the main craters in the area, as well as a tinaja, or watering hole.  With the expert knowledge of our guides and some of our fellow travelers, we learned so much about the flora, fauna, geology and history of this area.

We even had a chance to hike up some lava flows.

A skull and other bones of many unfortunate animals could be found in the tinaja.

El Elegante was the largest of the craters we visited.  It was also used by the Apollo 14 astronauts as a training ground.

After two nights in the desert and craters of El Pinacate, we moved our camp to a private beach at the north end of the Sea of Cortez.  We didn’t arrive until the end of the day, so we set up camp and ate a relaxing dinner.

Our first sunset on the beach felt so magical.

The next morning we headed out into the estuaries of the preserve to learn about the marine and bird life of these unique saltwater canals.

When we left the estuaries, we headed to the largest sand dunes in North America, created with deposits from the Grand Canyon.  We could see some rainy weather coming in, but kept our fingers crossed that it we wouldn’t get too wet.

The Pinacate beetles live only in the dunes of the preserve, and we were lucky enough to see one.

We were spared by the rain at the dunes, but when we returned to camp, we found everything that we left out was soaked through.  The campfire was more important than ever.  We had a wonderful warm dinner and enjoyed our final sunset of the trip.

Our final morning was leisurely and relaxing, allowing time for a stroll on the beach at low tide.  

We even caught a view of some rare pelicans as we were pulling out to come home.

This was an incredible trip, put on by Sonoran Rovers.  We learned so much, and met so many fun explorers, who like ourselves, love nature, and learning.