Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Day Twenty-One: Trinidad, CO - Sugarite Canyon State Park, Raton, NM

With my revised itinerary, I wanted to visit 3 Art Museums in Oklahoma (and then the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, built with you-know-who money). Unfortunately, there is just too much geography between Colorado Springs, CO and Norman, OK (611 miles, 9 1/2 hours) - so I broke it up with a half-day hike in Sugarite Canyon State Park in Raton, New Mexico (I figure that any State Park with the word "Canyon" in it must be pretty cool!)

I can't stand "real" ~~Montana~~ ~~Wyoming~~ New Mexico roads!!

This means another car wash.

Beautiful landscape in this State Park/Northeast New Mexico canyon area. A very quick fire came through here in 2011, but you can already see a lot of regrowth (including wildflowers and butterflies), and there are a lot of birds (meaning insects, meaning ecosystem)

I was able to get in 10 miles in 3-and-a-half hours - my pace is pretty brisk, I guess from my New York days (one block per minute; 20 blocks to a mile)

Excellent post about Sugarite Canyon State Park click here

Northeast New Mexico is a lot like southern Utah/eastern Colorado/southeastern Wyoming, which is why I saw another 3 dozen pronghorn antelope today. I know they are wild, and that makes me happy.

I tried to make an iconic image of the West - Railroad train and wide open spaces and buttes. Didn't quite work, but you get the idea

I don't know why, but I really loved driving down routes 87 and 152 across North Texas (the Panhandle)

The land is just so bare and barren and flat and goes-on-forever - a total absence of any geographic features! I guess it is such a complete opposite of what I have been seeing and enjoying that I appreciate the "trueness" of it (it is totaly faithful to its "nothingness") - the essence of its complete absence. Hey, pretty "zen", huh

And, of course, I had to take a picture of Dixon Creek

Wednesday, Oct. 2
Super 8 Trinidad, CO
3/4 hour -- Sugarite Canyon State Park in Raton, New Mexico
5 1/2 hours -- Super 8 Elk City, 2801 East State Hwy 66, Elk City, OK

here is today's playlist:

Bill Evans - Complete Fantasy Recordings (Disc 2)