April 23

Broke camp around 7:15 a.m. John was on the Pinnacles Trail by 7:45. I went to breakfast after he left and watched two Canyon Wrens gather nesting material while I ate. Drove out to the main visitors' center at Panther Junction. Very nice displays and a larger, better bookstore than either of the other two visitors' centers we have seen.

Met John back at the lodge parking lot around 1:30 p.m. We drove back to the Panther Junction center so John could see it. Then headed back toward Marathon and Hwy. 90. At Alpine, we turned north to drive through Fort Davis and the Davis Mountain Scenic Loop. Along this road is Fort Davis, where the Buffalo Soldiers were stationed in the late 1880s, and the MacDonald Observatory. Both were closed for the day.

We turned on U.S. 10 toward El Paso. Turned off onto Hwy. 54 and drove to Alamogordo instead of Las Cruces as we originally planned. By the time we arrived in town, it was 9:00 p.m. Mountain Time, so we are in a Hampton Inn for the night.

Planning on visiting White Sands National Monument tomorrow morning.

More from out west later...

John and Elaine