The Southwest – winter 2008

Stephane receives his green card!
Stephane’s immigration appointment was set for mid-November in the Philadelphia office, and although we were happy that the process was moving along quickly, we had hoped it would be in December or January so that we could spend the holidays with the family. We were enjoying the biking and the biking weather was certainly better in November than it would be later on in the winter. We requested a change of appointment, but were unsuccessful.

But we couldn’t complain, because the interview couldn’t have gone better! The interviewer seemed to have made up his mind about us immediately, and after the requisite list of questions, like “Do you intend to kill the President of the United States? Do you belong to a terrorist organization? Are you a spy? Have you ever committed murder?” the interview drew to a close. Stephane had his green card issued in two days, along with a notice saying, “Welcome to the United States of America!” He is now a permanent legal resident, meaning he can reside and work legally in the United States.

We stayed home for the holidays, spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with the family. Stephane’s cousins Claire and Laurent and their two children moved to NYC in December, and they came down to celebrate the holiday with us, which was a real treat. And then we flew back to Flagstaff, where our bikes had been waiting for us in a rental storage space.

The Southwest
It was cold and snowing when we arrived in Flagstaff (this cold weather was so unlike what I had always imagined when I thought of Arizona!). The weather station predicted up to 8 in. of the powdery white stuff. We decided to get out of there in a hurry!

So we headed towards Phoenix, down 7000 ft. in elevation and up many degrees in temperature. On the way, we stopped to see the famed crimson cliffs, spindly towers, and flat-topped mesas of Sedona and to feel for ourselves the much-talked about energies of the vortexes “discovered” here in the 1980s. Tour guides promised “healing journeys,” complete with guided meditation, personal healing and inspiration, drumming, special crystals, and a Reiki healing energy. We passed on the astronomically-priced tours, and along with that, the special energy of the vortexes, as well (although we tried to capture the energy, just in case…).

We passed through small ghost towns, abandoned after the copper mines shut down. And still we continued south, past Phoenix and on to Saguaro National Park, where, at up to 50 ft. in height and 8 tons in weight, the huge saguaro cacti dominate the landscape. The saguaros first appear just north of Phoenix, as the elevation gets closer to sea level and the temperatures rise dramatically. In case you don’t know what a saguaro is, just think about the cactus that is always pictured in Westerns. It is the tall, prickly cactus with arms and lots of personality…the supreme symbol of the Southwest and the king of the Sonoran Desert. Against the backdrop of the Tucson Mountains, and at sunset, the saguaros take on a whole new aspect, true lords ruling over this great frontier land.

The mountains spread out east of Tucson, close to the Mexican border. The terrain became flatter and dust storms picked up dramatically. Road signs announced “zero visibility clearance.” And the landscape still changed, for just past the White Sands Missile Test Center near the city of Las Cruces in New Mexico, we saw mountains! Perhaps for those of you who are more familiar with the geography of this area, that is hardly surprising. But for me, I had always pictured New Mexico as flat and brown and dry. And here we were, in southern New Mexico, near a ski resort at over 11,000 ft. in altitude! Having grown up in the Alps and on the ski slopes, and having also not skied in over 5 years, Stephane couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pass a day on the slopes. And so there we were – skiing on freshly-fallen snow, looking down at snow-capped pines and below the snow line, sand-colored plains stretching far off into the distance.

One of the coolest things in this part of the country is the gypsum dunes of White Sands National Park. The windswept gypsum dunes are the world’s largest such deposits. Engulfing 275 sq. mi. of desert, the glistening, snow-white dunes can actually be seen from space!

We had a great time exploring the dunes, but what came next was even cooler. That was Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in southeast New Mexico, reached after following windy mountain roads and then long, straight stretches of nothingness, virtually untouched by civilization or traffic. In a desert region backed by the Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Cavern was awesome. I had wanted to go since I was a child, and I wasn’t at all disappointed. Of the park’s 113 caves, only one is open every day for visitors, while two others are open on winter weekends with guides, and half a dozen others only by permit. Other caves are reserved for scientific and exploration groups. But, though we saw only one cavern, that was all we needed to see. It was even more spectacular than I could have imagined.

After descending 1 ½ hours on a dimly-lit path that zigzagged downwards for 2 miles, we reached the Big Room, which is up to 255 ft. high (200 ft. on average), 1800 ft. long, and over 800 ft. below the surface. It was easy to imagine just how dark it must have been for early explorers, who had only hand-held lamps and didn’t know what to expect. These early explorers had entered the cave on 60-ft. ladders and had descended 170 ft. in buckets used to haul bat guano! Our experience wasn’t quite as adventurous, but it was like discovering a whole new world.

The Big Room is the largest room in the cavern and it is so immense and so decorative as to be dumbfounding. Stalagmites, stalagtites, soda straws, cave pearls, popcorn, and lily pads decorate such features as the Bottomless Pit, the Giant Dome, the Rock of Ages, and the Painted Grotto. In short, the celebrated underworld of Carlsbad Caverns is an extraordinary realm of fantastic cave formations and gigantic subterranean chambers that have to be seen to be believed.