November 15 and 16 -- I Move to Rodeo, New Mexico, and A Day Hike up Cave Creek Canyon

I woke up early on Saturday the 15th and found out that the Portal Lodge cafe was closed all day due to a wedding celebration. It's the only eatery place in Portal -- but there is the Rodeo Grocery and Cafe in Rodeo, New Mexico, just 10 miles to the east on Hwy 80 -- and I decided to go by the Mountain View Lodge and RV Park in Rodeo to see if they had any rooms available for the week that I'll be staying in the area, getting the Tundra and house issues taken care of. Breakfast at the Rodeo Cafe was homestyle and good; I'd recommend it if you find yourself passing through Rodeo. Most, if not all, of the customers there were local, including a tall, strapping older fellow named Paul, wearing a big cowboy hat, who greeted everyone -- including me! -- and sat down with other locals. After the hearty breakfast, I popped over to the Portal house I'm interested in to pick up keys for temporarily storing my stuff from Tundra in the garage, then headed to Lordsburg. Once there, I removed everything from the camper shell and cab, and took a few last photos of Tundra for the insurance claim --

The damage doesn't really look that bad -- perhaps Tundra CAN be "resurrected". I certainly hope so...On dropping off the gear at the house, I had a few hours to kill, so I took the loop drive from Portal to Turkey Creek Crossing, then over to the tiny town of Paradise and back. The autumn colors in Cave Creek Canyon right now are stunning --

And the views are wide-ranging as you go up the trans-Chiricahua dirt road -- one of the great unpaved road trips in the entire Southwest -- 

This is looking back to Cave Creek Canyon. Just gorgeous, especially in the late-afternoon sun. I return to my new digs, "The Cowboy Room" at Mountain View Lodge in Rodeo. It's PERFECT for my present needs, with refrigerator, sink, coffee maker, king bed -- and a blessed shower! Oh, almost forgot -- they helpfully supplied a flyswatter, and I make mincemeat of two flies. Here are a few views of "The Cowboy Room" that I snagged from their website - 

Bathroom

 Kitchen and Dining Table

 Living Room and Kitchen

Simply perfect -- even the small heater lit by an ignition switch, which when used with a small fan to circulate the warm air keeps the place toasty. And the day ends with another spectacular sunset over the Chiricahuas, taken across the street from "The Cowboy Room" -- 

On Sunday the 16th I wake up early -- you don't have to know HOW early -- have breakfast in the room, and see another memorable sunrise over the Chiricahuas -- 

From the front porch of The Cowboy Room

From across the street

Today is a day to get my mind off Tundra, so I decided to hike up the Cave Creek Canyon road to see the damage done to the area by Hurricane Odile in mid-September. The drive up Portal Road is inspiring -- 

The large mountain is Portal Peak, a landmark here. The wind is beginning to pick up and it feels like a small "weather disturbance" is moving through. I park at the beginning of Cave Creek Canyon Road -- 

This is the view looking east. The road is famous in the birding world as one of the few places in the United States where Elegant Trogon can be reliably seen in spring and summer. As it's a special area of critical concern, no "bird call" recordings of any kind are allowed here. But today it's November, and I have the road to myself -- and it's pretty empty of birds, anyway, except for a few raucous Mexican Jays. On the paved road along south fork Cave Creek the road damage has been extensive, with one-lane areas and debris all around, but it's still drivable. Here, however, it's not..

Cave Creek is to the right. There is a lot of deadfall, examples of the terrific force of water rushing down. During the 4 days of the effects of Hurricane Odile, about 5 and 1/2 inches of rain fell, with most of it falling on the night of Wednesday, September 17. The rain fell on the burned slopes of the High Chiricahuas (from 2011's disastrous Horseshoe 2 fire) and simply poured down the slopes with nothing to stop it. 

Autumn colors here are brilliant. The above shows Cave Creek with the deadfall across it. 

The water created running channels on the side of the road, washing debris down. Downed trees block part of the road -- 

I then come to the end of the road at the picnic area where the trail up Cave Creek begins. The trail is  for the most part surprisingly intact, but that's because it lies above the creek plain -- 

The lush green is striking, especially considering it's the middle of November, and contrasts nicely with the autumnal colors -- 

Here's the creek bed and overflow area. You can still see the direction of the flood waters by the direction of the downed greenery. 

I don't remember the sign being quite that uprooted -- 

Walking back, the sun comes out, and you can see the power of the flood. Cave Creek used to be on the right, out of the photo. The flood MOVED the direction of the creek to cut across the road to the other side --

This is taken from the same vantage point, looking upstream; the picnic area at road's end is in the distance on the right -- 

The road was lined with trees before the flood; now it's open, and the creek is on the other side of the road -- 

At least the bridge is still seemingly intact...Along the hike back I meet up with the couple who own the first cabin after the bridge. Turns out the husband has been coming here for 50 years, and he has never seen anything like the destruction here.

But nature, and the people who live in Portal and the Chiricahua area, are resilient, and there is still much beauty  here -- 

It's an eye-opening hike, and there's still a lot of work to be done...