Philmont 2019: Day 12, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

I was walking out of my dorm room one morning and found myself looking face to face with a herd of deer.  Since I have been keeping my camera with me, I quickly got it out and took photos and videos of the herd.

Oh, I finally was able to hang my horseshoe over the door.  I made sure to hang it up the right way so it would catch luck for me.

I had to drive to Springer, N.M. from Philmont since that's the closest hardware store.  But it's not just a hardware store!  It's also a laundry!

I was able to buy a few hardware supplies there.  Also, I was able to drop into a small market to pick up distilled water.  My C-PAP machine has been going through it like crazy.

On my way back through Miami, N.M. I took photos of the lake.  Back in 2004, when I was on the top of Mt. Baldy, I was able to see Miami Lake from 40 miles away.  It was nice to be able to stand right by the lake and take photos of it.

As I kept driving back I noticed a great place to pull over and take photos.  When I looked ahead I saw an amazing snow covered mountain.  I know some would say, "Snow sits on mountains all the time.  What makes this so special?"  I'd have to respond that, "Normally it wouldn't be so special, except that it's June the 5th."  In the last photo you should be able to make out the snow covered mountain in the back.

I also decided to take a photo of Philmont's Base Camp, National Museum of Scouting, and the Philmont Training Center.

First up, here's Base Camp.

Here's the Museum.

And the Philmont Training Center.

Ooh look!  Horseys!

Here's the photo of the Tooth of Time that I wish I had taken back in 2004.

This is new, but needed sign.

I was almost back to Base Camp when I saw them.  I knew I had to take photos since I had missed so many opportunities before.  Finally!  I had spied antelope.  I pulled over and slowly approached the barbed wire fence.  They were pretty far out so I wasn't sure if my camera would be able to take decent photos of them.

So I ended up snapping a lot of photos, in hopes that just a few would turn out alright.  But as it turns out, quite a few ended up turning out pretty good.  The antelope were really cautious of me.  So I only had about a minute to take photos of them.  They ended up laying down in the tall grass so I "couldn't see them."  Well, I could see them, I just couldn't get a good photos of them.  So here's all the good photos I took of them.

There were quite a few antelope out in the field, but these three were the ones closest to me.  I couldn't take photos of the other antelope.  They were just too far away.  I'll say this though, it was nice to see them on the other side of the road across from camper's tent city.

So it's been an eventful last two days.  I'm glad the wildlife is pretty much right on top of us.  It feels just like living in a National Geographic episode.  I just don't want to be in the episode about bears.  I would be happy to skip that one.