Day 4: Capulin National Monument

Today was another beautiful day with blue skies, calm winds, and tolerable temperatures. Eight months ago when I was trying to decide on a tour I ended up chosing this particular trip because some notorious tornadic events have happened in the first week of May in previous years...Who would have thought that I would spend part of my trip going from the floor of a desert canyon one day and to the top of an extinct volcano the next?

My first exciting moment of the day came when we entered New Mexico- my very first time in that particular state:

"The Land of Enchantment is wherever Tour 2 happens to be"

We drove 2.5 hours west from Amarillo and arrived at the Capulin National Monument, where I added a new species to my steadily growing western bird list: the beautiful Mountain Bluebird. Bless my photographer tripmates who also took pictures of the Spotted Towhees in the caldera of the volcano and brought them to me for identification- I have now solidified my reputation as The Bird Girl of the group.

After a few minutes at the visitor's center we drove up the rim of the volcano to the caldera, which was simply stunning in the late afternoon light. Some people went hiking around the rim, but I chose to stay behind and take in the sights from yet another gorgeous southwestern vista:

As we meandered back towards Amarillo I found myself immensely grateful to have fallen into such a fantastic group of people- we come from all over the US, as well as France, the UK, Canada, and China, and are a mostly even mix of chase newbies and returning chasers. There were bad pun wars in the van, and I have found myself laughing frequently at my tripmates' antics. It's plain to see- whether the skies are blue or stormy, Tour 2 is rocking it!

Tomorrow is a travel day, and the more diehard chasers in the group are chomping at the bit for the weather to ramp up. I guess we'll see where the roads (and the meteorological models!) take us. I can definitely say that my 3 days in and around Amarillo were filled with picturesque experiences.