Deming, NM - Rockhounding

Ended up staying for one more sleepless night in Deming. Winds and work had changed our plans. The good thing that came of this was that we were able to revisit Rock Hound State Park. We had been here before and remember enjoying the park and we had even gotten to see Ibex. I had noted in my journal that we didn't get to hike the nearby Spring Canyon SP, so our first attempt was to visit that section. That wasn't to be on this trip either - it is closed on Wednesdays and it is only open to 5pm which is probably why we didn't hike it in 2004. Oh, well. We drove back to Rock Hound...

This park is different because they encourage you to keep any rocks you find - geodes, thunder eggs, etc. We have yet to find those kinds of rocks, but I still enjoy hiking the hills and looking for wildlife. Signs warned us that it was tarantula mating season in Oct and Nov, and asked us not to kill them, that they are harmless. We had kinda hoped to see one, even though it would have given me nightmares for the rest of my life.
The rocks are such a variety of colors, that you can't help finding yourself becoming an amateur rock hounder. My favorite was this pink Jasper...

Deming, NM

When we left Casa Grande, we didn't know where we'd stop. Our first thought was Benson, AZ but only because we like the RV Park, Cochise Terrace - but that was way too short of a drive. Then we considered Willcox, AZ so we could visit Chiricahua Nat'l Monument - but we realized that in reality we wouldn't have the time during the week to really visit the park the way we'd like because sunset was now at 5:30ish. So we just kept driving...we even drank our first Monster Energy drink to keep us going on this drive...and ended up in Deming, NM. There are three State Parks within a 30-mile drive from here, so we thought if we stayed we might be able to visit one of them. Unfortunately, train and highway noise kept us up last night so I'm sure we'll be leaving tomorrow...which means we won't be visiting the State Parks on this trip.

New Mexico - Land of Chilies

If my memory serves me correctly, we've always liked the food in New Mexico, albeit a bit spicy. Either that or we've been lucky finding vegetarian options, fresh vegetables, and generally some healthy meals. But, boy, do they love their chilies and peppers.

We stopped at a place in Ramah for some pizza. The waiter brought out the red pepper flakes, parmesan, and Thai Hot Chili Sauce. What? He must've saw the expression on my face, so he explained how he loves using the hot chili sauce on his pizza. I promised him we would at least try it. It was different and addictive, believe it or not. My lips were still burning when we left but sometimes you just have to try what the locals recommend.

El Morro, NM - Wolf Sanctuary

We visited the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary to see the wolves.

All of these wolves or wolf-dogs were captive-bred or originally pets of people who thought they could handle a wild animal in their home. It's such a common theme at many of the sanctuaries that we visit - people think it would be really cool to have an exotic pet, but then realize when the animal reaches maturity that it has a mind of its own and can't be domesticated.
All of the wolves are part of the grey-wolf family. Most of the ones we saw were either timber wolves (yellow/brown color) or artic wolves (more white). The wolf-dogs were half-breeds with domestic dogs, but retained more "wolf" and couldn't be handled when they reached two years of age.
Periodically they would start howling. A haunting sound, but we started laughing when this guy was too lazy to get up from his nap - he just raised his head and joined in.

This couple was cute and fun to watch. The dark male is the sanctuary's primary educational animal. Since he is twelve years old, they are now trying to train some puppies to replace him.

Since we didn't know how many miles or how long it would take to reach the sanctuary, we ended up arriving early for the tour. We entertained ourselves out back watching the hummingbirds. Lots of feeders hung from the trees and the territorial-battle was on. I enjoy the sounds these little torpedoes make when they dart about.

El Morro, NM - El Morro Nat'l Monument

I thought El Morro was going to be just another "inscription rock". Don't get me wrong, I like to read the history of the people that travel through the area and imagine their lives and hardships in the years they passed by this rock and carved an inscription. Some inscriptions are just names and dates. Others were brief explanations on who they were or the mission they were on. Many travelers came to El Morro because it had a perpetual pool of water at its base. Its first inscription was in 1605. Many in Spanish, some Indian petroglyphs, and then in the 1800's were the American travelers.
The melting snow would cascade over the rock and hold in the pool below...


The 2-mile long loop trail wrapped around the point of this sandstone bluff and zig-zagged up the backside. That's when this rock became enchanting.

At the top of the bluff you realized that the rock is actually the walls of a box canyon.

The trail is now marked with cairns and etchings in the sandstone to keep you from getting too close to the cliff's edge.

A fast approaching storm is awesome to watch, until you realize that you are standing on the highest point in the area and there's not many places to hide on a rock and you remember that the rangers told you how the visitor center was struck by lightning just a week ago. The high iron content in the lava fields attracts lightning to this area.

The Atsinna Ruins sit high atop this sandstone bluff and date back to the 1200's. Beautiful location, but I'd question living here because of the strong winds and lightning. But the sandstone would hold small pools of water in the divets and pockets in the soft rock and they had the pond down below on the desert floor. Probably strong reasons for choosing this location.

We would've loved to have spent more time on top of Inscription Rock, but perhaps another day. Just to note: it snowed here three days ago. Six inches fell. That would've been pretty to see. The ranger laughed at this memory considering today he was in short sleeves...note, we were in fleece, HE was in short sleeves.

El Morro, NM - Land of Lava

The Ancient Way (aka NM Scenic Hwy 53) takes you into a beautiful area of New Mexico where there are old volcanoes, lava fields, and sandstone bluffs. There are several attractions off of Hwy 53 that brought us here and in order to stay in the thick of it all, we chose to stay at El Morro RV Park & Cabins (aka Ancient Way RV Park). The location is prime - putting us right in between El Mapais Nat'l Monument ("ma-pa-ace"; we struggled with the pronunciation so we just called it El Magpie) and El Morro Nat'l Monument. It's a pretty rough campground. We had water, sewer, and electric, but all were in such crazy locations that we had to double our water hose, use the electric extension, and not even try to connect the sewer. We'll dump when we leave. The sites are so unlevel, that after putting our levelers three high and not seeing a difference, we just used some cinder blocks as chocks and are living at a slant. But the park has lots of pinyon pines and junipers, but none too tall to affect our satellite dish. And since we have no TV or cell service, we are sooo excited about having internet. We can even watch some of our favorite TV shows on our computers. Did you know there's a bonus to watching TV on your computer? 20 second commercials! And only a couple are interjected into the show. That makes up for the small screen.

But, again, the location was perfect for accessing all of the things we wanted to see.

Bandera Volcano & Ice Cave
We've seen several volcanoes over the years, but felt that this volcano crater was one of the most defined. The trail that winds you up and into the cone shows off the lava fields.

Another trail takes you over the lava field and past lava tubes to the Ice Cave. After hiking at these elevations, the 31 degrees of the Ice Cave felt great.


El Mapais National Monument
We hiked the El Calderon loop. We told the ranger we wanted to see lava tubes, and she complied. At Junction Cave we could scramble down the rocks and through the tube for about 50 yards to the other opening. Now, if you have helmets, headlamps, ropes, and some knowledge you could actually go caving in many of the lava tubes at the Monument. We did take some flashlights and went into the "dark side" for a ways before going the direction we were told to hike. Loose, sharp, lava rocks kept us from going too far in. El Calderon Loop took us past several caves, a lava trench, to the top of a cinder cone, and through some pretty scenery.

The cinders here were a rich-red color.

There's a lot more to this park than we were able to see on this visit. We'd like to hit it again some day and visit the area along Hwy 117. Probably the best way to see it is with 4-wheel drive. But even that sounds like it could be hit-or-miss. In the rain, these dirt roads turn into slick mud sending 4-wheel drive vehicles careening sideways. The ranger shared stories of drivers getting stuck, tow-truck drivers getting stuck trying to pull them out, and then the tow-tow-truck drivers getting stuck trying to rescue the other two! We had thought about taking our mountain bikes into the park on these roads, but the rains scared us off.

Capulin Volcanoe Nat'l Monument

We did it again! We stopped for a “detour” along a drive. We’ve definitely changed our behavior on this trip. On the road to Amarillo, TX we stopped to tour Capulin Volcano, which is in the north-east corner of New Mexico (near Raton). It’s the only volcano where you can walk down into the cone. There’s also a one-mile trail that takes you along the rim for a slow 360-degree view of the surrounding area. Around Capulin are several other smaller cones and mud holes. You can also see the old lava flows – where it rippled, and where the edge of the flow stopped. Oddly, this old volcano is covered in plant life – gamble oaks, pines, and wildflowers (although none were blooming during our visit), where most remain bare. It was a worthy stop, and another checkmark on our list of National 'Parks'.
A view inside the crater; the black stones in the middle are large volcanic rocks: