NEW MEXICO: ORGAN MOUNTAINS, DRIPPING SPRINGS TRAIL

July 3, 2021

On July 2 we stopped at the Dripping Springs ranger station in the Organ Mountains on our way to our hotel in Las Cruces. We were hoping to do a three-mile hike, but rain was threatening and we didn't want to be caught in a storm, so we continued on to Las Cruces and came back the nexr morning

Our son Sam did some rope climbing here with a friend several years ago, so we were intrigued to visit and get an up-close view. These needle peaks loom over Las Cruces like Mordor rises over Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings. 

These first pictures were taken through the car window on our way in just as the sun was rising.

NEW MEXICO: A BABY ZEBRA, WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT, AND A GIANT PISTACHIO

 July 2, 2021

As we drove through some really beautiful scenery in the Lincoln National Forest on our way to White Sands National Park, the words "Cold Cider" and "Fresh Cherries" caught my eye. 

We pulled into a parking lot and found what we were looking for--and much more. Who would have thought there would be  a one-month-old Grant's zebra in a New Mexico farm stand? 

Goats, yes. Maybe even the llamas . . .

. . . but a zebra? And not just one zebra, but two. The baby's mama was in the pen next to it.

NEW MEXICO: CARLSBAD CAVERN

 July 1, 2021

Carlsbad Cavern (singular) is one of seventeen caves in Carlsbad Caverns (plural) National Park. About 250 years ago, an underground sea combined with sulfuric acid deep below the earth's surface to work on the limestone of the area of the Guadalupe Mountains, carving out huge caverns. Different kinds of forces created various formations, including the familiar stalactites and stalagmites, as well as formations less familiar (to me) such as straws, popcorn, flowstone, and travertine.

A fun thing happened before we went into the cave. I was wearing my "Redlands Strong" pandemic t-shirt, and someone got out of his car as we walked by and asked if we were from Redlands. He was a University of Redlands student and his girlfriend was a Redlands native! I seem to have a knack for running into people who I have a connection to.

Comedian Will Rogers once called Carlsbad Cavern "the Grand Canyon with a roof over it." When I saw this layout of the cave in the Visitor Center, I could see what he was talking about. 

It is possible to walk down the cave opening, and then walk through a section of the cave to get to the trailhead for the main cave. The 1.25 natural trail entrance is very steep and the equivalent of a 75-story building. We opted to take the elevator down instead, and we took it back up as well.

Signage notes there are at least 118 caves beneath the surface with over 180 total miles of known passages and rooms. I wasn't aware of any other options for cave walks, although I am sure there must be some.

This map reminds me of Lake Powell. It's interesting to note the similarities of caves to canyons.

NEW MEXICO AND TEXAS: GUADALUPE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK AND WHITE'S CITY

July 1, 2021

We had a day of hiking planned and wanted to get an early start. We were out the door by 6:00 AM and on our way to McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountain National Park. Low clouds still clung to the Guadalupe Peaks, and the air was cool and fresh because of the rains of the previous two days.

We arrived at the gate to McKittrick Canyon at 6:50 AM. Since it wasn't supposed to open until 8:00, we drove to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park main visitor's center. It also did not open until 8:00, so we walked an easy one-mile loop trail that was nearby.

NEW MEXICO: BITTER LAKE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

 June 30, 2021

Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge lies a few miles northwest of Roswell. The Pecos River flows through the refuge and the Roswell aquifer lies under it. Together, they have created several deep lakes. The refuge hosts as many as 350 species of migratory birds and is also known for being the home to over 90 species of dragonflies and damselflies, which are at their peak in July and August. Being on the front end of that, we definitely saw some, but I didn't get pictures of any--except the one on the entrance sign.

As mentioned in my previous post, it had been raining all morning, as well as some of the day before, but the heavens parted and the sun began to emerge while we were in the wildlife refuge.

The puddles in the road acted like reflecting pools.

I'm glad we could stay in the car for the scenic drive. Walking would have been messy.

NEW MEXICO: ROSWELL

June 30, 2021

We spent the night at a Super 8 in Las Vegas (New Mexico), a quirky hotel in a quirky little town. I loved the peacock decoration that was part of the hotel landscaping.

However, Las Vegas didn't hold a candle to the quirkiness of our next destination: Roswell, New Mexico, home of the [in]famous July 1947 "Roswell UFO Incident." The basic story is that a "flying disc" crashed at a ranch about 75 miles from Roswell and was reported to authorities by the Roswell Army Air Field. However, the Army quickly retracted the statement, saying that it was actually a plain ol' weather balloon that crashed. 

Things were quiet until the late 1970s when a retired military man exposed the "cover-up" to a UFOlogist, or a researcher of UFO sightings. Many more "eyewitnesses" soon came out of the woodwork, including several who said that at least one alien spacecraft had crash-landed and bodies had been recovered by the military.

In 1994, the US Air Force came out with a report stating that the crashed object was a nuclear test surveillance balloon, and in 1997 they added that the recovered "alien bodies" were probably test dummies that had been dropped from high altitude.

What I can gather is this: 1) Something crashed into a field 75 miles outside Roswell in July 1947; 2) There was some kind of cover-up, although whether it was because it was a nuclear-related device or a UFO can be debated; 3) There are a lot of crazy people out there; 4) Roswell makes a big chunk of money off its UFO/alien image. As for #4, why else would we have gone to Roswell, except perhaps as a bathroom stop on our way to Carlsbad Caverns? 

As soon as you hit the edge of Roswell's business district, there is no question what the big draw is.

NEW MEXICO: FROM LAS CRUCES WATER TOWERS TO UTEP

July 3, 2021

We had spent the night in Las Cruces, so after our hike in the Organ Mountains we returned to our hotel, showered, and checked out. We hadn't eaten breakfast, so we searched online for the "Best Chile Relleno Burrito in Las Cruces."  We ended up at a run-down drive-thru called El Jacalito. A jacalito is a small adobe house (which this drive through was not). And if these are the best chile relleno burritos Las Cruces has to offer, I feel pretty sorry for them. We gave them a B-/C+. Very disappointing.

When he was planning the trip, Bob ran across information about a tour of the Las Cruces water tanks, each painted with historical/regional murals. He knows this is the kind of thing I enjoy, so we headed out to do that before driving on to El Paso.

Each of the water tanks is 32 feet tall and contains two million gallons of water. The artistic genius behind the murals painted on the tanks is Tony Pennock, who completed his first water tower when he was still a high school student.

The first water tank we saw was actually painted to honor New Mexico State University, Pennock's alma mater (although he did not paint this one).  Look at that background! The Organ Mountains are really spectacular.

Jornado del Muerto, or "Journey of the Dead Man," depicts the Conquistadors making the the 100-mile journey from Las Cruces to Socorro, New Mexico. This was Pennock's FIRST mural, completed over a six-month period when he was seventeen years old. He used a project and worked at night to transfer his design onto the tank. Pennock revitalized the flaking mural in 1991 and transformed it into La Entrada, or "The Entrance," focusing on Don Juan de Onate leading a procession of settlers and livestock into the American West.

NEW MEXICO: CUISINE, PECOS NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK, AND FRED HARVEY

 June 29, 2021

The one food I really wanted to eat in New Mexico was a Navajo taco. I remembered eating one on a visit to New Mexico 30 years earlier, and I remembered how amazing it was.

A Yelp search for Navajo tacos led us to Los Amigos in Santa Fe. We ordered two for take out (for a whopping $27!) and ate them in the car. I was so disappointed. They were just American-style tostadas on a piece of not-that-great fry bread. They were also huge and so loaded that we couldn't get to the bottom. We ended up eating about half and tossing the rest. I would have been happier with the giant Coke we saw at the side of the road as we left town.

On our way to Pecos National Historic Park, we passed this mural. I was intrigued enough to take a photo. Turns out it is a painting of Pecos Park itself!

The national park includes thousands of acres, but the main section contains the ruins of Pecos Pueblo, also known as Cicuye, "the village of 500 warriors." The pueblo's first buildings were built around AD 1100, and by about 1450, there were more than 2,000 people living on the site in a five-story building. According to Baltazar de Obregón, Pecos Pueblo "is congregated on a high and narrow hill. . . . It has the greatest and best buildings of these provinces and is most thickly settled. . . . It is enclosed and protected by a wall . . . and by tiers of walkways which look out on the countryside."

The Pecos people were farmers, and the broad valley we saw looks perfect for cultivated crops of the Three Sisters: bans, corn, and squash. The pueblo was strategically located and a major center of trade.

The base of the wall still snakes around what must have been the perimeter of the living quarters.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 5: CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI AND THE LORETTO CHAPEL

 June 29, 2021

It began to rain as we approached the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and it pretty much rained for the rest of the day. Luckily, we were able to park fairly close in a lot at the rear of the church and entered the complex from behind. Even at the back of the church, St. Francis was there to greet us.

These two large talevera pots on the walkway are some of the most beautiful I have seen.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 5: SANTA FE'S MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART

 June 29, 2021

I had no idea what Santa Fe's Museum of International Folk Art was. I had never heard of it when Bob added it to our itinerary. He knows I love folk art and art museums in general, and so the name attracted his attention.

It was raining when we got to the museum complex known as "Museum Hill." Four museums are on the site: the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of International Folk Art. In addition, there is also the Botanical Garden at Museum Hill. So much to see and so little time! 

You could easily spend two days on this hill, but we only had one afternoon, so we made our way to the Folk Art Museum.

At first, it seemed like a normal art museum. We paid our entrance fee and started down a hallway, passing

Triple Eyes (2007) by Alexander H. Girard

When we entered the main exhibit room, however, we discovered an art museum unlike any other we have visited. It was a very large room, warehouse sized, absolutely crammed with dioramas of scenes from various cultures along with dolls, masks, religious folk art, costumes, toys, and so on. More than 100 countries are represented. It is an eye-popping collection. In fact, the Folk Art Museum houses the largest collection of folk art in the world.  There are more than 135,000 artifacts, about 10% of which are on display at any given time. I could have spent the entire day in this huge room with its warren of displays. Bob, on the other hand, was a bit overwhelmed. It's more my thing than his.

Here is a sampling of a few of my favorites. It may seem like a lot of photos, but it is a small fraction of what I saw. I am not going to try to group them together by type because that is not how I experienced the museum.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 5: STATE CAPITOL IN SANTA FE

 June 29, 2021

The New Mexico Capitol Building in Santa Fe is the only round capitol in the United States and is sometimes called "The Roundhouse." I love that New Mexico paid this tribute to its local culture instead of mimicking the traditional US Capitol style, as so many states do (although previous iterations of the New Mexico Capitol, most notably the 1900 version, were much more traditional).

This building, dedicated in 1966, is supposed to resemble the Zia sun symbol when viewed from above. The Zia is the symbol on the New Mexico flag, a symbol we saw reproduced all over New Mexico.

As the symbol implies, the Capitol has four similar entrances, differentiated by the sculptures in front of each one. Each entrance is topped by a stone carving of the State Seal of New Mexico.

Door handles are not my usual blog fodder, but check out these turquoise inlay handles.

The rotunda is 49 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. The skylight uses the design of an Indian basket, and the blue- and coral-colored glass represent the sky and earth.