Bo's Journal #20 New Mexico

March/April 2007

Hi, again. Well, here we are back in NM. Remember we left here way back in October of last year to dash home to California for friend Sharon. Now we are back to finish the winter/spring warm-up time, then we’ll travel out to the middle of America sometime in the late spring.

We bought a New Mexico State Parks Pass again this year since these facilities are really cool with water, sewer, electrical hookups and level sites plus they are often near lakes or rivers. The fees are so reduced the pass is paid for within about three months. Now what’s not to love about that?

Our first stay was down near the Mexican border in Pancho Villa State Park at Columbus. It is the site of Villa’s 1916 attack on the U.S. and America’s first military airfield. General Pershing used canvas and wooden ‘Jennies’ to support our troops moving into Mexico in pursuit Villa. Up until 9/11 this was the site of the last time an armed foreign power invaded the U.S. We all agreed we would rather remember the beauty of things in the botanical gardens there and not the all of memorials to the taking of human lives.

Banana Yucca

Cow's Tongue Pricly Pear

Mourning Dove

Drooping Cholla

We moved north a few miles to Rockhound State Park near Deming. This is a place where all sorts of gemstones can be found - jasper, blue agate, white-pink opal, quartz crystals, chalcedony, thunder eggs and geodes. Kae got really excited because she just loves to pick up rocks and here she was allowed up to 20 lbs. of specimens. I simply asked that she not take up any of my living space with all of her rocks! The hikes were good, the Florida Mountains had great silhouettes, the ground-hugging skittering things were way fun and the variety of birds, cactus and flowers was amazing.

Sunrise on the Florida Mountains

Barrel Cactus

Spring

Flowers

The next park, a short drive north and east, is called City of Rocks. This little sweetheart is a geologic wonder of sculptured formations born out of a volcanic eruption some thirty three million years ago. This type of stone is poetically called ‘Kneeling Nun Tuff’ after a monolith located about 35 miles north near the source of the eruption. We actually drove up Hwy 152 and saw that it really does look like a kneeling, praying nun. There are several local legends about a nun, her unrequited love and how she was turned to stone for breaking her sacred vows. As if the rocks weren’t interesting enough in this park it also boasts that it “…rest beneath some of the darkest night skies in the country…” As a result the hiking trails and some campsites are named after astrological features in the night sky and are situated to enhance viewing of each particular star cluster or galaxy. Personally I thought the dozens of bird species and quick rabbits and lizards were the best stuff in the park! Now here’s a little question I was pondering- what did they call Roadrunners before there were roads?





One morning I heard the Gals talking about the Gila River and I thought, “River, as in water?” Oh, Yea! I put in my two barks worth and off we traveled north to the Gila Mountain Wilderness. This is the birthplace of Goyahkla, the great Apache Chief, known as Geronimo. Yes, indeed, mountains, ponderosa and pinon pines, canyons, mesas, rivers and creeks, cool nights, plus pup pleasing pools of water. I thought I had died and gone straight to hound heaven!




My Ladies were dang happy too as there were some great cliff dwellings built by a people called the Mogollen (pronounced muggy-own) about 1270AD. There were 42 rooms in 6 caves built over about a ten year period and abandoned after a short thirty years. No one really knows why they left so abruptly but they certainly built remarkable structures

and painted some very unique petroglyphs.

I took my regular afternoon siesta while the Gals went on a ranger-guided tour to a unexcavated ruins site where they were encouraged to wander about finding pottery shards, grinding stones and pueblo wall ruins, all indicating that this mesa top had been occupied by various peoples for nearly 1500 years. It was exciting to see archeological evidence “in situ” before any one had disturbed the site. It is in fact one of the very few ruins that has not been completely destroyed by looters and pottery hunters. The Park hopes to keep it that way and use modern, non-invasive technologies to interpret the site without ever turning a shovel! Now I could use a little of that sort of thing to help me find those lost bones I buried a few years back!





We met some very interesting folks, both two and four leggeds, like Maya and her person, Lynn from Alaska traveling with their friend Genevieve from West Virginia. Maya was rescued from a horrible place called a ‘puppy farm’ after about 5 ½ years. It sure sounded like a nasty place and that helped explain why she is a little distrustful and wary. But I did my big lovable guy thing and she ended up making herself right at home, just like any other Princess, if you know what I mean. Lynn and Genevieve were nice women and the Gals enjoyed having a dinner with them one evening.



Next we met Lash Larue, a very intense, hard working dog along with her person Cynthia and their five buddies. Two of these I recognized as horses but the other three I had never encountered before. They smelled a little different than horses, had way different ears and a whole different attitude! (I mean they even like to roll in red ant hills!) They are called Mammoth Jacks. I kinda learned the hard way you don’t try to sneak up on them. Cynthia uses them for bird watching/nature pack trips with folks all over the place from Wyoming to New Mexico. Very different and interesting way of life we decided.