Matt's New Mexico (Formerly Airstream) Adventure
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We’ve moved in to Hueco Tanks St Pk in El Paso and this place is nuts. If you live near or are passing through I highly recommend it. We had to participate in a special orientation upon check in to ensure we understood just how special this place is. They go to great lengths to protect the artifacts and pictographs here, many of which are prehistoric. It’s also a rock climbing destination apparently. Wikipedia this place if you’re interested. We just got here. This is all just from the campsite…
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I always wondered if they actually sell things there or if it’s really just a spot for wives to take photos…
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It’s a spot for wives to fail to take photos apparently because they don’t know how to use their phones. In real life it and the Target are art installations.
Tons of 1000 year old pictographs and some awesome rock scrambling today. A hueco in case I neglected to mention it is like a crater in the rock face that collects water, which in the desert is a pretty big deal. The water is what attracts animals and plant life and is what attracted native people for thousands of years. It also attracted tourists for hundreds of years so along the pictographs are “historic graffiti” that’s also protected. The newer graffiti is removed and the perpetrators go straight to hell.
Here’s some huecos. They are everywhere and are home to 3 types of shrimp that only exist here…
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The rocks here were formed underground and pushed up by magma where they fused with limestone. Many of the pictographs are in caves have been visited so frequently the ground is smooth and shiny… and slippery. Getting the kids in and out of these things was a real adventure. The first one we saw had a special map with directions like “Find the rock that looks like a duck then walk up the mountain 100’ until you get to a rock that looks like a crocodile. Stand under the nose of the crocodile and go over the rocks to a cave with a bush on its left.” I can’t believe we found it...
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Very cool stuff @Matt!!!
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My wife was in Marfa a few years ago. She booked a safari tent at El Cosmico. Unfortunately, all the yurts and teepees had been booked.
And yes, she has a picture of the Prada "store".
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Guided hike today with Alex, 30 year park ranger. Great guy with lots of information and experience being part Navajo and part Mexican. The guided hikes are in areas off limits to casual hikers. The fun thing about this place is that while the trails at ground level are pretty heavily monitored and restricted once you’re in the rocks all is fair game. Here he is showing us a cave used for sacred water prayer ceremonies 1500 years ago. This place is bonkers…
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Aodad are an invasive African mountain goat introduced to fill a hunting void left by the dying off of big horn sheep. There aren’t enough mountain lions here to keep them in check and they don’t permit hunting so they are everywhere. Or so we were told. This was our first and only sighting all week.
