Nuts in the desert

Good evening, Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ with you again tonight, this time from the Land of Enchantment... New Mexico! Specifically, we are at Rockhound State Park outside of Deming.

This will be our “one and only” in New Mexico this trip. We’ve been to northeast and northwest New Mexico before, but never down here along the southern border. Before getting to that, let’s rewind the tape to Hueco Tanks.

It was chilly at sunrise today... about 50. I knew from the way the sun set that sunrise would be a better light on the surrounding mountains for landscape photography. I was out to capture it with an iPhone, Canon (with two lenses) and a hot coffee. 

I had failed at sunset in my attempt to capture a shot of the local fauna. Specifically, I hoped to snap an aoudad or javelina. Okay, I’m name dropping. Both were unfamiliar to me, too until I started reading about specific beasts in various regions of our trip. We’ll cover marmots and wolverines in the coming months, but for now let’s cover those two. So far, the only large wild beasts we have seen are pronghorn antelope and deer. Aoudad are also known as Barbary sheep. They are the signature animal of Hueco Tanks and the ranger who gave us the orientation said we would likely see them at sunset or sunrise right from our campsite. My walk last night proved her half wrong. They are not native to North America but were introduced from North Africa. There are a few wild populations in the southwest including at Hueco Tanks. Mature adults are up to 3 feet at the shoulder and as much as 300 pounds. Their large horns are impressive... or so I’ve been told. Javelinas are a type of pig-like animal that grows to near 90 pounds. To me, the pics of them look like a small wild boar. Our cumulative count of javelina sightings plus aoudad sightings remains zero.

Sunset was nice. In the desert, the temperatures drop rapidly once the sun goes down. After temps in the mid eighties, sunset is welcome. I imagine in the summer, with temps in the one-teens, it is life-restoring. Each campsite here has a beautiful covered eating area with natural stone and logs:

My dawn walk proved great for landscapes but the critter count remained Z-E-R-O. I was concluding that Barbary sheep are as scarce as Barbary pirates in the desert. I think I have a better chance of seeing Sasquatch out here than seeing a horned ungulate. Here’s what I did see:

For a sense of scale, there is a picnic shelter in the left center of that pic of the volcanic mountain in front of our campsite.

Coffee, breakfast, discussion about how to use the day and we were ready to roll at 10:15. I looked up at the edge of the rocky hill above us. There were five aoudad staring down at us from the edge. I grabbed the Canon. Two of them must have thought I said cannon and they were off like honeymoon pajamas but three stayed. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the first large critter portrait of the trip to everywhere.

They were clearly watching us. I think the one on the left yelled (in aoudad-ese with a Texas twang) “We were just messin’ with ya! We’ve been here all along, just over this ridge, watchin’ you doing interesting people stuff.” Imps.

We headed back through the lesson in urban planning that they call east El Paso. Mrs. C’ declared that it was time for some domestic reprovisioning. The GPS guided us to the nearest Marshall’s. One additional stop at PetSmart for a kibble recharge and we were off for New Mexico.

We headed to Las Cruces where we got gas and dunch (it was too early for dinner and too late for lunch) which was tacos to take with us. A surprising crop to see in large quantity in the Melilla Valley around Las Cruces were pecan trees. Huge groves with many being actively irrigated. A bit of research just now says this variety was introduced for both shade and nuts. It also says pecans are the largest cash crop of New Mexico. You can thank me later for that... after you win Final Jeopardy by knowing that factoid!

We also saw the local economy in action. We’re is a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint station on I-10 westbound. It was closed when we went by.

We settled into Rockhound State Park at about 4:00. It’s an amazing contrast to Hueco Tanks. There we received a briefing about not touching or disturbing anything since it’s an active archaeological site with spiritual significance to indigenous people. Here, collecting is encouraged. “Take all the rocks you want! That cliff up there keeps sending us more.” The cliffs above us shed many types of rocks — including geodes — that are collectible.

The campground was visible from the valley floor but it is perched 500’ - 1,000’ higher on the shoulder of a sandstone mountain.

We poured out of the trusty Tundra after a long day (it was more stops than rolling actually). We all ate, the dogs got their chance to sniff out whose walked this campground before them, and we are watching the sun drop and taking the temps with it.

Tomorrow on to Tucson for three nights. I hope you’ll come with us.

Later...