Camping in New Mexico

This has got to be the greatest deal in the U.S.! Free or very low cost campgrounds in spectacular county, hiking trails abounding for the restless, corrals for horses, sun shelters, fire pits, odor free pit toilets, garbage, even electricity in some of them. The water is a bit more scarce but we've had no problems with that. We spent 4 nights in a Lincoln NF campground called Argentina Campground. I went on several long hikes, climbing up toward 9000 ft. and the local peaks, just seeing the forest coming out of winter. There were still some patches of snow but the trees are starting to leaf out and a few dandelions were attracting butterflies. Lower down the fruit trees are blooming and grasses are greening up.  We had some fun photographing the small waterfalls and building rock sculptures. 

They must have some terrible forest fires around here, evidenced by the many burned slopes we've seen in our travels.  Along with the fires go great floods in the small creeks coming down the mountains. The road crews keep pretty busy moving sand, gravel and rocks off of the roads. In Capitan you can tour the Smokey the Bear Historical Monument. The original bear cub was rescued after a fire, right here in Lincoln NF, and was the inspiration the Smokey the Bear "Only YOU can prevent forest fires!" campaign to educate the public about forest fires. The museum displays the founding and history of fire fighting and the stages it has gone through over the years.  Smokey ended up living in the National Zoo in DC but is buried here in the monument.

White Mountain NF

White Mountain NF

Got my camos on!

Rock people

Lazy day fun

FYI, Teddy Bears are not the same thing, they were inspired by Theodore Roosevelt who was on a hunting trip in the south someplace. They were having trouble finding Teddy a bear but finally their dogs found one and the locals tied it to a tree to wait for Roosevelt to come and shoot it. Roosevelt spared the bear, not finding it sporting to shoot a bear tied to a tree. Well, that is a nice start to the story but the sad part was that after Teddy left the scene the other hunters went ahead and killed the bear. In one of the many books I've read on this trip, several about T.R., the author related how the Teddy Bear stuffed toy became an overnight sensation and of course we all know of it's continuing popularity. Someone came up with a brilliant follow up to the Teddy Bear and a chance to honor the new President of the US, William Taft. They chose the lowly opossum for the next stuffed toy! Needless to say the idea didn't take off quite like the Teddy Bear.

A short tour of Lincoln, NM taught us all about the rowdy nature of this place back in the 1880's. It was a lawless land, everyone settled their disputes with guns. There were too many conflicts for me to remember but it was a very violent period of history in this area. Fort Stanton, built in 1855, was built to protect settlers from the Apache Indians who were not at all happy about being displaced. The economy of the surrounding areas were dependent upon selling goods to the fort, mainly cattle. There were family feuds, business battles, assassinations, scheming, plotting, cattle and horse rustling, drunken brawls and silly squabbles that were fought to the death. Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln jail by killing two deputies on the way back from the outhouse. We have been following his trail for several hundred miles it seems. The Mexicans in Lincoln built their own circular fort to defend against Indian raids and to protect their animals. A lady we talked to said to imagine being shut up in this little fort with 50 of your neighbors surrounded by all the animals, with no water or toilets for several days.... not nice. This same lady was spinning wool at a little shop and took the time to show me a crochet pattern for a scarf. 

Mexican fort protecting against the Apache

Getting our colors!

 We've stayed in 3 BLM campgrounds lately: Fort Stanton, Three Rivers Petroglyphs Site, and Valley of Fires. Fort Stanton was free and the other two very inexpensive. River of Fires even has nice bathrooms with showers! Happy day! I have been getting plenty of walking, each site has miles of trails. The Petroglyphs site was amazing, over 20,000 pictures spread out on basalt boulders  along a ridge. The last inhabitants of this area were the Jornada Mogollon and about 1000 years ago they vanished mysteriously leaving no trace or heritage that anyone claims today. They also have the remains of the village with several dwelling styles present. We spent a lot of time photographing the rock art and imagining what inspired each artist. It has been very hard to choose the photos for this site, it was all so spectacular.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

 River of Fires is an interesting site, 125 sq. miles of lava flow dating back only a few thousand years. It came from a shield volcano, simple fissures in the crust that oozed out gobs of molten rock. There are the usual lava tubes, pahoehoe, aa, and other cool volcanic features. What I find interesting is that there are more species of plants growing on the lava than there are in the surrounding desert! The convoluted surface is good at protecting plants, moderating temperatures and conserving water. There is also abundant wildlife, mule deer, bats, desert squirrels, tarantulas, and rodents of various kinds. Evolution is hard at work here, the same species that we saw down the road at White Sands in light shades are here as well, except they have much darker coloring to blend into the black lava. It is quite astonishing to see this volcanic site in the middle of this desert country. It is a very small site compared to Washington's  "biggest on the planet" Columbia Plateau Basalts but New Mexico is very proud of their volcano. 

Pohoehoe

Ancient Pinon Pine

 The last activity for this post is visiting the Trinity Site at the north end of the White Sands Missile Range. Trinity is the site of the world's first atomic blast on July 16, 1945. It is open only one day each year, down from two days in the past. We were glad we arrived early because by the time we left several hours later there was a huge line up at the gate. The site consists of a very shallow "crater" and a memorial oblisk to the event. Outside the fence were informational stands and vendors. We eavesdropped on a tour group to get some information, talked to a few guys who were enthusiasts, volunteering their time to answer questions and tell stories. It was interesting how casually the project was put together in the final stages. Most of the work was done by the scientists at Los Alamos to the north of Trinity, and the folks at Hanford who were creating the uranium needed for the bomb. Pieces of the bomb were delivered to Trinity in trucks and the uranium arrived in a car. They were assembled into the complete bomb in the farmhouse not far from the site. There were many observation sites around the countryside at varying distances. Unfortunately the farmhouse was closed for this one day affair so we were not able to see that part. This was the only bomb set off above ground in New Mexico during those early years of testing. The second and third bombs built were the ones dropped on Japan. The site has been cleaned up but you can still find plenty of trinitite, the glassy, green rock created by the intense heat of the bomb. Just for the record, I did not collect any. It was a great history lesson and a very interesting morning.

Trinity bomb casing

Trinity site memorial