We need sunshine and warmer weather. Whereas last year we spent the latter part of winter in Texas, this year our plan is to spend the winter in Arizona; south Arizona to be exact. Moving south in that direction from Albuquerque gave us a great opportunity to see some very interesting places in New Mexico and Texas along the way. Mostly these were several day stopovers, not long stays in any one place. This is the Christmas Season and everywhere we went we experienced the cheer of the season from among the local folks we encountered. There is that very different, even magical feeling you get from being in the desert during the holidays. We found the solitude very comforting. It made for reflection and contemplating the spirituality of the season all the more meaningful for us.
Bottomless Lakes, NM, way out in the middle of almost nowhere...near Roswell, was a pleasant surprise. Here is a stark landscape with miles of horizon. Here are some lakes that are actually sinkholes that have retained water from spring-fed sources, underground aquifers that run off water from the nearby mountains. They are not bottomless, but the color of the water, a deep blue, gives them that nomenclature. Roswell itself is a hoot and a fun town to hang out in for a day or two. Of course, the mysteries surrounding the UFO crash in the late 1940’s gives the town a rush of sight-seers. The UFO museum there is a lot of fun. Were there aliens there from a crash? Probably...why not?
Carlsbad Caverns is an amazing place. Some 700,000+ bats emanate from the cave during the spring and summer months each night. While the bats had flown the coop for Mexico when we were there due to it being winter, the cave itself is probably the most spectacular I have yet seen. Pictures cannot do it justice, mostly due to the lack of perspective you can give the pictures. There is no horizon so size is hard to fathom from the images. Also, given the fact that you are 750 feet beneath the surface of the earth gives the caves a surreal sense. The size and beauty of the cave features are things unto themselves. The guides do a superlative job of describing what you are seeing and why it is there. The history of discovery of the cave is gone into good detail as well. Jim White, a teenager when he discovered the cave, was the principal force behind getting the cave to be first accepted as reality and, second, getting the cave to its present national treasure status. You have to remember that this is desert country, wild and untamed even today. Folks didn’t just go out looking for caves. Mr White first saw what he thought was smoke from a fire in the distance. Riding his horse towards the smoke he began to realize that the smoke was actually a living thing...hordes of bats leaving the cave for their nightly search for food. He explored a part of the cave at that time and reported back to the townspeople what he had seen. No one believed him...until he brought a photographer with him who was able to prove to the townsfolk that he was telling the truth about this marvel. Having grown up in Missouri amidst its wealth of limestone caves I always thought that there could not be caverns anywhere else that rivaled or were more spectacular that those in Missouri. Wrong I am about that. Perhaps comparing caves is like making apples to oranges comparisons. What I know now is that there are caverns and speliothems all over the world that can strike awe in a person.
This is the case as well for Kartchner Caverns in Arizona. This particular set of caverns is the most protected cave resource I have ever visited. The Arizona department of conservation does an outstanding job of protecting the integrity of this system. It makes you question why other states and organizations do not insist upon the same stringency. The cavern is tremendously impressive, the tours done expertly with lots of education on cave formation and geology and history as focus points in addition to the formations you see. This cave was discovered in 1974 by two guys who were looking for caves in the desert due to the limestone mountains in this area. Boy, did they find what they were looking for. After discovering the cave, they managed to keep it a secret for 10 years before gaining the interest of the state of Arizona and subsequently seeing it declared a state park. Their personal mantra for the cave they discovered is, “ It took 1 day to find, 10 years to develop and bring to the public, and forever to care for its protection.”
Backing up in time now, since I wanted to step out of time to talk about the two caves together, I would like to mention Rockhound State Park and Huecos Tanks, TX, two stops we made on the way to Kartchner Caverns. Rockhound is just as it sounds...a rocky mountainous haven for mineralogists and rock hunters. This craggy place in southern, NM is fascinating landscape. The Florida mountains here are not particularly high, but they have an other-worldly look to them. They are like spires and crags and juts that point directly at the sky, scraping clouds that venture by. The panorama during morning and evening, when the sun is rising and setting, is so alien. It’s as if you were on another planet sometimes. There is a museum in Denton, the nearby town, that is a phenom to see. While it houses a tremendous collection of Mimbres pottery that is at times well over a thousand years old, it also has collections of the everyday life of the town during different intervals of time. Within their doll collection, for instance, they have a Japanese doll that somehow survived the direct hit in Hiroshima during the atomic bomb attack, scorched in parts as it was. This “Mimbres” museum is an absolute must see if you are in the area...and it is free!
Every once in a great while you come across a place, a place so spiritual and obviously full of history that you must take several steps back and acknowledge you are in the presence of something so much greater than yourself, greater than any one group or civilization. This is Huecos Tanks, TX. Huecos is a small series of granite outcroppings in the desert outside of El Paso, much like Elephant Rocks state park in Missouri. Over eons the granite, through wind and rain erosion, have developed pockets, or tanks as they are called that hold water when the rest of the surrounding desert is bone dry. Due to this life-saving feature, and the fact that the area can be easily defended from attack, every single civilization that has inhabited north America, has, at one time or another, called these rocks home. No other place in our country can boast of that. Mogollon, Apache, Mestizo, Spanish, White Anglo-Europeans...you name it...they’ve all been here. How do they know this? Simple. They’ve all left their literal marks ion the rocks. Perhaps there is no more significant pictograph treasury from natives than exists here. When you climb among the rocks and see up close and personal the art and emotion left by people hundreds and thousands of years ago, you receive a sense of wonder. Similarly, early white settlers who traveled here and obtained water from the tanks left their marks as well. Signatures from the 1830’s, 1840’s, and on through the battles between the US and Pancho Villa are prevalent and just as inspiring to see. Part of the park is open to self-discovery, and part of the park can only be visited with a guide. Only 70 people at any one time are allowed in the park at any one time. Protection of the assets is the paramount goal of the staff here and they do an exceptional job of it. Since these boulders and mountains are so stark and challenging, the area has become over the years the major rock-climbing mecca for those enthusiasts. Sometimes protection of the assets and sport collide. Sometimes the two disparate interests clash. There has had to be some compromising along the way to appease both parties. The current situation and compromise seems to make everyone at least empathetic to the other group’s interests and so co-existence is working for now. You can only camp here for three days max, a nod to making the park available to as many people as possible. Again, the staff does a wonderful and professional job of running the park and its challenging set of rules and responsibilities.
We took a tour and were fortunate to have as our guide one Alex Mares, who is ½ Navajo and ½ Mexican by his own measure. Alex grew up on the property and if there is anyone who knows more about the history and secrets of this place than he I don’t know who they could be. What was supposed to be a two hour tour eventually ended up at five hours...two of which were devoted to just Diane and me. Native perspectives handed down from the ages co-mingled with science learned in classrooms was combined to make understanding the place and people of the Tanks complete and thorough. I strongly urge any reader who has the good fortune to visit Hueco to seek this man out for a tour. You’ll get the real story.
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day here. I can say without equivocation that those times were among the most spiritually rewarding holidays I have yet spent. Diane and I are eternally grateful to have spent some time in this enchanting, spiritual, and historical place.