New Mexico (07-05-17)

For those who aren’t familiar with New Mexico, here’s an overall map to give you an idea of where we spent our week: It’s not too far from El Paso, because we are headed back there on July 5th.

Capitan

Capitan, NM was home to my favorite bear- Smokey!  I am not sure if young people know who he is, but anyone my age certainly grew up with him.

There is a Smokey Bear Historic Park here that teaches about forest fires- what’s good about them, and what isn’t, and also has quite a few displays about Smokey.

The original public service campaign using a bear to teach about the prevention of human ignited forest fires started in the mid 1940s.  There was no actual bear, just the cartoon rendition.






In the early 50’s a small, badly burned bear cub was found clinging to a tree in the aftermath of the Capitan Gap wildfire.

He was eventually named Smokey, and became the real life symbol for the public service campaign.  Once he recovered his health, he lived out his life- 26 years- in the National Zoo.

After his death in 1976 he was brought back to be buried here, in Capitan NM.

Ruidoso Downs

After two days of sweltering weather in Alamogordo, we started hunting for a place to stay higher up the mountain, where it would be considerably cooler.  Unfortunately, it was July 1, and we could only find a spot for 3 nights.  Eh, we figured no big deal, we’d just wing it on the night of the 4th. Who knows, maybe the RV park would get a cancelation.

So we moved up the hill, and were much happier!  Now we could sit outside and enjoy the rain and hail. I’m not kidding either- we both like a good storm.  The neighbors thought we were a little nuts though.

The weather was much cooler up here- in the 70s and 80s.  We were able to do a longer hike- this time it was 6.5 miles, 1400 ft of gain,  up the hill to Argentina Peak.

There are lots of trails up here.  We debated doing a shorter route- taking the crossover trail instead of going all the way to the peak- but we pushed on, and were rewarded with awesome views:

At the peak we took our lunch break, and I was feeling pretty accomplished until I saw this:




We met this family of 6 at the trailhead as we all started on the same trail.  The dad said they’d see how far they could get, with their 4 pre-teen children. Well dang if they didn’t make it all the way to the top!  Very Impressive!  They reminded me of The Von Trapp family!

Carrizozo

Valley of Fires National Recreation area features  a 45 mile long lava field.

The lava here didn’t come from an erupting volcano, but instead it bubbled up from underground vents.

There is a paved interpretive trail that details the history of the area and showcases the flora and fauna. Technically you can hike anywhere you want on the lava bed but there were several reasons we didn’t.

We did stroll the interpretive trail, and very soon realized that we had disturbed one of the inhabitants.  I now know what a rattlesnake sounds like!

I have seen one before, but never heard one.  I didn’t realize what I had heard – it sounded like a cicada to me!  Paul realized immediately what it was and sure enough, we found him curled up near the side of the trail.

He was sticking his tongue out at me.

In this zoomed in picture you can clearly see his rattle and if you look- the rattle is pointed at his head.

I tried to get a video of him rattling but couldn’t quite do it.  We didn’t want to antagonize him just to hear him rattle. And actually, later, I googled rattlesnake and Valley of Fires NRA and saw a video of a man throwing pebbles at a snake, on the same trail we were on, just to hear him rattle.  Not Cool. I also found out that the lava bed is full of snakes- one of the several reasons we did not go off trail!

One of the perks to checking out this park was discovering that there is a great, nearly empty campground. So, this is where we moved to on July 4th, and this was our view at sunset:

No party and no fireworks this year- we just wanted a quiet night to relax before heading back to El Paso.