My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Arjan.....indeed it is.....those white sands, well, they absolutely captivated me this time.....honestly, I hated to leave.....& you're welcome.....

JohnIndenver.....there's a reason why it's called the"The Land of Enchantment" said a man I'd struck up a conversation with while visiting Las Cruces, New Mexico.....beautiful country.....



We drove west along Highway 70, just daydreaming along the way, once again with no destination in mind.....go west just seemed like a good idea at that time. And as I drove west, my eyes became fixated on the mountain range that I saw straight ahead.....



Eventually I had to stop, and open up my Google Maps ap.....I wanted to know the climbing possibilities and the name of this stunning mountain range that the highway would soon take us to.....



As I began to research this mountain range, I soon enough had made us some solid plans.....





From the ioverlander ap, I found myself a campsite near the base of the mountains.....we set up camp at the Sierra Vista Trailhead.....



It certainly wasn't the ideal spot, but honestly finding good campsites in New Mexico was a constant struggle.....there's just so much private land.....



We awoke to dark, black skies.....which totally seemed to change the landscape out the camper window.....



Soon enough the dark skies rumbled and we heard the sounds of thunder.....



....those sounds of course were followed by rain, which eventually turned into snow.....in the valley, and of course, up in the mountains.....



We spent three days hunkered down in the truck camper, patiently waiting at the base of the Organ Mountains......waiting for a change of weather.....and waiting on implementing our plan to climb Organ Peak (8,872').....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Intervals of rain, sleet and snow kept us close by the camper.....





I would suggest that we snacked way too much during our rest.....



But that just seems to go hand in hand when waiting out the weather.....





We'd go out for walks but nothing crazy of course.....



During the breaks in the weather, when the sun would almost break through the clouds, while on our walks, I'd talk with some of the locals that came here to walk......





The concensus seemed to be that it was a bad idea to climb here after a snow storm (which apparently is fairly rare here). The route crosses large rock slabs and most people felt it unclimable for the dogs & I.....



At some point a 10 hour climbing day (in normal conditions) simply lost its' appeal.....so we bagged the idea and finally moved on. But the alpenglow on those mountains.....I won't soon forget.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

I left there early on the morning of the third day, a bit disappointed that we hadn't climbed, but I also thought to myself that I may return another day.....on another trip.....in another life.....

So it was that we continued west.....next stop was Las Cruces, New Mexico to grab some well prepared restaurant food.....and while I was there having a warm meal, I found us a conciliation mountain.....Tortugas Mountain (4,931').....which was just a mile or so outside of town.....and so it was that we climbed that mountain instead.....



To use the word "climb" is a real stretch.....this is simply a walk up of one really ugly, abused mountain.....maybe an hour roundtrip was all that was required.....



The ugly, abused summit that I referenced was covered in towers and buildings.....



.....and other assorted man made things.....



The highlight of the "climb" would have been my summit shot of Tanner on the mountain's peak (that dog truly is a ham).....



.....but the real highlight of the "climb" was the phenomenal view of the Organ Mountains as we looked back to the east.....





So you might be thinking at this point.....that sure is a lot of pictures of the Organ Mountains.....but if any mountain range deserves special recognition (and lots of pictures).....





.....it's the Organ Mountains.....that's for sure.....

 

[ITTOG]

Tanner is awesome, very photogenic.

Wow, the Organ mountains are beautiful. Love the snow shots. I look forward to your return trip.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

ITTOG.....Tanner truly is "awesome" and he's the perfect dog in every way. I never thought a dog could ever fill Yukons' paws, but he's done it in every way possible. Trapper, I love her to death, but she's a train wreck.....



"The Prehistoric Trackways National Monument is located in the Robledo Mountains just northwest of Las Cruces in Dona Ana County, south-central New Mexico. It contains rocks of Permian age, from the Late Paleozoic Era. They are composed of sediments deposited about 280 million years ago, before the age of the dinosaurs. These rocks contain major deposits of fossilized footprints made by numerous amphibians, reptiles, insects, and crustaceans, as well as plants and petrified wood. Some scientists have called these features the most scientifically significant Permian tracksites in the world. These fossils provide important information about animal behavior in this ancient tropical environment on the edge of the supercontinent Pangea."

From the BLM Website.....



We left Las Cruces, New Mexico that evening.....now headed north once again. We spent that night camped in yet one more New Mexico parking lot. The following morning we hit the trails in search of dinosaur tracks.....it'd been way too long I say sarcastically (although I do enjoy viewing them just for a change of pace).....



We started out that morning on the Ridgeline Trail which of course gave us the best views of the Rio Grande Valley below.....



On the return hike we detoured and took the Discovery Trail which is where all the good stuff is found.....



I don't claim to be an archeologist (I can't even spell it without help), but I believe this to be one of the many fossils that we saw that day.....



Further downstream we began to find the dinosaur tracks.....





One thing that struck me here was the fact that these were recently discovered.....on June 6, 1987 by a guy named Jerry.....probably just another knucklehead like me......wandering around in places that most people wouldn't think to wander around.....





I layed my ball cap down next to the footprints just to show the enormity of some of these dinosaur footprints.....and that's all I got to say about dinosaur footprints.....

 

[AlwaysRoaming]

Thank you again Jerry. I was born and raised SE NM. Your posts remind me of all the things I still have left to see in my beautiful home state. Sad that it has been run in the ground by bad policies and decisions from a few.

 

[Foy]

No worries on the spelling of archaeology. It's actually one of those words with more than one generally accepted spelling. And I guess you may have meant paleontology, anyway. The archaeologist is most often considered a social scientist who studies human activities using material left behind, while the paleontologist is a special blend of the pure physical sciences of biology and geology and who studies the identification and distribution of life forms (fossils) and how they help to determine chronological sequences of regional and global events over the past, say, billion and a half years.
It's great to see you back on the road!

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

And a A Paleobotanist studies fossilized plants and contributes valuable scientific research involving plants from different periods in Earth's history. I think all of the above are pretty cool. Thank you for the posting, I find great value in them, and find more places to add to me list as well!

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Always Roaming.....it's still a beautiful state.....for me the key is to ignore all the noise. And, it's my pleasure.....

Foy.....you got me ! I definitely did not have my thinking cap on when I posted that. I'm also not a paleontologist (I can't spell that one either). And yes, it's been good to get back out on the road and to have these new experiences. I feel like such a lucky man to have my good health back, a truck camper & two best friends to travel with, and a small Montana cabin to return to when I tire of the road.....once more I say, what more could I ever want.....

PNWY.....I'll tell you a funny thing here..... often in my travels when I'm seeing things, I'll think to myself "I wonder if Pacific Northwest yetti will add this one to his list ?". I really do.....seriously.....and you're welcome.....



Next we backtracked, passed thru Las Cruces, New Mexico for the last time.....there we got onto Interstate 10, and continued driving west.....west, without a plan. We pulled off the interstate at Lordsburg, New Mexico, now having completed a great loop around New Mexico. While stopped here we devised our next plan.....which was pretty much "go south".....

We left the interstate at Roadforks, New Mexico, and drove south on Highway 80.....apparently also known as the Birding Trail.....



Our next stop was along a roadside pull out.....and it was here that I noticed a BLM road marker which sure did capture my attention.....at last there was not a No Trespassing sign posted.....




There was a gate located right there at that roadside pull out.....which was chained but not locked, so we proceeded to take a hike up the sandy BLM road.....



And then there it was.....finally.....the best campsite that I'd seen in New Mexico so far on this trip.....right out of a 1950's western movie.....it had it all.....



We headed back to the rig, opened that gate and headed in.....



I dropped the Jeep, and backed the truck camper into our campsite.....but not without paying a steep price.....



There was this large boulder pertruding from the ground.....and me, totally focused on missing that boulder as I backed the rig into our campsite, backed right into a cedar tree.....hit it damn near dead center.....



A broken window and several gashes in the fiberglass door.....that sure did suck pretty bad. I taped up an empty dog food bag where once was a window, and I tried my best to make the best of things.....



Tanner said "let's go hiking".....



And then he said "Shake it off.....I won't take no for an answer".....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

I took Tanner's advice and off we went to scramble in the rocks.....



And just like that, the birds began to sing again.....and life was good again.....



Maybe things weren't near as bad as I was thinking.....the birds were singing and we were right back to living that 1950's western movie life.....



I kept looking at this small mountain to the north of us.....maybe a mile or two from our campsite.....



So on Day 2 of our stay here, we set off on a climb.....



The only real challenge here were the billions of thorny plants and the billions of boulders strewn everywhere.....we persisted, weaved our way around the billions of obstacles, and finally stood on the summit of Preacher Mountain (5,079).....



Tanner did what Tanner always does, and provided us with the summit shot.....



I had been thinking while climbing this mountain that we might be the first to ever step foot on it's summit since it was such an insignificant little mountain.....we weren't.....



There was actually a summit log up there.....



After a few nights camped here, it was time to move on. Just as we were headed out, I wasn't careful once again.....that same cedar tree that damaged my camper door nearly ripped my eye out.....but fortunately it only left a pretty good sized gash in my cheekbone.....and then we drove south.....

 

[ITTOG]

Glad to hear your health, minus the cheek, is good again. Glad to see you bagging peaks again.

Sorry to hear about the camper. That tree must be really strong. I guess Cedars are considered hard woods.

Not sure why but that last picture, the road running into the mountains, really captures my eye. Beautiful.

 

[halseyt]

keeping up but hesitant to leave a like on that last post.. truck and face damage

 

[Ace Brown]

Dang tree anyway!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Riversdad]

Always Roaming.....it's still a beautiful state.....for me the key is to ignore all the noise. And, it's my pleasure.....

Foy.....you got me ! I definitely did not have my thinking cap on when I posted that. I'm also not a paleontologist (I can't spell that one either). And yes, it's been good to get back out on the road and to have these new experiences. I feel like such a lucky man to have my good health back, a truck camper & two best friends to travel with, and a small Montana cabin to return to when I tire of the road.....once more I say, what more could I ever want.....

PNWY.....I'll tell you a funny thing here..... often in my travels when I'm seeing things, I'll think to myself "I wonder if Pacific Northwest yetti will add this one to his list ?". I really do.....seriously.....and you're welcome.....



Next we backtracked, passed thru Las Cruces, New Mexico for the last time.....there we got onto Interstate 10, and continued driving west.....west, without a plan. We pulled off the interstate at Lordsburg, New Mexico, now having completed a great loop around New Mexico. While stopped here we devised our next plan.....which was pretty much "go south".....

We left the interstate at Roadforks, New Mexico, and drove south on Highway 80.....apparently also known as the Birding Trail.....

View attachment 823218

Our next stop was along a roadside pull out.....and it was here that I noticed a BLM road marker which sure did capture my attention.....at last there was not a No Trespassing sign posted.....


View attachment 823219

There was a gate located right there at that roadside pull out.....which was chained but not locked, so we proceeded to take a hike up the sandy BLM road.....

View attachment 823220

And then there it was.....finally.....the best campsite that I'd seen in New Mexico so far on this trip.....right out of a 1950's western movie.....it had it all.....

View attachment 823224

We headed back to the rig, opened that gate and headed in.....

View attachment 823225

I dropped the Jeep, and backed the truck camper into our campsite.....but not without paying a steep price.....

View attachment 823226

There was this large boulder pertruding from the ground.....and me, totally focused on missing that boulder as I backed the rig into our campsite, backed right into a cedar tree.....hit it damn near dead center.....

View attachment 823227

A broken window and several gashes in the fiberglass door.....that sure did suck pretty bad. I taped up an empty dog food bag where once was a window, and I tried my best to make the best of things.....

View attachment 823228

Tanner said "let's go hiking".....

View attachment 823229

And then he said "Shake it off.....I won't take no for an answer".....

View attachment 823230

one of the best things about dogs is they love you even when you sometimes do something careless or stupid.
You do seem to be having a hard time not injuring yourself on this trip. Time to be a little more careful as a lot of us enjoy living vicariously through you.

 

[thedavidzoo]

There is a small BLM campground called Aguirre Spring CG on the northern side of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. The loops up top are tight and sometimes a bit sloped, but if you can get a good one (we did!) it is an absolutely stunning place. Those awesome peaks right behind you and the valley view below. Some really nice hikes, too. That is where I also saw one of the most magnificent alpenglows ever.

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