2012/06 Western USA trip - Valley of Fires |
|||||
We set off north through Artesia and boring flat desert. I’d occasionally wake everyone up when there was a tree in sight. We’ve driven in parts of Australia that are similar, except there while you are looking out on a otherwise lifeless desert a sheep will come out from behind a rock, and burp. We didn’t see any sheep this time.
I wanted to show off Roswell’s flying saucers and little green men, but I turned a few streets too early and missed them. But as we got into the hills to the west we saw historical signs for the Lincoln County War. This was a gang war, not about drugs but about who got to supply “dry goods’, clothes and tools, to the areas’ general stores. The famous names involved included John Chisum and Billy the Kid, and the man that killed him, Sheriff Pat Garret. Interestingly, in his later life, during another range war, Garret hunted down Oliver Lee (remember Tuesday’s campsite?), who was wanted on murder charges. Lee was acquitted with some help from his politician friend Albert Fall. I only mention him because he was the original “fall guy”, the one who went to prison years later for being bribed in the Teapot Dome oil lease scandal, while all the big names went free. I love how these Western villains keep cropping up in each other’s histories and crimes.
We stopped in the town of Lincoln, where every building seemed to have a historic sign and also seemed to be falling down. Perhaps not much has happened in Lincoln since the 1880s, when Billy the Kid escaped from its jail.
We were under a looming thunderhead as we crossed the Sacramento Mountains. My passengers gleefully watched the temperature dive from 33C to 23C and then watched in horror as it dropped to 13C. The ditches were white, full of what was probably hail but looked like snow! It had warmed up a little as we dropped down to Carrizozo. Zozo, which seems to be the name the locals use, proclaims itself as the home of the world famous cherry cider. Must be an acquired taste. It’s also close to Trinity, the birthplace of the atomic age, the site of the first ever atom bomb test. That also makes it the first town to ever get radioactive fallout.
We were there to visit the Valley of Fires recreation area, also known as the Carrizozo Malpais, a great swath of lava that flowed about 
1500 years ago. At its southern extent, the all-black area is quite close to the all-white White Sands. It has a good campground and since our last visit it has also acquired some truly palatial bathrooms and showers, new enough that everything still worked.
Although the evening was pleasantly cool when we went for a walk amongst the lava flows we found that they still retained most of the day’s heat. Apparently it also holds moisture too as the plants were flourishing and so were the reptiles; we found this cute collared lizard and a horned lizard too (on the front page).