2006/02 Southwest USA trip (NM-AZ) - Spring Canyon park |
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Saturday January 28th
It was another bright and sunny day, but cold with a very strong wind, not a good morning for a hike, so we drove into nearby Deming and Sandie did the laundry while I found a place to fill up with propane. We drove back to nearby Spring Canyon Park for lunch. The canyon is lined with great volcanic towers, more remnants of the original volcano that formed the peaks in the Rockhound park area. The day had warmed up a little and the wind lessened, so we hiked up the canyon, partly for the scenery and partly to see if we could find some ibex. Ibex in New 
Mexico? These were introduced from Iran back in the 1970s for hunting purposes, a gift from the Shah. They seem to be smarter than the local hunters as there are hundreds there now in the Florida Mountains.
We were stopping every few steps to check out the mountain slopes above us. Finally, I saw a movement inthe shade of a juniper, and then suddenly we could see that the whole rock face across from us was covered in animals. There must have been close to a hundred in the herd that was climbing up one side of the mountain, leaping across to another rock formation and then moving up over the pass and out of sight. If you look carefully, you can see a few of them in the picture of the mountain above. These animals have amazing horns, almost as tall as they are. They are very nimble for such large animals. I included a picture of one making a jump; a bit grainy as it was a long way off, but it gives you an
idea of how they spend their day! It seemed a little odd to be seeing them in New Mexico, but we’re not likely to get to Iran to see them, so I’m glad we got lucky on this day.
In the evening Rockhound park staged a tour of the winter night sky. An astronomer brought along her telescope and a laser pointer, and took us on a tour around the constellations and those planets that were visible. New Mexico has very clear air, and we were at 4500ft with no moon, so the sky was sharp and bright. She was an entertaining speaker, but people started drifting away as the temperature dove and the wind increased. Sandie 
and I stuck it out until the end and we froze despite lots of clothes and jumping up and down. The sunset picture shows the view earlier that evening from our campsite. The lights are from the town of Deming.
Sunday January 29th
The morning was sunny, but the cold wind was still with us. The plan for the day was to head to a mining site in the San Francisco mountains, famous for its labradorite. First, though, we called at the visitor centre and showed them a couple of pictures of their ibex herd. They were very enthusiastic, as their only picture in the centre was an ancient and fuzzy black and white print. They asked to keep the pictures so now I probably have a couple of prints hanging in the centre.