2006/03 Southwest USA trip (AZ-MN) - Living Desert Zoo |
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Tuesday February 21st 
It was a warm pleasant morning but there was a distinct smell of “oil well” on the wind. We’d passed some oil donkeys and an oil collection station on the way in, so that wasn’t a big surprise. We had a short drive from the lake to the Living Desert Zoo and Garden, a rather special New Mexico state park. We’d enjoyed the park on our last visit in 1988 and we planned to spend most of the day there. It’s perched on a hill overlooking the town of Carlsbad and when we arrived the weather was perfect, sunshine and calm, but within a few minutes we’d lost the sun and were in a howling gale again. Luckily, most of the exhibits were in pits and buildings and we were able to stay out of the wind.
Almost all the exhibits are local, showing the plants and animals that live in the Chihuahuan desert. Most we had
seen over the last few weeks, but the animals had rarely stayed still long enough for us to really see them, so we enjoyed the zoo.
There were also bobcats and mountain lions, which had probably seen us out in the wild, but we hadn’t seen them. The ones in the zoo were very vocal. I think they were hungry and they kept looking down the hill 
towards the pen that held the elk, and dreaming of a luncheon meeting.
The cactus greenhouse was very interesting, holding succulent plants from around the world. 
The Americas have cactus, and even South America, particularly Argentina, has some really neat examples. Africa doesn’t have cactus, but it does have aloes and euphorbias that have evolved into forms similar to cactus.
We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to load up with veggies and fruit, and then set off back 
towards our camp site. Brantley Lake was just a bit too civilized for us and we’d seen a road sign that hinted at a campground off in the Lincoln National Forest, but when we followed that road, we found that it was a 52 mile drive, so we compromised and camped in the primitive zone on the other side of Brantley Lake. We had the zone to ourselves, other than the jackrabbits, coyotes, and a few hawks. Unfortunately, one of the roads we drove turned out to be six inches narrower than the camper so we had to widen it. Hopefully I can straighten out 
some of the camper’s brackets and door stops when we get back home.
