Wednesday – Thursday, November 13-14, 2024
After leaving Carlsbad Caverns on Wednesday and driving into the state of Texas for the very first time, we made our way west towards El Paso and detoured into the Hueco Mountains later in the day where we made a quick stop at Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site to verify that their campground was actually closed this night like their website had stated, and it was. Since we couldn’t camp in the park and there wasn’t any public lands nearby, we drove a few miles to the east and found a site to setup our tent just before sunset at the Gleatherland Ranch Campground, which was mostly empty this evening. We ate dinner as the temperature dropped rather quickly, read in the tent for a while and then went to bed early. This would be our first bag night in Texas, too!
Welcome to Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site.
We caught the moon rising over West Mountain as we left the park this evening.
West Mountain Rocks
On Thursday morning we were up shortly before sunrise so we could take down camp and get over to Hueco Tanks State Park when they opened at 8:00am since we planned to spend most of the day exploring the park, leaving just enough time at the end of the day to drive two hours to Alamogordo before dark. I had originally hoped to schedule a Guided Tour of the pictographs in the parts of the park that are only open to those accompanied by a guide, but when I called a few weeks before our trip to book a tour I was informed there were no guides available for this day. While that was disappointing news, I figured I could do the next best thing and try to hike all of the official trails on the Park Map that are within the North Mountain self-guided area.
We watched the sunrise on Thursday morning as we took down our tent at Gleatherland Ranch.
After watching the required Orientation Video and receiving our Self-Guided Permits we set off in search of Cave Kiva.
It didn’t take long for us to find the entrance to Cave Kiva where we would have to lay on our backs and slide into the cave.
Once we were inside we saw an amazing display of pictograph masks on the ceiling. These were some of the best pictographs that we would see all day.
There were four different yellow maks, although the fourth one was very faded and difficult to see.
I’m not sure what this is, but it kind of looks like a red stocking…
After leaving Cave Kiva we explored the Laguna Prieta Trail and worked our way through all the trails on the west side of North Mountain.
Laguna Prieta
We found traces of ancient and historic peoples as we explored the trails.
We wandered into a little slot canyon that was carved into North Mountain.
North Mountain
After hiking all the trails on the west side of North Mountain we walked over to the east side to start exploring the trails on that side.
We found a large alcove with many pictographs and historic inscriptions near the end of the Site 17 Trail.
After scrambling around the area we found some nice Jornada Mogollon pictographs, too.
This red bird was one of my favorite finds in the park today.
At the end of the Pond Trail we saw some historic Apache pictographs.
Next, I hiked up onto North Mountain via the Chain Trail. The chains weren’t really necessary…
There was a very nice red and yellow mask just past the end of the trail.
Hiking back down the Chain Trail.
While hiking around the Nature Loop we found one more ‘Painted Cave’ that contained a number of pictographs in the back.
Before calling it a day and leaving the park we wanted to return to Cave Kiva for a second visit. While there was a bit more light in the cave this afternoon, the pictographs seemed to photograph better in the lower light earlier in the day.
Cave Kiva Masks
Leaving Cave Kiva and heading back down to the trailhead.
After hiking all of the trails in the North Mountain self-guided area we called it a day and headed north to Alamogordo so we could continue on with our big loop through the Land of Enchantment.
Your photos and information are always a pleasure to see and read. I lived in the south central area of New Mexico while growing up and was happy to see familiar photos of places I was in years ago.
Wonder if the red bird could have been a roadrunner? Quail and roadrunners were very familiar sites when I was there.
Thank you!
Thx for sharing! Joan and I are off to it next week. Looks fantastic.
It was certainly and interesting place to explore. Have fun on your trip!
Thanks Nancy. The red bird sure does look like it could represent a roadrunner.
Hi there! That first big face picture in Cave Kiva reminds me of George Clinton of Parliment/Funkadelic. Too funny!