Beautiful is not Perfect – New Mexico

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out

till sundown, for going out, I found,

was really going in.

John Muir

Soaptree Yucca after bloom

Survival of the fittest or smartest, White Sands National Monument

Some plants adapt by growing faster than the sand dunes can cover them

Others adapt by holding on tight…

With the corona virus spreading like wildfire, I am laying low, going through my pictures from New Mexico.  Not many words.  Be well and enjoy.

View from my windshield, driving into White Sands National Monument

Sand dunes taking over the road, it gets constantly graded

Storm brewing, as many in springtime

Surrounded by 4.5 billion tons of gypsum sand!

Equivalent to train full of gypsum going around equator 25 times

Hard to find areas without human footprints

Leaving the unassuming glistening beauty of simple ripples

Plants slowing the migration of the gypsum dunes by several feet per year

On average, a person eats 28 pounds of gypsum it their lifetime

Found in toothpaste, bread, ice cream, wine, beer, cheese, medicines, and more

Rio Grande Cottonwood

Roots exposed as the dune moves on

Super flexible Skunkbush Sumac

Used by natives for binding and basket making

Disappearing act

Very active dunes can move more than 24 feet/year

Welcome to Roswell, home of UFO’s and aliens…

Something fell out of the skies in 1947, spawning an entire

cottage industry of speculation and bumper stickers

This something was a weather balloon

In museum, very cheeeeeeeesy display

A favorite of bats and how it was discovered

From a distance, looking like volcano smoke but thousands of bats

Someone had to investigate that ‘smoke’ and found this cavern

Welcome to Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Bats live here seasonally, they were not here in February

The natural entrance

In the twilight zone

Equivalent to going up/down 75 stories!

At first, bat guano was mined here for California fruit growers

First known as The Bat Cave, it is home to millions of Mexican free-tailed bats.
It was mined for bat guano for over 20 years!
Actor/comedian Will Rogers called the cavern

‘The Grand Canyon with a roof over it.’

Amazing flowstone formation

I am wholly conscious of the feebleness of my efforts to convey the deep conflicting emotions, 
the feeling of fear and awe, 
and the desire for an inspired understanding of the divine creator’s work, 
which presents to the human eye such a complex aggregate of natural wonders.

Robert Holley, US Department of Interior

1923, when it became a National Monument

Water so pristine – only its blueish hue shows

On the edge are remains of Calcite Rafts (scalloped like features)

Chinese Theater room

Oliver Lee General Store

Old movie sets with South-West flair

Billy the Kid roamed this area…

Weathered adobe brick wall, home of François-Jean ‘Frenchy’ Rochas

French settler (1886-1894) in Dog Canyon, NM

Found dead with bullet in chest, reason still a mystery

Mortars aka Indian Wells

Created as a result of food processing

Hand-held pestles were used to grind wild seeds and beans into flour

Creating mortars in the bedrock over many years

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

With over 21,000 petroglyphs to be found

Background are the sacred Sierra Blanca mountains

Located on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation

Fresh snow at 9,000 feet near Cloudcroft, NM

Mexican Canyon Trestle.  It was part of the Cloud-Climbing Railroad.

One of 58 trestles made of local Douglas fir from the 1940’s.

Went up more than 4,747 feet in 32.5 miles at a 5.2% grade

No longer pimped is this ride

Cloudcroft, NM

What is left, Alamogordo

Windmill, Deming

Dead (or dormant) can be beautiful

Contrasts

Patina

Light

Lenticular cloud over Rio Grande near the Sandia Mountains

Lenticular cloud near Cabezon Peak

Usually forms downwind from a mountain

Sacred Shiprock, Navajo Reservation

In Navajo: Tse Bi Dahi = Rock with Wings

By Chris Dahl-Bredine aerial photographer, Taos, NM

Night sky over Battleship Rock near Jemez

By Adam Nish (I can’t take night pictures like this one)

Battleship Rock, daytime version

With a nighttime moon reminder

I love old signs

Echo Amphitheater, Abiquiu, NM

Typical red pepper ‘ristras’

They are synonymous with New Mexico

Cacti can be colorful.  Springtime in New Mexico

Sandias and Rio Grande, showy reflection

Male finch, another indication of spring

Pink blooms, spring, spring, spring

Virga of spring storm

Precipitation that evaporates before hitting the ground

Happy Spring, in these uncertain times, nature is still a great healer.  Go outside…