March 19
Hiked and biked 10 miles
Up early again and heading to again to Seminole Canyon State Park.
But first, our second Inspection Stop was for southbound vehicles, so we were waved through. But the third was for us. The cowboy-hatted dude chatted us up while the other, along with his canine friend, did a tour of the MoHo (we tried for a GoPro video, but it didn’t work out. Next time, and we’re sure there will be a few more next times).
We got to see the Pecos River for the first time:
We pulled in to the park with minutes to spare for the guide tour of the Fate Bell Shelter pictographs. These were found in the canyon and finally preserved by the state park. No Native people’s have claimed these drawings, so interpretation is really up to the beholders. They were beautiful, as was the dry canyon, apparently created not by a flowing river but by run off over the centuries. As you can see, they are mostly dry now. Here are some pictures from the tour:
…a modern pictograph, from a railroad worker in the 1870’s:
We had lunch then did the Rio Grande biking/hiking trail:
…ultimately to the Panther Cave, for which the park is famous. Normally these pictographs can only be seen from the water, and there is so little water that boat trips are cancelled. But good quality binoculars and cameras let us see these gorgeous drawings:
We did have two Life Birds: a Cactus Wren:
…and a Black-throated Sparrow (but might have deleted the picture).
Here’s the view of the campsite and from my chair:
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