W18: Rocks, Birds and Pancho Villa!

Sunset View

This one is at the Rock Hound State Park in Deming, New Mexico!

Day 25: March 6

Yikes, it got to the low 30s last night and was still chilly this morning, so we did the frosty dump and water fill and headed to New Mexico.

We passed through the Davis Mountain and caught sight of this old chapel:

David loved the fast driving on Highway 10, but that inevitably means you get to a big city: El Paso. Yuck. But we were very close to Juarez, Mexico and saw a bit of a wall!

In Las Cruces, we stocked up and drove on past acres and acres of Dairy farms and acres and acres of Pecan Groves. They tried to trick us at the Border Control station asking if we were Americans. Nothing much to the drive.

We got to Rock Hound around 1:30 and got the last Unserviced Site (#5, $10) then hiked the Turtle Egg Trail, picked up some pretty rocks:

…and enjoyed the birds (including the “Love Bird”) in our own “private” Cactus garden and around the campground:

Here’s the view from my chair:

Day 26: March 7

Chilly morning and a down jacket for our morning bird walk. Too cold for the birds!

I hiked the Jasper Trail and found more pretty rocks (I prefer beach glass, though!):

In the afternoon, I walked the Turtle Egg Trail again (that’s David watching from below):

…then, we took one last look for the Scaled Quail and were lucky to get a few great shots of these furtive birds:

Day 27: March 8

In Deming, we went to Walmart and Dollar Tree for our “necessities”, including a little Hummingbird feeder. We were starting to see the Chiricahua Mountains, some dust, and some snow:

At the Sunny Flats campground near Portal, AZ, we got one of the last available sites (#6, $10, Unserviced), levelled with most of our blocks, hung our birdfeeders out, and let the watching begin:

The best sighting of the day was a Magnificent Hummingbird (and he was), a Life Bird:

We had a Happy Hour with neighbour, Jan, who started to volunteer in parks after Trump got elected to overcome her depression (her words). Interesting perspective. Few talk politics, we find, and she was discreet. But she did say that, thanks to his cutbacks, the camping fee will double this summer to $20. People will vote with their feet and maybe at the ballot box.

Here’s the view from my chair:

Day 28: March 9

It was a birding morning in our campsite and around the campground:

…then a bike ride (barely pedalled for 1.5 miles, and you know what that meant for the return ride).

Back for lunch, more birds, including this Blue-throated Hummingbird, but NOT the Yellow-eyed Junco we saw here the last time:

After a short bike ride (uphill to start!):

…I chatted with Ontario neighbours who had camped at the Tonto National Forest where the price had already doubled. They said there were very few campers there and most were Canadian. Hmmm…

Day 29: March 10

We decided not to head farther west into Arizona, so decided to take Highway 9 to Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, NM, and hope for a chance to partake of the festivities scheduled for the day there.

It was an uneventful drive with Pronghorns and Border Patrol vehicles (including ATVs) as the only distractions:

This route goes along the border and also follows the old rail bed (one trestle bridge was stamped “1909”). Again, we wondered why a wall of any kind is needed with desert and mountains everywhere.

We did manage a primitive site at the park ($8, unserviced) and were excited to be part of the 19th Cabalgata Binacional and Fiesta de Amisted/Binational Road Day Commemoration.

Pancho Villa attacked the town of Columbus, and riders on horseback from Mexico (joined by American riders at the border) have ridden en masse into town for these 19 years to commemorate that victory. Love the enthusiasm and love for Villa:

In the town square, after some speeches (the Pancho Villa “look-a-like” spoke, perhaps a poem, but in enough Spanish words that I understood him saying that Pancho was not “dead”, that his spirit was strong, and the crowd cheered, perhaps in defiance of you-know-who!). Then we had lunch:

…and enjoyed the cute little dancers:

…and the Mariachi Real de El Paso Band, the Ballet Folklorico Quetzales, and the crowd:

And a quiet afternoon, happy with our decision to make this stop.

Here’s the view from my chair as the clouds darkened and the winds picked up:

A Canyon, some mountains and lots of birds!

Sunset View

We had three gorgeous sunsets and alpenglows at Seminole Canyon!

Day 19: March 1

Up and out early to a whole lot of nothing as we headed north west to Seminole Canyon. We stocked up at Laredo (yikes, another big city, and a border town as well!) then the long road past Oil Fields and Natural Gas Refineries and, likely, Fracking. Eeks. The RV Parks were now empty (they were filled with workers’ RVs in the past) as, I guess, the industry has changed.

We did see some Blue Bonnets just south of Eagle Pass (early?). And we got more Gas Station Mexican Food (it’s Stripes, Laredo Tacos, in case you come here). Oh, and we passed “Casino Grocery #4” (we missed #1-3).

There were Pecan groves (not the season), one with a horse, another with goats, another with Longhorns and another with tethered Roosters (guess the fights are nearby).

We got to Seminole Canyon State Park and booked site E022 for three nights ($50 total E/W with coupon) and enjoyed an afternoon at the site looking at birds, goats and deer and the sunset.

Here’s the view from my chair:

Day 20: March 2

We spent more than 10 hours outside today! That’s what you can do in an 80F, bug-free environment!

On our bikes, we road the Rio Grande Trail (5.75 miles). For me, this was a challenge and, despite a rocky trail and lots of declines, I made it ON THE BIKE! And it was worth the ride to where the Rio Grande enters the canyon:

and we could see the Panther Cave pictographs!

The afternoon was spent getting “crispy” at the site!

Day 21: March 3

It was windy, and chilly in the wind, in the morning. We walked the birding trail to the bird blind being built (it will be great when completed). Here’s a collection of birds we’ve seen here:

Birds on a Wire (including Life Bird, Western Meadowlark, on the right):

Birds on a Bush:

Birds in Full Song:

After rattling my bones on yesterday’s bike ride, we decided to skip the Guided Cave Tour (we’ve done it twice before) and hung out for the morning..

In the afternoon, we walked the Windmill Trail and enjoyed our last late afternoon at this beautiful campsite.

Day 22: March 4

This seems to be AT&T country, so we were mostly off the grid for these days. But it was time to head farther north past a lot of Border Patrol pickups and desert and mountains (yep, 45 needs a wall!):

A Roadrunner flew across the road right in front of us and ran the rest of the way!

The Big Bend Cowboy Church parking lot in Alpine was full (those pickups take up a whole lot of space).

We got to Davis Mountains State Park, took some time to find a flat site (didn’t, but used our 20 blocks on site 42-$50 for three nights with our final coupon):

and visited the bird feeders (the best, we think, in Texas) and saw all these beauties, including the Cassin’s Finch (bottom right), another Life Bird:

Day 23: March 5

It was another chilly night and morning which yielded a great sleep.

We rode the bikes to all the feeders and to the secret water trough we were told about years ago. The Western Bluebirds and Cedar Waxwings were the stars, along with their friends:

We did see both the male and female Phainopepla:

And this Say’s Phoebe, another Life Bird:

During lunch, we decided to throw caution to the wind and head farther west into Arizona, so cancelled our third night here, but not before a final look at the feeders and water trough.

Love this campground!