New Mexico

Near the top of the climb to Cloudcroft, there is a good view of the Mexican Canyon trestle that was used by the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railroad. It's difficult to believe the effort that was taken to build a railroad such as this in the late 1800's. The railroad operated from 1899 to 1947, and was built primarily to haul timber down the mountain, but there were also passenger excursion trains. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

There's a good trail that follows the rail line in various places. This is a cut through the mountain near Cloudcroft -- it looked so narrow that it was difficult to believe the freight trains ran through it. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Documentation of the 'S' trestle from the former railroad.

The Mexican Canyon trestle, from a viewpoint on the trail. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

About 15 miles south of Farmington is the Angels Peak Recreation Area. Getting to the area involves driving through natural gas exploration areas, but the recreation area itself is worth a look. Driving across a rather desolate but plain plateau, the first thing you come to is a drop off to these badlands. There are multiple picnic and camping facilities on a road around the rim of the badlands, though they weren't particularly inviting due to a lack of shade and being windy on the day that I was there. (To capture the badlands in photos, you need to be there near sunrise or sunset when the shadows make the canyons more obvious -- I was there mid-afternoon.) Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Adjacent pictures are from an exploration of the Farmington, NM area. The Farmington area was much more interesting that I had expected. My focus had been on using the Farmington area as a base for exploring the Chaco Culture National Monument (later photos in this set), but the demographics and economics of the area turned out to be worth exploring. Farmington is the main city in a cluster of nearby cities (including Bloomfield and Aztec) where the total population for the metropolitan statistical area was 114,000 in 2000 per Census data -- fairly large for an area that I'd never heard of. The reason for the relatively large population quickly became evident -- the area seemed to be hyper-active with gas and oil extraction activities. When I talked with a local about the extraction industry in the area, he said that the activity wasn't new, that the area had been an active exploration area since the 1940's -- mainly for natural gas. It was difficult, however, to not believe that there was a very recent peak in activity related to recent spikes in energy costs. No matter where I traveled in the region, there would be convoys of 3 or 4 pickup trucks (all only 1 - 2 years old) headed into the fields outside of town, often accompanying a much larger truck with a drilling rig or storage tank. Also, there were 'help wanted' signs all over town for everything from clerks for fast food chains, to service industry managers, to construction and rig workers for the extraction industry. Per the local source, the key to the natural gas exploration in the Farmington region is a strong cooperative agreement with the Navajo Nation, which is documented on the website for a major employer in the area -- El Paso Natural Gas. Also very active in the extraction industry in the area was Halliburton, the company that VP Cheney was associated with for many years and which has had questionable contracts in Iraq. What might have been a side-benefit of the booming economy was the relations between various ethnic groups. Far more than I have noticed in other similar areas, Native Americans, Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks (order is by apparent relative size in the population) interacting as equals, both as customers and employees, in restaurants, stores, as field workers, and in various other public activities in the area. The natural gas industry seems to be more dispersed than the oil industry, thus there are no pictures that convey the development in the same way as my pictures of the Taft, CA area -- though some are included later in this set. Aztec, one of the three main cities in the region, has a nicely restored downtown area. The neon sign here is from a larger marquee; when I was in the area the building was for sale as a theater space.

In the Bisti Wilderness (see adjacent pictures in New Mexico set)

About 40 miles south of Farmington is the Bisti Wilderness area -- the area is poorly marked and apparently seldom visited, but worth a side trip. Erosion in the area has created interesting geological formations (see adjacent pictures in New Mexico set).

Bisti Wilderness area. I couldn't find an explanation for the erosion, but just above the badlands is what appears to be a natural hot spring that may be a factor.

Bisti Wilderness area. Though the vegetation around the area was mostly brown and green, there was these splotches of color from relatively tall, purple, flowers. Since the wind was quite high and the light was getting low, I couldn't capture this as well as I would have liked.

Bisti Wilderness area. Close to the center of the adjacent picture is what looks like an upright figure in white, spraying water from the springs. I couldn't get up to it due very soft ground, but this (to the right) is the best I could do. Even from that perspective it looked more like some sci-fi creature than a well head -- though the wheel gives it away. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Bisti Wilderness. To give some perspective on how vast and barren the space is -- if you look close, you can see that there are high-tension power lines on the horizon on the right side of the picture. There's also a cluster of buildings on the horizon on the right.

Union Pacific train (eastbound) approaching Carrizozo from the south. Taken from the campground at Valley of Fires Recreation area, looking towards the Tularosa Mountains, southeast of Carrizozo. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Morning view from the campground at Valley of Fires Recreation area, looking towards the Tularosa Mountains, southeast of Carrizozo. The campground is in a pocket surrounding by the lava flow, with a large and very wide flow behind me and the smaller flow in front of me. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Just west of Carrizozo is the Valley of Fires Recreation Area -- the campground there is one of the best maintained I've encountered, and has spectacular sunsets and sunrises across the lava flows, and back to the mountains east of Carrizozo. The light was not cooperating for getting a picture of the lava flow. The flow is very large, starting from the low peak in the very far distance (see box on photo) and stretching for 44 miles (see the map). The railing in the picture is a paved walk through the lava flow. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.

Taken at sunset from the campground at Valley of Fires Recreation area, looking towards the Tularosa Mountains, southeast of Carrizozo. Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.