July 10, 2021

July 10, 2021

We left Amarillo, TX early for the last push home to Tucson. We headed west on I-40 into New Mexico. Interestingly we passed a marker noting the spot where the Goodnight-Loving Trail crossed. Goodnight made his first money after the Civil War rounding up stray cattle in the Texas wilds and then driving them into New Mexico for sale to the US Army. He had to take a wide route south and west before turning north, all to avoid Comanche Indian raiders. Goodnight invented the chuck-wagon to feed his hired cowboys.

In Santa Rosa, NM we left the highway southwest. This alternative route turned out to be slow. We ran into construction. Not the normal road variety. We encountered two large wind turbine fields in expansion. Despite none of the turbines spinning today, the tax breaks are lucrative enough to keep investment dollars flowing.

On the northern edge of the Tularosa Valley we arrived at Valley of Fires Recreation Area. This BLM park contains a forty mile long swath of solidified lava. The newest in the Continental US at a mere 2000 years old. We hiked the mile-long Malpais loop trail down into the valley. This lava flow is a result of the nearby Rio Grande rift zone that is slowly widening trying to split New Mexico in half. The vast lava field has a rugged beauty and is in the process of being reclaimed by vegetation. Mother nature eventually wins out over time. We get that feeling after only leaving our yard unattended for a month.

We drove a half hour south to another BLM park, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. We hiked along a ridge seeing hundreds of petroglyphs scratched into the rock outcroppings. They are dated to the Mogollon Indians of a thousand years ago. Normally we don’t get excited about this ancient rock art, but we thought this site seemed better than other more famous ones. There were loads of dotted circles, many masks and faces, and various animals. My favorite was a Bighorn Sheep with two arrows protruding.

In a sign that I did well today, Aimee wondered out loud why we hadn’t stopped and seen these two sites earlier.

Richard Branson is taking his first Virgin Galactic suborbital flight tomorrow from Spaceport America on the other side of the Tularosa Valley. We think very briefly about staying. Instead with just a couple brief stops for lunch and pistachios, we made it home in time for a late dinner.