Chihuahuan Desert Treasures

Four days, 1,000 miles. No problem.

Mr. Adventure’s conference in Santa Fe ended, so we headed south. As usual, an abundance of possibilities made sticking to a reasonable-ish itinerary difficult, but we finally chose a loop that would take us through White Sands National Monument, Organ Peaks-Desert Mountains National Monument, El Paso (to visit friends), Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. (More on those places soon.) We wanted to hike everywhere and camp when possible, and we had four days. Perhaps this is the place to mention the New Mexico is the fifth-largest state. Four days wasn’t nearly enough.

First we had to get from Santa Fe, in the north central part of the state, to Alamogordo, in south central New Mexico, a drive of nearly 300 miles. Our route took us within 20 miles of Smokey Bear Historical Park, final resting site of the famous forest fire awareness bear, and there was no way I was missing that. We headed south out of Santa Fe, Mr. Adventure on his work phone, losing cell coverage every time we went through a gap in a rocky outcropping. We left the Colorado Plateau and entered the Chihuahuan Desert. Endless barbed wire fencing and the occasional wooden entrance arch let us know we were deep in ranching country. Mr. Adventure spotted a bloated dead bull in a gully, legs akimbo. We stopped for gas in Clines Corners — “24/7 since 1934” — and kept going.

Chicken-fried steak

In Corona, population 165, we stopped at the adobe-style village hall to use the bathroom. “Right back there, hon,” the receptionist smiled. On my way out, I nodded to two guys jawing in a corner, clearly in the middle of their daily ritual. “We’re heading to Smokey Bear Park,” I said in response to their query.

“There’s a place down there has great chicken fried steak,” one of them offered. “You’re a girl, so you might not like it, but—-“

“I’m a red-meat girl,” I said, grinning. “It sounds good.”

“It is!” he said. “Down near Capitan…can’t remember the name.”

“I’ll find it, I’m sure. Can’t be that hard,” I said. We all laughed, and I pushed open the door to go outside.

Smokey Bear Historical Park

As it happened, we weren’t hungry when we got to Capitan, and we never did find that chicken-fried steak place. But we did find Smokey Bear Historical Park. It’s a charming, nostalgic place surrounded by Lincoln National Forest, where Forest Service rangers rescued the original Smokey Bear after a 1950 fire in the Capitan Mountains. The scorched cub was the perfect mascot for the agency’s Smokey Bear campaign, begun in 1944 to publicize the national forests. Smokey didn’t stay long in Lincoln National Forest. After a couple of months recuperating from his burns, the Forest Service moved Smokey to his lifelong home at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, where he was a living symbol of wildfire prevention and awareness. He died at age 26 and is buried near where he was rescued, under a stately plaque in the peaceful, two-acre desert garden at the park.

New Mexico State Forestry runs Smokey Bear Historical Park. In the museum, Smokey memorabilia fills every wall, cabinet, and shelf. Salt and pepper shakers, posters, stamps, LPs, song lyrics, toys, even a Smokey jukebox confirm the bear’s influence. Exhibits show letters from kids, film clips, and ads from the past 60-plus years. Video of the adorable real Smokey with his rescuer, ranger Ray Bell, will move even the most hard-boiled visitor. Upright, ranger-hatted Smokey models invite visitors to pose for photos with America’s most famous ursine. It’s very sweet, and with several New Mexico national forests already closed due to fire danger and drought, Smokey’s stewardship message is more important than ever.

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But it was already midafternoon and we had two more stops to make. Back to the rental car!

Valley of Fires Recreation Area

When friends in Albuquerque heard we were going to Smokey Bear Historical Park, they insisted we stop at Valley of Fires Recreation Area just off the highway to Alamogordo. The 125-square-mile lava flow is just 5,000 years old, the product of an eruption at Little Black Peak. The lava flowed into the Tularosa Basin, and in some places is 165 feet thick. From an overlook, we gazed across the flow, which extends from four to six miles wide, at the northern San Andres Mountains. Although we expected to see a barren lava plain, the number and variety Chihuahuan Desert plants and animals that inhabit the flow surprised us. We wandered the Bureau of Land Management’s excellent paved nature trail that takes visitors into the lava habitat, spotting flowering cacti, lizards, and soapstone yucca.

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We spent an hour walking the trail. Valley of Fires has beautiful campsite and picnic spots with uninterrupted views of the lava flow and mountains, but we had one more stop planned before heading to Alamogordo for the night. Reluctantly, we hit the road again.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

The last stop was actually the reason we’d taken this route. I’d first heard about Three Rivers Petroglyph Site a couple of years ago, and the thought of 21,000 petroglyphs was irresistible. I had to see it. The shadows were lengthening by the time we pulled into the parking area, where a couple of RVs had set up camp. A half-mile-long trail led to several rock outcroppings with large concentrations of prehistoric art.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site exists specifically to protect rock art, and it is spectacular. The glyphs date to between 900 and 1400 AD. I’m always moved by the sense of time and connection I feel when I see petroglyphs, even as I recognize that understanding the lives of their creators is beyond me. Nonetheless, I love that I can look at images that are between 600 and 1,100 years old and recognize animals, plants, and other everyday objects.

The Jornada Mogollon people, farmers who lived in the Tularosa Basin, made these glyphs. Archaeological sites are found throughout the basin, including at White Sands National Monument, and compelled me to consider the challenge of survival in this desert. The Jornada Mogollon inhabited more than 100,000 square miles, the area that now encompasses northeastern Mexico, southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas. Those who lived in the Tularosa Basin and created the petroglyphs at Three Rivers abandoned the area about 600 years ago. Chiseled into rock, the record of their culture here is captivating.

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We took our time wandering among the petroglyphs, which are dispersed among several rock outcroppings. The sun slowly sank in the west, casting a scrim of gold across the Tularosa Basin and Sierra Blanca, rising more than 12,000 feet on the Mescalero Apache Reservation to the east. By the time we finally returned to the parking lot, sunset was imminent. But we wanted to explore a short trail across the entrance road that promised excavated pithouses, the typical dwelling of the Jornada Mogollon during the time the petroglyphs were created. By setting the floor of the house lower than ground level, and building thick adobe walls, people who lived in this settlement were able to keep out the worst of winter cold and summer heat.

On to Alamogordo

We still had about a 45-minute drive to Alamogordo and no hotel reservation. A small herd of elk crossed the access road as we headed out, then disappeared into the desert scrub. The sun dipped behind the San Andres Mountains as we turned back onto Highway 54 and drove through a darkened Tularosa Basin. As we neared the town, neat rows of orchard trees started appearing, and just as we were wondering aloud what they were, a gigantic pistachio nut announced a local farm stand and a primary agricultural product of the region. We found a roadside motel for $40, grabbed a dinner of iced tea and pistachios at the gas station across the street, and called it a day. We’d seen quite a swath of the state on this dash southward. Time to rest up and get ready for the next adventure.