On 2/17 we drove to El Paso, TX, passing through the Guadalupe Mountains on the way. We stopped at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park visitor center to see the displays but seeing the mountains themselves was challenging. We weren't up for hiking anywhere in blowing snow so it was a short visit.
Guadalupe Mountains covered in clouds
Our 5th wheel in the deserted parking lot with snow blowing around, not conducive to outdoor activities.
On 2/18 we went to Hueco Tanks State Park, 30 miles east of where we were staying. It's a gorgeous place and geologically interesting as so much of this area of the world is. It's referred to as three mountains...north, east and west (and sometimes the east spur)..but only the north one is open to self-guided tours. The other two require a guide, probably because of all the defacing of native pictographs which has gone on for over 150 years.
I didn't know about the guided tour so didn't get reservations for one, nor did we arrive early enough. It was probably for the best because doing all the self-guided trails was enough. We were definitely tired when we finished.
Hueco Tanks
Hueco is Spanish for "hollows" and tanks refers to the hollows in the rocks (caused by erosion) which hold water after rain, so the name is redundant.
The formation was caused by a magma intrusion (pluton) about 40 million years ago which pushed up beneath the overlying limestone sedimentary layers. Eventually all the limestone eroded away and exposed the igneous rock of the pluton which then started its own erosion. The rock is somewhat similar to some of the Big Bend area rock formations but is very different from anything else around where it appeared. This is an area of "basin and range" geology and the tanks appeared in the middle of a basin which is very flat. It's quite surprising to see this conglomeration of rounded looking rock formations popping out of a flat plain.
Balanced igneous rocks
The Tanks are world-famous in the climbing community because of the vast array of challenging climbs they provide. People come from all over the world to climb them. Closing the Tanks to climbing is being considered because of damage to the rocks and surrounding vegetation. They are being "loved to death."
They are also a very important site to the Kiowa and Mescalero Apache whose ancestors lived in the area. They have a mystical look and feel so it's hardly surprising the native people considered them to be a sacred place.
Massive high rock walls. No wonder this is a rock climber's paradise.
It's hard to tell how massive the formations are from photos. The one of the north mountain, west face (above) is very high...maybe around 900 to 1000 ft from ground level. I've had no luck finding out the height from searching on the internet. There were lots of birds, which appeared to be purple martins, coming out of crevices high up the cliff face. They must have been catching insects although we didn't see any flying insects at ground level.
There were also several redtail hawks soaring around the peaks. I accidentally got a picture of one as I was aiming at the rocks. When I tried to get a picture of another one I couldn't move fast enough.
We had a really nice day enjoying the beautiful area and the peace and quiet. Not entirely quiet, though, as we could hear large caliber gunfire which had to be artillery training going on at Fort Bliss some 25 to 30 miles away. The noise carries a very long way over barren flat land. It wasn't bothersome.......sounded a bit like thunder at first.....but it was interesting that we could hear it so far away.
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