Magoffin Home State Historic Site

After my hike up Bishop's Cap and lunch I headed towards downtown El Paso and the Magoffin Home State Historic Site.

I toured the interesting house and learned about the Magoffin family a bit. Coincidentally, the family has its American origins in Kentucky and indeed there is a Magoffin County, Kentucky. After my tour of the house and grounds

I decided to brave the wind and walk around downtown El Paso a bit, since I had never been there before. I was impressed by the interesting architecture, but sadly many of the buildings seemed empty. I ended my tour at San Jacinto Plaza which at one time housed alligators.

Today the alligators are memorialized with a fiberglass sculpture and there seems to be some talk about bringing the alligators back.

Bishop's Cap Peak

I knew the forecast today was for high winds. I just didn't care. I figured I had driven all the way to El Paso to drop Noelle and Sierra off at the airport, I might as well do some hiking. Luckily it wasn't too windy this morning. Anyway, after a mediocre continental breakfast at the hotel, I headed north into New Mexico and exited the intestate south of Las Cruces near Mesquite. I headed east into the desert and  parked at a parking lot for the Sierra Vista Trail.

From the parking area I headed south into the desert on the Sierra Vista Trail.

I followed the trail until I approached a nice ridge that I figured would give easy access to the summit of Bishop's Cap. Almost immediately after heading off-trail I found an unusual cache of water and energy bars.

From the cache I followed a ridge higher and higher up Bishop's Cap until I reached a sheer cliff. Instead of climbing the cliff I skirted it to the west and soon picked up a faint user trail.

Hiking the trail made the going relatively easy, but the wind began to pick up as I ascended. Luckily the last section of ascent was on the sheltered east side of the peak. I rested a short time out of the wind before tackling the final 100 yards to the summit.

There was a cairn at the summit and one just below that contained a geocache. There was also an aviation beacon near the summit.

I admired the view from the summit for a bit

and then looked through the geocache for a bit (I thought it was a register) before making my way back down to the car.

Brewing Day

Today I brewed beer for the first time. I got a kit from Northern Brewer for what they call Caribou Slobber. It's a brown ale in the style of Moose Drool (imagine that). We'll have to wait about 5 weeks to see how it tastes.

San Lorenzo Canyon

After my hike up Chupadera Peak I headed back to the hotel. Noelle got herself and Sierra ready and we went out to lunch before heading up to San Lorenzo Canyon. The canyon is located on BLM lands north of Socorro. I learned about it by looking for information about interesting looking places on the BLM website. After lunch it was a short drive on the interstate before we exited at the Lemitar exit. We followed the frontage road for a while and then turned left and headed into the desert.

At first the terrain did not look too promising for a canyon. Eventually, we began to see some rock walls and the canyon came into view. We could have driven the car into the canyon, but I decided it would be more interesting to walk it. Noelle fed Sierra while Parker rested a bit and then we headed into the canyon for our walk.

The rock formations lining the sides of the canyon were interesting. We decided to make a side trip into the first side canyon we found. We walked back into it as far as we could comfortably go with a baby and dog and then turned around to head back to the main canyon.

We continued up canyon past many more interesting rock formations.

We walked into another side canyon,

but were again turned around due to the baby and dog. We walked up the canyon as far as vehicles can drive and then turned around to head back towards the car. Along the way I noticed a cave high up on one of the canyon's walls and Noelle gave me permission to check it out.

It turned out to be not all that exciting, but was worth exploring. I returned to the main canyon and quickly caught up to Noelle, Sierra and Parker.

We walked the last short stretch of canyon back to the car together.

San Lorenzo Canyon turned out to be quite interesting. It would be interesting to return some day and check out some of the less accessible areas. Some of these beckoning areas were just too rugged to explore with Sierra and Parker.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge: Chupadera Peak

I woke up early this morning for a solo adventure. I left Noelle, Sierra, and Parker in the hotel room and headed down to the wildlife refuge again for a 9.5 mile hike up Chupadera Peak. I was in the refuge early enough to see some cranes and geese hanging out by the two ponds near the north entrance.

After watching the pink rays of the sun illuminate the mountains to the west, I decided it was time to move on to the trailhead and start my hike.

The hike began with a stroll through the shrubby desert lowlands. If it weren't for the many cairns the trail would have been easy to lose among the creosote bush.

Slowly, but surely I started to gain some elevation and then crossed under I-25 in a tunnel.

On the other side of the interstate I entered the Chupadera Wilderness and the ascent got a bit steeper.

Soon a canyon came into view and the trail turned in the canyon's direction.

The canyon turned out to be interesting and as the trail exited it, the climbing got a bit more difficult.

I steeply made my way up the mountain slopes, crossed a fence using a stile, and then stood on the mighty summit of Chupadera Peak.

There was a cold wind, but I found a sheltered area just of the summit and ate a snack and drank some water.

The views from the lofty perch was splendid. I admired it for a bit and then started to make my descent.

The climb had taken just over an hour and a half, the descent would go even more quickly. before I knew it I was back to my car.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge: Canyon Trail

After our exploration of the Camino Real International Heritage Center it was still early in the day. We drove the roller-coaster like NM-1 past an interesting monument commemorating the Civil War Battle of Valverde

into the refuge. The start of the trail didn't look too promising.

It just looked like a broad, sandy wash. Almost immediately Parker started walking very slow (he hates walking in sand) and Sierra let us know she was hungry. We fixed Sierra a bottle right on the trail while Parker rested in the limited shade.

Once the baby was content we moved on towards some sandstone walls.

Soon we discovered the first inklings of there being a real canyon.

Then the walls of the canyon rose higher and we found a small natural arch.

From the arch, the walls of the canyon got higher still.

While the canyon never got too deep, it was still impressive.

Eventually we made our way out of the canyon and traversed the rim. There were great views down to the distant wetlands.

Next we made our way back down into the sandy bottom of the wash and back to the car.

It was only a 2.2 mile hike, but with a tired baby and the dog it seemed a bit longer.

Camino Real International Heritage Center

Today being Sunday, Noelle, Sierra and I took advantage of our status as New Mexicans to tour the Camino Real International Heritage Center for free. It was an interesting place, but it doesn't seem to attract many visitors. Perhaps the fact that it is so far off the beaten path contributes to the lack of visitation.

Anyway, we enjoyed the museum quite a bit.

Sunset at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Today marked the start of a four-day weekend for me and so this morning we hit the road around 11 for some adventure. Of course when traveling with a baby everything takes longer, and so we arrived at Bosque del Apache after three feeding/diaper stops, just in time for sunset. As it happens sunset is one of the best times of the day for watching the light geese and sand-hill cranes. We were treated to a wonderful show of flight and honking noises.