April 1 New Mexico

Monday, April 1

31 degrees at 6:30 this morning.  Ice on the hood and bumper, though we stayed comfy inside with the heater.

We head out towards several RockHounding places north of here, but the frosty ground soon becomes snow-covered.

 Not knowing the condition of some of the back roads we are going towards, we adjust plans.

By the time we turn around and head back south, the snow is mostly gone and things are warming up, so we try to find site 53 near the old Red Cloud mines.  Interesting traffic on the back roads!

Not sure if we ever found the correct site, but we explore a bit and Greg does find some interesting rocks with purple in them.  Some of the snow, shaded by evergreens, lingers.

We go back to Carrizozo, sharing a PB&J on the road.  The snow covered mountains near Ruidoso are the background

but we turn west on 380 before reaching them.  Through more lava fields of one of the youngest volcanoes of the US.

Next stop is the Mineral Museum at New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources in Socorro. Socorro has a history of mining, and this museum is on the campus of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.  Huge chunks of beautiful petrified wood outside!
 Great displays of minerals from around the world,

with a large section dedicated to New Mexico specimens.  Wow!  Wishing we could find some of these!

This is a nice green campus with lots of trees, spring flowers, and yellow brick buildings - almost ivy league-ish! We pick up a book called Gem Trails of Texas at their bookstore.

Just a few blocks away is Old San Miguel Mission, founded in 1598 and recently refurbished outside.

  Huge wooden beams inside and an interesting spiral staircase to the choir loft.  This is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the US.

From here, we head south to the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  We have been here in  Winter when this is home to thousands of geese and sand hill cranes, so we are curious to see what we will find there now.  Answer:  roadrunners, turkeys, egrets, heron, ducks....a few deer, but it is late afternoon.

We decide to find our BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campground outside of nearby San Antonio and revisit the refuge in the morning.

 The campsite is marginally maintained, with a few picnic tables and fire rings.  No one here except a loudly mooing cow that comes towards us and then veers off.

 I watch it for a while and hear a faint answering call.  Turns out that it was calling for its young offspring, who shows up after 10 minutes or so.  They wonder off quietly into the sunset.

Temperatures are warmer and we have worsts and salad for dinner and call it a night. All is quiet; even the wind has gone to sleep.