Framedlight

 We had one thing to do before we left the Guadaloupe Mountain area. It meant back tracking, but a little way up the road was the remnants of one of the Butterfield Overland Mail staging posts. The Butterfield Mail was the first stage coach services set up to carry mail and goods across the continent of the USA. It travelled between St Louis and San Francisco and initially must have been a hell of a scary ride. Because of the access to water one of the stations was located in the Guadaloupe Mountains. There is little left remaining to mark the spot except for some walling and timber, but there is a monument and an information board. As we left the shelter of the mountains we passed through a vast salt flat. It was so unexpected, we had not noticed it on the map, that we had to stop to take some photos. Alan even spotted sone sandhill cranes in the distance. It was late when we got to our destination of Las Cruces in southern New Mexico. We had thought of getting a take away but learnt

 The road we were travelling back to El Paso passes the main chain of the Guadeloupe Mountains which rise to a height of 8000 ft. Below is the Chihuahuan Desert that runs south for hundreds of miles into Mexico. The mountains were populated by the native Nde Apache who valued the water and shelter they provided. Unfortunately white settlers also saw the advantages of the Guadaloupe and in 1849 the US Army started a campaign to drive the Nde out. By 1880 they had all gone.  The area is immensely important as one of the best examples of a marine fossil reef in the world and the highlands provide homes for numerous species of animals, such as mountain lions, bears, golden eagles and deer. We drove into the visitor centre at Pine Springs and decided to do the Smith Spring trail. This is only 2.3 miles long, but despite it being mid October it was very hot, and in our just post-Covid state, going uphill was difficult. It was worth it though. We passed the the Frijole ranch which was being r

 We were driving north west towards New Mexico and it was still light. So there was time to visit Hueco State Park which lies just on the Texas side of the New Mexico border. This is a range of low rocky hills which get their peculiar name from the rocky depressions that gather rain water. The area below the rocks has been farmed for thousands of years and the native people regarded the hills as sacred. The Butterfield Overland Mail began operations in 1858 and brought  communities together across the vast expanse of the west. Because of the presence of water Hueco Tanks was used as a relay station. We were late getting to the Tanks so we had not long there until the park closed, but we must have spent an hour walking over the rocks. There are petroglyphs in the park. We did not find these but we did see some more modern inscriptions. From the Park we drove into New Mexico and up to White's City. A grand name for a tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere, which had shut down for the n