Trip did not start auspiciously - since I had to delay and scale it back. The central heater at the house was not working at Christmas eve and had to get a repairman fixed it on the 26th. Since they could only do it on the afternoon, I might as well start on the 27th.

That late start cost me a day since I wanted to be back on the 30th, so I had to scratch Monument Valley off the list. I also decided to leave Molly with her groomer rather than bringing her along. At the groomer, she would have 3 other dogs to boss around - she's an alpha herding dog - and 3 kids to herd, so it's like summer camp for her!

Day 1:
Round Rock to Fort Davis via Llano and Ozona

Nice, sunny but a little nippy weather (high 40, low 50), started out at TX 29 through Llano for the purpose of seeing the wintering bald eagle pair. These pair have been wintering at Llano for several years now. Their nest - which is huge - sited at just about a few hundred yards off the highway. I did not get a chance to take pictures of them in flight. This morning, they seemed to be content to just sitting inside the nest and I had to keep on driving. After Llano, TX-29 continued all the way to I-10 at Junction. Speed limit is 70 most of the way, so pegged the cruise control at 79. There were some stretches where I could stretch the car a bit - 100-120-ish, with the top up.

Llano bald eagle:


At I-10, speed limit is up to 80, so most of the way from Junction to Balmorhea exit where TX-17 lead to Fort Davis, I pegged the car on cruise at 90. Not a single police or state trooper cruiser in sight and traffic could not cooperate any better. Most cars would yield to the right as soon as I came up. The only stop was at Ozona where I filled the tank and took pictures of the historic courthouse. Texas courthouses usually were built in extravagant manner, and the one at Ozona is no exception. I think this style is called Second Empire. It had this funny looking roof - I think it's called a Mansard cupola - that made it looked like a mini castle. Like other Texas county seats, the courthouse occupies the town center with a square in front of it.

Crockett county courthouse at Ozona:


Junction entry ramp is at exit 456, and the ramp for TX-17 to Balmorhea is at exit 209, 246 miles of interstate at about 88-90 miles per hour, I'd say that was a pretty good clip. TX-17 is mostly a two-lane road and the elevation started to climb up, if only slightly. The terrain also changed quite a bit. When I entered I-10 at Junction, that was still the edge of the Texas hill country with rolling grass plains and oak trees. As it got further west, the hill country gave way to high desert, with sage brush. The land is also devoid of any water features, no rivers, only dry draws. The terrain along TX-17 was something else though, mountains but very dry and arid. The term that kept on coming up on my mind is 'foreboding'. When I visualized a gritty western movie with bad guys trying to evade the law, this would be the type of terrain. It's all rocks, sand and dirt with occasional cottonwoods. What's surprising is that this land that looked very inhospitable is actually grazing land, since there were so many cows on it!

I made Fort Davis close to 5pm. The town was named after a garrison nestled under the Davis mountains. One of the unit garrisoned here was the famous Buffalo Soldiers. The fort (or the camp is more like it) is still quite well preserved with row of barracks and officer housings. Every morning, the National Park Service still plays the bugle, to simulate frontier garrison life.

Fort Davis is also a county seat - Jeff Davis county, so it has the requisite extravagant courthouse. The architectural features are a mix of Classical revival (the columns) and Beaux Arts (the clock tower).

Jeff Davis county courthouse:


The reason for my visit here was to join the evening program at McDonalds Observatory at the nearby Mt Locke. The observatory is part of the University of Texas, and sited here because of zero light pollution. The program is called Star Party, and it is very popular but also very cheap, $12 per person. We started out at the outdoor amphitheater, where the lead docent by using a laser pointer, pointed to us different constellations and planets. And talk about zero light pollution ...... this is the first place where I realized why we called the Milky Way as the Milky way ... because it does look like a smudge of milk in the sky! The amount of stars that we could see here was astounding! We got to even see a meteor shooting across the sky! To add to that, the docent was very good, the conversation and the light lecture was very engaging, educational and entertaining at the same time. At the end of the lecture, the staff setup numerous telescopes, including a couple of big ones under domes for participants to take turns for viewing. We got to see the Andromeda galaxy, Jupiter with its rotating bands and moons, and numerous other constellations. I recommend this program for anybody, it was very a top notch and I think even for a non-astronomy enthusiast, it would be very enjoyable.

Star trails - pointing slightly Northeast


Star trails pointing slightly Northwest:


The trails are all counter-clockwise, the center of the rotation - which is not visible on either pictures is the North Star (Polaris). Look at my post at the photography section under 'Star trails' for a star that look static.

More to follow ......

 

I remember McDonald Observatory. I spent some time there as a child at the on-site housing (Are the houses still there?). This was interim housing between the time my father left Yerkes and before he started the site survey that eventually led to his choosing Kitt Peak for the new national observatory.

 

Day 2
Started out at Fort Davis, made a brief stop at the Fort itself. The actual Fort is more like a camp or garrison. I don't see remnants of ramparts wall etc, just rows of barracks and scaterred officer housing. The site is unique though, nestled under Davis mountain range. The mountain may not look that impressive, compared to other mountain range, but Fort Davis town site itself is already 5000 feet above sea level, so it is - geographically - quite high.

Fort Davis camp:


Car in front of Davis mountains:


Typical scenery on TX-17 coming out of Fort Davis towards Balmorhea:



From Fort Davis, I headed up to New Mexico (Carlsbad) via Pecos TX on TX-17, then US-285. This area is part of the Permian basin. If you ever fly over the area - probably most of you have - you would recognize it. The area is so chocked-full of oil pump jacks and some oil wells thrown in here and there. From the air, the land would look like a broad dry plain with lots of bright dots. Same kind of terrain extend all the way to Carlsbad, NM. The drive up to the national park is through a winding road next to a gully. Left and right of the gully are inhospitable high desert, rocks, sand, sagebrush and yuccas. You would not expect that there is a national park underneath.

Road heading into Carlsbad National Park:


There were options at the park. For die-hard outdoor enthusiasts, there are some spelunking tours, for anybody who like to get some exercise, there are walk paths from the surface, 750 feet down to the underground Big Room and for the rest, there is the elevator option, which will take you 750 feet down to the Big Room. The Big Room itself is quite impressive. It is one of the largest underground limestone chamber in the world. The area is enough to cover 14 football fields and the paths circling it is about 2.2 miles round trip. the maximum height is more than 250 feet at some places with maximum width of more than 600 feet.

There are so many different cave formations - scientifically they are called speleothems. Most of us would probably be more familiar with stalagmites and stalagtites, but there are also columns and draperies. Think of how draperies look like - and that's how the formations look like. There is one stalagmite that I think should be called stalag-tit .... I'll let you judge for yourselves. Some of the features are really spectacular - the Sun Temple and Hall of Giants particularly.

Hall of Giants:


Sun Temple:


... and the stalag-tit:



From Carlsbad, I moved on towards Alamogordo. The drive is through US-82, up over Sacramento mountain range. This is the drive that I was worried the most. A few days before, this area (Southeastern NW and West TX) were blanketed with winter storm, so there were still lots of snow on the ground. Not only it made the road slick, but as snow began to melt, it turned to slush and mud. Some of the dirtiest cars that I ever saw in my entire life, more than half of them I saw here! The other thing is that to get to Alamogordo, I had to pass Cloudcroft (at 8600 feet) and from there, US-82 has a steep gradient to Alamogordo at 4600+ feet. I hate driving in the dark, and even more when in the dark, on close to frozen ambient temp, with summer tires, steep gradient, and possibility of having wet roads. The bonus: US-82 between Artesia and the village of Elk (maybe 10 miles from Cloudcroft) has only gentle curves, and minimum traffic. At some point, I could set the car on cruise at 90 and I hardly need to brake at all. I went slower just because it was dark.

Day 3
Started out by driving to White Sands National Monument. To drive there, I had to drive past Holloman AFB. I was hoping that I could get some pictures of F-22 stealth fighters flying out of the base, since I thought there are at least 2 sqn based there, but nope - not my luck I guess. White Sands itself is very unique - I mean, might as well be on Mars. There are still lots of snow as well, so it was endless sand dunes, dusted with snow, almost as far as the eyes can see. I drove on the loop drive which allow visitors to drive their own car 7-8 miles deep into the park. It really looked like an alien world once you're deep inside, just sand, snow, sagebrush and yuccas. It is both picturesque and alien-like.

The visitor center of the park has a very good movie describing the geologic origin. It also shows how the flora and fauna adapt to the harsh environment. A couple of the examples: how yucca trees adapt by having long stems, and how lizards change colors from brown to white. This is also one of the few places where people can do some sledding, in any season. On the bigger dunes, I would not be surprised if someone has tried to do some snow/sand-boarding.

White Sands:












There is an interesting bit as I drove out the park. Heading back towards Alamogordo, I had to pass through some type of a US Homeland Security checkpoint. I was asked whether I was a US citizens or not, and I did show them my green card. I wonder what the point is, is it to catch illegals, or to do something else? If I were an international/overseas students - and I was doing a road trip, I would not carry my passport and my visa sticker - a US driver license would have been sufficient. But at this type of inspection/check point station, I was not sure if I would have gotten to pass.

On to Three Rivers Petroglyph site .... more to follow.

 

Great trip. Keep it going. I'm thinking of taking in that area this next spring.

EZDriver

 

Bob;

Stunning photos, stars, car, scenery, those crystal clear ice blue skies, etc.

It is great to see my old stomping grounds in New Mexico again.

Thanks.

If you ever get back to Carlsbad Caverns be sure to take the hike down instead of the elevator and be there in the evening when literally millions of bats fly out of there.

The 'sand' at White Sands is not actually sand it is gypsum.

The identity stop you had was one of the roving I.N.S./immigration checkpoints they have had in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and California for the the past 30 plus years....surprising how many immigrants they catch on roads a 100 miles north of the border when they have relaxed.....plus plenty of drugs.

If you lived closer to the US border you would have seen them in Texas often enough.

Thanks for sharing your trip.

cheers,

jj

 

Great thread Bob! I grew up in southeastern New Mexico and I used to drive on those roads, so it's interesting to hear you talk about them.

I sure wish the power companies would bury the power lines around those historic buildings!

There's a place up near Cloudcroft called New Mexico Skies Inn. They actually rent telescopes and some of the bigger ones even have the little dome thingys to help keep you warm. You can't check in after dark because they don't want the headlights disturbing the view of their guests, and they do the room cleaning at night because that's when people are out of their rooms. During the day people are sleeping.

 

Ditto what jamjax said about the checkpoints. There are 2 of them close by to me, in the far south-east texas area, one on 77 and the other on 281, each about 125 miles north of the US-Mexico border. The point of these checkpoints is to catch what slips past or around the true US-Mexico border-crossings. These checkpoints, and the border areas south of them, have been featured on the National Geographic program called "Border Wars". If you want to get a true understanding of what ACTUALLY goes on along the US-Mexico border, be sure to watch these programs. A REAL eye-opener!

Enjoy reading your naratives with photos, r0m8470; awesome! Keep them coming!

John

 

Day 3 - part 2:
Time to head to the Three Rivers Petroglyphs site. This is probably not a very well known site - but I am glad I went. To me, this site left the deepest impression among the others. Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. The site is credited to the Jornada Mogollon people, and dated between 1000 to 1400AD. The site itself is managed by BLM, located approximately 35 miles north of Alamogordo on a set of rocky hills. Looking left (while facing North) is the San Andres mountain range, looking left is Sacramento mountains.

Panoramic shot of Sacramento mountains from Three Rivers site:


Petroglyphs:






What's fascinating (at least to me), is that (1) nobody knows exactly what these pictograms mean, (2) nobody knows who the actual descendants of the Jornada Mogollon people are. They never left any kind of Rosetta-stone like chiper. For all we know, these images might be very important historical documents, but they could also be doodling of small child just trying to pass the days. There are also some conjecture that the Southwest Pueblo people are the descendants of the Mogollon people but again, nobody knows for sure.

Some of the images are simplistic, some are quite ornate. The deeper I went into the area, the more numerous the pictograms are. The area are pretty much filled with them. Some patterns come up over and over, and some appear unique. Among the unique one is something resembling a ram's head. There is another one resembling a human palm. Another interesting fact is that there is no remnants of human dwellings on site. It's kinda interesting - it's as if they know how to lead a sustainable life without leaving a mark on their environment.

From Three Rivers, I headed back to Midland, TX via US 82 through Artesia. Again, US-82 between Cloudcroft and Artesia is probably among the loneliest highway in the lower 48. I was able to set the car on cruise at 90 and I hardly brake at all. The curves were gentle, especially once I passed the slopes of Sacramento mountains. From Artesia, the road to Midland TX passed through the Permian basin. This is perhaps the richest (at least from resource standpoint) land in America. The air reeked of oil - literally! There are pump jacks and drills everywhere - I mean everywhere! Even the junkyards are filled with old oil pumping equipment! Needless to say, the road traffic were busy with heavy equipments - heavy trucks with dualies, drilling rigs trailers were everywhere. I entered Texas still on US-82 through Seminole, exiting Seminole just at sunset and arriving at Midland about an hour past sunset.

West Texas sunset near Seminole:




Day 4:
There really is nothing to see here - except the American Airpower Heritage Museum - which is the main museum of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF). Those of you who attend airshows here in the US - most warbirds that you see are very likely to be associated with CAF one way or another. They have facilities everywhere but this museum is their crown jewel, with exhibits focusing on Airpower during WW2 era. The museum also have an American Airmen Hall of Fame, an exhibit celebrating achievements of numerous American airmen. I took pictures of 2 of these exhibits (Steve Ritchie and Robin Olds). The late Brigadier General Robin Olds is arguably one of the most innovative tactician of the US Air Force. His most famous operation was Operation Bolo in Vietnam, where he baited the North Vietnamese Air Force MiG-21 to dogfight with F-4 Phantoms masquerading as F-105 Thunderchiefs. The operation was a success with US Air Force downing 7 MiG-21 with no loss. At the time, MiG-21 was the creme de la creme, and the North Vietnamese only had 16 of them, losing 7 was a big blow!

Atomic bomb exhibit:


Custom bike donated to the museum with markings similar to a P-51 Mustang:


It is also a working museum, meaning that on its ground, there are always aircraft being worked on. On that day, they had a MiG-17, an F-14 Tomcat and an F-111 swing-wing fighter bomber on various stages of restoration/preparation. Outside of the main hangar is a monument dedicated to American Airmen in Vietnam with airplanes representative of the era. The main hangar itself was half empty - some of their aircraft since they are flyable - were out on different locations so the hangar was left with a few light aircraft, A Russian Polykarpov fighter, a Lockheed Harpoon patrol bomber, a DC-3 Dakota, a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber, a Bf108 Taifun WW2-vintage trainer, a replica of Japanese Kate torpedo bomber and a Cold War era Polish jet trainer Iskra. They also have a mock up of a monster 28-cylinder radial Allison Wasp engine. The museum is also THE proprietor of the largest collection of aviation nose art with special exhibit, however patrons were not allowed to take pictures inside. Most of the exhibits have pin-up women with ... err ... pretty alluring poses, let's just say that.

MiG-17 being worked on:


Vietnam memorial exhibit:


Lockheed Harpoon patrol bomber 'Attu Warrior' - regular on US air show circuit:


Allison Wasp engine mock-up with cut-away section:


Kate replica complete with dummy Long Lance torpedo:


Russian Polykarpov:


The drive home was quite uneventful. Made a quick stop at Brady, TX - which is supposed to be the geographical center of Texas and another stop at Cooper's Pit Old Time BBQ at Llano, stocking up for burnt-ends brisket, which is out of this world I might add!

Mural at San Angelo, TX:


McCullough county courthouse - Brady, TX:



All in all, I booked a bit over 1500 miles with the Jag. No hiccups, unless I count the passenger window that are slightly off its memory setting (a tad too high).

Some lessons learnt/observations during the trip:
1. Onboard nav system - it works to a degree
The nav system - as long as I use it for city to city navigation - it worked fine, to some extent. The annoying thing is that it tried to utilize interstate as much as it could. I fiddled with the settings but still the affinity to interstate is sometimes maddening. There were instances where I had to drive on a state road to force it to re-route. Any use beyond city to city yielded mixed results at best. My hotel at Midland is not that new, but yet the nav system can't find the address.

2. Damn, this is a rare car!
I encountered 1 (one!) XKR during the whole trip. I saw a coupe on I-10 heading East on day 1, that's it! When I stopped for an espresso on an Alamogordo drive-through, the barrista did not even know what kind of car it is.

3. 155mph is possible, but is it necessary?
There were enough stretches of highways where I could push the car really really fast. However everytime I did that (past 100 mph), I started having all kinds of thoughts - what if there's an Armadillo crossing the road, what if there's a pronghorn, or a deer etc ... ? Cold feet I guess? The fastest I did was 125+ mph on TX-17, but even then it was quite brief.

4. New Mexico - the Land of Enchantment - but not the Southeastern part
That's just a personal observation, and I hope I do not offend any New Mexico residents here on this board, but the towns that I passed through (Carlsbad, Artesia, Hobbs) looked like frontier towns. Maybe I am too much of an urban person?

5. 5 days is too short for a road trip
I need to budget at least a week for the next one. No Monument Valley, no Arches, bummer!

 

Awesome shots, thanks for your time

 

Great pics, Bob. Are a couple of those pics HDR pics? I can never get my exposure set to where I can see in the shadows but the sky is still blue. If the sky is blue the shadows are black, and if the shadows are visible the sky is white.

Having grown up in southeastern New Mexico I can tell you that that is the ugliest part of the state. Roswell is a little better than Hobbs and Artesia, but not much. The mountains are definitely beautiful, especially this time of year with the snow on them.

When I took my big trip out west a year and a half ago we only saw three other XKs on the entire trip. That's roughly 8000 miles with only three sightings. They are definitely uncommon cars. I wish I had known you were going to that part of New Mexico. I could have suggested a couple of other non-touristy places that you would have enjoyed visiting.

 

Oh yeah... something else I just noticed. you probably know this already, but when taking multiple pics for a panorama set the exposure on manual and leave it the same for all of the pictures. That way when you combine them in Photoshop the seam where the pictures join is invisible. If you REALLY want to get fancy, take multiple pics with three different exposure settings and then combine each exposure setting in Photoshop to make three different panoramas. Then combine the three panoramas to make a single HDR panorama.

 

Oh yeah... (I keep looking at the pics and thinking of more stuff) I went to see those petroglyphs a couple of times as a kid. I'm actually amazed that no one has vandalized them. I figured that some idiot would have taken a can of spray paint to them by now.

 

Bob, I have very much enjoyed your post and your photos. I have always wanted to take a similar trip and your post has inspired me to start planning it again for this spring. The first staurday in April, the Trinity site (location of the first atomic bomb test) is open to the public. I'm a nuclear engineer and always wanted to see it. Maybe this will be the year.

Mark

 

Yes - should've done that, thks for the reminder.

And yes - most of the pictures are HDR. I faced the same issue that you described. Flat light condition and details under shadow, so to make things 'even', I took auto-bracketed shots (1 over, 1 normal, 1 under) then have a software combine them.