These photos are going to be the prettiest photos from southern New Mexico that you ever see on this travel blog. Promise! This is the desert, and we got lucky to arrive just after the yearly rains fell, causing the normally stark landscape to bloom. We went looking for Sitting Bull Falls, a local favorite hiking spot, but the rains of September had caused floods everywhere, and the road to the falls was washed out. The National Parks Service didn't only close the road to cars, but even closed all nearby trails to foot traffic.
We set off exploring along a track that eventually intercepted one of the closed trails . First we discovered the remnants of the floods at a Native American rock art site. The floods had washed down two canyons and met at the base of the mountain with the eroded cliff band, leaving behind a wall of rounded rocks and a scoured rock face. Climbing on the rocks led to Andy's discovery of the Native American rock art site. We aren't familiar with this variety of rock art, and so far I can't find any explanation for the people who created it or what the images represent. I also found an interesting round depression with grooves worn into its sides. It looks like a metate used for grinding foods, but the grooves aren't common on metate. I picked up a piece of chert that looks like it had been used as a projectile point, and we found a larger piece of chert, but no more arrowheads despite the search.
Hiking along the path led us to many different species of wildflowers. I can still identify a few, but it's been long enough that the names escape me. I'll need to carry my Southwest wildflower guide once it arrives with our other things.
Desert blooms don't overwhelm with spectacle. Most often, the flowers are small, and you have to travel on foot and look closely to see the flowers. A hillside covered in gaudy flowers only occurs under the right conditions. The one we found has an eastern exposure and springs high on its slopes. Andy and Liam even found a patch of native squash. The squash is small, round, with darker and lighter green stripes. They left most for the birds and wildlife, but they collected a couple each so they could plant the seeds in our garden next spring.
I'm very happy to report that we didn't hear or see any rattlesnakes. The area around Carlsbad used to be known as Rattlesnake Flats for the vast number of snakes.