June 3, 1996: The Promised Land Ranch
	June 1, 1996: Hiking at Sitting Bull Falls
	Return to the Index for Our New Mexico Trip

Dog Canyon is actually in Texas, but the only way to get there is to go through New Mexico. They had a phone at the ranger station, and I wish I'd checked to see what area code it had (which would have told me not where I was, but maybe which state provided phone service). After a good night's sleep, we got up on Sunday, had a little breakfast, took down the tent, and then dropped by the Ranger office to ask about hiking in the area.

Hiking Above Dog Canyon

We asked the Ranger about Last Chance Canyon. He had a topographical map, and it seemed to confirm the second set of directions in the magazine, so we decided we'd try to find the canyon on our way back towards Carlsbad. Before leaving, though, I asked the ranger about hiking up to the top of the mountains around the campsite.

Dog Canyon (Looking North from Eastern Ridge)

The Ranger pointed out that there were no restrictions on hiking around, although there were relatively few marked trails. But he did point out a good way up along a ridge line. He did say that he wouldn't wear tennis shoes, but that was all I brought. We got our cameras and set off up the hillside.

Part way up the eastern ridge, the vista of Dog Canyon spread out before us. As I have said elsewhere, this landscape has its own severe beauty, and certainly this vista qualifies as something special. You can see the only road into Dog Canyon coming in from the north.

The day was beautiful and the temperature just about perfect, and making our way up the side of the canyon was a fairly easy, very pleasant experience.

Fred and I on the Hillside Above Dog Canyon

Making our way up the hillside, it was fairly steep for walking, but there were lots of rocks and boulders to step on. Fred had warned me that it was tick season, and of course there were lots of deer around here (we had seen a number of them already), and so deer ticks would be prevalent. After that, I tried to avoid any contact with grass or bushes, thinking you'd get them the same way you'd get chiggers. Fortunately, neither of us picked up any, but I was careful nevertheless.

A couple of times along the way, we saw groups of deer fairly close to us, including one group of about seven or so that we watched go single file across the hillsides and then up the side of one mountain on the other side of the canyon behind us in this picture. Even from here you could hear their hooves on the bare rock. It was really neat, and made me wish briefly that in addition to a still camera I had a movie camera as well.

Seeing the deer added to the interest of the hike. There were also a fairly large number of different kinds of cactus and succulents for Fred to have a look at, and that made the hike interesting as well.

Fred Above Dog Canyon

It's early in the morning, so the shadow of the mountain behind me is still pronounced, and adds some character to this picture. Notice how arid the hillsides are across the valley. On this side, in contrast, there was much more greenery. I found that odd, since where I am standing now would seem to get the hot afternoon sun all the time.

We have come up from the right in this picture, and are following the ridge line up the mountainside. We got about halfway up, and Fred asked me whether I was intending to go all the way to the top. I hadn't really thought about it, but then decided that I'd like to. I've always enjoyed easy climbing, and this didn't seem difficult at all. Fred thought that he'd rather wait on one of the rock outcroppings we'd just got on top of, so I headed on up by myself, very shortly getting a view that was too beautiful not to record:

The Road Into Dog Canyon

I am enjoying the climb up. It is just difficult enough to be interesting, and the views are getting better and better. I am only a short distance from the top, now, but thought the view above too good to miss. When we leave later to go to Last Chance Canyon, we will be following that road out of here. I climbed to the top of the ridge, and the views were simply amazing:

Most of what you see here is in Texas. The state line with New Mexico runs parallel to the direction I am looking, but about three or four miles north of me (to the left). It was neat to have made it to the top, and I wanted to take enough pictures to justify the climb.

This view looks north along the top of the eastern rim of Dog Canyon. New Mexico begins about where the ridge tapers down into the valley in the distance. As you can see, I am just about on the highest point around.

Across from me and to the east I could see that there was another canyon, and this is the side of the cliff on the east side of it. This is all Texas here, and pretty barren. I could hike around places like this all day, but I knew we wanted to find Last Chance Canyon, so I didn't stay much longer.

From this height, and with the wide-angle lens, I can get the whole canyon area in one picture. The campground is right in the grove of trees in the exact center of the picture, just "below" the complete dirt road circle. The ranger station is a little ways to the right.

I had no tripod with me, so I had to improvise one, building a tower of loose rocks and setting the camera on top of it. The end result was pretty decent, I think.

By this time, I have been gone longer than I promised Fred, so I started down in some haste. This was a mistake. As I started down, I made my only misstep of the morning, and ended up sliding about ten feet when I came to rest on top of a rock outcropping. Unfortunately, one thing that helped stop my slide was a sotol cactus, and there were four or five spines stuck in my arm, which I gingerly removed. (The spines are about the size of the teeth on a comb, but much sharper.) Then I noticed that I seemed to have got something in my shoe, and I started to unlace it and take it off, when I discovered a particularly large spine had pierced my shoe and lodged in my foot! It was hard to take the shoe off because the head of the spine was caught in it, but finally I was able to both take off the shoe and pull the spine out. It wasn't particularly painful once it was out, though; the spines were sharp but they did break off the plant and they came out cleanly. Rather more noticeable, particularly as the day wore on, was the fact that elbow and knee had both struck the rock fairly hard.

From a point just below where I had my mishap, I took what turned out to be my last picture today, looking across the hillside to the south. You can see that picture at left. On the way down, I had called out a number of times to Fred, but I assumed that sound didn't carry far enough, for I never heard an answer.

Well, getting speared by the cactus was the second unfortunate experience of this trip (the first being the ticket I got on the way out here). I guess I was optimistic in thinking that my quota had been reached, but what I should have been thinking was either "Bad things come in threes" or "Third time's the charm".

We headed out of Dog Canyon, and now we had both the ranger's general directions and the specific ones from New Mexico Magazine to follow. I swear we followed the magazine's directions perfectly, but they (the directions) bore little resemblance to the reality of the roads, signs, and trails that we followed. We drove down the main road for about fifteen miles, and we did find the cut off to the left that both the ranger and the magazine mentioned. But from that point on, nothing bore much resemblance to either set of instructions. We must have driven around the plateau for an hour trying to match the scenery and the markers to those in the magazine, but we never found the trail head. It was very exasperating, and I vowed to email the authors through the magazine and tell them that they should try following their own directions and see how far they get.

We finally gave up and headed back towards Artesia, New Mexico. We stopped at the only business there was along New Mexico Highway 137 between Dog Canyon and the main highway. I thought about asking Fred if he wanted to stop for lunch at the small cafe, but he didn't seem interested. We got some ice and had some conversation with the owners of the cafe before continuing on, and passed up another hike Fred had read about in order to get up to Ruidoso before dark.

It was about this time that Fred's eye started to bother him. I could tell that every so often he would grimace a bit, and his eye would start to tear up a lot. It was a bit red but not overly so at this point. He thought that he might have rubbed something from the cactus into it that was now irritating it; that has happened to him before at the greenhouses. His eye was going through cycles where it would be OK for a while, and then get really read and teary. I could tell it was uncomfortable (even painful), but Fred thought it would clear up on its own.

We got back to US Highway 285 in mid-afternoon, and headed north through Artesia to Roswell. We had traveled this same route before when we were at Ruidoso two years ago, but this time there was a new bypass around Roswell that saved us a bit of time.

It circles town to connect to US Highway 70 that leads to Ruidoso. The drive was pleasant, but I could tell that Fred's eye was a real bother, but he seemed adamant that a good night's sleep would clear things up. We got to Ruidoso about five in the afternoon, where we stopped for supplies and a TCBY, then drove to the campground, again along the same route we had traveled before- New Mexico Highway 37.

When we got to the entrance to the campground Fred had chosen for this evening, we received our next disappointment. There was a sign posted that all the campgrounds and trails in the area were closed due to the extreme fire danger from lack of rain. True enough; many of the pines were turning brown in the season where they should be greenest.

Since we couldn't camp and couldn't hike anywhere in the Lincoln National Forest, we decided to head on down to Alamogordo. There is a State Park there with some hiking, and we thought that it might not be closed, since it wouldn't necessarily be subject to the same restrictions that National Parks and Forests are.

We got back on US Highway 70, and headed down to Tularosa to pick up US Highway 54 south to Alamogordo. We had been here before, too, when we went to the petroglyph site at Three Rivers two years ago.

Fred's eye was really giving him fits on the way down from Ruidoso, so as soon as we got to Alamogordo, I coerced him into letting me go by the local hospital. We found it without too much trouble, but found that to have someone see Fred in the emergency room would take hours (not to mention $125). Fred seemed confident that some eye drops and a good night's sleep would improve things immensely, so we found a grocery store that had first aid stuff (all the drugstores were closed), picked up some eye drops, and drove off towards the campground. On the way, I had second thoughts about camping that night. It was late, and we'd be setting up things in the dark. There might be restrictions on cooking when we got there. Fred's eye was a real concern. In the end, we decided to get a motel room in Alamogordo, and see if the drops and sleep improved things. We found another Super 8 Motel (where we now have a discount card) and took welcome showers. The shower didn't seem to help Fred, and that had me concerned, too.

I was so concerned that I got out the yellow pages and called two or three ophthalmologists and left messages asking for early morning appointments. Fortunately, the next day was Monday, not Saturday as it might have been, and a couple of the recordings said they'd be open. I told Fred that I would get up right at 7 o'clock in the morning when the first one opened and get us the first appointment I could. I think that knowing there'd be some help available made him feel a bit better. The front desk recommended a Mexican restaurant and gave me a discount certificate for it. We went over there and got there just before it closed. The meal was good, so at least something went right. However, I was so concerned about Fred that I forgot to give the cashier the discount certificate. Oh, well. Fred was still having some pain from his eye, but all I could do was sympathize with him. We went right to bed after that.

This story will continue on the album page for tomorrow, so use one of the links below to get there.

	June 3, 1996: The Promised Land Ranch
	June 1, 1996: Hiking at Sitting Bull Falls
	Return to the Index for Our New Mexico Trip