Chiricahua Peloncillo Heritage Days 2016

I missed the talks at this years Chiricahua Peloncillo Heritage Days but did help with one of the walks on Sunday.  Co-sponsored by the Chiricahua Peloncillo Historical Society, the walk covered the historic Catanzaro Ranch which is north of Highway 9 and the Painted Pony Resort.  Because of illness Craig McEwan and I were last minute fill ins and the discussion centered on early transportation in the valley. First a discussion of early "roads" in the valley starting with the old road, the first trail running north/south through the valley connecting native villages and used by the Spanish.  Then on to the highway that preceded the Current Highway 80.  This highway shows up on the 1917 topographic map (labeled the "Borderland Highway") lies one mile east of the current Highway 80 and crosses the San Simon with a low concrete bridge.  The bridge has no markings indicating its construction date so I compared the first topographic map of the area with satellite imagery.  Shown on the 1917 topographic map this highway and bridge also paralleled the San Simon riverbed, spanning over the lowest portion of the San Simon river.  During heavy rains the river can carry a significant amount of water as shown below in some historical images.  We followed this early highway north, now passable only with high clearance vehicles, to a homestead of one of Gus Chenoeth's offspring on the other side of low hills leading to cowboy pass north of the current ranch house.  After finishing with the old bridge and drive along this early "Borderland Highway" the group moved on to the old Rodeo Intermediate Field where I talked about the history and uses of the old airfield from its' inception as part of early commercial aviation through its use as an Army Auxiliary field during WWII, then as a private facility, and finally abandonment.  A good day all in all and I had a chance to learn, see, and explore a little more the area's history as well as sharing what I have found with others.

Craig McEwan talking to the group just below the Catanzaro Ranch house.

Looking back NW across one of "Gus" Chenoweth's offspring homestead toward cowboy pass (on the left).

Looking east at the old Highway bridge surrounded by a sea of Giant Sacaton grasses.

San Simon river flowing under the old Borderland Highway bridge.  .

1917 topographic map overlaid on Google earth showing the early highway from Rodeo and bridge location.  Rodeo is at the bottom just off the overlay

                                    Video about the Rodeo Intermediate Field

Progress and a Measure of Success in Land Restoration

Before and after photographs, or repeat photography, are useful tools for measuring success of any prescription applied as an intervention in landscape restoration.  In the case of the area around the rustic cabin the first prescription applied was fencing.  The 240 acres encompassing the cabin and the river bottom were fenced to exclude grazers and create a seed reservoir for existing grasses to reseed the surrounding landscape, both on and off the estate.  Later topsoil restoration barriers were added to benches above the west side of the riverbed where only clay hard pan subsoil was present as a result of poor range management practices.  After 2 seasons plants are not only growing on the subsoil but the areas surrounding the hard pan have more plants.  While there are some native grasses, woody shrubs also are also present.  This is in contrast to early descriptions of the San Simon Valley describing a "luxuriant growth of grasses, affording excellent pasturage for all kinds of stock."  It is clear that a variety of factors combined to significantly alter the landscape and recovering the original grasslands presents a number of problems.  Since the soil types above the riverbed are sandy/gravelly loam, decaying biomass is essential to building healthy new topsoil and the first step is any plant that creates biomass and prevents further erosion, grasses or shrubs.  The conversion of soil minerals into useful Biomass provides a home to soil microbes and nematodes which will benefit the next plants (ideally only grasses) in a succession of species that leads back to a productive landscape. It should be noted that this plant growth is especially encouraging since the area has received less than 6" of rain this year (PRISM climate model average rainfall for the estate is 12.17").

Initial view with topsoil restoration barriers installed at the Rustic Cabin.  This is after fencing.  Note
the large area without subsoil or plant life.

Two seasons later and the return of plant life.  Especially noteworthy are plants growing in the hard pan subsoil
creating biomass for new topsoil.

topsoil restoration barrier

The same topsoil restoration barrier after 2 seasons.

Some online references:
1.  http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_p003/rmrs_p003_306_311.pdf
2.  http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/arizona/sansimonareaAZ1924/sansimonareaAZ1924.pdf
3.  http://www.malpaiborderlandsgroup.org/?section=conservation-action
4.  https://sites.google.com/site/sansimonassessment/actions-participants
5.  Slides from a landscape restoration talk presented at the the 2015 Chiricahua Peloncillo Heritage Days - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9IXOUCL-_hoSTRQd3N0bWU1dGc/view?usp=sharing

The 2016 Bicycle Tours - Migrating Cyclists

The Painted Pony Resort hosted 2 bicycle tours again this year, both returning for another stay while they were cycling in the area.  The first group through was Bubba's Pampered Peddlers on their yearly coast to coast tour, while the second group was from Lizard Head Cycling Guides.  The group from Bubba's Pampered Peddlers comprised of about 50 riders with a support staff of about a dozen while the Lizard Head cycling tour was a smaller group of 13.  While the coast to coast group was in and out, the Lizard Head group did a ride into the canyon and hiked the Silver Peak trail.  With the designation of Highway 80 as part of US bike route 90 perhaps more bicyclists will take advantage and visit the area.

Just another sign of spring - when the migrating cyclists start showing up.

Morning preparations.

Support vehicles

Support vehicles and riders

Traveling kitchen for riders

The Long Light of Winter

Winter in the San Simon Valley is generally characterized by warm sunny days and chilly nights.  Temperatures drop to freezing but rapidly rise back into the 60's once the sun rises and crests the mountains to the east.  The sun rises and sets fairly far south and the mountains views in the afternoons are frequently bathed in a warm yellow light.  Below are 2 images taken on 2 consecutive days with the warm late afternoon sun illuminating the Peloncillo Mountains of southern New Mexico as viewed from the Painted Pony Resort outside Rodeo New Mexico.  The rich yellows and reds with the long shadows created by the sun's path across the southern sky creates an almost 3D effect in the photographs.  It really is hard to take a bad photograph down here.

The Rustic Cabin and the long light of a winters afternoon.

A view further south the next afternoon.

 

An Early Monsoon?

Traditionally, the local community looks for the summer monsoon season around the beginning of July and the common wisdom holds that it begins on the 4th.  The estate received 0.05” of rain 2 days ago and then yesterday another build up of cumulus clouds appeared over the Chiricahua mountains during the afternoon. A typical monsoon season cloud buildup heralding perhaps an early start to the summer rainy season. The event resulted in winds in the canyon dropping trees along the road and rain was visible around the valley as well as on the eastern side of Antelope pass, but no rain at the Painted Pony Resort. The resulting sunset was brilliant with vibrant reds and yellows illuminating the residual rain clouds. I made a 4 image panorama to try and capture the sunset but the brilliance overwhelmed the camera chip.

An early monsoon cloud buildup over the Chiricahua mountains.

A brilliant sunset after the storm.

Moving Clocks

The shift to/from daylight savings time change effects the valley twice a year and it is always a time of confusion when trying to make an event on the other side of the state line.  The New Mexico side of the valley changes time but the Arizona side always stays the same and events across the state line always leads to an arrival either an hour early or an hour late, especially for me.  Though the change to/from daylight savings time has no affect on the views on either side of the state line as evidenced by these 2 views, one east and one west taken at sunrise from the Painted Pony Resort.  The sun still rises over the Peloncillo mountains and the first rays of sunlight illuminate Portal Peak in the Chiricahua mountains.  With views like this it is all right to be late to an event.

Sunrise over the Peloncillo mountains on the New Mexican side of the valley

Sunrise on Portal Peak on the Arizona side of the valley with the setting moon

Topsoil Restoration Barriers, an Aerial View

Range land restoration at the Painted Pony Resort uses natural materials from the landscape and redistributes this material to barren areas with little or no top soil to encourage the development of new topsoil and native grasses by slowing water flow and providing microhabitat to catch wind blown seeds.  Using Amaranth, mesquite, or tumbleweed cannoli the before and after aerial views shown below demonstrate how the barriers encourage new grass growth and topsoil creation in overgrazed areas of the high desert of New Mexico.

Google Earth view of the north end of the estate before topsoil barrier construction.  The red line indicates the estate's northern boundary.

A recent still from an aerial video showing the locations of topsoil barriers at the north end of the estate highlighted with black arrows.  Aerial image courtesy of Dalton Wilson.

Addendum:
Another image from Wilson's drone showing state land and the west side of the estate.  Note the large areas where the topsoil is completely lost and large reflective areas of hard desert pan are visible.  These barren areas are restoration goals for the estate, as well as increasing productivity, restoration efforts will slow the water moving across the landscape allowing more to reach the aquifer.

State land versus the Painted Pony Resort an aerial view.

The Road, Cultural Resource Inventory IX

In the 330 square miles of San Simon valley south of I-10 there are only 3 paved roads, Highway 80 (running north/south) Portal Road (running from Highway 80 west to Portal and the Chiricahua mountains, and Highway 9 (running from Highway 80 east to Animas), all other roads are dirt and have changed over time.  Old dirt road tracks are easily identified, being 2 tracks, which differentiates them the earliest "roads" which were single tracks suitable for foot and horse traffic.

Roads and their locations in many cases evolved from game trails to human foot paths connecting cultural centers and water sources which, as the traffic increased with the movement trade goods and people eventually became larger and more established allowing horses, carriages, and eventually automobiles.  In most cases these early culturally derived roads were supplanted by designed roads which followed straighter paths and the early roads were lost.  In the San Simon valley several lines of evidence suggest there was an early road running the length of the valley from Mexico north which has been lost.

1. Distribution of large archaeological sites representing large villages and trading centers.
2.  Early maps and Spanish descriptions of forays into the San Simon valley, as part of New Spain.
3.  Early maps of US explorers pushing westward to the west coast.
4.  Original land surveys of the area.

Archaeological sites of large villages are known along the San Simon valley.  Perhaps the best known site is at the San Bernardino wildlife refuge.  With springs and perennial water a number of sites were identified within the refuge boundaries.  Further north along the valley the Ruben ruin (a late Animas phase site) lies on the west side of the San Simon riverbed, east of the drainage from Horseshoe canyon.  Scattered every 8-10 miles these ruins represent larger occupation sites that would have had contact with one another along a "road" or trail.  This also explains the density of archaeological sites found along the riverbed, they predominate the east bank while the west bank has fewer sites in the vicinity of the estate (personal observation).

Early Spanish explorers in the area noted a number of "roads" connecting occupation sites and frequently the Spanish themselves used these sites for Presidios.  For example San Bernadino had a short lived presido and "roads" leading from the Presidio was used in the Spanish attempts to control the Apache.  This link shows an map of Spanish exploration including the San Simon valley during the period of 1779-1785.  Two expeditions,  The Vildosola of 1780 and the Peru expedition of 1784 traveled along the valley and would have utilized the "old road" connecting native settlements.   Early maps produced during the Spanish colonial period portray the area with varying degrees of accuracy until after the Mexican American war and the subsequent Gadsden Purchase as shown in the video below.

Perhaps the most notable map from the 19th century of the area showing "roads" was produced by the Mormon Battalion when they passed through on their way to the west coast in 1846 - 1847.  A Coyote road or bandit trail was marked running north/south through the valley just east of San Bernardino.  This "road" parallels the modern designed road, Highway 80, but its location was unknown until recently.

Enlarged section of the Mormon Battalion map showing the coyote road running up the San Simon valley.  Map courtesy of Project Gutenberg

Recent searches of the BLM General Land Office records uncovered an 1883 survey map of the township (T.28S., R.21W.) which includes most land encompassing much of the Painted Pony Resort and the future town of Rodeo NM.  This survey was commissioned by Epitacio Sandoval in 1882 at the cost of $650.00.  The resulting map shows several interesting features, the most important being the location of an early "road" along the east side of the San Simon Riverbed.  By the time the first topographic map of the area was produced in 1917 traces of the old "road" were missing but the town of Rodeo was well established.

1883 township map which includes the Painted Pony Resort and the town of Rodeo NM, north is up on the map.

The outline (red) of the Painted Pony Resort on the 1883 township survey map superimposed on satellite imagery showing the location of the early "road" along the San Simon Riverbed, north is up on the map.

The 1917 topographic map showing no evidence of the early "road" along the San Simon riverbed and only 2 tracks of modern dirt roads, north is left on the map.

The discovery of the 1883 township map neatly ties together early maps and descriptions of a road running along the San Simon valley with current land use and maps of the area.  While no traces of this early "road" have yet been discovered, the location of the presumptive Post Classic Mimbres hamlet ruin on the east side of the San Simon is explained the early "road" running along the riverbed as well as other sites such as the Trinchera at the mouth of Antelope Pass.  In addition, if the early "roads were controlled by the drainage patterns then other "roads" may exist along these drainages.

Addendum:  After scaling the township map and carefully placing the overlay on Google Earth evidence of the "old road" became apparent south of Rodeo.  A winding faint track was observed leading south from the "old road" on the township map along the San Simon riverbed.  The presence of a visible track lends support to the idea that this early "road" was the main thoroughfare along the valley.  Subsequent township mapping of these areas did not take place until after the turn of the century and no evidence of the "old road" was found.

A faint winding track which may represent a continuation of the "old road" along the San Simon riverbed.

 

A Little Snow over the Holidays

2014 was a good year for rain in the high desert of southwestern New Mexico.  The Painted Pony Resort received 14.69" of rain this year and to top things off, the estate received its first snow fall on New Years day.  While the mountains received a light dusting of snow on Christmas day and additional snow over the next week in the high country, out in the valley, we were greeted by snow on the first morning of the new year.  Hoping for a continuation of the rainfall patterns which will result in beautiful spring wild flowers and poppies carpeting the valley.

A snowy New Years morning in the San Simon valley

Sunrise and Sunset

The San Simon Valley gets spectacular sunrises and sunsets.  Flanked by the Chiricahua mountains to the west and the Peloncillo mountains to the east, those in the valley are treated to an abundance of beauty every morning and evening.  The view below is a 3 image panorama of wispy clouds reflecting the rising sun which has yet to climb above the Peloncillo mountains.  Some folks have said they prefer the Peloncillos at sunset but I find sunrise the most spectacular especially when there is some cloud cover to reflect the sunlight.  Both times of day either mountain range has something new to see and I'm constantly recording something new I have never seen before.

Sunrise over the Peloncillo mountains from the Painted Pony Resort

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Addendum:

Two days later after a day of light rain, the warm temperatures combined with water vapor resulted in low wispy fog at sunrise.

Wispy fog over the Peloncillo mountains in the San Simon valley.

Odile's Gift to the Twin Cities of Portal Rodeo

Hurricane Odile arrived from the Pacific after moving across northern Mexico and southern Arizona.  Its' arrival began as a slow march of cloud cover up the San Simon valley and over the mountains.  The resulting sunset was a multicolored event that belied the amount of rain that was to fall.  The first 2 days of rain were light at the Painted Pony Resort where a modest 0.11" and 0.26" of rain were recorded.  Then the main mass of the storm arrived bringing significant amounts of rainfall to the area with reported 1 day totals between 4 - 5 inches of rain around the valley.  Cave Creek Canyon experienced serious flooding as did areas of the valley including highway 80.  The main mass of the storm delivered 3.34" of rain to the estate over a 24 hr period and then began to taper off with a final days total of 0.41".  The total accumulated rainfall for the storm on the estate was 4.17" bringing the yearly reported total for station NM-HD-17 to 12.54".

As shown in the images below, water flow across the landscape (flooding) was confined to 2 areas where an old drainage from the west crosses the estate on its way to the San Simon river bed.  Experiencing mostly sheet flooding water depth reached a maximum depth of 1-2', although wide swaths of the road were flooded.  Of course the riverbed itself as conduit for water from up the valley (to the south) had several feet of water and the east side of the estate is currently inaccessible.  The check dams, tumbleweed garlands, and topsoil restoration barriers preformed well and all were in place after the storm.  Capturing sediment and slowing water flow these structures protected segments of the road and barren areas of the landscape slowing the water and depositing sediment.  One problem arroyo along Painted Pony Rd. collected about a foot of sediment during the storm demonstrating the efficacy of water management efforts on the estate.

The arrival of Odile was heralded by a multicolored sunset over the San Simon valley.

After the big rain - looking west at the flow across Nighthawk Rd.

After the big rain - looking south at the flow across Painted Pony Rd.

After the big rain - an old drainage that has good grass cover.

After the big rain - a check dam with tumbleweed garland and newly collected sediment along Painted Pony Road.

After the big rain - performance of topsoil restoration barrier installed last year.

Mesquite Treatment and Rangeland Restoration

One of the goals of the grassland restoration project is to return the segment of the San Simon riverbed at the Painted Pony Resort to open grassland, creating a seed reservoir, and this means removing mesquite.  The riverbed was over run with mesquite as a result of unmanaged cattle grazing.  Cattle are a major dispersal agent in the spread of mesquite, eating and passing seeds back onto the landscape where they germinate.  Originally confined to riparian areas, mesquite has spread across the landscape in modern times.  But it is not all bad, mesquite provide forage for cattle and other native browsers, habitat for nesting birds, and most importantly they fix nitrogen in addition to holding the soil.  Mesquite can be stubborn to remove since they produce deep tap roots and mechanically removed mesquite come back quickly requiring further treatment.  A backhoe or other device that will pull the taproot out is required to completely remove the plant and prevent regrowth.  Alternatively, herbicide treatment may be used after initial removal of the above ground portions of the plant.  But tests by others with a number of different herbicides show variable results with both application timing and herbicide compound being important variables.  Because of the variable results with different herbicides a 2 prong approach was chosen for herbicide treatment.  Glyphosate (the active chemical compound found in Roundup) is available off label at 40% concentration.   This is diluted to a final concentration of 2% (found in commercially available formulations) and combined with 2,4-D at a final concentration of 0.2%.  2,4-D is a plant hormone analogue while Glyphosate interrupts amino acid synthesis.  Once absorbed both herbicides work through different mechanisms interrupting plant growth and killing the reoccurring mesquite.  Below are photographs of a mechanically removed mesquite in the riverbed treated with this combination of herbicides.  Although effective some regrowth is noted requiring a second application to finish off the mesquite.

This combination of mechanical removal followed by herbicide treatment is returning the riverbed to an open grassland while maintaining a few large single stemmed mesquites for habitat and leaving mesquite along the margins and on the uplands to provide cover, soil stabilization, and nitrogen fixation this approach shows what may be accomplished with a minimal investment.  

Untreated, 2 weeks after mechanical removal

96 hrs post herbicide treatment

10 days post herbicide treatment, residual new growth will require a second treatment

An Unusual Tool

While out walking the other day with one of the LSU Arthopod Museum's staff the tool shown below was found amongst a scatter of mano fragments.  Downstream of several room shaped crop marks, the presence of flaking and grinding stone tool fragments suggests we were close to a former habitation site.

The oddly shaped piece measuring 3.3 x 6.5 cm was constructed out of a fine grained local red rhyolite common to the area.  Four long primary flakes running the length were removed from one side to create the tool from a single larger flake.  Several very small secondary flakes were removed from the inner curved surface creating a partially serrated cutting edge.  The shape and curvature of the tool suggests right handed usage and when held the thumb fits comfortably in the basal depression at the base while the index finger comfortable wraps around a groove on the backside.

Tentatively identified as either a burin or awl, this unusually shaped tool would be a handy addition to any early tool kit and would work well in either punching holes in leather or cutting and scraping wood or bone shafts.

An oddly shaped rhyolite awl or burin

The back of the tool showing natural finger groove

Addendum:

The tool fits neatly into the right hand.

Desert Gardening

Not having a green thumb nor being a gardener an inordinate amount of time is spent gardening at PPR.  In the past, buying plants from nursery's was the way new plants arrived at the Painted Pony Resort.  But not any more, instead gardening skills were developed in an attempt to grow new plants for the estate.

Awhile back trees were purchased and stored on the estate, but a number up and died.  All received the same amount of water and care, yet some would inexplicably die.  Frustrated and to combat this loss of investment dollars it was decided to grow trees and other plants from seed and cuttings.  Starting with spineless prickly pear cactus pads provided by Mountain Valley Lodge the first attempt was successful.  Planted around the estate and at the entrance to the Rustic Cabin, as long as the transplanted cactus were protected from the rabbits by chicken wire they survived.  Without chicken wire the rabbits and cattle destroyed everything.  The next attempt was Agave (starting with drought tolerant plants seemed prudent since my gardening skills were initially non-existent).  Several small Agave were rooted and successfully transplanted but the Javelina also found them tasty and the first crop of Agave were lost to rooting Javelina.  But eventually by protecting the plants from these browsers the problem was resolved.

Emboldened by the initial success with drought tolerant plants, oaks were chosen for the next try.  Oaks grow on the estate and in the fall acorns abound.  Usually, these are removed from the courtyards and left on the open landscape surrounding the houses where the birds and other wildlife consume them.  This past fall though several hundred acorns were saved and used for the next experiment at growing plants for the estate.  The acorns were bagged in wet potting soil and left in the refrigerator for several months.  Once germinated the acorns were transplanted to 1 gallon buckets outside.  Watering and watching the buckets on the ground for any sign of sprouting was slow.  After several months nothing came up.  Periodic soil disturbances were noted in the containers and eventually the realization dawned that something must be stealing the buried germinated acorns.  Emptying several buckets no germinated acorns were found.  The best guess is that by keeping the buckets on the ground rodents and birds were digging up the acorns for food.  So, more germinated acorns were planted and this time the buckets were raised off the ground, see below.  After another couple of months of daily watering small sprouts began to appear.  Over a dozen oaks have sprouted so far and once established these will be transplanted to individual containers and then replanted for use as a wind break at the Rustic Cabin.

While a slow process, the results of these gardening experiments are proving fruitful and will provide the estate with locally grown plant resources.  The next species will be the Afghan Pines found on the estate.  A number of pines were lost as a result of irrigation problems in combination with the big freeze 2 years ago and require replacement. 

A Christmas cactus, Agave, and Spineless Prickly Pear grown for the estate

An Oak seedling sprouting

Keeping the germinated oaks above the ground reduces rodent activity

Addendum:  Five of the 20 sprouted oak seedlings now have leaves as other seedlings sprout in the makeshift raised planters.

Five seedlings have leafed out in this experiment.  Empty buckets and buckets of dirt are the controls.

The Changing Face of Computers

Years ago in college interactions with computers took place in special facility, climate controlled and populated by men in white lab coats.  Computer facilities had an air of a scared, hallowed, and special place where through the high priests of the computer facility you could submit your punch cards to run whatever program you had slaved over creating.  Now fast forward to today, computers are ubiquitous, even in the refrigerators at the Painted Pony Resort.  There is talk of the internet of things whereby all our handy appliances will be in communication with each other.  But what happens when your computer goes down and you live in a very rural environment?  This happened a couple of weeks ago when the hard drive on the desktop computer went south.  Knowing the utility of having backups, out came a little netbook which served as a functional backup for a several days.  Then suddenly it too took a nose dive,  a complete recovery of the netbook operating system was useless, it too was no longer functioning.  On to plan C, a very old and slow laptop running an early version of Windows XP.  Since guests were about to arrive and it was imperative that I have communication with the owner back east, the old laptop was the last hope.  After a night of work it was working, sort of.  It was possible to email, in a basic version of Yahoo mail, but nothing else was possible.

After letting the owner know of the communications problems he shipped an old laptop of his while I began investigating the desktop computer to get a list of parts needed for the repairs.  Having no place to work it was out to the open air garage when there was room to work on the desktop tower.  In contrast to the early college experience in the sacred halls of the computer facility, the garage is open to the elements, hot, and has a gravel floor.  So sitting on the ground with the desktop tower placed on top of some boxes and a handy leatherman tool the dis-assembly began.  Off with the covers and after several minutes with the air compressor the interior was clean.  Instead of grounding with straps and wires, I just held the metal case and stood barefooted on the gravel of the garage.  After identifying the important connections to the hard drive, out it came. 

Several days later, when the owners old laptop arrived it was online again to locate suitable replacement parts.  Of course in addition to the new hard drive a new operating system was required, so both Windows 8.1 and a new 2 TB hybrid hard drive were ordered along with cables to allow the installation of a solid state drive received as a Christmas present.  During this time guests came and went and cleaning the estate took up all the time, but eventually parts arrived via UPS and a day was taken to rebuild the desktop computer.  After installing the 2 new drives and loading a new operating system the desktop was up and running.  Loading the operating system as well as other programs on the solid state drive should decrease the amount of work the hybrid hard disk drive experiences and will hopefully lengthen its' lifespan.

Quite a change from the old days when computer access was a lab coat operation, now it is work on the computer where ever there is room, don't worry about climate control and the gravel garage floor will be suitable as workspace.  Special tools, bah, just whatever is in the tool box.

Now it is on to data recovery from the 2 old had disk drives.  Think I'll get the tractor and go out to grub some mesquite from the riverbed first.

The desktop computer back in service with a 700-900 year old Tularosa fillet rim bowl sculpture on top

Addendum:  The cables arrived that allowed the transfer of data from the old hard drive to the newly installed hard drive.  Quite a relief and it was possible to recover all the photographs that were stored on the old drive so all the aerial photographs of the boot heel as well as hiking photographs are now safely recovered and stored.  The hard drive partition with all the programs was bad but the data on other partitions was fine which is what allowed the recovery.

Portal Rodeo is a Big Place

Many visitors to the twin cities of Portal Rodeo are surprised at the scale of the area, things that look close are really much larger and miles away.  The landscape is large and snapshots rarely do it justice.  Zooming in to get a particular aspect of the view always excludes the surrounding landscape and the final image seems lacking.  To compensate multiple images are usually collected and stitched together not only to highlight a particular aspect of the landscape but capture some of the surroundings as well to provide context.  Below is a sunrise image of a short lived rainbow that appeared just at sunrise over the flanks of the Chiricahua Mountains.  To completely capture the rainbow as well as its' context, 2 snapshots were taken and stitched together to create the final image making for a much more interesting scene.

A sunrise rainbow in the Chiricahua Mountains

Winter Sunrise in the San Simon Valley

With sunrise views of Portal Peak and the Chiricahua mountains and sunset views of the Peloncillo mountains the San Simon Valley has spectacular views everyday.  Below are 2 images of the morning view of the Chiricahua mountains taken just a short time apart.  The first, a large panorama shows the view as sun was cresting the Peloncillo mountains illuminating the Chiricahuas, while the second image shows Portal Peak just a short time later with the valley in complete sunlight.  The changes in lighting and cloud cover create completely different impressions of  this sky island in southeastern Arizona as seen from the Painted Pony Resort in southwestern New Mexico.

The Chiricahua mountains at sunrise

Portal Peak a few minutes later