Driving day. We drove over a 5700′ pass to Alamagordo, NM, home to Holloman Air Base, White Sands National Monument and Oliver Lee State Park. We set up in the park which is about 12 miles south of town.
Very few places in the world exist where you can see more than you can from one of the park’s camping spots. Plainly visible are Hwy 70 running SW back to Las Cruces, White Sands Nat’l Monument, a mountain range clearly visible some 60 miles away and spectacular cliffs at your back. The sunset was truly spectacular when lighting the bottoms of cloud banks 50 miles away. Definitely worth the $14 a night camping fee.

Drove into Deming over the same mud road to the 7 mile long other road that takes you to the road that will ultimately put you in town. At first and second and maybe subsequent glance, Deming is quite unremarkable but they do have a really neat Luna County Museum in the old Armory. The museum collection includes a horse-drawn hearse that is in superb condition and quite beautiful despite the somber purpose. Too bad we weren’t here yesterday so we could have missed the rain although the weather is nice today: maybe 55 degrees and a few wispy clouds.
Spent a part of the PM putting in the Barbarian Invader’s other gooseneck weather strip but found an improved method involving a screwdriver.

Drove to Deming NM in rain. The last 1/2 mile into El Rancho Lobo campground is normally dirt with some gravel but when we got there is was mud with little ruts and snowing big flakes. Trailer setup was quite brisk and very gooey. The park host (Charlie) spotted us into our site in such a way that all exterior cargo hatches, the Barbarian Invader entry door, the hitch area and both side doors of Charlotte were located directly over large areas with scant gravel but abundant glutinous mud that formed a strong bond to our Vibram soles.
Cold (freezing some) at night in this part of the world in mid-January. Elevation is still about 4500′.

We (Jed) decided we should go to Sierra Vista’s Environmental Operations Park to see what he believed would be abundant wildlife. The facility is a series of basins where treated sewage water is impounded to drain back into the aquifer, which sounded like a sound policy. Don’t know about the policy but the wildlife was a bust. We saw less than three birds but we believe we heard some others. It would be a good bird viewing area for the blind but we were underwhelmed.

From the EOP we drove over to the canyons running out of the Huachuca Mountains to give them a sniff. We went up a canyon called Miller and ran out of decent road at a place called Beatty’s Guest Ranch. It really isn’t a ranch but it is an amazing bird-watching area.

The ranch is actually a house that the woman owns and she rents out one room and serves breakfast to occasional tenants making her place a B&B. If you arrive at the right time, you can get a parking place and donate $5 a head to the plastic jar on the gate, walk about 35 feet and take a chair on her veranda/broken flagstone or cozy up in the sunshine on a garden terrace. The lady (Mary Ann?) that runs the joint is an avid bird-watcher and camps on the porch to describe what you are seeing. She is quite savvy on the species which is good because there are about 100 types of birds that visit her tiny back yard. Perhaps it is because she has a bunch of feeders and sticks halved fruit in the trees for all to enjoy and they birds know the stuff is here. The place seems to be just about halfway between the lowlands and the highlands so she gets most of the birds from both places. Saw a Pyrraloxia (sp?) which seems to be a cardinal except it is beige with separate red chunks of crown on his noggin. Never seen one before. Even non-birders should try this place out.

Still cold at night. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since we are about at 4500′ elevation.