Exploring Hueco Tanks State Park

When I made reservations to come to Hueco Tanks State Park, I noticed there was a photography tour that Saturday night.  I went ahead and reserved two spots for that and we were sure glad I had.  When we arrived here Friday, we found out the tour was full, all 25 slots.

The tour began at 4 at the same place we started our tour in the morning.  However, this time we were going to the West Mountain.

We had two guides, Jane, the park ranger and John, who has been the park host here for the last 4 years.  He is 82 years old and has been fulltiming 15 years.  Jane circled us all up to give us directions.

We began the 3 mile hike around the West Mountain making stops to observe pictographs, animals, and  scenery.

Just before we went up to the cave, we saw a small herd of Barbary sheep.

This pictograph was inside a little cave.  It is beginning to chip and only 5 people are allowed in here at a time to cut down on vibration.  With 25 of us, it took a little while for all of us to see.

This little group of flowers was inside the cave as well, blooming all by themselves.

We continued on our hike passing the oldest tree inside the park.

and more rock formations.

We came to another little cave with pictographs that were so small, only 5 people could fit in here at a time.  You had to crawl through the tree to get inside.  I sat on the rock right below the picture and had to lie down to get the picture. :)

As we continued on, this horned lizard posed for all of us long enough to get the picture.  Talk about camouflaged, it took me awhile for me to find him even with Jim pointing it out.

We made one more climb

to see this mask pictograph.

It was sunset, so we finished our hike watching the sky changing colors.

It was a wonderful day of seeing history!