As I’ve said many times, free time is a gift. Above all else, it is the most valuable item in an outdoor person’s kit.
It is why Joan and I live where we live at the expense of a lower cost of living or higher salaries. We want easy access to outdoor recreation without using too much timebank funds traveling to and from the outdoor areas.
From where I am typing, we are minutes from the Colorado River and Arches National Park. In three hours or less, we can be in some of the most intricate canyons in the country or reach the lofty peaks of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.
We love it here and the life we’ve made here in Moab.
But, sometimes, we want to go further afield.
I save my vacation time, bank some hours, and plan trips to places more challenging to reach than a quick drive.
For our December vacation, we decided to go to Texas again.
It is a stunning place, but only 4% of this vast state has land accessible to the public for reasons my current state, and perhaps the new administration, would like to recreate.
To paraphrase a lecture I once saw from legendary NPS and Texas State Park superintendent Walt Dabney, “It’s [land is] beautiful, but you can only enjoy it from the fence line along the road.”
Although it was a different lecture from what I saw, it covered similar topics. It’s well worth watching. The 17:45 minute mark discusses Texas public land history specifically.
Of course, Big Bend National Park comes to mind. But state parks, if small, are gems of public land islands in the seas of private land.
Joan, doing her usual thorough research, found about Hueco Tanks along the way.
Known, in some circles, mainly for climbing, it contains some of the most impressive pictoglyphs in North America. It shows a strong Mesoamerica influence less present in our part of the desert.
We booked two nights of camping and, crucially, a volunteer-led guided tour that allows the only way to see some of these sensitive archeological areas.

On our guided trip. PCO Joan.
We started our trip on the mellow side and drove five hours to Grants, New Mexico. There, we enjoyed delicious New Mexico cuisine and craft beer.
Five hours after this first night, we went to El Paso and then to the park, where we found our campsite and did some initial hiking.
We saw some inscriptions from the famous Buffalo Soldiers that came through here and one of the 200+ masks famous in this park.
Though an hour from the large city of El Paso, it seemed more remote. As the park closes to all but campers at dusk, the feeling seems even more pronounced.
We enjoyed the first of what would end up as thirteen nights straight of camping and seeing the stars every night.
The following day, we met up with our guide and fellow hikers. The guides are all volunteers, and the hike costs only $5 per person. As we later learned from people in the small visitor center, our guide is a well-known climber with records and a Ph.D. in Mathematics!

The gentleman in red acted as our guide.
He came to Hueco Tanks in the late 1990s, fell in love with the place, and learned about the culture, history, and unique archeological aspects of this place he now calls home in many ways.
What a treat and an equally fantastic guide.
He pointed out the masks and images as we walked along and other sites.
For better or worse, one sight included the aoudad (barbary sheep). Like the similar sheep introduced into the La Sals for hunting, the non-native sheep decimated a fragile environment, creating a contentious issue that persists today.
We moved along and got brought to one of the famous water tanks, or huecos. A consistent water hole with the oldest Euro-American etchings –

It is probable from on the way to California.
And the Apaches –
And the Pueblo –
“Water is life,” more so in the desert.
We continued our guided hike and saw images that showed the influence of places to the south, including a fetching image of a jaguar head.
We even saw one of the few potsherds visitors were allowed to touch, which had a different pattern from what we know from our part of the desert.
Our guide brought us to one of the most famous images in the park.
The vibrant colors, design, and size have few equivalents to the images we know from the Colorado Plateau.
And some other, equally dramatic images –
We concluded our guided hike and thanked our guide.
With some time left, we went on a self-guided hike to see the other well-known images.
The handy map and free printed guide led us to the alcove, where we could see the impressive images.
The vibrant colors stood out generations later.
We saw other images, some more recent, in the nearby picnic area as well.

And a local resident.
We returned to camp, enjoyed another quiet night (including showers that come with Texas State Parks camping), woke up, and continued to Big Bend National Park.