Caballo Lake State Park, New Mexico
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| A fisherman coming into dock after a day of fishing on Caballo Lake. |
After a day in El Paso, TX and
a night in Las Cruces, NM we head north to our next camping spot. We’re spending a week at Caballo Lake State Park
between Hatch and Truth or Consequences - both towns with interesting histories.
It’s a quick and easy drive off I-25 and only takes a few minutes to
reach the park entrance. We’ll relax and
do a day trip or two from this location.
Since I’m so slow getting this posted, I’ll do more photo recap than
chit chat – if that’s possible for me to accomplish.
April
12, 2014: A javelina, historic towns, a rattlesnake, and to top it all off – a
fireball in the night sky. This has been
one busy day.
Out for a walk
after our morning coffee, we cross paths with a javelina. I snap a picture, but we have trouble tracking
him down amongst the creosote bushes.
He’s a wily little critter. In
the heat of the moment of looking for the javelina, I give absolutely no
consideration to the fact that there could be rattlesnakes underfoot. Geez – THINK about it, Paula! Dumb, dumb, dumb!
The
historic town of Hillsboro.
After our javelina
encounter, we head out for a day trip to a couple of historic towns in the area.
Hillsboro: Founded in 1877 with the
discovery of gold, the ruins of the old courthouse and jail remain.
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| Ruins of the courthouse on the hill above Hillsboro. |
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| The old jail sits adjacent to the court house. |
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| Looking through a jailhouse window with the courthouse and mountains beyond. |
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| Would you like to choose Jailhouse Door #1? |
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| How about Jailhouse Door #2? |
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| Or maybe Jailhouse Door #3? |
The
historic town of Kingston.
One of the wildest mining
camps, Kingston was founded in 1882 with a rich silver strike. Mark Twain, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid all visited this town. The Percha Bank still stands on the main street.
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| Percha Bank building now used as a museum. |
A unique fence created
with doors of all shapes and sizes. The
second door from the right is the actual physical entrance to the space
behind the fence. I just love creative
ideas like this.
Jack
spots a rattlesnake in the road at the campground below the dam at Caballo
Lake.
On our way back to the
Moose we drive through another campground in the park. Jack spies a diamondback rattlesnake on the road.
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| I take this picture from inside the Jeep. |
Twenty minutes later we
drive out of the campground. Someone has run
over the snake. Probably for the best so it
doesn’t have a chance to injure people or pets.
A
lovely sunset in the western sky.
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| Caballo Lake lies to the east with this pretty sunset to our west. What a nice evening. |
And
finally – the fireball in the night sky.
Tucked in our little home
for the evening, I’m working on my blog and Jack is on the sofa reading. He glances up from his book and looks out the
window to witness a huge fireball streak across the sky.
Excitedly he says, “Did you
see that? Did you see that fireball?”
I’m consumed with my
blog and see nothing. “No Jack. I didn’t see anything.”
“It was a white-hot fireball
with an orange and blue tail. It streaked
across from the western sky eastward over the Caballo Mountains,” he exclaims.
“Orange and blue tail? Maybe someone is setting off fireworks,” I
tell him.
Defending his position he
says, “No! It was too high and too fast
for fireworks. But it wasn’t like any
meteor I’ve ever seen. It had an orange
and blue tail.”
Witnesses
– we need witnesses!
I continue to come up with somewhat reasonable options
of what this strange sighting could be.
Jack’s not buying it. What we need
are more witnesses. It is pitch black
outside, but we climb out of the Moose and start walking through the campground
in search of more “seers”.
As we approach the end of our
camp loop we hear music and voices. I
approach a group of ten or so people sitting around a campfire. I introduce myself and Jack to the folks, and
ask if anyone saw the fireball. Everyone
becomes excited and they all start talking at once. Indeed, they all saw the fireball streak
through the sky. And also an explosion
of light and sonic boom as it passed behind the mountains to the east.
We’re invited to join them. We spend an hour or so enjoying the company of group of family and friends from El Paso.
The unexpected events of the evening bring us into a new circle of wonderful
people we otherwise would not have had a chance to meet.
Proof? You need proof? Me too – and here it is.
Excerpt from the online Las Cruces Sun News 4/13/14
… The flash of light was actually a meteoroid falling
through Earth's atmosphere, Murphy said.
"Some object that had been minding its own business
orbiting around the sun, happened to encounter the Earth's atmosphere," he
said.
The friction created as the object passed through the
atmosphere led to the initial stream of light, he said.
Then, the object, likely the size of a softball or
basketball, appeared to explode in the atmosphere, Murphy said.
There were no reports of debris hitting the earth, he said. …
Some pretty
flowers in bloom in the campground. Maybe a variety of phlox.
Until next time – be safe.
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