Huecho Tanks

Huecho Tanks

Sunday 16th April

Three hundred and fifty miles of driving took us from Big Bend National Park to Huecho Tanks State Park.  This park is located about 20 miles east of El Paso.  It was a fast journey and, much to our surprise, we changed time zones again. Thus, we arrived shortly after noon.  

The area around El Paso is pretty arid, some might say desert. What makes Huecho Tanks a special place is that the rounded rock features collect and hold water.  This makes it a sort of oasis in the desert.  Peoples have been drawn to these rock formations for centuries.  In fact there is a lot of rock art from different periods present on the walls.  Only a portion of the area is open-access to visitors, and other areas are accessed with a guide only. This is no doubt to protect the “cave paintings” and other archeological artifacts. 

The campground is on the edge of the restricted area and is quite lovely. The sites are well spaced and each has a structure that provides shade over the picnic table.  Additionally, there are tent pads— leveled areas of gravel.  Our site had two of these, but only one was large enough for Big Agnes!  We did have a bit of a struggle setting up the tent as the wind was quite strong.  Mike was smart enough to figure out how to provide additional guy lines using rope that he had brought along.  After getting our camp mostly set up, we went for a walk.

The docent who had given us our compulsory “introduction to the park” had told us that only one area still had water.  This became our destination, figuring that birds in the desert would be drawn to water.  We sat for quite some time watching the sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers near this “pool”.  The magnetic power of the water was vividly demonstrated the following morning when we saw a male wood duck on this small pond.  These birds are extremely wary and notoriously difficult to see.  There he was in all his splendor!

While walking, I had noticed many piles of tiny pellets as well as some substantially larger droppings.  All was revealed as sunset approached.  The campground was hopping with rabbits.  I speculated to Mike that an infusion of hawks and owls was needed to reduce the population somewhat.  Later, when we walked to the toilet block, a pair of campers directed our attention to the ridge line that was back-lighted by the sunset sky.  There we could see the outline of a pair of curved horns.  It was a big horned sheep that was climbing up the rock slope.  At that point we felt confident  we knew the origin of the large pellets. (Only a person very concerned with their footing would be seeing all these droppings on the path!). However, on our walk the following morning we ran into a bunch of Javalinas (collared peccary) that appeared to be busy eating some ornamental shrub! Thankfully we were moving on, so we could set aside the the challenge of accounting for the poops. There has to be something more compelling to worry about!

Gloria

As well as being an important cultural and archaeological site, Hueco Tanks is also known for its rock climbing. In 1987 we briefly visited the park and I tried to do a little climbing. As I recall I failed to lead a bolted 5.11a (the story of my life!). But we get to meet and chat to the late Wolfgang Gullich , who at that time was arguably the best climber in the world, and also his partner Kurt Albert. Efforts to preserve the pictographs and honor the cultural significance of the site have limited the climbing development. It remains one of the premier bouldering locations in the world, but to my eye many of the lines look to be “high-ball”, succeed or die routes, although we did hear that climbers are starting to use nets along with crash-pads to limit the consequences of a ground fall. The routes that were bolted have been maintained. I initially thought all the bolts had been chopped, but on talking to a local climber they have simply been replaced with new bolts that are colored to blend in with the rock. I have to say I couldn’t see a single bolt and I was looking hard. They have done a great job of making these routes unobtrusive. My understanding is that no new bolts will be placed and therefore no new roped routes are being created.

Mike

The tiny little pond (maybe 25 feet across) that draws in birds from afar.

The flowering plants in the desert have been spectacular. 

Javalina (collared peccary). It looks like he/she only has three legs but I think I just caught it mid-stride before it ran off

This looked like a fun and relatively benign boulder problem - perhaps 12 feet high

This wall, unrelentingly steep, is probably 80 feet tall and iIm certain features some of the harder lead-routes, but I could not see the bolts.