Two State Parks in One Day

One thing ya gotta give El Paso is the number of nearby state parks.  I only visited two today, but remember that I drive through another when I drove along the Transmountain Drive on Monday.

I had been interested in checking out the Wyler Aerial Tramway since discovering it existed earlier this week.  However, it's only open Friday through Sunday so I had to wait until today and I had to wait until noon (which is when it opens on Fridays).  So, what to do...

Go to Hueco Tanks and take a hike!  The Tanks are large depressions in the rocks of three small mountains where rainwater collected in the middle of the desert. Also, there are pictographs and petroglyphs and a rich history associated to this site.  It's considered to be very sacred to indigenous peoples and you know how I love to visit religious sites.  This was right up my alley.

Because of how special this site is, you have to watch a video before you can explore the area.  Only about half of the park is open to self-guided tours and they're very clear about making sure you know to stay to the marked paths.  I hiked to try to find five different pictograph sites and only managed to find two.  It was still a beautiful site and I got a workout.

There are some ruins there that I believe are an old stage coach stop.  The Butterfield Stage used to stop at the tanks for watering.

 These are all from the same area.  Some are hard to make out...there is a green horse and some geometric designs, but others are kind of obscured or worn out.  Unfortunately, there has been a lot of graffiti over the years and you can see where some of it has been cleared in the last photo there.

I then went on another trail that was supposed to yield more pictographs, which I could not find.  However it was lovely...

And I found one of the larger tanks still filled with water.  

Proof I was there :)

I then circled around to the other side of the park where two large herds of school children were roaming.  I did pretty well at avoiding them as it was easy to hear them coming.  I also found another set of rock paintings that were not nearly so ancient

Unfortunately, a lot of this was is obscured by graffiti.  It's thought that this painting is from the 19th century.  There is a story and, luckily, someone made a painting of the original mural that the State Park Service put on a nearby sign.

It must have been quite the sight back in the day. 

I searched around for more paintings, but only fell on my butt a few times and got stuck by a cactus once.  It was still a gorgeous day for a hike and I got a few scenic photos...

This not the cactus that got me...but I thought it was cool. 

I then hit the road for the tram.  it was about a 40 minute ride as it's a park within a park...and Franklin Mountain State Park is actually within the city limits of El Paso and the tram is within Franklin Mountain State Park...

Anyway, I got lucky and it was fairly deserted.  Got my ticket and got on the tram.  Went up the mountain...where it was COLD.  

This is the counterweight at the bottom

Top of the mountain looking across El Paso to Mexico.  The red X status kind of at the center right is in Juarez.  You can see the Rio Grand bisecting the landscape.  It's actually easiest to see to the left as a squiggly line with a clear bit of land on either side.

Looking toward home...east to Texas.

Looking across the mountains and west to New Mexico.

It was crazy windy up there...

This is where the cables are bolted into the top of the mountain. 

This is one of the cars heading down the mountain. 

There are actually two trams here they both are...one heading down, the other heading up.

I was pretty beat by the time I got back to the apartment.  Lots of time in the sun again today, I've been getting ready to leave tomorrow morning.  Another interesting vacation exploring National (and State) Parks.