Lengthy but don't hit delete yet. While I was in the army at Red Canyon Range Camp near Carrizozo, NM for NIKE missile training in the Spring of 1956, I crawled into a couple of black lava caves and was rewarded with the view of a beautifully colored what I believed to be a good sized salamander. It was definitely NOT a beaded lizard. I assume there are no Gila Monsters in NM but might their be other poisonous lizards I'm central NM? What about it, Crash? The major east west highway between the range camp and Carrizozo to the east had the Malpais on the north side of the highway which came right up to the highway. Although in the army, it was a very good time in my young (21) life. While stationed here and in El Paso in early 1956, I had some great NM adventures. Besides touring Carlsbad Caverns for the second time (the first was in 1947 on a kid's YMCA bus tour), I went into The Crater Of Aden and fairly deep into Ft. Stanton Cave which was totally unrestricted at that time. In and near El Paso, I climbed over a good portion of The Franklin Mountains and all over the marvelous shelter caves and cliffs at Hueco Tanks which was also totally unrestricted. My greatest adventure during this part of my army stint was a very early 1956 two day trip into Mayfield Cave (Caverns of Sonora) with friend Jimmy Walker, Bob Hudson and Bob's brother in law, Ralph. We crossed the dreaded "Ledge" and went deep into the cave to view unbelievably beautiful formations. Jimmy and I saw no evidence of human intrusion in the far reaches of the cave visited. Some of my prized memories and possessions are the great photographs taken in the cave by Jimmy Walker. I haven't seen it but friend Lyndon Tiu was at The Caverns Of Sonora saw Jimmy's picture of me looking up at a long soda straw. It hangs in the cave's office. I have canoed the Rio Grande from the bridge at Presidio to the one at Del Rio. All the canyons were an unforgettable adventure. Lifelong friend, Bill Breedlove, now of Wimberley, and I made this river journey in 1965, 66 and 67, before Amistad Dam was completed. On the final leg of the 1967 trip between the Devil's and Pecos Rivers , south of Comstock, we "Discovered" Goodenough Spring where it flowed into the Rio Grande. The spring was the most desolate but also the most beautiful spot in Texas, in my opinion although Capote Falls ranked a close second. Some highlights of these river trips were climbing up into the shelter caves in Fern Canyon, climbing into Outlaw Cave, both on the Mexican side of Santa Elena Canyon and possibly best of all, climbing into the large US shelter caves just up-river from The Pecos River. We viewed all the magnificent early American's wall paintings and saw the large stones with concave depressions where grain was ground. I wish I could relive it all again and not just in my memories. I just spoke with Breedlove and we are starting a "Bucket List" which will include some of the above items while we are still upright. Obviously, I don't bother with paragraphs and could use some help with punctuation and occasionally spelling. Fritz F. Holt fritz...@gmail.com
Sent from my iPhone Sent from my iPhone Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 2, 2014, at 7:08 AM, via Texascavers <texascavers@texascavers.com> > wrote: > > Received this from the SWR remailer. > > Some very cool NM lava tube caves that I have always wanted to visit. > > Hmmm, a future trip? > > > Mark > texascav...@yahoo.com > > > > > > > > From: SWR [mailto:swr-boun...@caver.net] On Behalf Of Steve Peerman > Sent: Friday, August 29, 2014 10:08 AM > To: Mailing List for SWR > Subject: [SWR] Caves of the El Malpais > > All, > My son sent me this reference to a New York Times article on El > Malpais: > > http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/travel/into-a-lava-lined-underworld-near-albuquerque.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0 > > Steve Peerman > > "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things > you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away > from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. > Discover." > attributed to Mark Twain, but no record exists of his having written this. > > _______________________________________________ > SWR mailing list > s...@caver.net > http://lists.caver.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/swr > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided free as a courtesy of CAVERNET > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com > Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
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