Quarai Ruins

We do not just sit in the parks when we visit the various state parks. The lady who was working at Manzano State Park was gracious enough to ask if we had seen the Quarai Ruins.  We got directions and went to visit it.  On our first visit we got rained out.  The second visit was more successful.

This is a good overview of the ruins.  To get to the ruins from I-25 traveling North from Las Cruces, one would travel East on highway 60 to Mountainair, then North on highway 55.  When you reach Punta de Aqua there are signs that direct you to the ruins.

I asked our friendly helper at the park about the name.  The name of the town is Spanish for "point of water."  She told us that before the Spanish settlers came in and over grazed the area there was in fact a lot of water.  Over grazing destroyed the water shed and the area became quite arid.

Here is a close up view of the remaining structures that made up the headquarters for the settlement of the Spanish settlers and priests.

Here is a view of some sort of ceremonial place or work place.  The structure was built with an entry way.

Here is a view of the inside of the remains.  They are quite massive.

I captured this view of a tourist walking through the ruins (my beautiful wife).

These are the remains of the baptismal font.  The natives were forced to accept the religion of the Spanish settlers, and forced into what amounted to slave labor.

The historic site provides a beautiful picnic grounds with ample shade, a precious commodity in New Mexico.

There are well kept hiking trails.  Not shown here are the warning signs about the presence of rattle snakes, but there is the reminder to stay on the trail.

Buffalo gourd is found throughout the arid southwest.  We found these plants abundantly here, and had also saw them at Percha Dam State Park.  It's scientific name is Cucurbita foetidissama.

The plant has a fetid odor and bitter gourds.  According to the literature, Native Americans used the gourds for 9000 years.  It's uses included food, medicine, cosmetics, detergent, insecticide, and as ceremonial rattles.

When I inquired of fellow campers and campground hosts, I was given a variety of answers as to what it was called and whether or not it was edible.  One person emphatically told us it was poisonous.

Here is a large infestation of tent caterpillars we spotted along the hiking trails.  When I was in graduate school, we had a visiting Canadian research scientist who was studying these.  He discovered there was a very strong correlation of population density to weather cycles.

The Quarai Ruins Historic Site is also a good place for bird watching, although I did not get any good photographs of birds on my visits there.

Manzano Lake

With the help of the workers at the Manzano State Park we discovered there was actually a lake in Manzano.

This is the approach to Manzano Lake.  The lake is in the town of Manzano but you will miss it if you are just driving through.  As you go into Manzano from the south yow will see a large church.  The road to the lake is on the left just past the church.

It is a beautiful little lake.  I could paddle my kayak across it in a few strokes.

If you look closely, you can see people fishing along the bank of the lake. They were catching trout that had been planted.  It is always refreshing to find a lake in the desert.

More treasures at Manzano State Park

We were fortunate to spend more time at Manzano State Park and explore the hiking trails.

As you look west, you see the Manzano mountain range.  It is forested with Ponderosa Pines, several species of juniper, and Pinion Pines.

Here is the view looking east.

This huge Alligator Juniper is located along one of the hiking trails.

Many beautiful flowers can be viewed during the month of May. I thought they might be part of the sun flower family, but a search of a sight displaying the flowers of New Mexico did not confirm this. Any suggestions?  I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Here is a fascinating plant.  It has several common names, including American cancer-root, squaw root, and bear root. Its scientific name is Conopholis americana.  It is a perennial non-photosynthesizing parasitic plant.

This is a leichen growing on a slab of granite.

It is not all flowers and trees along the trail.  As a former entomologist, I couldn't resist taking a picture of this very busy ant nest.

This may be a seedling of a juniper.  Pretty little thing, isn't it?

Two views of this lizard that posed for us show that it has a blue collar beneath its chin.  I think it may be a fence lizard but I can't verify its identity.  If someone out there can do so, we appreciate it.

Our Trip to Manzano State Park

Manzano State Park is located about an hour and a half south east of Albuquerque.  We first visited it during the summer of 2015 when I was taking my course at the Hypnotherapy Academy of America.  We liked it so much we put it high on our list of campsites.  We camped there during June of 2016.

It is blessed with great hiking trails, many birds and fauna.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the bird feeders near our trailer.  It shows two humming birds feeding at once.  Originally I misidentified them as Rufus, but was corrected by Margaret's niece and nephew.  I believe they are broad tails.  It is unusual to see two feeding at once because they are pretty aggressive, but probably not as much so as Rufus.

Margaret was enjoying relaxing in the shade, a precious item at New Mexico State Parks.  Our campsite was located close to a humming bird feeder and a seed feeder, so we were able to enjoy bird watching and photography every day.

Here is one of the broad tail humming birds at the feeder.

This is a nuthatch at the feeder.

The Black Chinned humming bird is quite pretty, but fast and hard to photograph.  Patience and persistence pays off.

I believe this is a Western Tanager.  The Tanagers only came in about 10 am each day and stayed for a few minutes.

This Stellar Jay came by from time to time, but I never saw him at the feeder.

These three pictures show the Albert's squirrel running towards me, feeding on the ground, and feeding on the bird feeder.  Although it is called the Albert's squirrel (a common name), a more common name given to it by the campers is the skunk squirrel because when it is running away from you, with it's stripped tail raised, it looks like a skunk.  It is often mistaken for one, and while camping there we heard several people call out a warning of "skunk!"  We never actually saw a skunk at the park.

Notice in the last picture the white stripe on the squirrel's tail.

We saw a lot of Fly Catcher activity around the feeder and the park office and rest rooms.

Here is the reason there was so much activity by the fly catchers There nest was right above the entrance to the ranger's office.

This a Black Headed Grosbeak.  We saw both the mail and the female of this species.

On my next post I will show some of the plants and animals we saw during our visit to Manzano.