Ibex Hunting in New Mexico

We have a sizable population of Ibex near Rock Hound State Park.  Although we have been told that Ibex have been seen in the Little Florida Mountains where the park is located, we have not seen any.  The largest population is located in the Large Florida Mountains to the Southwest of us.

Ibex is a specie of goat given to the United States by the Shaw of Iran.  They were relocated from the Washington D.C. zoo to New Mexico with an agreement that the population be kept to a certain size.  Consequently, the Fish and Game Department has closely monitored depredation hunts.  In this post I am displaying a few photos of an Ibex that was taken by Mr. Mickey Montgomery and his friend, Mr. Joe Fuller (with their permission).

The rules for the hunt allow for the taking of a billy if the horns are 15 inches or less.  Nannies can also be taken.  The Game Wardens monitor the hunt closely.  When the hunter registers his or her success, his or her name is entered in a drawing for a trophy hunt.

The depredation hunts will continue until the required population size is reached.

A great variety of RV's come to Rock Hound State Park

Turtles take their homes wherever they go.

In this post I want to feature the great variety of RV's that come to Rock Hound State Park. Some are huge motor homes and some people show up with a tent.  We try to find a comfortable place for all them.

This first picture is our camper.  It is a 27 foot Zinger by Crossroads.  We are camp hosting, and have the best site.  It's winter so all the trees are bare.

Here is site 8 and 1/2.  Ours is site 8.  Both of these sites have full hook-up. It is one of the amenities of camp hosting.  The gentleman who occupies this works three days a week in the Visitor's Center.

We only have one site set aside as a handicap site.  It is number 9, located next to the rest rooms.  Note the concrete pad and walkway.

Site number 10 also has full hook-up.  It sits back in an equipment storage yard and is occupied by another volunteer.

This is site number 11.  It also has full hook-up, and is currently occupied by another camp host.  We each work 4 days on and 4 days off.  Sometimes we swap days so we can attend to personal matters.  It is nice to have cooperative camp hosts.

This is a better view of the fifth wheel that is in number 11.

Now rather that taking you on a tour nuumber by number in a chronological order, I am going to show you the great variety of RV's we had on this particular day.  Notice how much room there is in every site.  We have received many compliments on the amount of room each site has, plus how nice the park is, how clean the restrooms are, and how nice the showers are.

Some people come in vans of various sizes.

This van occupies a huge site.  These are first come-first serve sites so anyone can occupy the site no matter what size RV they have.

We see various sizes and models of the Class-C type motor homes.

This modest pull behind occupied site 27, which is a pull-through site, and the first site in which we camped in June.  We became friends with the gentleman who occupied it, and friends with his rescued dog, Bucky.

Bucky is a very friendly dog.  I walked up to the trailer once and knocked on the door.  I was afraid Bucky was going to "friendly" me to death.

Of all the small trailers, pop-ups, and tear-drop trailers, this is my very favorite.  I  visited with the owners at length and they told me in great detail how they built this.  It is very light-weight.  They were an older couple, and they disconnected this trailer from their car and pushed it in by hand.  The lady did the paint job.  She made it in the image of a turtle because turtles take their home every where they go.

We have seen several makes and models of this tee-pee type pop-up.  They fold down to a low profile for towing.

This is the other extreme.  A big diesel pusher that tows a jeep.

This motor home was towing a smart car.  Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the car, but we decided it definitely was a smarter way to go if you had a motor home.

This view was taken from above the group site.  The group site can accomodate four campers, and is used as an over-flow area when it is not reserved by a group.  Groups have first priority.  It is the only camping area in the park where people tend to feel crowded.

Some guest have a car and non-camping trailer, but still choose electric sites.  It occasionally gets down to freezing, so they plug in little heaters.

The following pictures are of the various types of campers in the non-electric sites.  We have 5 non-electric sites.  They are relatevely far apart, and can even accomodate larger units.

This is the best non-electric site in terms of location.  It is the highest site in the camoground.  You can see Deming, all of the campground, and everything west of here.

When the campground gets full, we start using the day use area as an over flow camping area.  We even park them along the road in front of the Visitor's Center.

One brave soul even showed up on a Harley.  We let him put his tent on the far end of the group site.

So there you have it.  Everything from motorcycles with tents to huge motor homes.  Rock Hound State Park is a favorite campground for many visitors.  Come and see us sometime.

Luna Membres Memorial Museum

Today I would like to share a few of the highlights of the Luna Membres Memorial Museum in Deming, New Mexico.  Deming is located just 15 miles from Rock Hound State Park. It is home to an execellent museum, and the price to visit is perfect (free).

The feature title of the museum is a journey in time.  The museum has on display artifacts from Native American settlers to more modern times.

These two photos represent several dipictions of arrowheads that are on display mounted on the wall.  Several shapes and sizes can be clearly seen. Many of the arrowheads were collected from the Membres Valley, located Northeast of Deming about 70 miles.

These two photos are of a display case featuring pottery and arrowheads from the same period. The only negative we found in the museum was the sparsity of information about some of the artifacts, and the lack of a guide.

I had Margaret stand next to this clock to give you the perspective of it's size.

The clock was carved and built by Louis Heinrich Frederick.  There were several Grandfather clocks in the museum, but this one was the most spectacular.

Here is another clock, and there were several china hutches with dinner settings.

Here are a couple of them.

We wandered through numerous displays of Native American artifacts and kept coming back to these. We went to the front of the museum and asked the attendants what they are.  No one seemed to know.  I was sure they could not be part of an animal's  skeleton because they are rings, and no animals that I knew of had such bones.  Finally I located someone who knew what they are.  Can you guess? They had been imported from coastal regions.  They were probably highly valued by the Indians.

This is a war club that belonged to Spotted Eagle of the Sans Arc (Itazipcho) Lakota Sioux. He carried this during the Battle of Little Big Horn.  At the time he would have been 42 years old, and considered "old man Chief."  He probably did not actively participte in the battle.

I include this display case because of the white owl that Margaret paticularly liked.  There was another one outside the display case, but the picture is out of focus.😀

These two display cases feature toys as we transition into the Spanish American part of the museum.

Here is a full size display in an enclosed room.  There were lots of items on display for this period.

One of several such displays.

This area of the museum is on the second floor.  It features medical equipment from the 50's.

This is an old iron lung.  It was used for people who had contracted polio and needed it to breathe.  There was also one on display for children.

There is a nice little business office on display.

The old time camera display was interesting.  I looked to see if they had a Brownie Star-Flash like the one I used to take pictures with, but did not see one.

I am going to conclude this post with this display of World War II memorabilia.  There were so many more items of various things, such as a spinning wheel, knitting, button hooks, nut crackers, high school sports, and the list goes on.  If you are in Deming, NM, and you like museums, don't pass this one up.