Hueco Tanks

Last week was really productive at work, what made it possible to take the day off today and visit Hueco Tanks State Historic Site 32 miles North East of El Paso.
The park was established in 1969 to preserve the archeological sites, both pre-historic and historic as well as the unique natural resources of the oasis.
Since the mid 90’s Hueco Tanks has also become a prime bouldering/climbing destination, which is how I learned about the place.
On this trip my only goal was to scope out the area, because I didn’t have any climbing gear on me. I was also pretty slow getting ready this morning, which made me miss the Rock Art tour, offered by the Park Service.
Stopping at the park entrance to get a permit I felt as if I were in Camp 4 in Yosemite Valley: Tons of climbers, either surfing the web on the wifi, or preparing for the day.

Since the park’s popularity increased dramatically during the last few years access is restricted to 200 people at a time. Also, only the North Mountain area is accessible for self guided hiking or climbing.
I was lucky to get a permit without prior reservation!
After a 15-minute visitor orientation I started a Self guided walk in the Northern part of the preserve. Leaving from the Interpretive Center I took the Eastern path around North Mountain. The trail leads to some pictographs, most of which are unfortunately buried beyond graffiti,,, But who thought that graffiti was a modern phenomenon is wrong: Some of the inscriptions were dated 1884, and even earlier... I guess the white settlers wanted to show their „superiority“. So sad!
A climbers trail leads to the summit of North Mountain at 4800ft. The rock reminded me of Joshua Tree, but it has more pockets and is less slabby.
Folowing the trail further to the end I came across a group of climbers working on „the hardest V1 on the planet“. The problem looked quite nice! Too bad I didn’t have my gear with me... I’ll have to get back for this one. Just around the corner was a perfect finger crack, which would be worth a shot too!

Too soon I reached the entrance to the East Mountain area, and had to retrace my steps beck to the Interprative Center. From here I started around the North side of the mountain to the Western side. Again: here are plenty of nice lines waiting to be climbed! I even tried one problem in my sneakers and got a good start... It would be super nice to spend more time here! Walking along the trail I heard some noises in the brush to my right. On further investigation I saw two, what I would call wild boars, but what apparently is locally known as Javalinas, munching on the cacti... They were perhaps six feet away! Amazing!

Even only a couple of hours made it clear: Hueco Tanks is definitely worth going back to!

What was slightly disturbing though was seeing a Pittbull (or something similar, I am not an expert on fighting dogs) chewing up some roadkill on the street to the park. A pretty gross sight! What was even more disturbing was that it apparently dragged ist prey across the street, because it lay on the opposite site of the road when I went back... Crazy! The deer was a few times bigger than the dog!

Off to Phoenix now...