| One of the reasons for taking the loop down through Douglas to
Portal was to visit Cave Creek Canyon Recreation Area. This turned out to be some
11 miles off the road but the trip to the Canyon was well worth the effort.
The road splits and goes on for another 35 miles but it is unmade and not
suitable for the RV. |  |
 | The sun was not
shining on this side of the canyon. Many of the cliff sides had huge caverns
eroded in them. This is a very popular area for 'bird watchers as many
birds stop off here on their migration path. But this was the wrong time of
the year. |
| The sun was shining on the other side of the valley (which isn't
very wide). But still, it is December, the birds have come and gone, and so
have the rangers and the visitors. We didn't see another soul. |  |
We
did note the clearly different barks on the trees as we walked along the
canyon.
Wish we could remember more which was which.| It was also quite
cool despite the sun, so we headed back to the main highway which runs at
right angles to this road about a mile further on. It is over 50 miles to a
town in both directions! |  |
 | This is not a
scenic part of the world unless you like flat scrub-coloured desert for mile
after mile. This is much like Kansas but without any redeeming features. We
believe we will see a lot of this in the next 500 miles as we cross Texas. |
| The railway does run alongside the road and it is well used
despite only being single track. Five big diesels on the front of a lengthy
train, one of a dozen seen during the afternoon. |  |
 | Most of the
engines are well worn and quite dusty and dirty. This was an exception and
must have been fresh out of the paint shops. It really stuck out. |
| Coming down into Las Cruces we spotted this large metal sculpture
of a roadrunner looking down on the city. The roadrunner is the state bird
of New Mexico. |  |
 | The city of Las
Cruces which we passed through en route to El Paso. This is one of the
biggest centres of population in New Mexico.The state is the fifth largest
in the US and has a population of 1.87 million. |
| Greyhound buses are an American icon, but we haven't seen very
many on the roads. They seem to be about as common as Amtrak passenger
trains. This one went past us as though we were standing still. Some
'greyhound'! |  |
 | Finally we arrived
at El Paso as the sun set. The sky is brilliant blue and it is broad
daylight at 1700hrs. By 1715hrs the sun has set and it is dark. |
| This is two minutes later than the shot above. The clouds can
still see the sun even though we can't, hence the red and gold tinges to the
clouds. |  |
|