Neal, Sarah (the dog), and I left Van Horn about 8:00 AM CDT for the final leg of the Atlanta to Phoenix journey. In the 11 miles between Van Horn and the Allamoore exit (Exit 129), we passed into the Mountain Time Zone and some interesting geology in the roadcuts and in the mountains on both sides of I-10.
Once we passed by the Carrizo Mountains on our left and came out into Eagle Flat (foreground in photo below), there was an obligatory photo stop at the Allamoore Exit (Exit 129), to pay homage to the Eagle Mountains.
Once we passed by the Carrizo Mountains on our left and came out into Eagle Flat (foreground in photo below), there was an obligatory photo stop at the Allamoore Exit (Exit 129), to pay homage to the Eagle Mountains.
In 1978, I spent 10 weeks in the mountains with three other UTEP Geology grad students with the intention of doing my Master's Thesis on the volcanic rocks of the SE portion of the mountains (left portion of this view). Due to some "life events" (the bad ending to my first serious attempt at love and some other things), I didn't get this project done. [I did another area NW of El Paso, in the Aden Basalts for my Master's Thesis a few years later.]
Eagle Mountains
Figure 1.
Despite not finishing the project, those 10 weeks in the Eagle Mountains left indelible memories of my desert and mountain adventures.
Among those memories were having to change a tire in 105-degree heat, grinding around most of the roads at 10 mph (in 1st gear) in 4 wheel drive, breaking both engine mounts and the transmission mount (the roads were that tough!), getting stuck in rutted roads with loose rocks, with only my field partner Dan to help me dig out, falling backward onto a clump of cactus, having a mountain lion come through the camp at night, seeing the herd of elk that had been released into the mountains, having to pitch our tents on 4 inches of dried cow poop (because there was no soil at that particular cattle tank), and getting hit with the same thunderstorm twice. These are "the events memories are made of" (in addition to the geology). The Eagle Mountains consist of two overlapped Oligocene calderas, as determined by a Doctoral student that worked there a few years later.
While next to the road that led back to the Eagle Mountains (now called Guest Ranch Road), I did some wildflower photography, and this unfamiliar flower caught my eye.
African Rue blossoms
Figure 2.
It took a couple of years of sporadic internet searches before I determined it was African Rue, an Invasive Species brought to the Southwestern U.S. in the 1930s, for agricultural purposes. During my fieldwork in the Eagle Mountains, cacti were about the only plants that I took a photographic interest in.
These Desert Coneflowers also caught my eye during this quick stop.
Desert Coneflowers
Figure 3.
Once back on I-10 West and through the town of Sierra Blanca, TX, a few miles further, just to the north of the Quitman Mts. (and north of I-10) is Sierra Blanca Peak, a good example of a "Laccolith" intrusion.
Sierra Blanca Peak
Figure 4.
(There are two smaller peaks to the left (west) of Sierra Blanca Peak.) On the near right are Spheroidally-Weathered intrusives associated with the Northern Quitman Mountains.
More to come...
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