Springs Canyon Park, NM~Letterboxing

On the way through New Mexico, we stopped off in Deming and drove south past Rock Hound State Park (a great place where they let folks dig up and take home unique rocks and stones for free!) to a breathtaking area up in the canyon called Springs Canyon State Recreation area. We had planned to search for another letterbox hidden on a hiking trail up in the canyon.
The stamp and box were called "Ibex", because apparently in the 1970's Iran donated many Ibex hoofstock, and our country let them loose in these mountains and canyons, where the Ibox have been seen to be thriving.

This road up into the canyon was quite striking! It went straight up and over, and then steeply down into the park. (It was even more fun coming back out of the park and letting the brake off the van and coasting down freely like a roller coaster! We all yelled "Wheeeeeeeeee!!"


Jenna posing pretty on some boulders on the trail.

Jeremiah and Jackson climbing a very large boulder on the canyon trail.

Views looking out of the canyon and down the trail and into the valley below.
John is in the foreground hiking down the rocky trail. (Click on the photo for a better view)
As we were driving away from the park, we noticed several long horn cattle grazing beside the road, with no fences separating them from us. This is an Open Grazing area, which mean, drive carefully and watch out for road-crossing cattle. This big guy seemed slightly interested in why I'd want to take a picture of him, but he grew bored with me pretty quickly, and wandered off. (Click on the pic for a close-up view)