Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Hello there, and thanks so much for joining us here! You are probably wondering what this podcast is all about? In this podcast, we will talk about all sorts of outdoor adventures, but primarily, for now, we will focus on hiking and backpacking. No other outdoor adventure is so accessible to so many people! So please join us as we talk about how to hike/backpack and learn how to hike any length trail from your local neighborhood parks to those long trails such as the Appalachian and others worldwide! Remember... "in every walk with nature; one receives far more than he seeks... - John Muir " See you on the trail!
Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Unveiling the Mysteries of City of Rocks State Park
What if you could wander through a surreal landscape shaped by ancient volcanic forces? Join us as we take you through the awe-inspiring City of Rocks State Park in southwestern New Mexico. Our adventure kicks off near Silver City and Faywood, where we reveal the park’s mesmerizing geological wonders. Picture yourself navigating seven and a half miles of trails lined with towering igneous rocks and tuff formations, each more impressive than the last. We'll also share the perks of the New Mexico State Pass to make your visit seamless and hassle-free.
As we venture further, discover the park’s botanical garden, home to resilient desert plants such as mesquite trees, yucca, ocotillo, and various agave species. Whether you’re a veteran hiker or just looking for a tranquil escape, our sneak peek into the diverse trails will captivate your sense of adventure. Don’t miss our quick detour to a hidden geocache and an overlook point offering a panoramic view of the City of Rocks. Leave your comments and questions as we wrap up with a look at the park's iconic rock formations and geological marvels. Let the beauty and history of City of Rocks State Park ignite your wanderlust!
Hey, good morning, craig. Natural Medic. I am in City of Rocks State Park close to Silver City, faywood, new Mexico. Here in the southwestern portion of the park, look at all these big rocks. So cool, so cool and, if memory serves me correctly, these rocks were formed from volcanic activity igneous rocks and they just I guess it was just like pushed up through the earth and eroded. So let's go check it out. Yeah, so I'm walking through here and there's just pathways and pathways everywhere through the rocks. It's cool. Today, I can imagine this gets pretty hot out here to an extent. If you look over there, you can see all kinds of rocks and just super cool stuff. Anyway, in a moment I'll give you some information about how this place came to be. Stay tuned. This really is an amazing place and I'm happy that I could come and see it for a minute. This really is an amazing place and I'm happy that I could come and see it for a minute. I got my annual New Mexico State Pass. If you're a New Mexico resident or going to visit New Mexico to go to some state parks, I highly recommend it. It's a $40 pass for a year from date of purchase and it gets you into the parks for free. That's my little spiel about that.
Speaker 1:Let's take a look at these rocks over here. This particular set of rocks has what we call huecos in there, which is not Hueco Texas, it's Hueco with an H. It's a Spanish word. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but I think it means hole, and so these little holes were worn out by wind and water over time. There's a big one, I thought over here, just in the ground. There's a big one, I thought over here, just in the ground. That's cool. And some more of the rocks there.
Speaker 1:I wish I had more time to spend here. A lot of this stuff is considered what they call tough, which is a rock kind of conglomerate that's made out of ash. That's what a lot of this is. It's not granite, but it has the appearance of granite. What a beautiful place. I'll have to come back when I can spend more time here. But lots of hiking trails. They have seven and a half miles of hiking trails All in this beautiful little rock here. Come check it out. Yeah, so you've got many different types of rocks, well, types of formations out here. You've got ones that look like a tower. You've got more boulder, I mean you've got all kinds of stuff. It's a really neat, interesting place. I definitely want to come back and spend some more time here. I've got one more little geocache. I've got an earth cache back there which is a little bit different, and I'm going to grab another cache and get out of here and get back on the road head up to Utah. So I'll see you at the next stop, all right? So I'm getting back to the truck.
Speaker 1:I'm over here by the botanical garden which is right here in front of my truck some beautiful purple flowers down here. Let me snap a couple pics of those. I think it might be like a daisy or something, I'm not really sure, but anyway, just gonna walk through the little botanical garden real quick. So it says there's a lot of different things going on Very extreme, very hot during the summer, but there's much animal life and plant life that's adapted to the desert. That's why you have a botanical garden here and it's just like a little pathway. It's in a common reality. I believe the city of rocks park I'm sorry, not city of rocks, the, not city of rocks, the rock hound park had some of these. So you have mesquite trees out here. I definitely recognize those. You have some yucca plants. Everything appears to be labeled pretty good, and they've got some kind of a irrigation system out here.
Speaker 1:Let's see, we have over here some toriyaka. We have stall Seems to have more of a serrated edge on its leaf. Margin Okotillo, okotillo. Margin, okotilo Okotillo. Okay, it's like a little spiky looking stick thing and it has little flowers that grow at the top. Reminds me of sumac, but the spiny version. Over here we've got some other stuff. We we've got more trails this way. I'm not going to go that way, I'm just going to make a little circle real quick, show you some more of these desert plants.
Speaker 1:So right over here you have lechugilla, which is like an agave which they make tequila from. It's pretty cool, let's get a little picture of that. And over here we have Perry's agave. So we got some more agave. I'm not certain, but I think that there's cane chola, which is like a cylindrical cane shaped as it, as the name implies, cactus. There's a hummingbird just went by over here.
Speaker 1:Over here we have some more stuff. We have desert willow right there. We have Desert Willow right there. Desert Willow is not a Salix, so it's not the same family, the same genus as Black Willow or Weeping Willow or anything like that. There's Engelman's Prickly Pear right there, dead agave right there.
Speaker 1:Go through here and make a little loop and come back, get out of here. Oh, of course here we go. There is Claret Cup Cactus. Yeah, claret Cup Cactus, so it looks like a cup. Anyway, we'll get in the truck, go to one more geocache in the park and then I'm going to get back on the road to Utah.
Speaker 1:So you can really see the extent of the City of Rocks from up here. A bit of an overlook point that you can drive to. The maintenance shop is over there, visitor Center straight ahead, and there's the City of Rocks All the way down there. Isn't that cool. And looking on this map, here you have some mill tailings over to the left. Looking to the north, you have all other mountains here Cobra Mountains, pinos Altos, black Range, membrys Peak, table Mountain. Looking to the south, one that I saw when I was working down at Deming Cooks Peak. It's way over there, poking up over the top, the Floridas are just barely visible over the top of this ridge. That's closest. A Red Mountain over there, grandmother Mountain, way out there, soldiers Fairbairn Hill, cooks is about 14 miles away. Taylor Mountain is 4, so those are the closest to here looking this way.
Speaker 1:Anyways, hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek at City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico. If you like this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up. Think about subscribing to the channel for more content. I'll see you on the trail. If you have any comments, questions, etc. Lay them down below. See ya.
