Along the lower section of highway 137
the occasional oil or sulphurous smell from one of the many ‘nodding
donkeys’ extracting oil and natural gas from deep within the reserves of the
Permian basin permeates the air.
Surrounding the wells and
overlooking all that activity, my favourite yucca flowers were coming into
bloom, I much prefer that smell, although oil is worth a lot more, just look at the price of gas and diesel!
Highway 137 leaves the wells behind
as it climbs higher into the mountains, passing the road to Sitting Bull Falls,
which is currently closed until further notice, after being devastated by one
of the many wild fires that roared through New Mexico last year.
Further along highway 137 as you
enter the small town of Queen an interesting and unusual monument pays silent tribute to
the memory of Frank A
Kindel who was known as the ‘Flying Paper Boy of the Guadalupes’. He rode unicycles in parades, greeted and
entertained visitors to his community and dropped newspapers to ranchers and
hunters in the Guadalupe Mountains.
In May 1964 after dropping the
Reverend Plapp on the site of the monument to conduct a sunrise service for
members of the Pecos Valley trail ride, his plane crashed into the mountains
nearby.
Although Queen is small town, it has a volunteer
fire brigade and a shop that opens at the weekend, when we were there the café was
closed but the RV park was open.
Just through Queen, Forest Road 540
a good gravel road, heads off along Guadalupe
Ridge to Five Points Vista and a campground just beyond.
The road travels through the Lincoln
National Forest before winding along the edge of the ridge.
The ridge is 2,000ft above the
valley below and the views are spectacular.
This was looking towards Dog Canyon, when we were hiking there you would
never have guessed there was a road up here.
Down in the valley below, a dirt
road winds its way to El Paso via a small farming town called Dell City, we were
told that the 55 miles to Dell City is a very rough 4WD route.
Five Points Vista, we
had planned to sit outside and enjoy our picnic lunch in the sunshine, however as it was only
about 70 degrees with a very strong wind, we decided sitting in the truck was
much a warmer option!
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