WINDY New Mexico

Sunday we traveled from western New Mexico to the eastern side, geocaching along the way. Our route took us through the middle of the state, with very few miles on Interstate. As we traveled farther to the east the wind picked up in speed and the temperatures dropped about 25 degrees in an hour. A cold front moved in. 

We cached in some interesting places, again. Some cemeteries, a couple of natural wonders, and what I consider as the typical New Mexico sightings are featured in the photos below.

No sheep sightings in the area now

A row of white metal crosses

Interesting cross headstones

Prevalent Catholic community in Magnalena

And large Mexican/Spanish population in the area

Interesting to think we were 4 miles above mountain peaks at this point

and about 100 miles east, the salt flats lakes were 150' below sea level

Registered Polled LongHorns

Looking for caches on the ground, along the fence packed with

tumbleweeds

 Tumbleweed packed fence line hiding geocaches

Trains. Many, MANY trains seen in western & central NM

I liked the color of this photo

the white grass, the dark hill, the outline of a mountain

range, the cloud covered sky, AND

the red trailer on the flatbed train car

Another cemetery

This one in Willard

Unique headstones

In black & white

In color

I liked the tree 

It is still winter in this part of NM

No green anywhere

The second natural wonder, Blue Hole

A spring fed pool

A scuba diving training center

Water temp about 63º

About 10 people playing in the pool this afternoon

Stone and rock walls surrounding the hole

Very pretty blue water in the hole

But clear water in the channel coming from the pool

Interesting

Lilac bushes at the hotel

But the wind was SO STRONG, this was the result of me 

holding the branch while taking a photo

A trucker told us he thought the winds were 50 mph

not gusting, but constant