On Walkabout At: Hueco Tanks State Park, Texas – Part 2

Prior Posting: Hueco Tanks State Park – Part 1

______________________________________________________________

From the graffiti rock art area in the middle of the Hueco Tanks State Park my wife and I turned around and headed back towards the visitor and followed this trail along the north side of the park:

The north side of the park is an area littered with a variety of very nice picnic areas:

We continued to walk along the northern end of the park and enjoyed the surround Chihuahuan Desert scenery:

The scenery included many cactus:

To include this one that looked just like a heart:

Walking along the northern edge of the park also meant some pretty nice views of the surrounding Hueco Mountains that surround most of the park:

From the north side of the park we made our way to the west side of the park which features many large rock outcroppings:

These large rock outcroppings on the west side of course makes Hueco Tanks very popular with rock climbers who come to challenge themselves on the various climbing courses here:

The large rock face pictured below is what climbers call “The Front Side”:

This rock is the most popular rope climbing face in the park and one of the most popular in all of Texas:

Most of the climbing course on The Front Side are 200-350 feet long and quite challenging with the first climb of this face documented in the 1950’s.  The Front Side remains such a popular climbing destination that climbers are the number one visitors to Hueco Tanks.  My wife and I are hardly rock climbers, but we decided to head into the rocks ourselves and see what we could find.  We came upon this picnic area, which my wife who was pregnant at the time we visited the park, decided to take a break at while I continued to explore the rocks:

What was interesting about this picnic area was that it was located next to a small lagoon, which existence is so surprising considering how dry and arid this desert is:

Here is a view of the lagoon from up above on the rocks:

Here is a view of one of the large boulder formations that make up the park:

Soon I was at the top of the rocks and had a view looking back towards the 6,787 foot summit of Cerro Alto mountain, the highest peak in the Hueco Mountains:

Here is the view looking towards the area of the park off limits to day visitors and only accessed by guided tours that require reservations:

On the top of the rocks there is actually plenty of desert life growing up here as well:

Of couse there was plenty of ocotillo or Jacob’s Staff growing on the top of the rocks as well:

I was surprised by the amount of moss that could be seen growing on the top of the rocks on the top of Hueco Tanks:

I say that the moss is surprising simply because you just don’t see moss growing in the middle of the desert like this.  Despite all the water at Hueco Tanks, during our entire trip the only wildlife we saw were these lizards that can be seen running around the rocks:

Hueco Tanks is no where near as scenic as probably the greatest rock wonder in the world, Uluru in Australia, but it is still quite an impressive place.  The place it reminded me the most of though was Wave Rock in Western Australia, which had similar rock formations, water holes, and local importance to native Aboriginal tribes.  Much like Wave Rock we had a great day out at Hueco Tanks and the fact we haven’t taken the guided tour to the sealed off rock art locations only means we have another excuse to visit this great park.