Sand Dunes of a Different Color

Thursday, 17 March 2016
Monahans Sandhills State Park — Monahans, Texas
Temps: Hi 80F (27C) / Lo 44F (7C)

I’m actually writing this from the Holiday Inn in Monahans … about 5 miles (8 km) from where we are camping.  Why?  Well, even though I know some of you will laugh or tsk-tsk my reason, I’ll tell you about it anyway … but a bit later.

March 15 … Moving on from El Paso

After several ‘wind jiggles’ to our plans, we finally departed El Paso Tuesday morning.  Even though we’d been enjoying the city, it felt good to be on the move again.  An easy drive of 256 miles (412 km) put us at our next temporary home for three nights … Monahans Sandhills State Park (MSSP).

picnic shelters at a rest area we stopped at on the way to MSSP … they need a little TLC, but are  colorful nonetheless.

It took us a while to get settled at our campsite at the park’s Willow Draw Campground.  First it was the long line at the office and the fact that there was only one ranger manning the desk.  He was doing double-duty, renting out toboggans to day-trippers as well helping campers check in, so it took awhile for me to finally take my turn at the front of the line.  I asked if either of the sites Mary had suggested we ask for were available — “no,” was the answer to one of them; “no way will you fit in that site,” was the answer to the other.  So, I accepted site #3, which runs parallel to the dunes.  As it turns out there was a lot of drift sand on the site, and to boot, it was extremely uneven.  Moving this way and that way, and aligning ourselves in front of the power pedestal instead of alongside it, we finally got the Phaeton level and put out the slides.  That’s when a ranger who was doing his rounds stopped to ask why we were in site 3.  Whaaat?

Buried in the dunes?  nah … the Phaeton is just hidden by the dune adjacent to our site.

Apparently he had assigned us to site #1 since it was the only one that was really suitable for us.  He asked us to give him a few minutes to try and work things out.  Since we were jutting into the road a bit more than we would like to have, we said OK.  To make a really long story short, two hours later, with no resolution in sight and frustrated from being in limbo on such a hot day — it was 84F (29C) — we called the ranger to tell him to “forget about it” and finished settling in.  He did come by later with profuse apologies and an explanation for the site switcheroo.  He was bearing gifts as well … big orange cones to supplement the ones Mui had put out next to our slide to warn off other vehicles.  All’s well that ends well, but we would think twice about staying here again unless they find a solution to the drifting sand encroaching on the sites.

Site #3 … one of the parallel-to-the-road sites along the dunes … or are they sandhills?

Much of the frustration of the day drained away as we relaxed outside in the shade of the Phaeton later that afternoon.  A light breeze negated the effects of the afternoon heat, and at one point I went for a walk on the dune next to us.  Later, we moved the rickety picnic table into our coach-made shade — this site has neither a grill nor a shade shelter, by the way — and we enjoyed a quiet meal to wrap up our day.

Sand dunes as far as the eye can see … in hues that vary from gold to pink as the light changes.

March 16 … Exploring MSSP

A good night’s rest and a colorful sunrise this morning did wonders to erase any residual frustration from yesterday.  It was a crisp 45F (7C) when I stepped out at 7:00a, but I knew the day would heat up rapidly once the sun got a bit higher on the horizon.  We had a leisurely breakfast and a slow morning before setting off around 10:00a to hike around the dunes — no trail to follow; just forge our own path.

Critter tracks point to an active night in the dune field.  The wandering tracks are a
sign of food-foraging behavior … according to the info I later read at the visitor center.

The obvious comparison to White Sands National Monument is the color of the sand … no brilliant white landscape here.  The dune fields are not nearly as extensive either … but they still cover over 3,800 acres (1,537 hectares).  The sand is softer, and more difficult to walk on, thus making a stroll on even the flat areas fairly strenuous.  Information on a panel said these dunes can range in height up to 70 feet (21 m) … if we saw any that were that tall, it wasn’t apparent in the all-dune landscape.

One might be excused for thinking we are in the Sahara!

While some of the dunes are pristine, there are others that are covered with
plants, which serve to anchor them in place.  Can you see the black dot that is
the only other person out enjoying the solitude of the dunes this morning?

I won’t get into much detail about how and where the sand at Monahans came from, except to say it involves the ancestral Pecos River, which cut into sandstone from a 250-million-year-old fossilized sea floor as it carried eroded rock south from New Mexico.  Then the last Ice Age came and went, the climate warmed and dried, and floodplains got exposed to winds that spread the sand east towards Monahans.  The climate continued to change … dry and wet cycles alternated … and the dunes of today were formed during the most recent of the dry cycles.  More than that … well, you either have to visit the park or Google it to find out.

Monahans Sandhills State Park was established in 1957 on acreage that
was leased from a private foundation in 1956 on a 100-year term. 

When the wind started whipping up the sand, we decided to head back to the Phaeton.  Having encountered no one out in the dunes except for one distant black-dot-of-a-person, the number of people tobogganing on the dunes in the day-use area and the campground was quite jarring.  We left them to have their fun and went to check out the exhibits at the visitor center.

If you look closely at the dune between Mui’s postage stamp and me, you’ll
see the sand being moved about by the increasing wind.  Time to go home.

The interesting displays do a good job of educating visitors about MSSP — from how the sand dunes are formed; to the different ways sand is moved by winds … I now have terms like saltation and surface creep added to my vocabulary; to the critters and plants that can be found in the park, and the people who lived here; to the history of drilling in the region and the park; and more.  There is a nice video that visitors can watch simply by pressing the start button … unfortunately it is out in the open, and the chatter from the comings and goings of people detracts somewhat from the experience.

Two of the many educational panels of information at the visitor center.

As long as 10,000 years ago, humans discovered that the dunes provided a reliable
source of water in this area.  Over the passing centuries, small migrating bands
of people camped around water holes in the sands.  Archaeologists believe that
the most use of this area occurred during the late Archaic period, 1200 to 700
years ago.  Unfortunately, most of the clues about these people have been
removed from the park by years of sand combing by visitors.

Drilling by ranchers … for water …	… and by oil companies … for black gold.

A painting entitled “Seep in the Sandhills” hangs near the visitor center entrance.

Outside the visitor center is a ¼-mile nature trail … not much to see, though … at least not on this day.  We did a quick turn on the trail before heading home.  On the way to the campground, we drove a back road that led us to the oil well we had noticed during our morning dune walk.

From the signage at the well:  “This well was drilled by Shell Oil Company in 1957 to a depth of 10,670 feet.  Although oil and natural gas were found, production rates were not sufficient to profitably produce the well, and it was abandoned.  When the supply of energy became critical, Shell reopened the well to production from a depth of about 5,600 feet.  Pumping units such as this one are used when underground pressures are not great enough to force oil to the surface.  The equipment you see operates a pump at the bottom of the hole, a mile below the surface.  This equipment starts and stops automatically to conserve power and reduce
wear, while still lifting to the surface all of the oil that enters the well.”

We wrapped up the day by wandering around the dunes near the Phaeton, enjoying the solitude that reigned after the day-users packed up their toboggans and left.

The day-trippers are gone … all that’s left behind are shadows and footprints.

Back to Today … Evicted!

You know those advertisements for Holiday Inn hotels that start out saying something like, “I’m not an astronaut, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night”?  The ad campaign is based on the premise that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to prove your smarts … you just have to stay at one of the properties of the hotel chain.

“Mousexcitement” … Little did I know at the time I photographed this cute little white-throated woodrat mascot of MSSP that one of its real-life cousins would be dropping in to pay us a visit tonight.

Well, tonight we proved our smarts by baiting traps for the mouse that invaded our home on wheels, and instead of waiting for it to come out of hiding to meet its maker, we vacated our home and drove five miles into Monahans to get ourselves a hotel room for the night!  Which is where this post started.

I know some of you are thinking that wasn’t smart … that we, or rather, I overreacted.  I know some are laughing at me; and I can see others shaking their heads and tsk-tsk’ing me.  My brain knows that it is ridiculous to be scared of an itty bitty critter like a mouse.  But that same brain seems to have a difficult time convincing the rest of my instincts of that little fact.  We could have waited out the mouse after we set the traps — we have those battery operated ones that have yet to fail us.  But with an early wake up call and a two-day drive ahead of us, I convinced Mui that the better part of valor in this case was to retreat and return to fight another day … or rather, retreat and return to find a dead mouse another day.

Tomorrow we move onward … hopefully mouse-free.

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