Hueco Tanks State Park

Hueco Tanks State Park, located a short drive to the east of El Paso, is basically a big pile of rocks. But it is a mecca for rock climbers, primarily those who prefer boulder problems. They have a small campground nestled up against one of the rock piles which has nicely private sites with electric and water, a picnic table, and tent pad. There is also an RV dump and nice heated bathroom with hot showers.

There are quite a few song birds in and near our site and a beautiful bobcat walked through during breakfast one mornning. The camp host said she lives up on the hill behind the campground and last year has a litter of three kittens she brought through the site regularly.

The park consists of three large boulder piles. One can get permission to independently climb around only one, the North Mountain. Access to the other two is through a guide only. We learned if you want to really tour the rocks of the restricted area, you need to request either tour 2 or 3 well ahead of time. The state has severely restricted access to the park in order to protect the site. The area was well used by native americans traveling through the area because water was abundant (there are a number of springs and the hollows in the rocks, “huecos,” retain water after storms) and was used by these same people for many ceremonies.

When we arrived on Wednesday we hiked up into the North Mountain boulders and enjoyed climbing around on them. On Thursday we signed on to the Rock Art guided tour. Our tour guide, Tim, was extremely knowledgeable about the pictographs and petroglyphs in the park and told many stories about the native american lore associated with them. The tour took us to some areas we had already seen, but Tim’s explanations made the repeat worth it. On Friday we took a walk along the perimeter of the North Mountain — it’s about 3 miles round trip.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)