Fort Stockton, TX to Albuquerque, NM

Ron has an obsession with Stonehenge replicas so when he learned there was one sorta nearby, he had to go.  The drive there was kinda interesting in a disappointing sorta way: the entire area is heavily developed for oil extraction.  There are pumpjacks and pipelines everywhere.  And signs of the industry all around.  The replica itself was on the University of Texas Permian Basin campus, and was, well, a replica.

After taking a few pics of it and some pump jacks and driving through some cotton fields which I regrettably didn't get a picture of, we headed north and west - out of the Permian Basin, out of Texas, and into New Mexico on our way to Roswell.

oil getting pumped out of the ground in the Permian Basin of west Texas

Once in Roswell, our first stop was Bitter Lakes National Wildlife Refuge where we did a driving loop, saw a bunch of birds and a rattlesnake on the road.  On to lunch at the Black Cock Brewery which was less showy than the name implied.  I had kinda hoped that Roswell would just be over-the-top alien kitsch, but it really wasn't.  There really wasn't much of anything there.

We drove through Lincoln National Forest, which I learned was where Smokey the Bear came from.  For some reason I thought that event happened back east somewhere, but it was here in New Mexico!  We gassed up in Carrizozo and then went on a short hike at Valley of Fires which actually turned out to be a BLM Recreation Site.  It was really nicely developed and the paved trail through the young lava flow and vegetation was fun and the lighting was good as it was late afternoon.

Arrived in Albuquerque in the dark, checked into our hotel, and then headed out to Steel Bender Brewing which was very loud and very subpar for quality.  Albuquerque has gotten huge since last I visited in 2006.