A Long Story of a Short River:
The Black River of Southeastern
New Mexico
4. A Short, Long Walk to the Start A
Our last page left us still beside the lake held up by that low concrete wall called a dam, so we start again beside that same lake, facing a continuous struggle with dense vegetation:
Uphill to the right it looks like the going may be easier, so we head west to go there. It is much easier to walk here, and the Guadalupes are a nice sight:
But after a while we wonder how the river is doing to our left and go and see:
This is not the same lake, it is yet another one, separated from the previous one by copious vegetation. WE slog through the vegetation because we can see the start of this little lake in the river and are curious to see it. Here it is:
The bottom is covered with a smooth layer of gypsum, and below us is a hole with, no doubt, upwelling water coming though from below:
Could this added water be lowering the salt loading just enough to allow the plant life to the left of the hole to flourish? That is my suspicion, but I am no water-plant-life expert.
The walk back to the easier terrain uphill from here is not short, so I decide for us that we are going upstream through the vegetation here because I suspect we are near the start of the river (two more pages coming: I was very wrong!)
Slogging though this terrain did give me occasional glimpses of flow on the surface, but not very much and surypy and gray with its gypsum loading: like watching cold syrup run.
For what seemed like a long time we struggle upstream, still wrongly thinking we are near the start of the river, but oh what a surprise when we get our eyes above the level of plants and see yet another lake to get past!
:
Pretty? Definitely. Easily passed? No, we go west, out to the more open desert again, to get past this one.
This time we stay in the desert for quite a while until curiosity finally overpowers some of us, and we scramble back to the river's side. We are definitely past the last little lake, but can't get to the river here, so we keep at about this distance from the river and go right in this next photo until we can get closer:
Finally we get on a rock outcrop beside the river and it is yet another lake, but one with a surprise: a plateau on the other shore with a ladder! It is a swimming hole! And it will have to wait until the next page! (It is what television programs do. build suspense just before a break to make you want to sit through the commercials so as not to chance missing the restart of the program).
5. A Short, Long Walk to the Start B
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