At Hueco Tanks

The Alamo is at the top of my list of favorite places in Texas, but not far behind it is Hueco Tanks State Park, the site of the last Butterfield stage stop before El Paso. The tanks are amazing, tucked in among a cluster of stone hills that are like a tiny mountain range and containing ponds and springs for reliable water. First Americans left hundreds of pictographs and petroglyphs in its caves and rock shelters, many of them still well preserved. Travelers in the 19th century left their marks as well, scratching names and dates into the stone walls.
On July 25, 1884, one M.F. Wayland scratched his name inside a rectangle with triangles and squares at the corners. This is one of the better-known "grafitti" at the tanks and is hard to miss if you are on the Site 17 trail. It is special to me. Millard Fillmore Wayland was my great-great uncle. He was 28 that summer of 1884 and, accompanied by his younger brother Jim, had the job of leading the livestock from Buffalo Gap to La Luz, New Mexico. His father had died the year before, leaving his mother with several younger children to raise, including the twins Daisy and Lulu, both three. The family heard about the grazing lands still to be claimed in the foothills and valleys of the Sacramento Mountains in what is now Otero County. The boys arrived in La Luz with the stock in August, and their mother arrived in a covered wagon with the rest of the kids about a month later.
My guess is the boys cut the Butterfield stage route and followed it west to the tanks, then turned north to follow the trail along the foot of Otero Mesa and the Sacramentos to La Luz.
If you are ever anywhere near El Paso, make sure to put the tanks on your list. You will need to make a reservation well ahead. The area is small, the artwork is incredibly fragile, and TPW is determined to manage the impacts of visitors. Signing up for a guided tour is highly recommended to fully appreciate what you are seeing.

Thanks! 'Haven't been there, but isn't that where Geronimo finally surrendered?

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. We haven’t been to that State Park yet, but hope to eventually. I’ll check for your ancestor’s graffiti.

Banded Rock Rattlesnakes can be found there also… neat and beautiful animals

SnakeWrangler, would this be one? We noticed it a few feet away while the guide was describing a big pictograph panel.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Very well could be. Hard to tell from the picture

This is what they look like….relatively small snakes only a couple feet long. Green to grey to pink coloration. One of my favorite rattlesnakes….

Did an entire afternoon there the autumn that I hiked out Guadalupe mountains NP…I definitely agree. It’s spectacular. If you go, make your reservation and try to get the guided tour.
Also helps if you are on the skinny side. Squirming in between boulders, I got some great shots of some of the masks and petroglyphs….

Not that far from us . We’re gonna do a day trip in the spring. I caught two rock rattlers this season here at the house.

Went there on geology club field trip with UTPB years back and we did some free climbing in areas where it was allowed. There are pottery shards all over but don't pick them up!