Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site, El Paso, Texas, USA
Texas has more than 80 state parks, the majority based around an artificial lake so not scenically interesting, but a few contain more unusual landscapes such as Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, 30 miles east of El Paso in the far west corner of the state.
The park is small in extent, just 1 by 1.5 miles, and contains a weathered outcrop of syenite granite, its surface heavily cracked and eroded forming narrow ravines, small arches, rounded boulders and short but sheer cliffs, and the dual designation reflects the two competing reasons why the area is significant. One is as a rock climbing destination, since the hard, pockmarked granite is ideal for bouldering (ropeless, short ascent climbing), while the
Historic Site status is to protect the thousands of pictographs, petroglyphs and other historic inscriptions that are found all over the granite – the mountain sits close to a long-established cross-country trade route and the many cavities (‘huecos’) on top of the hills collect and hold rainfall, and so provide a dependable source of drinking water even during the long hot summers, hence this location has been an important stop for travelers for many centuries.
Because of the delicate nature of many of the pictographs, most of the park is open only to guided tours, leaving just one of the four separate summits (North Mountain) explorable by unaccompanied hikers, and even here all visitors must first view a video with detailed regulations, and sign a form to confirm compliance.
Besides viewing the artwork, even for non-climbers it is easy and fun to scramble up the less-steep slopes of the mountain, and explore the crevices and eroded formations; the summit gives good views over the desert surroundings, wildlife (principally snakes and lizards) is quite abundant and there are plenty of desert plants including echinocereus cacti that produce brilliant orange flowers in early summer.
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