#8: [10-Oct-11]

#7: [01-Apr-11]

#6: [14-Dec-10]

#5: [30-Apr-07]

#4: [21-Sep-06]

#3: [08-Oct-05]

#2: [28-Jan-05]

17-Aug-1999 -- Driving on I-40 in eastern New Mexico is not exactly exciting. The few tourist traps don't have a lot to offer, but at least a couple of confluences are near, and even accessible to non-four-wheel-drive folks. We took the one closest to our path, and it turned out to be an excellent first confluence.

I exited I-40 on US 84, northbound toward Anton Chico for only about 1.7 miles. A track off to the right, just like MapBlast showed, marked 35N to my satisfaction. I stopped on the shoulder and left my brave wife reading in the car; I crawled through a barbed-wire fence and dead-reckoned my way about 1700 feet due west. Once I got there, I reckoned that the rabbitbrush plant in Picture #1 was the official confluence shrub, and so I took its picture.

Looking north from this spot, the plains continue with not a lot of interruption; the small grove of trees in Picture #3 are probably a homesite. You may be able to see some low hills or ridges in the distance -- real mountains are only 50 miles or so up that way. Picture #4 looks west from the confluence. Notice how the telephone poles bring out the vertical aspect of the landscape. Heck, they ARE the vertical aspect!

Finally, photo #2 looks SSE back toward I-40. The trees in this picture do surround a house, most likely the home of the people whose land I was trespassing on. I was, however, finished trespassing, and hiked back to the car, leaving only the memory of my footprints and the small piece of shirt that I snagged on the barbed wire.