03-Apr-2024 -- Driving eastward from El Paso, Texas, I was eager to visit this ‘forgotten’ Degree Confluence Point - last visited more than 23 years ago in February 2001. The visitors from 2001 (Reneau and Babington) reported having difficulty finding open roads that led to the point. This puzzled me, as satellite imagery clearly shows a dirt road running west-east roughly along the 32 Degrees North line of latitude (the New Mexico-Texas border), passing close to the point. Surely, I thought, if I drove to the town of Dell City, and then continued to 32 Degrees North, I would find this road, and take it all the way to the point.

Sure enough, my plan worked. The only ‘catch’ is that the road along the 32 Degrees North line of latitude turns into a quite narrow dirt road, more than 6 miles West of the point - which resulted in a long slow drive. There were no gates to traverse; just a couple of cattle grates (and some free-range cattle to avoid). And the dirt road was so narrow - with high dirt banks on each side - that it was difficult to find a place to turn around after I made the closest approach (0.17 miles) to the point. But the road should be easily drivable by a 2WD vehicle, as long as conditions are dry.

After a very short hike, I reached the point, which lies in very flat, arid terrain. (I pity the cattle who have to graze this land.) The Guadalupe Mountains are prominently visible to the East. Although both Google Earth and Google Maps shows this point to be barely in Texas, I’m not totally convinced of this, because there is a fence running East-West, just South of the point. If this fence marks the Texas-New Mexico state line, then that would mean that this point is barely in New Mexico, not Texas. (In fact, one of Reneau and Babington’s photos from 2001 shows a border marker under what appears to be a barbed-wire fence, lending credence to the idea that this Degree Confluence Point is actually in New Mexico.)

Here is a remote-controlled aerial video of this confluence point.