January 18, 2014
by David Ryan
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Wandering Where You Shouldn’t

Ideas for wandering can come from a number of sources. They usually start with your interests. One of mine happens to be natural hot springs. To that end I have bought hot spring guides, ordered data bases of springs, and even subscribed to the now defunct Hot Spring Gazette.

The Gazette was a true guerilla publication. It didn’t care where the springs were located; even if the spring was on private or tribal land. One of its tips was a place called Swimming Pool spring on tribal land in New Mexico.

Their tip was to look at a particular Forest Service map for a place called Swimming Pool on adjacent tribal land. You’ll need an old map because Swimming Pool and other off limits places of interest have been removed from the current maps.

Since I had an old map, I found Swimming Pool and thought it would be worthwhile to check it out. Getting there would require a cross-country hike of a little over three miles each way. That seemed like a reasonable challenge so my dog Lucky and I decided to do it.

Our hike started by following an arroyo that surprisingly had running water. Because the running water was far from the source, it was cool. It was also full of minerals and very salty. Before I could pull him away, Lucky was lying spread-out in the water and drinking it up. Within five minutes all of the water was passing out of his body. So if you’re looking for a quick weight loss program, I know some water you can drink.

This is the arroyo we followed to reach Swimming Pool spring. Don't drink the water.

This is the arroyo we followed to reach Swimming Pool spring. Don’t drink the water.

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December 21, 2013
by David Ryan
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Wandering Around the Kilbourne Hole

Update – December 13, 2021: The Kilbourne Hole was made a part of Organ Peaks-Desert Mountains National Monument after the following blog post was written. Last week I made another visit to the Kilbourne Hole to see if anything had changed. Fortunately, nothing much has changed and it is still a great place for exploring and wandering.

This sign is the only change that I noticed, and it is more than a mile from the Kilbourne Hole.

As you can see from this drone shot, the area around the Kilbourne is still wide open country.

The original post starts below:

The Kilbourne Hole is a huge 1 ¾ mile by 1 ¼ mile crater in the Chihuahuan Desert west of Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas that is over 300 feet deep. It is not a meteor impact crater; it is a maar volcano.

A maar volcano is like a huge volcanic burp. With a maar volcano, magma flowing to the surface did not reach the top to create a cinder cone or lava flow. Instead the magma flow became blocked and the available ground water then became super-heated. The resulting steam pressure eventually became so great that it blew off the covering mantle and left a huge flat-floor crater.

Can you imagine what the explosion must have been like?

Here’s how the Kilbourne Hole looks on Google Earth.

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December 7, 2013
by David Ryan
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A Bike Wandering Adventure in Yangshuo

Most of the posts in this blog have been about some variation of walking. But when you have to cover a long distance, a bike ride can make your wandering adventure even better.

For example, when I went to Beijing with my sister Nancy in 1988, getting around by bike was the preferred way to explore the city. We rode everywhere. When I returned with my wife Claudia in 1996, getting around by bike in Beijing was only for those with a death wish. It was a major disappointment and I am sure it is worse today for bike riders.

When Claudia and I reached the famous backpacker hang-out of Yangshuo, in the south of China, we found a completely different situation. To begin with Yangshuo is in the middle of the most scenic part of China with its karst topography of limestone peaks and spires. If you have seen a Chinese landscape painting, you have probably seen Yangshuo. There are not enough words to describe its beauty. 

The limestone peaks and spires seemed to go on forever

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