What started as a quick 10 minute stop in Truth or Consequences New Mexico ends in a story of rattlesnakes, desert winds, looming thunderstorms, mountain lions, and dead end tracks.
I love the hard-to-find cemeteries and I am a very tenacious cemetery hunter. Once I know the general location of a cemetery there is rarely much that can stop my quest to find, document, and photograph the interesting tombstones located within. I have crawled through thickets, slopped through mud, ignored a few “No Trespassing” signs, and faced more than my share of wild animals in attempts to find out-of-the-way cemeteries.
While driving across New Mexico, a friend Facebooked me about some of the best Tamales and Chili Relanos in Truth or Consequences. So, I stopped into La Cocina to check the local fare. While there I learned about a cemetery called Elephant Butte located in the desert far off the main road. YAY, the hunt was on.
I plugged the coordinates into my GPS and waited for directions. “Turn right on Pacific Road” Now, if you have never been to the American southwest, you might not know that a simple direction such as “Turn right on Pacific Road” can turn into a 3 hour ordeal leading you down sand covered paths far into the desert. It turned out Pacific Road is such a path.
After 30 minutes driving on an increasingly sandy desert road through automobile junkyards and obscure construction sites, I finally turned around to find an alternate route. Back on paved road signs began to appear for Elephant Butte Park. My excitement peaked but then collapsed as a “ROAD CLOSED” sign block the entrance over a partially completed dam project. “DAM!” I mean, it’s a shame that dam wasn’t complete. Elephant Butte cemetery was only a mile away.
Back to the trusty GPS I found an alternate route. Directions came loud and clear until “Navigate Off Road.” Ugh! It was getting late and a storm whipped itself into a frenzy. Off into the horizon I could see sheets of rain and flashes of lightning. Not only was a storm bearing down but the sun was going down.
A half mile of cross country trekking stood between me and Elephant Butte Cemetery.
Now, I am not much of a snake expert but I do know that rattlesnakes are plentiful in this part of New Mexico and I also know that they become active at dusk. On flat land it is easy to walk between the scrub brush and avoid snake encounters. However, a Butte isn’t flat and a 200′ climb up craggy brush covered rocky outcropping seemed like a perfect opportunity for many dangerous rattlesnake encounters. Ugh! Did I blaze up the climb and hope for the best?
No. I chose safety first and headed back for the car to look for yet another alternate route.
As the sun’s angle changed toward the end of day, I noticed a double track trail skirting a hillside leading toward the direction of the cemetery’s supposed location. Ugh! If only I had a 4-wheel drive vehicle. The Cemetery Detectivemobile wasn’t up for the challenge of foot deep ruts and boulders the size of small mountain lions. Speaking of mountain lions….nah, I’ll save that for later.
While the Cemetery Detectivemobile wasn’t up the the challenge, I am a lifelong trail runner and a 1/2 mile trail run on desert double track is barely a challenge worth mentioning. With trail running shoes cinched tight, my GPS in one hand, and my camera in the other I took off for the run.
“Navigate Off Road” the reassuring GPS lady kept screaming in my ear.
0.4 Miles
0.3 Miles
As the distance decreased I felt increasingly confident I would find Elephant Butte Cemetery and make my way back to the car well before sunset.
0.4 Miles Oops, going in the wrong direction.
0.3 Miles Ahhh…the path curved around a grouping of cacti and I was heading in the right direction again.
0.2 Miles My legs felt strong as I sped up in an attempt to reach the cemetery quicker than I anticipated. The thought of rattlesnakes didn’t even bother me any longer as I knew their fastest strikes could never catch my Superman-speed legs. A couple lengths of a football field was all that was left and I knew I could cover that distance in a minute or two. Success of another conquered, difficult-to-find cemetery was within easy reach.
Or so I thought.
Just then, at the height of my confidence, the trail went cold as it invisibly descended into the murky depths of a desert canyon. “Never mind this small inconvenience” I thought as I powered down one side and prepared to ascend the other side. “Oh no” the trail became more rugged and definite hand-over-feet scrambling would be needed to make the ascent. “Meh! No worries. I can make it” I convinced myself.
“BLEEP!!!” I wondered why my GPS had just BLEEPED at me and I looked down to a blank screen. “OH NO!” The rechargeable battery within the GPS only gives an hour of charge. Since it wasn’t fully charged at the outset of my cross desert trail run, it decided to quit at the exact point it needed it most. Oh how I longed for the familiar “Navigate Off Road” from the sweet voiced lady that lives inside my GPS.
Most GPSes have enough built in reserve power to run the unit for a few minutes after the battery run out. As I looked down to find the power switch, I caught a quick glimpse of myself. Here I was in the middle of a snake infested desert with 50 mile per hour storm winds blowing, at sunset, in a pair of trail running shoes, shorts, and a tee shirt.
I was off-trail and about to climb a 200′ butte with a dead GPS unit.
There are some points in life when you make the bold statements such as: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” When those points pass and all the torpedoes have missed, you become a hero. However, when the torpedoes have venom filled fangs and are hiding under a darkening, windy, rocky outcropping in the middle of the desert the punishment of failure outweighs the bragging rights of finding one more cemetery.
Looking over my shoulder multiple times as I jogged back to my car, I “if only’d” more times than I can count. If only I had jeans on. If only I had boots on. If only it wasn’t getting dark. If only it wasn’t storming. If only I had a flash light. If only my GPS weren’t dead. I think only one of those “if onlies” could have convinced me to carry on and find the Elephant Butte Cemetery. However, for this day, it wasn’t meant to be.
On my jog back to the car I watched the trail carefully and noticed multiple piles of scat along the trail. Now, I’m not sure what type of animal this scat belonged to but there are many Mountain Lion sightings in this desert and, I believe, in the distance and through the howling wind, I heard the familiar cries of a Big Cat calling out to me and telling me I had made the right choice in leaving Elephant Butte Cemetery for another day.
Nearby: If you are in Truth or Consequences and need your Mexican food fix, check out: La Cocina
