Friday, March 13, 2009 - City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM
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Observatory, City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM, February 19, 2009
Time to hit the road again, back to City of Rocks State Park for a few days.
First State Parks Observatory
A quote from the City of Rocks State Park website:
City of Rocks was first to receive an observatory in the Division. The observatory consists of a 12’ x 16’ building with a roll-off roof and is permanently equipped with a 14" Meade LX-200. The entire facility is solar-powered and will include a 20-inch monitor, which will enable many visitors to simultaneously view the jewels in the night sky, as images are transmitted through the telescope. Click here to find out more about upcoming star parties.
Saturday, March 21
08:15 PM - 10:00 PM
City of Rocks
Star-n-Parks
Join National Public Observatory astronomer Matt Wilson for a guided tour of the spring constellations and planets. Sunset is at 7:15pm and Saturn will be well presented.
Fees: Regular Entrance Fee
Contact: Gabriel Medrano 575-536-2800
Night camp
Site 12 - City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM
- Verizon cell phone service - fairly good signal - best on west side of the park
- Verizon EVDO service - faster than many places I've camped
- Go to City of Rocks State Park website
- Locate City of Rocks State Park on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Sweet, Rich Hickory Milk
Hickory was another favorite. Rambling through the Southeast in the 1770s, the naturalist William Bartram observed Creek families storing a hundred bushels of hickory nuts at a time. "They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid" to make a thick milk, "as sweet as fresh cream, an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and corncakes." Years ago a friend and I were served hickory milk in rural Georgia by an eccentric backwoods artist named St. EOM who claimed Creek descent. Despite the unsanitary presentation, the milk was ambrosial - fragrantly nutty, delightfully heavy on the tongue, unlike anything I had encountered before.