It was sometime in 1979 - 80 that i made my trip in a Chevy Impala - 1965 model which I bought (a gift) from my then girlfriend who got it from her grandmother. It all began in Green bay Wisconsin where i was student at the University of Wisconsin, in Green Bay. My intention was to travel all over the South West of the United States, the states of New mexico, Arizona and Colorado while living out of the trunk of the Chevy. With lots of help from friends and fellow students who chipped in for the cost of my trip I left Green Bay along with a young friend by the name of Jerry Sulle, the son of a very close friend Charles Sulle. jerry was about seventeen then, and was ready for anything to add excitement to his life. Together we left green Bay on cold morning as it was sometime in winter. Armed with a map of the United States and all the trunk full of canned food and a two man tent we headed south.
Most of what i still remember of our trip south was the fact that we stopped at the Oklahoma Cowboy Museum where i was so attracted to purchase a thick hard cover book of the Native American Cultural History by some famous Cowboy artist This book I later gave it as a present to Jerry as he showed great interest in the Native American way of life We later drove through Kansas and stopped at a small town called Udall where we were put up on a small farm by an elderly couple whose address was given to me by a friend an fellow artist at the University in Green Bay. In Udall we went to a small church on a Sunday morning and there i sat listening to the most interesting sermon delivered by a Zen like pastor who talked of "after your meal you just need to do your dishes..." I was so impressed by his talk that i joined the congregation in receiving "flesh and blood of Christ as i knelt before him along with the others to receive the bread and wine in my mouth.
I have forgotten much of what transpired as we drove south into New Mexico except for the fact that car was leaking oil and needed two quarts of oil added every once in a while. In New Mexico we camped at the City of Rocks, in Grant County located midway between Deming and Silver City, NM..
City of Rocks State Park is a state park of New Mexico, USA, consisting of large sculptured rock formations in the shape of pinnacles or boulders rising as high as 40 feet (12 m).The exotic collection of volcanic "art," set in the middle of a grama grass plain, was formed by a huge explosion called the Kneeling Nun eruption about thirty four million nine hundred thousand years ago.
Located in the Mimbres Valley at the northeastern edge of the Chihuahuan desert at an elevation of five thousand two hundred feet above sea level, the "city" is a fantasyland of wind- and water-sculpted pastel rock columns. Only six other places in the world have similar formations.
By day, the rocks entice the explorer. Visitors can scramble over sun-warmed boulders, walk under cool stone arches through the winding "streets" and dim "alleyways" of the volcanic metropolis, hike up a rimrock trail to picnic and to photograph the panoramic views from the Observation Point, or sit in quiet solitude by a peaceful desert botanical garden at sunset.
At night, campers share sleeping
accommodations with bald and golden eagles nesting forty to fifty feet overhead
in the rock walls, nocturnal wildlife prowling unobtrusively among the massive
stones, and sometimes coyotes serenading the star-filled sky.
Here I had one of my most unforgettable if not frightening experiences in my travels. Upon arrival at the site in the late afternoon I noticed that there was a huge Mesa ( An isolated flat topped hill surrounded by flat land strata.) not too far from the site itself and i thought it would be great to hike up to the mountain and see what was up there. from where we had pitched the tent it looked like a short distance which i could make it there and back in no time as I noticed that between me and the mountain lies only tall prairie grasses. So telling Jerry of my plan I left him crawled up in the tent as he was tired from the long drive.
I headed out towards the 'table top mountain on my own armed with just a Rambo type knife and a water bottle. As i walked further away from the City of Rock I noticed that a camper trailer had parked at the edge of the site with a light on and I felt safe just in case I have to head back in the dark as the sun was now beginning to set. I made it to the foot of the mountain and foolishly decided to climb to the top as it not impossible to do so and this I did sweating and scraping myself against the sharp rocks of yellow earth. When I eventually made it to the top the sun has already began disappearing over the horizon and i witnessed one of the most beautiful sunset of my life all around me.I also noticed that the light from the trailer was still on which gave me some comfort..
I decided to remove all my clothing as they were damp from my sweat and laid them on the flat rock and I was stark naked as i stood scanning the horizon all around me like a Native American in the old days on a vision quest. The skies were filled with myriads of twinkling stars and I raised my hand towards them invoking "Wakan Tanka", the Great Spirit to behold this crazy Malaysian who does not know any better.had come to pay his respects and all around me i could hear the howl of coyotes in the distance.Soon i realized that the evening was fast getting colder and I got dressed, build myself a small fire with small twigs and dried grass around and sat in meditation. The fire did not last long but i kept my sitting for a while till I felt all calm and peaceful.
A prairie hen led a line of chickens behind her walked quietly in front of me so close that I could have reached out and catch them but I kept sitting, (it never occurred to me till later that it was almost impossible to find these birds on top of the mountain unless they can fly.)
Then it was time to return to the tent and as i started to climb down I realized how difficult it was without tearing my skin to pieces and i thanked my lucky stars for my thick jacket and jeans which took most of the brutal scraping and tearing.by the time I reached the bottom in the dark. As I headed toward the general direction of the City of Rocks i also to my dismay found that the light from the trailer home had been switched off. my trip back through the prairie grass was a long struggle as my feet kept sinking into holes and I kept tripping over thick bushes falling on to my face at times.I made it at long last to the edge of the pile of rocks after what seemed like ages.
It took me almost two hours locating the tent after a long horrifying struggle walking in the dark sometimes like going in circles from one rock to another along small paths barely visible in the dark. There were noises of things scattering here and there at every turn I made and i could not tell which direction to head anymore after sometime. By the time i located the tent I was totally exhausted and it dawned upon me the hard way then why they had called it the 'City of Rocks.'
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