Road To Adventure

Behind me the red cliffs of Mesa Redonda and caprock palisade of the northern Llano Estacado escarpment endure in their age-old dance with wind, rain and sun. Pursued by a cloud of red dust, I scramble westward down a familiar New Mexico dirt road. I make careful headway. Arroyos and mesas scattered across the southern reaches of the Canadian River Plain offer arduous albeit adventurous passage. These are bygone stomping grounds of native Americans, Spanish friars and conquistadores, outlaws and white settlers. Kiowa and Apache of this region call the Canadian River goo-al-pah. The river springs from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado. Ancient memories of snowmelt torrents linger in manmade lakes along its 900 miles course through New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. It is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River.

Azure drapes the distant mesa

Timeless straw and coyote den

Red dirt road invites adventure

Breath of sage calls cattlemen.

© Ilija Lukić 2014

Road To Adventure

Rough-Hewn Enchantment
(The northern Llano Estacado Escarpment rises behind eroded cliffs of Mesa Redonda in badlands south of Tucumcari, New Mexico USA)