Leonardo da Vinci said the human foot is a masterpiece of engineering, and a work of art.  Painting MY toes, would NOT be artful.  Yet the foot being a masterpiece of engineering is most definitely true.  As we walk trails, I am impressed how the ankle can take on each angle, sense the different stress points, feel the toes pressure against the shoe and adjust for balance. Going up or down hill, stepping long, stepping short, quick stride to the left, up and over a rock, the complexity is amazing. It is a wonderful masterpiece of engineering. Thank God.

Walking. We made Deming, New Mexico (NM) our home base for one week. FYI the movie – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was filmed near Deming. Gila National Forest is north of Deming.  So many trails, including the Cliff Dwelling’s and the White Water Canyon Catwalk.

The one mile Catwalk National Recreation Trail winds through the canyon’s steep following the path of a pipeline built in the early 1890s to provide water and electricity for the mining town of Graham.  Geronimo and his Apache warriors hid out here from Army soldiers in the 1800s. Outlaw Butch Cassidy took cover here as well.

City of Rocks State Park in the Chihuahuan desert was about an hour away. The “city” is a geologic formation made up of large, sculptured rock columns, or pinnacles. Rockhound State Park and the rugged slopes of the Little Florida Mountain was only five miles to the west of Deming.  Silver City was also just over an hour’s drive to the north east.  It is a quirky cultural town of just over 10,000 people next to the 3.3 million-acre Gila National Forest.

 

 

City Of Rocks

 

Rockhound State Park and Silver City

Cliff Dwellings

Side note: I find it a little disturbing that Teddy Roosevelt is being canceled.

 

Catwalk National Recreation Trail

Miscellaneous