El Paso Poppies Fest, March 29th!

From the website of the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition:

"The eighth annual 2014 Franklin Mountains Poppies Fest on Castner Range will take place on Saturday, March 29, 2014 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology at 4301 Transmountain Road.

The Poppies Fest Committee welcomes everyone to this free family fun day which features a program of nature walks, educational exhibits and demonstrations by local environmental organizations and wildlife displays include a live socialized wolf from the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and Houdini the Harris Hawk from the El Paso Zoo at 11:00 am. A children’s activity center will offer a variety of arts and crafts led by local community members including Girl Scouts. Local performing groups will provide music and dance. Local vendors will be offering original and hand-made merchandise for sale. Lunch and snacks can be purchased from food vendors on-site. Additional details will be announced in future press releases.

Free parking will be off-site with handicapped accessible shuttle bus service provided from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, funded by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department. The location of off-site parking will be announced soon.

The Poppies Fest Committee is seeking donations to support the event and volunteers, to assist please contact Lisa Gutierrez at 915-269-1239 or lisamarie177@juno.com.

The Poppies Fest celebrates the marvelous open space in Northeast El Paso where the 15 acre grounds of the El Paso Museum of Archaeology are surrounded by the 7,000+ acre Castner Range, a former artillery range known for its unique cultural, geologic and biologic features. If the rain and weather cooperate, it is most known for its beautiful and vast display of Mexican Gold Poppies in the spring.

The Poppies Fest is an opportunity to enjoy our beautiful outdoors while learning about what our mountains and desert have to offer. For example, the museum's Chihuahuan Desert Gardens boast examples of more than 200 native plants and Franklin Mountains State Park offers trails for hiking and bicycling, camping, day use, environmental education programs and festivals such as the Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta.

Information: Marilyn Guida, 915-755-4332, guidamr@elpasotexas.go"

Poppies in Bloom!

All around the El Paso Museum of Archaeology, on Transmountain Road, the poppies are in bloom! (they're the little flowers to the left of the photo!)

El Paso Poppies Fest Next Saturday!

The seventh annual 2013 Poppies Fest on Castner Range will take place on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology at 4301 Transmountain Road. The day will feature a full program of nature talks, wildlife displays, educational exhibits, demonstrations, a live wolf, Houdini the Harris Hawk, children’s activity center, music and food vendors. Everyone is welcome to come out and enjoy the beauty of the mountains and the poppies during this free educational family fun event.

Everyone must park at El Paso Community College Northeast Campus on Gateway North and take the FREE shuttle service provided from 9:30am to 5:00pm. NO PARKING AT THE EL PASO MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY!

Click here to download the poster.

Poppies Fest!

Make plans to attend the Poppies Fest, Sat. March 23, 10 am to 4 pm at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology, Free Parking and Free Shuttle at EPCC NE Campus off Gateway North - NO parking at the museum. Enjoy live music & dance, art & food vendors, children's activity center, live wolf and hawk, nature tours & talks

Sites along the Far West Texas Wildlife Trail

Several years ago, we partnered with Texas Parks and Wildlife and our neighboring Texas Pecos Trail to develop the
Far West Texas Wildlife Trail.  Click here to read more about this trail and to learn how to access/purchase the map!

From the El Paso Uplands Loop of the trail, Franklin Mountains State Park Tom Mays Unit

From the Davis Mountains Loop, the Davis Mountains Preserve (open 365 days a year, their Madera Canyon Trail)

From the Davis Mountains Loop, the Cactus Greenhouse at Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center

From the El Paso Uplands Loop, the botanical garden at the Museum of Archaeology

From the Big Bend Loop, Big Bend National Park's Window Trail

From the El Paso Uplands Loop, near the Museum of Archaeology

It is part of the mission of our non-profit Texas Mountain Trail organization to develop programs that help folks get the most out of their visit to the Texas Mountains, like the Far West Texas Wildlife Trail.  You can now become a member of the Texas Mountain Trail and support our programs!  Click here for more information!

El Paso's Museum of Archaeology, Walking with the Ancestors

One of the excellent permanent exhibits
at El Paso's Museum of Archaeology
photo courtesy, Texas Historical Commission

El Paso's Museum of Archaeology on TransMountain Road, is a terrific place to visit and gain appreciation of our heritage and our roots as residents of the Trans Pecos and Chihuahuan Desert.

There's a great exhibit on now:

Walking with the Ancestors:
From Mesoamerica to the Southwest

On View September 22, 2012 through January 13, 2013

 

Guest Curator, Dr. Yolanda Chávez Leyva

Chair of the History Department, University of Texas, El Paso

A statement from the exhibit's curator, from the Museum's website:

"Walking with the Ancestors: From Mesoamerica to the Southwest is an exhibit about the connections among peoples across time and space. Although the movement of people shaped the El Paso del Norte region of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez for thousands of years, we often think of migration as a relatively new development. Yet, we are surrounded by traces of much, much older movements of peoples and cultures moving from south to north, from what is now Mexico to what is now the Southwestern United States.

My ancestors believed that without movement there is no life. The heart beats, moving our blood through our bodies. The earth rotates around the sun and the moon circles the earth. The seasons move from the new life of springtime to the resting time of winter only to begin a new cycle of growth again. Animals migrate. And people move. The history of humanity is a story of movement, of migration from one place to another for a season or for generations. Walking with the Ancestors connects us to each other because it asks us to remember what we share. At a time when immigration is one of the most contested and emotional issues in our nation, this exhibit calls on us to stop for a moment and think about the ancient history of movements of people and culture.

Utilizing pottery, photographs, stories and other artifacts, the exhibit draws on themes of corn, rain, parrots, the peyote cactus and the rabbit in the moon to trace the movement of life: the movement of the ancestors."

Olin, Aztec glyph from Codex Magliabechiano

Tlaloc from Codex Rios

 

 

More from the Garden at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology

We saw all of these on Saturday at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology!  They have a beautiful garden there adjacent to Franklin Mountains State Park.

Watercolor Paintings of Rock Art at Hueco Tanks at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Our friends at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology sent us this about a current exhibit:

Watercolor Paintings of Rock Art at Hueco Tanks

Exhibit on view until June 3, 2012

The El Paso Museum of Archaeology is currently exhibiting Forrest Kirkland’s images of rock art at Hueco Tanks in the auditorium gallery.   

Kirkland was the first artist to systematically document prehistoric rock art in Texas, thus his work is well known and admired by those interested in Texas archaeology. 

The twenty six images in this exhibit, which include hundreds of pictographs, are full color reproductions scanned at high resolution from Kirkland’s plates.  The original watercolors are no longer in a condition to be exhibited because the paper and paints are brittle and light sensitive.  Today some of the images Kirkland rendered in watercolor have faded or disappeared while others in sheltered locations are still visible.

Want to learn more or plan a visit?  Here's the museum's website.

Texas Rainbow Hedgehog Cactus at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Texas Rainbow Hedgehog Cactus next to a few remaining spring mountain poppies outside
the El Paso Museum of Archaeology yesterday

The contrasting bands on the the cactus stem
gives the name "rainbow" and indicate
bands of yearly growth

Yesterday, we were delighted to see spring blooms at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology on Trans Mountain Road.  There were still poppies blooming from last weekend's poppy festival, and there were also several cacti blooming.  Spring is a great time to visit the museum's desert garden.

The Texas Rainbow Hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus) was a real beauty.  The "rainbow" in the name refers to the contrasting colored bands on the stem, each reflecting a year's growth.  Spines are usually numerous, overlapping and interlocking, forming a mesh that covers the green color of the stem.  Blooms appear in the spring from March to May, earlier at lower elevations and later at higher elevations. The blossoms are bee-pollinated.  They open in the morning and close at night, and last about a week.

More about the El Paso Museum of Archaeology from their website:

El Paso Museum of Archaeology

The El Paso Museum of Archaeology tells the story of the first inhabitants of the El Paso area, the greater Southwest, and northern Mexico. Dioramas and exhibits in the museum narrate and depict American Indian lives and display their material culture from the Paleoindian hunters of the Ice Age to their modern Indian descendants. The exhibits and their content are periodically changed to reflect the scope of the museum's collections and the interests of the community.

The museum's grounds include 15 acres of nature trails, outdoor exhibits, and a desert garden with more than 250 varieties of native plants. There is also a gazebo for family picnics and small group activities.

 

The Museum of Archaeology is adjacent to the National Border Patrol Museum on Trans Mountain Road, near Franklin Mountains State Park.

More Poppies from the Franklin Mountains

The flowers are blooming now!  Check on the north east side of the Franklin Mountain State Park, near the El Paso Museum of Archaeology.  They don't bloom every year, but they're up now.  Coming up at the end of the month, on March 31, is the annual poppy festival.  Read about it here!

The Poppies are Blooming!

The Franklin Mountains are blessed with blooms of poppies this year!  (To see a full flickr slideshow from two years ago, click here!)  Interested in finding them?  They're on the northeast side of the Franklin Mountains of El Paso.  The Museum of Archaeology hosts the annual poppy festival on March 31....read more about it here!

Little beauties you should see, surrounded by places you should visit!

These lovely rainbow cacti are nestled against the Frankin Mountains and Franklin Mountains State Park, on the grounds of the El Paso Museum of Archaeology.  The museum is right next to the National Border Patrol Museum, so that's three great places to visit in one outing in El Paso!

National Border Patrol Museum in El Paso

Visitors can can journey through the history of the U.S. Border Patrol from the beginning in the Old West, through Prohibition, World War II, into the high-tech Patrol of today at the National Border Patrol Museum in El Paso. The museum exhibits uniforms, equipment, photographs, guns, vehicles, airplanes, boats and documents depicting historical and current date sector operations throughout the United States.

To learn more, visit their website!
The Museum is located next to the El Paso Museum of Archaeology on Transmountain Road...making it easy to visit both great places on the same trip!
Thanks to Randy Mallory and the Texas Historical Museum for this photograph!

El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Located on scenic Transmountain Road in El Paso is that city's Museum of Archaeology.

The Museum tells the story of the first inhabitants of the El Paso area, the greater Southwest and northern Mexico. Exhibits like this one, reveal Native American lives from Paleoindian hunters of the Ice Age to their modern Indian descendants. The museum grounds include nature trails with native plant gardens and outdoor exhibits, and is next door to the National Border Patrol Museum.  

Thanks to Randy Mallory and the Texas Historical Commission for use of this photo!

More poppies in El Paso!

Taken near the El Paso Museum of Archaeology in the shadow of Franklin Mountains State Park.  Check out the plans for this year's Poppy Celebration here!

El Paso's Poppies at the beginning of the season

El Paso is blessed with poppies in the Franklin Mountains in years with good rain.  This year it looks to be a great one for a beautiful display.  These photos were taken at the very beginning of the season...as they days go on, they'll begin to fill the mountain side.  Check out the festival plans on March 20 at the Museum of Archaeology here.

If conditions are right: El Paso's Franklin Mountains in March

Temperatures and precipitation have to be right at certain times of the year, but if they are, March is glorious in El Paso's Franklin Mountains.  The mountainsides are yellow with poppies!  The Franklins--and Franklin Mountain State Park--are a mecca for mountain biking and hiking.  There are also two museums on the eastern edge of the mountains:  El Paso's Museum of Archaeology and the Border Patrol Museum.  Check them out!

El Paso's Museum of Archaeology

When in El Paso, we invite you to visit the Museum of Archaeology on Transmountain Road.

Dioramas, artifacts, and exhibits, including a nature trail with native plants, narrate adaptations of indigenous peoples in the southern Southwest and northern Mexico from 12,000 years ago to the present.

Getting ready for the Franklin Mountains Poppy Festival!

March 14 is the day of El Paso's Poppy Festival on Transmountain at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology. Check out the festivities here!

There will be lots of activities, including a film festival!

Plan to visit El Paso for the Poppy Festival

For information about El Paso's Poppy Festival at the Museum of Archaeology, click here!