Stonehenge comes to New Mexico

Steve Schwartzman

Oct 28

Okay, so Stonehenge didn't really come to New Mexico—not even a replica of it like the one in central Texas. Even so, naturally occurring groups of upright boulders that we visited on October 12th did remind me of Stonehenge, and also of the moai on Easter Island. The "native" groups of giant stones in southwestern New Mexico have become centerpieces at City of Rocks State Park.

One grouping of stones sits on a hill apart from all the others in the plain. We drove up there first, and although we had a good view of all the other groupings below, I took very few pictures looking back down. That's because the state has put campsites right at the base of many of the boulders, and any detailed photograph of the whole layout inevitably includes a slew of recreational vehicles. (If you want such views, you can have them.) In the few photographs I took that included the majority of the stones on the plain, I used a wide-angle lens to make New Mexico's "Stonehenge" minuscule, thereby hiding the camping vehicles that were there. The top picture is an example of that: the main group of stones appears in the distance at the left.

Mostly I played nature purist and took pictures which included no human elements. That often meant having to scrunch down and aim upwards, something I'm used to doing anyhow to avoid unwanted objects.