Fig. 1Syenite hill, wildflowers, and a desert trail at Hueco Tanks
Landform
Syenite monadnocks rising from the Chihuahuan floor — rock tanks that hold rain, and three hills standing like islands in the desert.
Field note
The huecos are natural cisterns in the rock. East, West, and North Mountains sit off the basin like a small archipelago. El Paso is twenty miles west; the tanks are older than the city. Cooler months are kinder. This plate is Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site, not the Organ Mountains and not a climbing gym.
Hueco Tanks are three syenite hills east of El Paso. Rain collects in the rock tanks that give the place its name. The basin is Chihuahuan; the hills are islands. This plate is the state historic site, not the Organ Mountains and not a gym wall.
