Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge

Posted Sun Sep 29, 2002 in Travel

After taking a leave from leadership of the LBC worship team, I decided that a mental health day would be in order. It was so relaxing this morning, not having to get to the church by 0800 for rehearsal. My wife and I slept in, not arising until about 0900. Young Son knocked at the door and came in. He crawled up on the bed with us as we talked about what we might do with the day. We discussed breakfast (all of us being hungry) so I got up and made pancakes for my family, something I haven’t done for months.

I decided I wanted more outside time and wondered if we could do a short trip. I had seen something about the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in one of my favorite books, Roads of Texas. So I decided to generate a route, program the GPS, and get us out of doors for the afternoon.

Wife and Young Son packed some snacks and water while I grabbed my camera and bag. Young Son fussed a bit about going, but I persuaded him to change his attitude because it would do him good to get out of the house too. We headed out of town just after noon. The sky was blue with a few fair-weather clouds and the temperature was a marvelous mid-70’s. The factors that make a great day were all in alignment.

We drove northwest on U.S. 84 to Anton and then turned west onto SH 597. I really enjoy the off-system highways the best because they offer a more interesting picture of America. We passed cottonfields and milo fields; some were ready for harvest and others still had a ways to go. The farmers have been defoliating the cotton lately and in some places you can smell the defoliant. It’s an odd, sweet smell that only happens during this time of the year. We were surprised at the number of abandoned places. It was sad to think that just a few years ago people lived in these places, now marked by dead or dying trees and deteriorating buildings.

We passed Yellow Lake but couldn’t see anything from the highway. I had intended to stop and see why this lake deserved a name when 20,000 others do not. But there was only a private ranch road so we couldn’t approach. I still wonder what it looks like.

We came upon the refuge and were all surprised by the facility. It’s a very nice place and well worth the visit. I’ll bet it’s even prettier in the spring when the wildflowers are in bloom or when the wildfowl are wintering there. We drove down to Upper and Lower White Lake, stopped, and got out to read the description and stretch our legs. While the description called this lake (and the others) a playa lake, these don’t look like playa lakes to me. They are incised more deeply into the topography than what I think of as a playa and appear to me to have a permanent (or nearly permanent) water body. This indicates that there is a connection to the regional ground water. But then again, I might be wrong.

We drove west to the headquarters area of the refuge to sign in. They maintain a weather station so I took Young Son over to the raingage to show him how they work. We puttered around there for a bit, wondering about the location of the prairie dog colony. It is shown on the map near headquarters but we never found it. We did, however, stumble onto an anthill.

The ants reminded me of when I was a kid in California. I used to catch red ants (these happened to be black and red) and keep them in a glass jar. I loved to watch them burrow and to see how they constructed a nest. I fed them sugar water. It was interesting that they learned to anticipate feeding time. I remember listening to them when it was quiet in the house. I could hear their faint whisperings. Once my mom knocked over one of my jars onto my bedroom floor, scattering soil and ants all around. She was pretty ticked off about that, but got over it before long and I was allowed to keep them again.

I learned to catch the ants with my fingers by pinching them from the sides. They weren’t able to bite me with their heavy mandibles, so they couldn’t spray their formic acid the way that they normally would. I found that I could catch them more quickly that way. I really got to be pretty good at it.