There's no doubt what this Medicine Wheel is for! These are
the antennae of the Very Large Array, a radio telescope on the Plains
of San Augustin near Socorro, New Mexico. A self-guided walking path
here ranks as one of the best observatory tours I've ever enjoyed.
A high, dark campsite in the mountains southeast of the VLA is the
finest site from which I've ever used a telescope. The access road
to the NFS campsites turns off to the south several miles east of the
VLA's visitors' center. On the gravel access road, drive south
through the telescope -- across the eastern arm of the Y-shaped
array -- and keep going until the road grows narrow, rutted and high on
the shoulder of Mount Withington (it's the mountain in the distance
to the right in the photograph).
Tableau scrappes.