Friday, February 7
Left a brisk 35 degree morning in Houston and temperatures
fell a few degrees en route to Austin.
Misty, drizzly in spots but no issues with roads. Brief stop at Matt’s in Austin, but decided
to push on towards better weather.
Took route 290 west from Austin, through Dripping Springs,
Johnson City and the LBJ Ranch, Fredericksburg.
Lots of ranches with goats, horses, cattle, some sheep; barren peach
orchards and many deer and exotic wildlife.
Took I-10 the whole way to Fort Stockton, where we stopped
at a Walmart with a dozen or so other trucks and rv’s. Arrived about 7:30, had gumbo for dinner and
went to sleep pretty early. Very quiet
night.
Saturday, February 8
Left Fort Stockton about 7:30 after a quick stop at a nearly
Mickey D’s for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.
West Texas flat, occasional low mountains; cacti, mesquite and not a
whole lot else! Stopped at an overlook
to stretch our legs and then continued on.
Went through El Paso
– very large and sprawling, lots of shopping malls and stores, some signs and
store names in Spanish. El Paso is very
hilly and many homes are built into the hills.
Most of what we saw from the highway was very basic housing, small
wooden boxes.
Arrived at New Mexico border at 11:20 Mountain Time and stopped at a Welcome Center to pick up a map and information.The White Sands Missile Range website had said it was closed indefinitely so we asked about it. The man helping us made several phone calls and concluded that it was open, as it usually only closes for one or two hours at a time during testing.
Stopped at the old town of Mesilla, which has a lovely
church and many adobe stuctures. Some of
the buildings around the plaza were built in the early 1800’s and most had a
story, whether related to Billy the Kid, Kit Carson, the Butterfield Stagecoach line or other
local history. Many are now shops and we
walked around a few before heading toward Las Cruces (the crosses, after which
the city is named, refer to a group of crosses that marked the graves of some
pioneers killed by the Apaches.)
Inexpensive gas at Las Cruces, which is the 2nd
largest city in New Mexico. Back to
mostly flat land with occasional low mountain ranges. Very dry and rocky with mostly dried grasses
and shrubby trees. Unfortunately, the
White Sands dunes were closed because of the crash of an unmanned plane
yesterday morning. “Closed indefinitely”.
Many disappointed people at the Visitor’s Center, where we watched a
film and then headed back towards Las Cruces with a stop along the road to
check out some dunes. The sand here is
made of gypsum and is extremely soft and fine, almost like
talc.
Decided to stop at a BLM campground we’d seen along the way
– Aguirre Springs. Very narrow windy
road getting there. It is tucked into
the foothills of some mountains. Nice
campsites were probably about half full.
We walked a bit. It was VERY
windy, though and chilly, so we didn’t spend much time outside. Nice clear , star-studded sky.
Sunday, February 9
Greg woke me early this morning, reporting a nice sunrise so
I threw some clothes over my pj’s and we drove a bit to get a clearer view.
These cattle were
having an early breakfast.
Lots of interesting
dead trees – almost sculpture-like. Still winds strong enough to move me, which
wasn’t terribly conducive to photography!
Back to the campsite to do morning ablations and have some breakfast – sausage and cheese biscuits. Then back through Las Cruces and on toward Deming. Our friend Anne, whom we met on the Alaska trip, called to see where we were and we agreed to meet at City of Rocks State Park, midway between Demming and her home in Silver City.
City of Rocks is an odd array of rocks rising vertically in
the middle of flat lands, with trails and campsite scattered throughout. Formed by tuff from several volcanoes, it is
an interesting sight! We watched a film
at the Visitor’s Center then Anne arrived.
We drove to a few sites and scrambled through some of the rocks.
Anne brought her dog, Dixie, that we had met in Alaska. Cutie and very much a part of Anne’s
life. Followed Anne back to Silver City
and her home which is on 2 acres outside of town. Lovely home with rural feel
and neighbors with horses, llamas, etc..
Plugged into her handy 30amp connection by the garage and then enjoyed pasta
salad and deviled eggs – yum.
Anne drove us around Silver City a bit to Bear Mountain
Lodge, Western New Mexico University (her Alma Matar) and Little Walnut
recreation area. The architecture is
definitely southwestern, with some adobe buildings, decorative tiles, red tile
roofs…. Very nice.
Anne had made a great dinner of stuffed flank steak with a
salsa twist, a corn and green chile casserole, beans and a lovely lemon pound
cake. We were stuffed but pleasantly
so. Talked and planned tomorrow. Wonderful showers and called it an early
night.
Monday, February 10
38 degrees at 7 AM.
Beautiful sunrise.
Ann had picked up some cranberry and walnut scones from a
bakery in town which were fabulous with
coffee and tea. She wasn’t feeling
especially well, so urged us to go ahead to the Gila National Forest and Cliff
Dwellings with the hopes that she would feel better and meet us later.
The drive north of Silver City on Los Pinos Road was
gorgeous. After a very short time we
climbed in elevation and entered a world of beautiful tall ponderosa
pines. The road was extremely windy but
that was ok since we enjoyed the scenery so much. There were occasional patches of snow in the
shaded areas.
We stopped at a few viewpoints along the way, along with a memorial to Ben Lilly, a famous mountain man from these parts.
Arrived at the Gila Cliff Dwelling Visitor’s Center where we
watched a short film and got directions to the path to the Cliff
Dwellings. Talked with a volunteers from
Sitka Alaska who was friendly and knowledgeable and then walked the mile long
loop to the dwellings. Another volunteer
there provided some good information but we excused ourselves early and we
headed onward, hoping to get some good photographs before the others – about 10
folks – made their way into the dwellings.
There are five caves, the first two of which are not
open. There is a path through the others
and many of the walls, windows, etc. are still standing. Very interesting!
Anne and Dixie were in the parking lot when we returned and
we spent some time talking with another volunteer there about the area. Anne has lived in this area since college and
is very much an outdoors person and quite knowledgeable.
Anne took us to a nearby campsite where we had green chili
stew for lunch and walked a short trail to a pictograph site.
We next stopped at a ranch that raises goats. Anne knows the family and had heard that over
100 kids (baby goats that is) had been born in the past week. They were really very tiny and very cute,
frolicking, nursing, and playing.
We went back to Anne’s to re-group and leave Dixie, and Greg
drove us the Buckhorn Saloon and Opera House in Pinos Altos for dinner. Established in 1860, it is now a good
restaurant, though from the outside it looks pretty ramshackle. Lots of saloon type décor and good food!
Beth worked on pictures for a while, Greg crashed early.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
38 degrees at 7 AM again.
Used the little electric heater last night and was more comfortable.
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