June 2, 2023 Catwalk and North

Friday,  June 2, 2023

We showered this morning and did a little load of wash - thanks, Anne!  She made a delicious egg casserole with green chilis and tasty tortillas from her favorite restaurant too.  Talk about the "hostess with the mostest".  (Gotta remember to get that recipe, so if you see this, Anne, send the recipe please!)

 Ready to head north into parts of New Mexico we have yet to see!

As we leave Silver City behind and enter the Gila National Forest, we pass through Dugway Canyon, Red Cliff Canyon, below,  and others.  Beautiful rugged countryside.  I guess this would be called high desert.

Our next turn is onto Cat Walk Road, 

 into White Water Canyon.  We tried to come here once with Anne, but the river was too high and we couldn't cross.  Today it is only a couple of inches and we splash across to the Catwalk parking area, joining a dozen or so other vehicles. Beautiful day in the low 70's.

The Catwalk is built in Whitewater Canyon and follows the path of a former plank-board walkway that was built over pipes that carried water to an ore processing plant in the 1890's. The new catwalk winds through the canyon, a dozen feet above the creek, with steep canyon walls on either side! . The original one, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, was partially washed away in floods a few years ago and replaced with this all-metal version.  

The stream below has a few rapids and small waterfalls - as well as a couple of trout fishermen

The trail continues past the catwalk and we continued on across a stream.

 The next crossing seemed a little too tricky for Beth, so we turned around. 

Back through the river to the main road, and just a few miles farther north we come to the road to Mogollon -  billed as a mining ghost town.  Anne warned that the road is narrow, twisting and a bit scary.  (Guardrails?? What are those??)  I think Greg takes it as a challenge, and off we go.  

This sign isn't too encouraging, but at least the road is paved and we encounter a total of two vehicles. One of the sharp curves around a tall cliff wall sports a round mirror placed so that you can see if there is oncoming traffic.  The rest of the time, you're just careful and hope anyone else on this road is the same!

There's not much to the town.  Some old mining equipment and old buildings including a (closed) museum.  Both gold and silver were mined here and there are current efforts to begin mining again.  Environmentalists and the Chiricahua Apaches are fighting it and the Democratic Senator from New Mexico has introduced legislation to better control mining and demand that they do remedial work after mining.  Existing laws are from the 1870's. Will greed win out yet again?

We think this is the actual mine site, across the valley.

We stop at an intersection near the main road and do a little rockhounding, as the book we have on New Mexico says there are agates, bloodstone, halite, jasper, obsidian, etc. to be found.  We don't do any digging but find a few interesting pieces.   Spot these camera-shy elk along the way.

 Then it is on to Apache Creek Campground, a US Forest Service Campground.  We stopped at a ranger station where they gave us a local map, but even then we miss the turn.  Coming back we find it, as the only sign is facing north, duh!  Nice tall cottonwood trees and ponderosa pines!  The sites are quite spread out but there are only six or eight and we snag the last one!  It's fcfs (first come first served) here.  Picnic table, fire ring and nearby pit toilets.

There is a dry creek bed behind our site, filled with rocks of varying sizes, so we walk for a while checking them out. Greg heads one way, I go the other.   We've seen the remains of several animals - several pelts, skeletons, various bones.   While walking I come across a leg.  Just a straight leg section complete with hair and hoof! All I can think is that there must be some big predators in the area!  I know there are bears and mountain lions.....so I stop looking over my shoulder and head back to Greg and camp.

Soup and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches as the temperature drops and Greg gets a fire going.  The moon is practically full, so not a lot of visible stars tonight.  What clear, cool air!