Tucson - Silver City - Valley of Fires - Las Vegas, NM
June 2: Twinkles and I are off on another RV adventure. It’s been a while, approximately eight months since the last one. As a result, we are sort of rusty at this and there is an extra twist as we will tow the Jeep this time. I had to relearn how to put the transfer case into neutral, the transmission in park and the ignition switch in the on position with the battery disconnected. It’s a little tricky, but easy once repeated a few times. It's important to remember that the Jeep is back there when towing, you can't see it behind you when traveling straight, but it follows in the RV closely on turns and I can see it with my back up camera turned on.
Our first destination is Silver City, NM which we have visited several times, but it remains a favorite. The RV feels a little shaky at speed in traffic but eventually you get used to its swaying and wandering tendency after a 100 miles or so. It takes a little longer to get used to Twinkles nervous passenger stress. Also, we were not sure how Alice (The Cat) would handle the drive, but to our surprise she quieted down in the back and was fine.
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| The rig at the Texas Canyon rest area on I-10 |
In Lordsburg, NM we get on route 90 which climbs in elevation under extremely dark clouds which were a little scary and resulted in a brief rain storm with light hail and then suddenly we're back into clear skies.
We arrived in Silver city and set up at the Rose Valley RV Ranch, then took a drive downtown where walked around and then went to the Little Toad Creek Pub for dinner, very interesting bar maid and customers, food was equally good.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_City,_New_Mexico
June 3: We make a trip to Walmart for a few things and then a drive to the historic town of Pinos Altos to check out the historic Buckhorn Saloon. It is not open at this time of day and looks like an abandoned building from the outside, but as we peek in a window it appears to be ready for business. We take several photos of the weird art around the old museum across the road. See photos above.
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| The Buckhorn is totally (excessively) restored on the inside |
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| I know from previous experience it's fun |
Next is a short drive to the trailhead for the 3 1/2 mile long Dragonfly Loop Trail. We have done this hike several times in past years, but this year is different in that it is extremely dry and there is no water flowing in the River. The trail takes you to a rocky creek side area where an ancient Indian Petroglyph of a dragonfly can be seen. I’m always amazed that no one has defaced it over all the years ?
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Well done piece of art has stood the test of time |
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| View from the trail |
Returning to Silver City, we explore an antique store, look into the Ditch and take a look at a favorite Mexican Restaurant. There was a lengthy jobs wanted sign on the door. I wonder how much of their staff has disappeared due to the current immigration threat ?
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Always my favorite building |
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These beautiful buildings always seem vacant ? |
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| People need to take this seriously |
June 4: We are packed and and on the road at 10 AM traveling on route 180 to Deming, NM and then route 26 to Hatch, NM where we park and roam around the epicenter of
Hatch, home of the famous Chile peppers.
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| Hatch likes roadside novelties |
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| Signs too |
We then continue on route 25 to San Antonio, NM, known for its two iconic Chile cheese burger restaurants. We then take route 380 to the Valley of Fires National Recreation Area where we have a reserved campsite.
After getting the RV set up, we take drive into nearby Carrizozo, NM for a tour of the downtown. Carrizozo came into being due to the railroad and has a very interesting arts district with many old historic, but mostly deteriorating buildings. I easily achieved my photography fix for the day here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrizozo,_New_Mexico
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| You don't see a courtyard of Donkeys everyday |
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| They are everywhere in town |
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| The historic Carrizozo Theater |
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| I found nothing to eat or drink here |
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| Old restored railroad caboose on display |
The Valley of Fires Recreation Area is very impressive and we have a great view of it from our campsite. We will explore it in more detail tomorrow ! When checking for an internet signal, I see two available networks, TRUMP and MUSK, it’s ironic that the nearest RV to us has a Texas license plate ?
June 5: We start our day with a hike on the Malpais Nature Trail that is a one mile walking loop trail that goes down from the campground into the vast Carrizozo lava flow. This flow was not created by an eruption, but rather from a vent in the Earths surface approximately 2,000 to 5,000 years ago. The lava flowed south along the floor of the Tularosa Basin for 44 miles and covers over 125 square miles.
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| View from the Campsite |
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| Edge of the flow |
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| The cactus thrive in this setting |
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| That's me standing out there to give scale to the view |
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| This horned lizard was hard to see on road pavement |
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| Silverleaf nightshade is beautiful |
In the afternoon, we return to downtown Carrizozo and visit the Carrizozo Heritage Museum. The museum is housed in an old ice house and had great exhibits, one of the best small museums I’ve seen, excellent !
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| It's real cowboy country here |
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| Secret Atomic bomb test nearby created considerable stress |
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| The Railroad was big here |
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| Beautiful outfit belonging to famous chief Cochise's granddaughter |
We then traveled to the former mining boom town of White Oaks approximately 12 miles away. In 1879 gold was discovered in the hills near White Oak and it became a boom town that had a many as 2,500 residents at its peak. However, by 1900, the gold began to decline and when the railroad bypassed White Oaks, going instead to Carrizozo, (a tough name to pronounce) most of White Oaks population picked up and moved to Carrizozo. There are very few remaining buildings in White Oak from its boom years.
We then stopped at the town cemetery which had several interesting historic gravestones.
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| Sheriff killed by Billy the Kid |
June 6: We travel from Carrizozo to Las Vegas, NM with a couple of short stops in the towns of Corona and Vaugh, NM. Vaugh was notable for having many old closed gas stations and diners.
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| Very colorful cafe in Corona |
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| This general store had everything |
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| The Ranch House Cafe in Vaugh has seen better days |
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| No gas or snacks here |
We check into the KOA Campground outside of Las Vegas, NM which is a first for us, in several years of RV living we have never stayed at a KOA campground.
We then go to the downtown to explore. This is another favorite town that we have visited several times. There are two distinct sections of town, the "Old Town" with its square, many adobe buildings of Spanish / Mexican heritage and the "New Town" with more anglo architecture from late 1800's to present.
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| A series of controversial murals on Mexican - US history |
We walk around the old historic downtown square and then take a walk on the tree lined Gallinas River Park.
June 7: We drive downtown to the historic LaCastaneda Hotel, one of the jewels of Fred Harvey’s chain of railroad hotels and restaurants. It lay idle for several decades until it was bought, restored and reopened a few years ago. We were only able to see the lobby, dining room and a side bar and I believe it is still a work in progress, but it's beautiful.
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| Inside the bar area |
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| The Hotel Lobby |
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| The building across the street once housed the Harvey Girls |
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| The Las Vegas Train Station is still operational |
We then toured around the surrounding downtown area referred to as the (new town) which contains many beautiful late 1800 to early 1900 buildings. Las Vegas, NM is an incredible city for architecture with indigenous adobe Spanish architecture and nearly every other architectural style built in the United States between 1840 and 1940.
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| Iconic mural on old building |
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| Beautiful building that housed many civic institutions |
As we were walking, we saw a trolley tour bus in a parking lot and asked about tours. It just happened that they were leaving shortly for a tour to a special event at the Las Vegas Wildlife Refuge for live music, food, and a mural dedication in the preserve visitors building. It turned out that we were the only ones taking the tour, pretty sad, but the woman on board who operates this tour was great and very friendly, a highly recommended tour trolley. The highpoint of the event was the mural dedication with the artist who explained how she became involved and how they incorporated local school children art into the mural. A few of the actual kids were there and it was really motivational, touching moment.
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| The mural to be dedicated |
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| A small but dedicated group for the ceremony |
Back at the KOA campground after doing a load of laundry, we go back downtown for dinner at the Skillet restaurant which resides in this enormous old stone building with much creative metal artwork, a bit weird, (I like that), but the food was very good, even Twinkles thought so !
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| The Skillet Rolling Kitchen was very unique |
June 8: Hard to believe this is our seventh day on the road and we are struggling a bit deciding where to go next, so many choices !
This KOA campground was not up to the standards I had expected from a KOA, but this is the first one we have stayed at and perhaps my expectations are high. The high end large camp sites were nice looking but the rest of the campground were odd sized campsites with dated hookups and a ridiculously poor dump station.
In the morning we moved to the local Walmart where we will spend one night before heading to Santa Fee, NM. We then drive the Jeep north on route 25 to the Pecos National Historic Park. They have an excellent museum there and a walking trail around the Pecos Pueblo.
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| The majority of this Pueblo is left unexcavated |
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| The remains of the last church on the site |
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| Another church view |
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| Remains of adjacent Pueblo rooms |
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| Entrance to a underground Kiva |
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| This was a large, mighty Pueblo in its prime |
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The original church destroyed during the Pueblo revolt was much larger as shown overlaid on this sign
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| The Pueblo revolt changed history |
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| Pottery found on the site during excavation |
On our return to Walmart, we find that our RV which we had left all alone in the lot is now almost surrounded by a group of RV’s, parked at various angles with awnings out, slides extended, chairs out, all the things responsible RV’ers should not do at a Walmart. We immediately moved to another quiet end of the parking lot for the night.
I haven’t yet mentioned our cat, Alice who is with us on this trip, she has a tumor that is slowly taking its toll, she can no longer jump up onto our bed, chair and table in the RV. We were thinking that this would be a tough trip for her but she has been great, no trouble at all and a really good traveler.
We are heading for Santa Fe, NM in the morning, stay tuned for the next chapter of this adventure.
