Southwest 2021-8: New Mexico: Silver City, Valley of Fires, Carrizozo

March 7-10, 2021

    We never tired of looking at the colors and ridge lines of Arizona's mountains that range from the cool shapes of their peaks...

...to ridged buttes.

    From Douglas, Arizona, the plan was to work our way toward Fort Collins, Colorado, to have the van's fan repaired. First we were off to Silver City, New Mexico to check out a place new to us. But as with most of our ventures, after Silver City we took a turn in San Antonio, NM and found ourselves heading southeast to Carrizozo, to our joy.

    But first, back to our route. Driving northeast from Douglas, shortly before Silver City, we crossed the Continental Divide. This time the climb was easy.

    Hills of mine tailings on the road into Silver City demonstrate that it still has active copper mines. It's also home to Western New Mexico University.

    We stayed two nights in pleasant campground on the east edge of town. The onsite laundry facilities and warm showers were much appreciated after all the dust and cold of recent days. 

    We enjoyed exploring Silver City, including visiting a local coffee shop with fences of cholla cactus limbs and uniquely carved benches like the one above on a street corner. We explored the university and neighborhoods along the town's steep streets in the van.

The many cholla in the campground were in bloom.

Cholla is a beautiful cactus yet one one should stay clear of. It has many small spines and each has its own fish-hook point that is rather difficult to remove. Some refer to it as Flying Cholla for it somehow has the ability to get you even when you think you are way clear.

This one holds a birds' nest.

Marilyn did her best to get the perfect close-up of a flower...

...and was successful at last.

    After two days in Silver City we headed eastward through the canyons of Gila National Forest. Those flecks on the windshield are snow.

Like Arizona, New Mexico's landscape constantly amazes.

Nearing Emory Pass.

By the time we reached Emory Pass at 8,200 feet, the wind was blowing fierce and cold. The area had experienced major fire in 2013. 

Doug was happy when we stopped at the Overlook to see that we were in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, named after the early naturalist and author of the "Sand County Almanac," another book read by his book group.

    

Awesome cliffs heading down from Emory Pass toward I-25. 

A little south of Truth or Consequences, we passed Caballo Reservoir on the Rio Grande River at 4,200 feet. In 1950, the small town Hot Springs, located off I-25 between Albuquerque and Las Cruces, had its name changed to Truth or Consequences as part of the publicity for the tenth anniversary of the radio show of the same name.

    Marilyn found a rest stop on the All Stays app "just off" I-25 near San Antonio. Well, the rest "stop" was several miles east off the interstate and turned out to be a rest "turnout" with no services. After passing and then doing a 180 to take pictures of the abandoned Mission of San Antonio de Senecu, Doug concluded we really should do another 180 and just keep heading east to Valley of Fires State Park and Carrizozo, which he'd kind of been hankering to do all along. 

Windmills both retired and in use abound in the Southwest.

Driving down into the Malpais lava flow that Valley of Fires SP sits next to.

We're always amazed at the amount of vegetation in the lava flow.

Looking east from campground.

    Doug thought we had little chance of getting a campsite at Valley of Fires, but we found the campground almost empty. We had so many great sites to choose from! And that was the day we established the 1-2-3 rule: henceforth, we'd look at only 3 sites in a campground and choose 1, 2, or 3. No longer would we drive round and round and revisit sites hunting for THE BEST site.

Sunset at Valley of Fires, obviously in the best campsite. Each site had its own ramada to shade the picnic table.

    After another windy and cold night, we headed to nearby Carrizozo to one of our all-time favorite coffee shops. formerly 12th Street Coffee, it was under new ownership and now called Honey Girl's Cafe et Chocolat, but we were glad it had survived. As New Mexico had only recently started to reopen, ordering was done from outside and our coffee delivered through the top of the door.

You never know where you'll see a donkey in Carrizozo.

Cracking and patching make this wall look like a mural.

Another rooftop donkey.

Sidewalk donkey.

    After coffee, we were ready to head north to Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, though we did still have 600 miles to go to get to Fort Collins ahead of the "epic" snowstorm, including getting over 8,834-foot Raton pass between New Mexico and Colorado. Doug, the native Californian, was not looking forward to driving in snow. 

    Oh how the next three weeks would change Doug's attitude about driving on white roads.