Day 5 - To Caballo State Park

Thursday - Day 5: 

I woke up around 4:30 am and drove to the showers. I was already packed up and ready to pull out at first light. I realized I'd lost my coffee filter and had to return to the campsite, where I found it lying in the dirt next to a big rock. 

Today I had two choices in getting to Truth or Consequences; 1) Hwy 180 to Deming, then I10 to Las Cruces then I25 up to TorC (120 miles and 1.5 hours), or 2) Hwy 180 to Hwy 61 to Hwy 152. (80 miles and 2 hours).  I took the short distance/longer time drive and was glad I did. I really enjoyed the drive. It took me up to Emory Pass,  8228 ft elevation and a bit of snow, then back down into Hillsboro, a quirky tiny town, and dropped me off right at Caballo, with the State Park just 3 minutes to the right.  My GPS, by the way gave me WRONG directions, telling me to turn LEFT.  I just happened to see a road sign telling me to go RIGHT. 

Highlights of the trip included seeing 2 separate herds of deer, a flock of wild turkeys, and a hawk trying to lift a rabbit as big as itself! Also, somewhere between mile marker 25-27 PAY ATTENTION and go very slow because it's like you pass into the twilight zone, as you suddenly find yourself on a drop-dead gorgeous road between two steep rocky cliffs - mind blowing! It all happened so fast! I should have stopped, but my phone photos wouldn't have done it justice. It's one of those things you have to see for yourself.

Here are some photos of my drive:

These deer weren't afraid at all. They just moseyed off the road and stared at me! 

The highest point of the drive.

On the drive up, I was surprised at all the DEAD pine trees to my right.

I wondered what killed them all? 

Was it a fire?

Disease?

Pests?

A shame, whatever it was, but it does look like the forest is coming back.

View at the top of the pass was incredible. I wish my iPhone took better photos

I thought this was a red candle in a niche. About 30 feet up a cliff!
Turned out to be a piece of red plastic that had blown into the crevice!  

This was a pretty cool piece of old road. So NARROW!

The black dots are cows! These rocks are HUGE!

Temp at the summit

Temp 1/2 hour later

 I stopped at a tiny pull out park to have breakfast on the way down the mountain and was pleasantly surprised by this large flock of wild turkeys. They weren't frightened by me either, and just slowly pecked their way down the stream, having THEIR breakfast!

I passed through a sweet little town called Hillsboro. It was like going back in time. I had to stop to take a photo of this gas pump. We had one just like it when I was growing up to gas up our tractors and trucks on the ranch.

This was a very artsy little town

The Enchanted Tree B&B.
I probably wouldn't want to stay here!

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I thought I might stay at Caballo State Park, but after driving into it, I decided the camps were too close together. Instead, I chose to drive another couple of miles into Percha Dam State Park. I kept driving back, back, back, and ended up at the very end of the road, RIGHT on the river. Beautiful spot with plenty of space between camps. Picnic Table, barbecue and a fire ring, though I won't use any of those in this high wind.

I did have to dig out the stove this afternoon and cooked up some burger that had to be used. I made taco meat, putting the leftovers in a freezer bag for tomorrow. They sure were good!

I will stay the night here, then went to TorC early in the morning to get coffee and see the village. I have no desire for hot tubbing, so will probably head back down toward Las Cruces tomorrow and maybe even try to make it to White Sands.

I'm feeling like I'm eating right and losing a bit of weight. Walking has been painful as I've developed something weird in the middle of my right foot pad, right behind my middle toe. I've been massaging it, but it hurts when I walk, which sucks big time. Hopefully somewhere along the way, I'll find a practitioner who deals with hurt feet.

Guess that's all for now.

Happy Trails!

Annie

Day 2 - Silver City, New Mexico

It was a busy morning!

I woke up VERY early and watched a gorgeous sunrise from the road.

I stopped for coffee at Starbucks, then went to the YMCA for a shower. 

This is a very nice, BIG YMCA with lots of machines, 

a pool, and nice lockers. 

Take your own towel! 

And it was FREE!

You can get up to 6 FREE day passes at the YMCA - 

and I'm not sure if this is national or statewide, 

and the lady at the counter didn't know either!  

At any rate, it was a nice hot shower 

and I washed off a lot of the negativity 

that kept me awake all night.

From there, I found Charles Schwab's building 

and opened my savings account. 

Also bought a bit more stock.

Then I headed for New Mexico.

I thought about staying at Kurtchner Caverns, 

closer to the Arizona/New Mexico border

 but their campground was full and the overflow was $15 a night. 

I've spent a lot on gas these two days,

driving across Arizona from California, 

so I decided to save my dollars and keep driving. 

This afternoon I made it to Silver City, New Mexico.

The land was covered with flowers but unfortunately,

 there was no place to pull over or stop:

I had planned on stopping in Lordsburg Veterans Park, 

but the stop was so desolate and run down, 

and it was so early, 

I decided to put in another hour of driving.

I'm sleeping at the Walmart tonight in Silver City. 

The driving was long and hard, 

but I'm feeling more positive and really happy to have made it here. 

Tomorrow starts a brand new adventure!

I will explore Silver City,

then take a hike up to Gila Cliff Dwellings.

After, I have a reservation at Faywood Hot Springs,
so the Cliff Dwellings may have to wait a day.

Then I'm hoping to buy the New Mexico State Parks Pass,

and plan on hunkering down a few days

once I reach City of Rocks.
(if I can find a camping spot!)

Photo courtesy of the internet!

Hope to see you there!

Happy Trails!

Annie

Route 66, Gallup New Mexico

It was late in the afternoon when I arrived in Gallup. 

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the place is tiny.

I needed to find a campsite before dark, so I drove on through, figuring I'd go back to explore the next day or two. I was getting tight on cash and needed to find a place to hunker down for a week or two.  I found a campground not too far up into a canyon called Quaking Aspen, where the fee was only $5 and half of that for me with my federal pass.

I arrived and as I was looking for the pay envelope I saw a sign that said, "CAMPGROUND CLOSED SEPTEMBER 17 AM!"

Oh crap!  Really?  

Just as I was bemoaning my luck on this danged trip, a car with a sign, "CAMPGROUND HOST" pulled up.

I said, "Is the campground REALLY closing tomorrow???"

He nodded, and said, "And you may want to follow me to the next campground, because the host here says he's locking up as soon as he collects the envelopes in the morning. Last year, he locked a guy in!"

Sheesh!  Apparently the fellow had to use bolt cutters to get out of the campground. I didn't carry bolt cutters, so I followed him a mile or two up the road to another nice campground.  I had the pick of the place as there was only one other camper left. Really nice campground that I'll return to next season. However, it was also closing the next morning. Budget cuts, I guess?

So I parked for the night in this wonderful quiet place with pines and meadows, got a good night's sleep, and decided to head back to Desert Hot Springs next morning.   The Universe just didn't seem to be cooperating with my plans of finding a place to hang out a couple of weeks until the weather cooled in DHS.

I've learned to LISTEN to these signals from the Universe, and though it's over 100 degrees with humidity of 35% here today, I feel I made the right decision. I'll hang out here and paint and do water aerobics in the mornings, and continue my Route 66 travels possibly later in the season. At least I did make it across Arizona.

By the way, I stopped at this place just before crossing into New Mexico. It's on the North side of the highway and a grandmother there runs a little stand inside with the BEST tacos!

New Mexico looks like it will be gorgeous!

My nice campsite

As I was leaving I stopped in Gallup for breakfast and ran across this sign.

Maybe another clue from the Universe that I should get my butt home!

::laughing!:::

Happy Trails!

Annie

 GPS: 35.40581, -108.54017 for the campground