Onward to New Mexico

As much as we would love to see more of this area (I can’t believe I’m this near Patagonia, AZ and am not going! All I can say is “Elegant Trogon”!), but its time to see New Mexico. Ever since Greg and I started discussing moving to another state, New Mexico has come up again and again—despite the fact neither of us has ever been there (ok—I’ve gone there as a child and roadtrips, but I really don’t’ remember it). New Mexico is one of those “forgotten” states—it seems no one knows much about it unless they’ve lived there. Towns like Santa Fe and Taos echo in artists minds, from Georgia O’Keefe’s desert paintings to jewelry artists.

So here we are! Our first, very brief layover was in Silver City. I can’t confess to much desire to spend any quality time there. We stayed overnight in a very friendly, if small RV park and had some semi-decent Texas BBQ from the only restaurant open on a Sunday after the Pope’s death (we have entered a part of the country that actually pulses to the religious calendar and all the “good,” according to the locals, New Mexican restaurants are closed on Sundays. I’ve read the brochures, but our brief visit wasn’t too inspiring. However, the city is near astounding beauty and nature galore. Just north is the Gila National Wildlife refuge.

The Gila is an enormous refuge—3,321,101 acres in southwestern New Mexico. Containing elevation ranges of 4,500 to 10,892 feet, the park encompasses a lot of different habitats and some rough terrain. The park was one of the first preserved in the US and is little affected by civilization. Archeological resources, mining history, hunting/fishing, wildlife viewing, hiking—this park has it all.

We are staying in the south-central portion of the park, just south of the Gila Cliff Dwellings and Lake Roberts. The Gila Cliff dwellings are a must-see—built by the Mogollon people in 5 natural caves in the 1200’s, the stone and timber homes have been preserved and you can walk through the actual dwelling either on a tour or on a self-guided tour. The park is riddled with archeological resources—if only you can figure out how to find information about where they are! We lucked into a nice woman that told us of some pictographs in a small canyon near our campsite. Unmarked, the pictographs are on both sides of a small canyon just off the main road. Greg and I are very interested in finding more of them—they are just so intriguing!

Lake Roberts is a 72-acre man-made lake. After months of desert, living in trees and seeing vast expanses of fresh water is refreshing. Phoebe has been obsessed with “beach” since San Diego (honestly, you ask her who she is calling on the phone and she says “beach”; where the spider/dog/giraffe is going—to the “beach” of course; where she wants to go—“beach” again. Luckily, she thinks any expanse of rock next to water is “beach” so fountains, rivers, pools, and lakes do just fine). Phoebe spent her afternoon running along the shore throwing rocks in the water and making the small dock rock, while Mom got her fill of birding, finding her first Franklin’s gull and enjoying watching the coots, pied-billed grebes and ruddy ducks dive in the water.

We are camped in a nice sheltered site under ponderosa pines. The campground is “undeveloped,” which means no fire pits and marked roads and FREE ;)—there are still clean pit toilets and a myriad of roads and sites to choose from. Oddly, the campground has a huge sign that says “trailers not recommended” and the only 3 groups that are here are all trailers. You wouldn’t want to come back here without scouting a route first though!

Greg and I have both enjoyed daily walks, exploring the surrounding area. The forest here is similar to California, but has exciting differences—beautiful rocky canyons that just beckon to be explored, and reminders of the nearby desert in the prickly pear, yucca, and agaves that pop up in the drier areas. Having seen pictographs and the cliff dwellings, we are half sure we will stumble across an archeological site anytime—not that we’d be the first to find it, but not all are marked for obvious reasons.