Sunday, April 4, 2010

Deming, New Mexico

This past Monday Linda and I took a scenic drive. We have not done any drives for a while as we have been in areas where we had done all the drives already.

We did a loop drive out of Deming stopping at “city of rocks” state park. After driving several miles off the main roads, there was a pay station to enter the park. We decided it was not worth the money and took a couple of pictures from the pay station.

Deming Silver City Loop 3=30=10 005 Deming Silver City Loop 3=30=10 002

Deming Silver City Loop 3=30=10 003

If you want to see more of the history of the park click here http://www.gilawilderness.com/travel/cityofrocks.htm

From there we traveled along the highway thru a pretty valley with actual water running in the river. After all of the dry washes in Arizona it was nice to see. We ended up going past a open pit copper mine “El Chino”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Chino_Mine It appears to be closed, but we stopped at the viewing point and took a couple of pictures. You can not see how big the hole is, or how large the tailing piles are from the pictures, but it is huge!!!

Deming Silver City Loop 3=30=10 012 Deming Silver City Loop 3=30=10 014 Deming Silver City Loop 3=30=10 015 Deming Silver City Loop 3=30=10 016

 

Tuesday we did a similar trip with Jim & Bobbie riding with us. Linda wanted to see a old town North of Silver City called Pinos Altos. Following is a little info off of the web site:

“Historic Pinos Altos (Tall Pines) is located just six miles north of Silver City on NM 15 at an elevation of 7040 feet. Nestled into the Gila National Forest, the town began in 1860 when three frustrated 49-ers, Thomas Birch, Colonel Snively and another guy named Hicks, stopped to take a drink in Bear Creek and discovered gold. The Main Street of this charming old gold-mining town is like an old western movie set. Many of the old buildings date back to the 1800's and have been restored and decorated with original memorabilia and artifacts.”

Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 005 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 007 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 011 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 012 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 013

It is a very neat area to see and we enjoyed driving around the town on the hilly dirt streets.

From there on to the Cliff dwellings, or so we thought.

We took this winding, hilly, very pretty drive thru the mountains for about 30 miles to the turnoff for Rogers Lake. We took the lake road for about four miles to see what we could see at the lake and turned around and came back to the intersection and headed towards the Gila cliff dwelling. About a mile up the road was a sign saying it was 18 more miles of twisty turny roads and than a 3 mile hike to the cliff dwellings.  None of us was willing to do the 3 mile hike, so we turned around again and went back to a restaurant at the intersection and had a wonderful lunch with a great view of the mountains….

Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 026 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 024 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 023 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 022

 

Thursday it was extremely windy here and you could not see anything over about a mile away. I drove out on the road north and took a couple of pictures of the dust, and while I was at it they closed the road!! They also closed I-10 for a long stretch. Here are the road signs warning people about the dust

Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 001 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 002 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 004 Trail of the Mountain Spirits 3-31-10 003

and here are a few of the dust

dust storm at Deming 008 dust storm at Deming 002 dust storm at Deming 007

It is hard to see, but the dust is blowing across the road, trust me, it really is!!

 

Hope you have a happy Easter.

Love to all of ya

Jim and Linda

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