Part I.
We spent a three-day weekend going to a corner of New Mexico we'd never been to before. Jackson had a day off on Monday. Columbus Day, I think. Saturday morning I went in early to finish some work, Cyndi packed the boys' stuff and we loaded the Durango with some of our camping stuff and headed south toward Belen to borrow "Papa's Motor Home," a PleasureWay converted van. Bennie had it all gas-upped & ready to go, and by noon off we went for a day of driving to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, some 220 miles south and west from Belen. The boys were belted in the back, watching a Mickey Mouse DVD. We stopped in Socorro for provisions, intending to grill outside along the way.
We took the Hwy. 152 exit to Hillsboro at Caballo Lake. The drive over the Black Range in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness is extremely mountainous. As far as I could tell, there really isn't a pass. You just keep driving up the mountain for ten miles after Hillsboro, a charming small town, and down the other side. In this area, you'll see signs telling you that such-and-such a place is 2 1/2 hours ahead. You think to yourself, how can that be? It's only 40 miles away! We took a right on Hwy. 35, only 40 miles away to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. That road starts in a beautiful valley around Mimbres, but eventually becomes increasingly twisty and steep, passing by Lake Roberts, where you join Hwy 15, a corridor surrounded by wilderness area that ends at the monument. The day was getting late now, the shadows long. I knew we could park for free overnight at the end of the road and that there was an RV park in Gila Hot Springs, just 4 miles short of the monument.
At Gila Hot Springs, we saw an RV park by the side of the road, and I didn't think that was what I had in mind exactly. The general store across the street had been closed for over an hour. So we followed a sign just before the RV park that led us through corrals of horses and goats. Now we were on a dirt road and it came to a small dirt intersection with hand painted signs. I stopped there for 5 minutes, trying to make sense of where I was and whether I should go on. I decided to follow the sign to the right to Wildwood Retreat.
To be continued.
We took the Hwy. 152 exit to Hillsboro at Caballo Lake. The drive over the Black Range in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness is extremely mountainous. As far as I could tell, there really isn't a pass. You just keep driving up the mountain for ten miles after Hillsboro, a charming small town, and down the other side. In this area, you'll see signs telling you that such-and-such a place is 2 1/2 hours ahead. You think to yourself, how can that be? It's only 40 miles away! We took a right on Hwy. 35, only 40 miles away to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. That road starts in a beautiful valley around Mimbres, but eventually becomes increasingly twisty and steep, passing by Lake Roberts, where you join Hwy 15, a corridor surrounded by wilderness area that ends at the monument. The day was getting late now, the shadows long. I knew we could park for free overnight at the end of the road and that there was an RV park in Gila Hot Springs, just 4 miles short of the monument.
At Gila Hot Springs, we saw an RV park by the side of the road, and I didn't think that was what I had in mind exactly. The general store across the street had been closed for over an hour. So we followed a sign just before the RV park that led us through corrals of horses and goats. Now we were on a dirt road and it came to a small dirt intersection with hand painted signs. I stopped there for 5 minutes, trying to make sense of where I was and whether I should go on. I decided to follow the sign to the right to Wildwood Retreat.
To be continued.
Sunday morning at the hot springs pool at Wildwood and a meditation garden.
(Our RV is behind the fence behind the boys.)
The Gila caves, viewed from the trail below.
The one-mile trail begins at the river along the canyon floor.
Cyndi & Jackson on the trail in Gila.
Along a "riverwalk" in Silver City.
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