It was on to the Gila National Forest and the Gila Cliff Dwellings after Bosque del Apache. With a short stop in Truth or Consequences (which used to be called Hot Springs, but "won" a contest to change the town's name to that of a TV game show) to provision and fuel up, we, along with Harry, Sally and Nina, left I-25 for the scenic byway of NM-152 and NM-35. It wound through the Mimbres Mountains and over the Continental Divide in the Black Range and into the Gila National Forest. It was a pleasant drive with lots of twisty roads (missed having the motorcycles for this one) and a single mid-morning stop at the Hillboro General Store Cafe for coffee and pie (a good homemade apple pie).
Our destination was the Mesa Campground, a Forest Service campground which even had electric hookup sites. This would prove to be a real boon. We pulled into the campground around 1:30pm, found the only two adjacent available electric sites and plugged in—just in time for the skies to open with lightning, thunder and hail. This was to prove to be the dominant weather for the next couple of days. A thunderstorm would pass through; it would stop for a while, partially clearing; then it would repeat.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Speedy. Ellen and Sally ventured out late in the day to do a bit of birding around Lake Roberts, just below the campground. We spent the evening in Shiny, having dinner with Harry and Sally as it continued to rain on and off.
It was in the 40's when we woke on Wednesday (oversleeping until about 7:30). The little electric heater in Speedy was welcome. After a breakfast of hot oatmeal (also welcome) and a little birding by Ellen and Sally, we all piled into Shiny for trip to Silver City between the rain showers. We took the long way in via Mimbres on NM-35 back to NM-152 west and US 180. With a stop to look over the Santa Rita copper mine (world's second largest open-pit copper mine...used to be the largest), we arrived in Silver City just about lunch time. We found a parking spot right outside of Jalisco's, our friend Garry's favorite (Silver City was his hometown), and went in for a spicy lunch.
After lunch we strolled along Bullard St., poking into the shops and galleries. The sky opened once again as waited under the awning of O'Keefe's Bookshop on Broadway. After that brief, but heavy, downpour, it was obvious why all the side streets hade curbs that where at least a foot high. The water rushed down them too deeply to cross and into the "Big Ditch", a block beyond Bullard St. The 40 foot deep chasm used to be the main street, but a flood washed the street away and created the ditch in the early 1900's. It is now sort of a linear park.
Once the waters receded, it was back to Shiny Roadtrek and then to the campground. We took the shorter, but much narrower and curvier back route, NM-15, to the campground. The rain held off and, although the road was narrow, it had some great views going through the forest and mountains.
Once we got settled in camp, it was time to walk off that lunch and we all headed down to the lake to check out the ducks. Harry and Nina just made the walk down and back, but Ellen, Sally and I continued on as they tried to identify the far away ducks and grebes. We walked until it started to shower, then prudently returned to the vans just in time. The skies opened again. They highlight of the walk, was an Eared Grebe, another life bird for Ellen...but there was still the mysterious Clark's or Western Grebe at the far end of the lake to be identified.
We transformed Speedy's bed into a dinette and had Harry, Sally and Nina over for dinner. Originally Nina stayed in Shiny Roadtrek, but the clouds started grumbling again, so we brought her over. Dogs don't care for thunder and lightning much. We had a leisurely dinner through the storm and after much wine and chocolate we broke up when the rain abated. It flashed and boomed through much of the night though.
It was still mostly cloudy on Thursday morning, but that didn't deter Ellen and Sally from hunting down the mystery grebe. They returned after an hour, racing back through yet another shower...but they identified the grebe, a Clark's Grebe, another first for Ellen. They also finally decided, from the photos they had, that the one they saw at Cochiti Lake was a Western Grebe, another life bird.
After packing our lunches, we were off, once again, with Harry and Sally to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, about 25 miles further up the road. It is an enclave of a national monument surrounded by the Gila Wilderness and managed by the National Park Service, as opposed to the Gila National Forest and National Wilderness which is managed by the Forest Service.
On the way, we stopped at Doc Campbell's Outpost, a trading post just outside the monument next to the Gila Hot Springs. It is a modern trading post run by the daughter of Doc Campbell. Campbell was the first permanent ranger of the national monument. My friend Garry and his dad used to go hiking and camping up in this area with Doc Campbell when he was a kid.
The outpost sells Native American and local arts and crafts, food, books, maps and bits of camping essentials. It also has a gas pump, a rather pricey one at about a dollar a gallon more than in Silver City. It serves both monument visitors and campers. There is a small commercial RV park just a bit down the road.
Ellen found a small framed painting, about 2"x3", of a Cactus Wren, that she bought for Speedy. On our second trip to the Grand Canyon, a wren—species unclear—managed to fly inside of Speedy, perch on the cushions in back and hitch about a twenty-five mile ride before we noticed it there and shooed it out. It could have been a Cactus Wren. We've had a wren fly in at least one other time, so we know that Speedy is a good home for a Cactus Wren painting. There were several of these small paintings of birds by Jan Fell and Sally also bought one. Hers is a Chickadee.
It was off to the cliff dwellings with the obligatory stop at the visitors center. It was a small visitor center with a display of artifacts from the site and the usual video presentation of the history of the cliff dwellings. It was staffed by the first "permanent" volunteer we've met. She has been a resident volunteer at the monument for six years, living in the dormitory accommodations for volunteers...very unusual.
It was on to the cliff dwellings. On the path up to the cliffs, was the life bird of the day, a Spotted Owl. It had taken a perch in a tree right next to the path about 10 feet up. Good views were had by all and many pictures were taken. By the time we got up to the dwellings, the sky had cleared and it was all blue skies and puffy clouds with sun on the cliffs. We've been here before but Harry and Sally enjoyed the ruins as well. After returning to the parking lot via the exit trail, Ellen and Sally decided to go look for the owl again. They did; they found it; they took many more photos.
On the way back from the cliff dwellings, we stopped again at Doc Campbell's. This time for their homemade ice cream. I can vouch for the coffee and Ellen enjoyed a cup of coconut.
We made another stop as we got near the campground. There is access to the dam that creates Lake Roberts and Ellen and Sally wanted to try a get a better look at the grebe that they thought was either a Clark's Grebe or a Western Grebe (they are very similar). We walked down onto the dam and were able to find it...and another with it, but they were still too far to positively identify. Ellen and Sally noticed a path along the lake from the dam and assumed that it was the end of the path they took the first afternoon, so they decided to walk back to camp. Harry and I continued on in Shiny Roadtrek.
We stopped a few hundred yards further down the road at a spot called Ruins Vista, thinking that it might be a long view back towards the cliff dwelling, although they were quite far by road. It wasn't that, but a path to an Early Mimbres site on top of a hill that had at least three periods of occupancy from about 500 to 1500.
We got back to the campground and waited for Ellen and Sally to return. Eventually they showed up none the worse for wear, but their walk hadn't gone quite as planned. The path from the dam didn't meet the path from the campground and they had to bushwhack for a bit along the lake until they found the latter trail. But they did see more birds and were able to get better pictures of the grebes, which they later concurred were Clark's Grebes.
We got together in Shiny for a last dinner with Harry and Sally before we went of separate ways. We were originally intending to eat outside, but with the change to clearer weather, the temperature dropped quite abruptly when the sun set.
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