Back Roads of New Mexico

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Went to see Michael in Alamogordo for the weekend and deceided to go home the long way around. Actually had been to Valley of Fires a couple of months ago and took pics but someone stole my phone so I wanted more pics.

Valley of Fires is located about an hour north of Alamogordo on route 54. You pass through two small towns La Luz and Tularosa. La Laz sits at the base of the Sacramento mountains with peaks of 9000' ft. It reminds you more of a small village in Mexico. I guess that is because it was part of Mexico until 1848. It has many old spanish style buildings that I wanted to explore but didn't have time.

Tularosa is another quaint village along the way, very small and very Spanish style. The entire town is a Historic District dating back to 1863.

Next up the road is Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, It is about 5 miles to the park but worth the drive. There are over 21,000 Petroglyphs carved on the rocks at this site. There is a Guided trail that winds around the peak through the glyphs. The rock art is dated to about 900-1400 AD. Talk about old Grafitti!!

Turned off route 54 at Carrizozo heading west on 380 toward 60 west to Arizona. Little Black peak is to your right standing at elev of 5679 ft. This peak is the cause of the Malpais lava flow about 5000 years ago, relatively young in lava flow history.

Continued on to Valley of Fire and stopped to take pics. Valley of Fires recreation area is located in the Malpais Lava flow. As far as you can see there is black lava in all directions. This lava flow is 4 to 6 miles wide in places and over 160 ft. deep. It covers 125 square miles! If you look at it on Google earth you will see White Sands at the bottom of the valley and what looks like a large black river at the top of the valley, what a contrast. The lava is beautifully swirled and feels spongy almost. There are various cacti and other flowering plants growing among the lava flows, showing life goes on.

The Trinity site which is the site of the first Atomic bomb test is also located in this area. It is accessed from route 54 but is only open twice a year for guided tours. Maybe will get to go next year.

Headed on to San Antonio which is the next "town" for about 50 miles. Not a lot of scenery in this area just lots of oil wells and chemical plants, and other strange goings ons. We saw oil derricks being erected everywhere. This was site of large oil boom in the 1930's, and has been revived because of new methods of reaching the oil.

Reached San Antonio (Not much there except a service station). Stopped and ate at the cafe inside food was pretty good. Just a note on San Antonio, you wouldn't think anybody could make a living here but one of the greatest tycoons of ouu time was born here in 1887 and established his business in nearby Soccorro. His name was Conrad Hilton!!

Took I-25 north for a few miles and took a small spur west to Soccorro and 60. Headed west on 60 to Magdalena. Small but beautiful town named after the mountain with the same name. There is a sign at the edge of town about the "livestock driveway". The Santa Fe railroad established a spur here in 1894 to transport cattle from the Plains of San Augustin to Albuquerque, and on to Kansas and other parts. This spur went from Socorro, 125 miles west to Datil and on down to Springerville AZ. Magdalena was known as "Trails End" because the spur ended here. This "Stock Driveway" was in use from 1885 to 1971. In the 1930's the CCC built wells every 10 miles along the way for the cattle, and fenced it off so the livestock could not tear up private land along the trail. 1919 was the peak year seeing over 175,000 head of sheep and cattle being driven to market. The old stockyards are still intact, as are most of the buildings.

Magdalena sits at 6572 ft. and is nestled between two mountain ranges with elevations up to 12,000ft. Kelly is a ghost town up in the hills that was home to about 3000 till the ore played out and now just some buildings remain. With permission you can tour the mine.

There is a roadside park a few miles west of Magdalena, with a trail to the cattle drive area,so we stopped to explore. South Baldy peak (12,000 ft) is to your left and you can see a large open valley. We wanted to walk where the cowboys had driven the cattle so many years ago. Walked about a mile toward the valley but it still seemed distant so we started looking around for evidence that they had come this way. Well we found it. There was stuff strewn across an area about 300 ft wide. We found old rusty tin cans opened with a knife, 5 gallon lard buckets, Prince albert cans and other misc. But the best were old beer bottles. Now we're not talking about old bud bottles, these bottles are large and heavy. The glass is about 1/4 inch thick and very heavy. Ray collects bottles and was ecstatic! He thinks they are from early 1900/1920 maybe. This much have been where the chuckwagon had camped maybe more than once as they made their way to the railroad.

On up the road is the VLA. If you don't know what that is (I didn't) It stands for Very Large Array. It is home to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Remember all the large telescopes in the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster, well that is where it was filmed! It is awesome to look at, there is a visitors center, but as time was short we couldn't stop. That means another trip!

On to Arizona through some beautiful scenery, Passed through Show-Low and the Apache Reservation on the way. Show low is in the middle of Pine forests, a very different scenery from what we had been driving through all day. Outside of town we came upon a large herd of bull elks but could not get close for pics. Also saw a herd of wild horses on the reservation. By now it is getting dark but still a long way home and a lot of scenery to miss.

We drove about 60 miles through the Apache reservation before coming to the Salt River Canyon. I wish we could have seen it in the daytime. From the north the elevation is 4200 ft and drops to 2200 ft through a series of switchbacks and curves twisting around the mountain. from on top we could see lights at different places on the mountain and then realized those were cars at different intervals along the road. It was hairy to say the least, some of the drop-offs were insane. If you are afraid of heights do not take this road. It is a small road and right on the edge in some places. At the bottom is a historic bridge. I hope to go back to see it in the daytime but I will have to go alone (Ray is terrified of heights, I thought he was going to have a heart attack, literally). I guess thats another trip!

Started out on this trip just wanting to take the back roads home to Phoenix instead of the freeway. Got a whole lot more than expected. So much to see and do it would take a week! Saw some great campsites and want to go back. Till next time,

Happy Traveling, Stay Safe

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Photos

Along route 54
This is close to the entrance to Valley of Fires Rec area

Valley of Fires
Entrance to Park

Valley of Fires
Walking along the lava

Along route 54
Old abandoned house

Magdalena
End of Line town

Small donkey
Lonely little fellow came running when I stopped. He was all alone in this huge field.

Magdalena
History of the Cattle drives

Treasures
The leftovers from a cowboy camp outside Magdalena

South Baldy Peak
This is South Baldy Peak part of the Sacramento Range. Elev 12,000 ft.

VLA
Very Large Array in the distance

VLA
A closer view of the VLA. There is a visitor center back down the road but it was closed so we took pics from the highway.

Plains of San Augustin
What a beautiful name for a beautiful valley. This is where the cattle were driven from all over New Mexico and Arizona