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Published: March 12th 2017
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The drive northeast from Silver City to the Gila Cliff Dwellings was of around 50 miles, and everyone had told us to allow 2-1/2 hours for it. I guess that should have told us something. We left the cozy (if noisy) confines of the Rose Valley Ranch RV Park, being sure to stop at the red octagon sign that said “WHOA” (so cute!). The recommended “RV” route took us well east of town first. We past an enormous open pit mine, the tailings of which we had commented on while on our way into town. I have no idea what it is they are extracting there (I'll do some research when we have connections again) but they have been at it for a long time. That is one big-azz hole in the ground.
We drove through the isolated little town of Mimbres, mostly poor little houses, but every once in a while there would be a grand, new home -- built in that very handsome classic adobe style, makes you wonder? Soon we entered into the Gila National Forest. Like all such areas, this was clearly managed for mixed use, with plenty of trailheads and primitive campgrounds, along
with ranches, and even some lumbering operations. Of course, this being the west, all those ranches meant cattle guards, lots and lots of cattle guards. They were, on the whole, well built and maintained though, so driving over them was pretty smooth. As we got farther into the forest, the road got twistier, and we began to tackle some grades. A beautiful drive though, especially as we began to drive through groves of big Ponderosa Pines. This led me to begin to annoy my copilot by continuously humming the theme song from the old TV show. She tried drowning me out with the radio, but there was no reception there – sorry!
After some time, we joined back up with Rt15, the road we had been warned about in Silver City. We were now driving the “better” section of that road. I have to say, the turns we encountered there were not at all bad, but now the grades became really impressive. Fifth gear was forgotten, and we spent a good bit of time in third. At intervals, we got views of some seriously high peaks to the northwest, completely covered in snow.
I wish we had a picture or two to show you, but this was no place to stop and take photos. As we got closer to our objective, we began a long and serious climb. Now VERY high, we ran the top of a ridge for a time. Then, inevitably, we saw the warning signs for the approaching down grade.
They weren't kidding, this was a beaut. About 6 miles long, very twisty, and very steep. I don't have any real idea, but if the Cloudcroft grade was 6%, this had to be 7, or 8, or ? I kept old Moby in third, and cycled the brakes as much as possible, but we were smelling them well before we bottomed out. This one made my navigator a bit nervous, perhaps a blindfold next time? There are almost no guardrails, and leaving the pavement at almost any point would make for a very bad day. Ah, the magic of using friction to turn potential energy into heat. If captured, we probably could have heated the trailer overnight with the BTU's we just threw away with our bake pads and shoes – what a
waste!
And speaking of energy – there are interesting things going in that regard at our campground. We reached it just a couple of miles after the bottom of the big grade. We checked in, and the camp host showed us a few of the interesting features here. This is 'The Gila Hot Springs Campground” and they take full advantage of what nature offers. A typical “hookup” RV site will have an electric connection, a potable water tap, and a sewer. At this camp, you have those, plus a “HOT” potable water tap. Yes, an unlimited supply of drinkable 140F water, piped right from the ground! The camp host told me how he had (cleverly!) rigged up a radiator with a fan in his trailer, to use as a heater at night. The bathrooms here too, have loops of piping in the cement floor, with spring water running through them – radiant heat!
After getting settled in, we walked down the hill and across the road to the the spring pools. We thought that these would be right in our camp, but we found that the family has split the site into two separate businesses (this sounds too familiar to me, so I asked no questions) as a result, we had to shell out a sawbuck each to soak, but it was well worth it. The bad news here was that this also gave me a good look at the river. It is still in the Spring freshet, and it is running high, fast, and cloudy, not at all good for fishing. There are other, smaller tributary creeks near here though, so I'm going to do some asking about them when at the visitors center tomorrow – I'm willing to do some hiking to get where the fish are.
Our plan will be to hike to the cliff dwellings, they are supposed to be really good ones, and here you can actually go right inside them and look all around, we're looking forward to it.
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