6/29/13 - City of Rocks State Park, NM

I made egg and sausage breakfast burritos this morning.  After eating breakfast, Jim washed the dishes and then a couple from the NASA/Clear Lake area came to talk to us and see the Casita.  They had been looking at one and had seen Fred & Mary’s at Fort Davis.  After they left we drove to Silver City.  We walked around town a little while and then drove to the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  We crossed the Continental Divide at 6,997 feet.  The drive through the Gila National Forest on the way was really pretty.  It got down to 66 degrees in the forest.  The roads were up and down and very, very, curvy.  This part is a scenic highway called Trail of the Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway.  There is a fire in the Gila National Forest and the smoke was really thick in places today.  You couldn’t see across the horizon in the scenic pullouts.

 

We finally made it to the cliff dwellings at 3pm.  The office closes at 4:00 and after 4:30 the rangers close the trail.  When we got inside the visitor center the ranger came out and told everyone the trail would be closed for at least half an hour.  There was a thunderstorm off in the distance and it had lightning strikes in it.  If the lightning is less than 8 miles away the trail is closed.  We watched a 15 minute movie and then went to the trailhead.  We were waiting for the ban to be lifted and instead they closed the trail for the rest of the afternoon.  We traveled 2 ½ hours to get there and didn’t get to see the cliff dwellings.  Maybe next time we are through here we can try again. 

We took another road back to our camp and we passed the firefighters’ camp in Mimbres.  There were helicopters, tents, RVs, and they had set up a large eating tent to feed them.  We wanted to see the ghost towns of Kingston and Hillsboro but highway 152 was closed to the public so the firefighters could use it.

  

When we got back to camp I cooked dinner and then we looked at books and maps to plot out the next route we will take.  Jim wanted to go back to site 43 see the bats emerge after sunset but they never came out.

On Saturday night there is a star party here in the park.  This park has a telescope in a building where the roof rolls back.  Since it was cloudy today the star party was cancelled even though it finally cleared up and we would have been able to see the stars. Only us and another family from Las Cruces are camping here tonight.  He usually brings a telescope with him but didn’t this time.

Today has been nice but everything we tried to do didn’t work out.  Some days you just don’t have any luck!  We did see an owl and a turkey today.