Silver City

I had a great time eating in Silver City & looking in the museums. The downtown district was fun. The Gila National Forest is close & I found it interesting that Geronimo was born at the headwaters of the Gila river & there is a monument for him at the Gila Cliff Dwellings visitor center. The Gila Cliff dwellings are amazing! I'm scared of heights & stayed gripped to the door yelling "slow down" the entire time that we were in the car. When we were not in the car, was worth every second to me. It was beautiful & fun. The hiking was some of the best. They have pretty lakes in the area as well. The Catwalk wasn't far & that was GREAT. I want to go again! It was just so beautiful. Back to the Gila Nat. forest- we also hiked other areas of that 3 million acre forest. They have natural hotsprings that we hiked to & relaxed in. We also went to some ghost towns in the area & to City of rocks state park. We arrived at the City of Rocks park in the evening & we hurried through it before it got dark. It was really beautiful at that time. I loved the weather & we got some nice pictures of the sunset with the rocks. That's another place that I wanted to go back to. We had our dog Bruce out there with us & it was good exercise for him. I know that at the Catwalk, he wasn't allowed on the trails but they did have a place for him at the visitor center area. He just stayed there & it was checked on often.
Many places that we went in NM, were stories of how Billy the Kid was here & there... He did get around. We went to Lincoln County which I will blog about at a later date. I believe we were in Mesilla where there was a jail that he was in there & maybe it was Ruidoso where he hid out at the water wheel but Silver City is where he did live with his mother (aunt) Who knows? He did live there & attended elementary school there.
When we went to the catwalk, we went to Glenwood-They have a nice hatchery & in the area is Mogollon which is a town that thrived from the gold & silver & then it became a ghost town but now has some residents. The entire area is great for birding, hiking, fishing or just taking some great photos.

I had written in the Grants NM section about how I thought that Acoma Sky City was nearby, it was. Here is a photo of a sign that tells a little about it. El Morro is about 40 miles or so from Grants, off of NM53. These are a few pics. at El Morro. Inscription Rock was great & there were many more than what I am showing a photo of. I had a great time at all of these places.

Land of Fire & Ice

Grants, NM

The Bandera Crater- Land of Fire & Ice. 1-888-icecaves.
We just refer to this trip as our trip to Indian country. Just the area that these icecaves were in was facinating! There was the El Malpais national monument. We went to El Morro as well. I could be wrong but I believe Acoma Sky city wasn't too far from these places either.
Right now, I will stick to the crater & ice caves. The crater is approximately 1,200 feet across & 800 feet deep. Around 10,000 years. If you have never seen an erupted volcano- this is a good one to visit & the great thing is that the ice caves are there as well. It's an easy hike to see both & a nice trading post for souvineers, info, etc. Inside of the ice cave, the temperature never rises above 31 degrees F.
I visited in the summer & it was interesting to see the lava with snow all over it. It was a fun & interesting short hike. I had my dog Bruce with me- he enjoyed it as well!

Pics. in Hatch

Hatch NM

This was a very small town but interesting to drive through. The stores all have the Chile peppers hanging all over. They are made into artwork pretty much, large, small, baskets, wreaths, etc. Quite pretty. The people were nice as well.
Hatch is the green chile capital of the world. While eating chile peppers, don't drink water to cool your mouth- drink beer, milk, eat guacamole- these help.

This is Smokey the Bears gravesite in Capitan NM. Cute town.