Aspen along Iron Gate Road
Oct 15-18, 2008We decided to stay close to home on our first NM outing (besides, we've been having truck issues - this time the ABS system) so we headed to the Pecos Wilderness, east of Santa Fe and about 80 miles from our house.
It was a beautiful drive up and brought back lots of memories for me, as we used to camp here every summer (almost) when I was a kid. I was really eagerly anticipating seeing the old sites again... but alas, I barely recognized anything. The small town of Pecos has really grown - still small by anyone's standard but MUCH bigger than when I was coming up here with Mom & Dad!! And all the 'new' homes up the valley - amazing! I say 'new' since it has been something like 17 years since I've been up here. Bryan and I came for a long weekend with Mom & Dad in 1991, before we moved to Seattle. The campgrounds where we used to stay have mostly been cordoned off for 'recovery' (much needed). And the old 'gold' mine that we would explore has been (and in still being, I suppose) recovered since they found high level of lead in the tailings - no longer can we climb all over the tailings and along the creek looing for fool's gold. My nephew Soctt & my niece Brandy, will hopefully remember climbing in all over and finding 'gold' with me.
There used to be a cave across the river from Terrero - we always had to visit it too and one year I remember that me, Dad, Brandy and a couple of camping buddies were able to explore for quite a distance before it narrowed to where to couldn't get through anymore. It has since been sealed off and now a primative campground lies at its base.
Bryan & I camped up Holy Ghost Canyon - about 17 miles north of Pecos. BEAUTIFUL! A very, very narrow one lane road leads to this remarkable campground - nothing fancy here but the sites are (surprisingly) spaced far apart and there aren't that many. This time of year we had the place to ourselves other than a few hikers passing through.
Aspen Along Elk Mountain Road
We took the Jeep up Elk Mountain Road until we hit snow and decided we had better turn around (about 12 miles up). A very beautiful drive with lots of fall color still around. We also drove up to Jack's Creek Campground - Beautiful fall color there. The CG seemed very nice - spacious, well laid out sites, although not a lot of privacy.
Jack's Creek Campground
We also braved the Iron Gate Road to the Iron Gate Campground - very remote, you really have to want to get there as the road is pretty rough but passable. Used mainly by horse campers it looked like. Bryan has no desire to try to get the camper up that road. haha Although there were lots of 'summer' cabins up the road.
Both mornings we woke up and it was 26 degrees. Brrrrrr But the days warmed up and were spectacular! No crowds, although hunters were moving in for the weekend. This is certainly a great time to go.
Oh, we both have just finished the book - Blood & Thunder by Hamilton Sides. A great book about Kit Carson and the settling of the American West. A few forays into California but most of the 'action' is centered in the area around Santa Fe - so, we have become very interested in visiting the areas mentioned in the book such as the Pecos Pueblo (aka Pecos National Monument - a tourist attraction even back in 1846 when Kearney's "Army of the West" marched thru), Apache Canyon (near Glorieta Pass), & the Glorieta Battlefield, where the North beat the South in the decisive Civil War Battle for NM. The Battlefield is no longer open to the public, I'm sad to report. Anyway, its neat to see (again for me) these historical areas, especially since I now know the history behind them.
1 comment:
Nice blog and GREAT pics, SiS! I dropped in from over at Sharon's (Towanda's) place.
Post a Comment