I was eager to head OUT of Arizona after a month of stressful hell. I'd never been to New Mexico and since it's winter in most states, I knew southern New Mexico was dry and sunny. Everyone warned me regardless of the sunshine, it's much colder than Arizona. I woke up to 21 degrees this morning, but the weird thing I cannot yet grasp is there is no ice and no frost! It's dry cold!
Roads here are spectacular. They maintained them. Many of the highways look like national park roads with exceptionally smooth surfaces. This is so different from Arizona with the potholes as big as cars and patches that make the van shake so bad I wonder if it will fall apart. And in Arizona one is expected to drive 75 mph on these bad roads!
My first stop was Silver City. Oh, I love this town! It has a killer historic district that feels like a little hippie town with new age shops and a food co-op! There are bike shops and lots of bike warning signs, every kind of art, and a college that has a "Lifelong Learning" program. The surrounding mountains are filled with trees taller than five feet. There are a lot of BLM campgrounds - I stayed at the Continental Divide Trail campground off Highway 90.
I ventured north out of Silver City to the Gila Cave Dwellings. Highway 15 is scary with drop offs and no center line, but the scenery was beautiful when my heart wasn't racing and my palms sweaty!
Since I hadn't seen water for nearly two months, hiking up the mountain to the cave dwellings was a treat with the babbling creek running parallel to the path. So beautiful and peaceful. I camped at the McMillan Campground and the Cherry Creek Campground for two nights.
My next tourist site was City of Rocks which is just south of Silver City. I love being a tourist.
Next I headed to Albuquerque. They have the La Montanita Food Co-op filled with all kinds of health and not so healthy foods. I splurged. One thing I loved about this co-op is the bathroom sign:
To be continued.....
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