Out of the Guadalupe Mountains, we rejoined the Old Spanish Trail to lead us into the Land of Enchantment. From Las Cruces to Deming to Silver City, we couldn’t agree more with the state motto!
Las Cruces
Las Cruces is a mix of old and new. In the older parts of the city, the Spanish and Mexican architectural influences are beautifully dominant in many residential and business buildings. The historic district contains three museums as well as art galleries, artisan boutiques, and student-created murals. The university at the edge of the city houses the Chile Pepper Institute where state of the art growing and breeding of capsicum is foremost in the world. Restaurants offer a wide range of cuisines and styles. And the surrounding area offers unlimited access to hiking trails and outdoor recreation. We decided to check out all the museums first.
The museum district included an art museum, a museum of natural history and a cultural /local history museum. The railroad museum was located a few blocks away in an old train depot and was filled with historic memorabilia and whimsical model train sets.
We visited Las Cruces Natural History Museum and enjoyed the live desert reptiles as well as the prehistoric fossils on exhibit from the Permian Basin.
After seeing the Permian tracks exhibit in the museum, we were excited to learn that the actual excavation site was nearby and had been designated as a National Monument. The next day, we crossed the Rio Grande and drove along dirt roads to the trailhead at the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument. Visitors can walk along the trails leading back into the mountains where the fossils had been found. Due to time constraints, we did not get to the dig site. However, we were surprised and delighted to find the desert in bloom as a result of the monsoon season.
Fort Selden
Less than an hour outside of Las Cruces is the historic site of Fort Selden. The walking tour at the Fort took us through 1400 years of history. Located in the Chihuahuan Desert, many diverse people have lived, camped or traveled through this area over time. Once a home to the Pueblo communities of the Mogollon people, then a resting place for people traveling the El Camino Real in the 1500’s between Mexico City and New Spain, eventually Fort Selden was established in 1865 to protect pioneers and travelers from raiding Native Americans and lawlessness. One of the more famous residents of this lonely outpost was Douglas MacArthur. He lived here briefly as a child while his father served as an officer at the fort.
Chile Pepper Institute
With our love of Mexican flavors, a visit to the Chile Pepper Institute was a must. Located on the campus of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, the chile gardens have gained international recognition and draw growers from around the world, The CPI teaching garden has over 150 varieties of chile peppers (capsicum) and showcases many unique heirloom, domesticated and wild varieties. The colors, sizes and shapes were mesmerizing as we walked the rows of plants with names such as Mardi Gras, April Fools Day, NuMex Big Jim, New Mexico #9, Space Dog, and the famous Holy Jolokia (hottest chile in the world).
Las Cruces offers so many excellent restaurants. Our favorites were the family owned Mexican places that offered homemade salsas and entrees. The cucumber jalapeno margaritas created at La Posta de Mesilla were the perfect refreshment for the desert heat!
Deming, NM
Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming was our next stop along the O.S.T. Three state parks and the Mexican border town of Columbus are all less than an hour away, which meant this was the perfect spot to use as a home base to explore rock formations, history, and “the wall”. We also succumbed to what can only be explained as an enchantment!
Rockhound State Park – What fun! We scrambled high up into the hills along the steep slopes of the Little Florida mountains surrounding the campground looking for gems and minerals among the loose rocks. This state park allows each visitor to collect and keep up to 15 pounds of rocks per visit. Ever concerned about weight in Lil’ Sebastian, our take was a much more modest amount!
City of Rocks State Park – The remnants of a volcanic explosion millions of years ago, the jumbo rock formations have eroded into a city-like playground. The park also maintains a botanical garden of desert plants. It was here that we found an enchanting Horned Lizard (aka Horny Toad) and another diamondback rattlesnake.
Diamondback rattlesnake moving between two rocks.
Pancho Villa State Park – The small border town of Columbus, NM and adjacent army base was attacked on March 9th, 1916, by the army of the famous Mexican Revolutionary, Pancho Villa. Some of the buildings from the military post have been preserved and a walking tour leads through the events of the attack. The visitor center / exhibit hall contained rooms of artifacts, equipment, photos, and memorabilia of both the battle and the subsequent retreat by Villa and pursuit into Mexico by U.S. General Pershing.
The Jenny bi-plane was notorious for falling apart. They were originally used to track down Villa and his army but they did very poorly in dusty conditions. The car was used by General Pershing.
From the top of Cootes Hill in the park, we could see the border wall between Mexico and the USA.
Palomas, Mexico
What do you do when three perfect strangers encourage you over breakfast burritos and coffee to cross the border to Mexico without passports? Well, when you’re under the spell of the Land of Enchantment…you go, of course! And that’s how we found ourselves on the other side of the border wall at the famous Pink Store listening to live music and being offered complementary margaritas. Many Americans about our age were shopping and walking around the streets. We’ve been told that it is not uncommon for people to go to Mexico for huge savings on prescriptions and dental and vision care. On our way back to the border, we walked through the Las Palomas memorial park dedicated to Pancho Villa and the raid. It was interesting to see their interpretation. We felt safe and definitely were aware of the Mexican soldiers’ presence on every street corner. All’s well that ends well, and we were permitted to re-enter the USA with minimal questions from the border guards.
The “Pink Store”
Pancho Villa Statue commemorating the 1916 Raid.
Silver City
We headed for the hills and left the Old Spanish Trail behind for a while. Silver City is a charming town founded in 1870. Central to supplying the needs for the silver mines, the town was a bustling hive for thousands of miners and merchants until the claims panned out. Between 1890 and 1910, a series of devastating floods dug a 10 foot ditch through the center of town completely washing away Main Street with it.. “The Ditch” as it is now called, has been converted into a park with walkways and bridges traversing the route. The Continental Divide is located here at 6,000 feet altitude and the Gila National Forest’s 3.3 million acres surrounds the city. Art galleries, murals, theaters and street performers bring the artisan vibe to this historic town.
Murals decorate the streets
Santa Rita Copper Mine – New Mexico is abundant in gemstone and mineral mining as well as just about anything else that can be taken out of the ground. Claims for gold, silver, copper, and zinc are mined throughout the state as well. Silver City has one of the last remaining working open-pit copper mines in the country and it is massive! At almost two miles across and over 1300 feet deep, the mine continues to produce about two hundred million pounds of copper each year.
Silver City is a gateway to many hiking opportunities, too, including the Continental Divide Trail and the Gila National Forest backcountry trails. This area is definitely worth a return visit!
CAMPGROUND REVIEW: ROSE VALLEY RV RANCH & CASITAS
Our stay at Rose Valley Ranch RV Park has been one of our favorites. Large private spaces with fenced in grass patios and lots of shade made for a wonderful relaxing stay. Apparently, rabbits and lizards seem to think so too.
We stayed at Rose Valley for five days. Sites are well spaced apart with trees and/or privacy fences between the sites. The park offers free WiFi, a walking trail, a dog park and wide gravel roads. We stayed in a back-in, FHU site which was level and plenty of room for our truck and 25 ft trailer. No picnic table provided and no campfires were allowed. Laundry rooms and private bathroom/showers were clean. The park seems to be more than half filled with seasonal guests and was very quiet. The office staff were friendly and eager to help orient us to the area. The property is attractive, neat, clean and close to town.
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Next up: Ruins Along the Little Colorado
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