Exploring back roads and old dusty towns!

Back Roads to Monticello NM

Last week, Nov 17, Chuck and I were supposed to go camping at the Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park so I could go take part in the Festival of Cranes.  Chuck was feeling out of sorts with a cold, so I decided to go exploring on my own! I had always wanted to go explore the "almost" ghost town of Monticello NM.

I got up early, grabbed my camera and my dog Radar, and off we went to hit the dusty back roads!

Monticello isn't very far from Truth or Consequences!

If you are travelling on I-25, take exit 76 and head west (left) to the "T" and turn north (right) on the next road. Follow the signs to Cuchillo and Highway 52. Turn west (left) at 52 and go about 5 miles to Highway 142 and turn north (right) to find Monticello about 12 miles down the road.

The first 8 miles is flat, good road but not too exciting except for the  blue mountains

layered in the distance.

When you see the road start to go sharply down, hang on because you are almost to Placitas NM.

The road into this beautiful valley is steep, but not gut wrenching like some we have traveled. You can see from the photo above how steep it was. For some reason, blogger isn't letting me enlarge my images, but you can click onto them for a better look!

The valley floor was full of golden cottonwood trees, wearing their best autumn colors!

Placitas is just a collection of small ranches scattered about, very pretty but no actual town that I saw. A few more miles up and down the road, I came to Monticello!

Monticello started out as a collection of old, really old abandoned cars and trucks!

Chuck would have loved seeing these old cars!

There were several older homes, still lived in. The streets were dusty dirt roads, but well maintained.
The road ended and I had to turn around, thankful that the MotherShip was not attached behind me. As I headed back out of town, this view of Monticello....

came into view.  I grabbed my camera for one last photograph of this quaint, dusty old western mining town, sitting on a dead end road.

I decided to get back on I-25 and head north to San Antonio and Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge!

Radar seemed to be in full agreement, he was enjoying not having to share the view with Scotty and DoogieBowser!  See you next blog at the refuge!

Happy trails!

Geri and Radar

Chloride Canyon

Chloride Canyon

We left the campground in Chloride NM about 10am, driving the Chevy TrailBlazer 4X4 with no idea what to expect!

What a journey!  This is a single lane dirt road that crosses Chloride Creek about 40 times before you get to the top!  We rode over so many rocks! You gotta do this road with 4 wheel drive, a high road clearance, and a brave heart!  There are no high cliffs or big roadside drops to make you faint hearted, just the sound of rocks scraping along the bottom of your vehicle if it isn't high clearance enough!

 You are gonna see lots of the windshield wipers and radio antennae in the pictures. Let me repeat... this was a very bumpy road! It was hard to get a good image without the wipers or antennae in the way!

 As I said, it was also very narrow! I let Chuck drive this road... and glad that I did!

 The yellow trees you see are cottonwood trees! They are turning colors all over New Mexico now!

Even the rock faces are colorful, these were sorta blue with red rusty colors!

 Here you can see how the road tilts down to the left! There were so many tilted places but they all came out blurry because of the bumpy road! I only got one good one out of about 10 photos I took! Sometimes I felt like we might be nearly tipping over! 

 There were lots of nice rock formations to gawk at along the way!

 Some of the rock formations were pretty darned close to the road!

 Once and a while, the road would level out and widen a bit...

only to start another narrow, twisty turny road.... 

 Higher up, most of the trees were bare...

 but dodging roads around big rock walls kept Chuck's attention!

 We even saw some petroglyphs near the road! 
I wasn't sure if they were real or just faked by bored hunters! Linda, from Chloride says they are real and that there is a cave nearby that has more petroglyphs inside, we will try to check those out next time!

 We were surprised to see cattle and cattle holding pens so far into the canyon!

 At on Chloride Creek crossing, we actually had to go through water... about 3 inches deep! haha! But there must be a seeping spring nearby because there certainly hasn't been any rain in weeks!

 Yep! That's the road ahead! So many rocks, it was hard to tell the creek bed from the road... and narrow too!

And then we meet a big white truck! No place to pass so what to we do?  We back up, back into the creek at a lopsided angle and the other driver gets about 1/2 way past us and he's all lopsided too... and tell us to pull ahead. That way he gets past us and we were both in the clear! We were really lucky, we only met 2 trucks on this trip!

 The cottonwood trees are really so pretty on the dirt roads!

The rocks just seem to keep jumping out at us!

Another dry creek crossing!

We even saw a very old log cabin/shack on the way!
Chloride Canyon became the adventure for a lot of prospectors in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Mr. Harry Pye discovered silver there and the town of Chloride was born! Of course, Harry Pye didn't get to spend much of his earnings from the silver as the Apaches ended his life and his prospecting!


We hope you enjoyed this journey up Chloride with us!  Next adventure will probably be back in San Antonio NM at the Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge with the Festival of the Cranes... when the sandhill cranes return by the hundreds each winter!
We hope that you take the time to visit Chloride and Chloride Canyon the next time you are in NM!
http://www.pioneerstoremuseum.com/
Happy Trails from Geri, Chuck and our hound herd:
Scotty, DoogieBowser and Radar!

Cruising the back Roads

Doggie Time !

Doogie Bowser loves cuddling with Chuck!

All the dogs love cuddling with Chuck!

At home in T or C NM!

                                                Radar strikes a pose!

Back roads from Chloride!

Chuck and I went back to Chloride for our annual Halloween visit!  After all... what better place to spend Halloween than in a genuine western ghost town ??

This time, Chuck followed me into the Apache Kid Campground in Chloride and we got the MotherShip all set up. I drove my 4x4 Chevy TrailBlazer so that we could explore the back roads around Chloride! We

knew from the locals that to do some of the roads, a 4x4 would be needed!

Road to Beaverhead

Because I was driving... I didn't get as many photos as I usually do. The road to Beaverhead was take highway 52 from Winston north a few miles then turn west on highway 59.  Highway 59 was all paved and easily traveled! It is very twisty and turny in some places, but nothing that made me nervous. It was a decent road.

The scenery was beautiful, mountains all around us. We went through a small town called Poverty Valley... or maybe Poverty Gulch. We can't agree on what the name was! HaHa! I was hoping to shoot some images of old buildings but nothing in Poverty but very nice summer homes and scenic log cabins. Nothing old and quaint.  

 The sky had incredible buttermilk clouds floating through an impossible blue sky all day!

My TrailBlazer is getting used to all these new mountain roads. If you can see the lettering just above the bumper, Chuck gave me a sticker that says

"My Escape Pod" ! Gotta love it! We decided to turn around before getting to Beaverhead, because we also wanted to check out a town named "Dusty"!

 I mean if you see a name like Dusty on your New Mexico map, you expect old, weathered, falling down western buildings right? Well, I was hoping... but

all we found were dusty dirt roads! Ha!

We found an old cemetery up on a hill..

 it was really old and in a nice location with a view!

Dusty seemed to be a town with only one or two ranches, and lots of beautiful mountains in the distance. The dirt roads were in very good shape, just very dusty!

Chuck and I want to come back and explore that small canyon between those rocky hills. Might be an interesting hike!

        Beautiful skies, gentle hills, the road was fun!

Pronghorn Antelope!

 Then suddenly up on the hill, we saw two pronghorn antelope! It is always a treat to see any kind of wildlife along the road, but pronghorn antelope are just so beautiful! You can click onto the image to get a better view!

Just before we got back to the road to Chloride

we saw this old adobe building! Chuck took the photo for me out the passenger window!  All day I had been hoping for an old building just like this!

The next day, we got up early and headed up 
Chloride Canyon! What a ride! That will be my next blog! 
I hope you enjoyed the journey on the the two back roads we visited on this blog. New Mexico is really very beautiful! Right now all the grasses have turned brown because of the drought, but it is still beautiful in our eyes! We really feel right at home here!


Happy Trails until the next adventure!
Geri, Chuck,  and our hound herd Scotty, DoogieBowser and Radar !!! Always ready for an adventure!