Travis & Tara's Trip
Through Southern Arizona & New Mexico
March 16 - 25, 2001
Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2001
Route: Alamagordo, NM - Silver City, NM
Approximate mileage: 178 + side trips
The Holiday Inn sign was quickly becoming a trustable friend, and we departed
early Tuesday morning (to beat the heat of our outdoor-laden day) and headed
north to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. Three Rivers has a negative population,
but still managed to be on my Rand McNally map, which caused a bit of comment
(after seeing towns with populations which must've been in the dozens that
weren't on the map).
Here is the booming Metropolis of Three Rivers, where the shop keeper lives out of town.
The Three Rivers National Rec Site itself was a wonderful place, and if you
happen to be trying to catch a visit to the Trinity site (open to the first
few busloads twice a year), and you want to stay for virtually free, it's
the primative campground for you. Like most of New Mexico, it's docented
by retired snowbirds, who although they may bore you with their stories,
are very nice. The petroglyphs are just a short walk from the main "facilities"
(a porta potty, gift trailer, and water fountain).
The petroglyphs are strewn throughout the hill, and are easy to find (there
are also markers for the more 'significant' ones that tourists can visit).
Here's a view showing why the Mogollon may have chosen this spot for graffiti.
Sierra Blanco is in the distance, 12,003 ft (taller than the tallest point
in Texas... and New Jersey).
Railroads were fascinating on long car rides, and this bridge amused Tara
greatly - Travis wouldn't stop on the bridge to take a picture, so Tara walked
onto the bridge to get this picture. Travis then saw a car approaching in
the distance, and picked Tara up on the bridge. OOOOH living dangerously
there!
After an unmemorable lunch at Wendy's in Alamogordo, we turned left off the
main street and went to this place, the International Space Hall of Fame.
For $2.50 each, we got to spend a few hours in air-conditioned bliss. (Well,
Travis was blissful. Tara was a little bored.)
In their rocket garden, they have the Sonic Wind, which some silly person
used to see what happened when he was propelled very fast, and what happened
when he came to an abrupt stop. Unfortunately, the expression on his face
wasn't very flattering, and it's shown on the interpretive plaques (and I
thought I looked bad in pictures!).
The exhibit of most interest to Tara was the flying monkey exhibit, where
they tested what would happen to people in space with various primates before
sending up hairless creatures.
After the adventurous Space museum, we went to White Sands National Monument.
It was quite pretty, and the sands were very white. The dunes shifted all
the time, and in this case, left the poor tree naked.
There was a book Tara wanted from the White Sands gift shop, so if you are
ever going that way, let her know. (The book isn't available from Amazon.com).
After leaving the monument, we headed back over the Organ Mountains back
towards Las Cruces. We went through the missile firing range, and were notified
that the road was periodically closed on firing days.
Here's the sign from the Las Cruces sign warning that when flashing, the
freeway was closed. We liked the icons. In Las Cruces, we ate at the same
Cattleman's Steakhouse (It was on the road we were on, and we were both hungry!),
then drove all the way to Silver City, where we'd be close to the cliff dwellings
for the next day (we were advised that it was a 2 hr drive from Silver City).
Unfortunately, there were no decent motels in Silver City with non-smoking
vacancies, so we stayed at a seedy motel. Considering the lack of people
everywhere, I was surprised that the motels were supposedly full.
