Western New Mexico via BLM Land

We’re in the El Malpais National Conservation Area, a little north of the National Monument. Tracy’s walked on some of the lava flows that made people long ago name this the bad land, but I haven’t yet, so I’ll save those photos for another post. I can catch up to this point, though.

We had to drive south from the Gila Cliff Dwellings just to get out, but then we headed north along the smaller roads of western New Mexico. The cottonwood trees are just turning green between the mountain ranges.

I believe we crossed the continental divide twice: the Gila flows into the Colorado River and then the Gulf of California, and the Rio Grande flows into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s difficult to figure out without signage, but the divide is here somewhere.

Finally, New Mexico has started to look more like I had imagined, lots of red land, lots of canyons and buttes. Very dramatic. Very Wile E. Coyote.

Catwalk Recreation Area

On Melanie’s advice, on our way we stopped at Catwalk Recreation Area; we parked the trailer for a night in a national forest gravel pull-off campground on the side of the road and drove the truck up to this unusual place.

During the silver and gold mining days here, ore-crushing machines had to be powered with water (I think I have that straight), plus the ore had to come down out of the mines in the mountains, so the miners laid a huge pipe along a wooden catwalk in the canyon.

After the miners left, the good ole Civilian Conservation Corps turned the abandoned catwalk into a more reliable walkway for tourists, and then the National Parks (I think it was them) made the first part of those paths accessible to all by taking out steps and adding handrails.

All of the walkways are based on the old structures drilled into the canyon walls by the miners. It’s a gorgeous place to visit, and we said hi to a guy in a wheelchair while we were there. (Although, the picture above is from later in the walk, after the accessible area runs out.)

Just as beautiful as the walkways along the rock faces are the giant cottonwoods down below in the creek that you can view from up at tree-top level. This picture does not do the size of the trees justice, seeing as how I’m looking down at this one. What an odd place to photograph in general. Cool to visit, though.

BLM Camping

To find this week’s camping spot, Tracy took us down a gravel road here near El Malpais, then down a dirt road, until he found a little circle people camp on, out in nowhere.

We’re surrounded by piñon trees, and each morning I find the delicate hoofprints of javelinas in the dust all around, as well.

The land is very beautiful, and the people seemingly very poor. This is no Santa Fe. It’s a New Mexico you see only by driving the back roads, by seeing the dawn light on the canyon walls, by watching your dog sniff the air and wondering what animal might have just passed by in the scrub. It’s a view of this country afforded by staying on land we citizens pay for, such as Bureau of Land Management land. I wonder how long we’ll have access to it.