Abandoned Copper, Gold & Silver Mine

We went for a ride heading west of Truth or Consequences (TrC) on the Lake Valley Scenic Byway. It goes to the old mining town of Hillsboro which is now full of artists and antiques. We stopped at a cafe that was in a very old building full of old mining, horse and logging gear. This little cafe is very popular and known for their bumbleberry pie a la mode. Yummy -- all kinds of berries go into the pie. The scenic byway goes south from here to an old ghost town but we turned back east.

We wanted to check out an abandoned copper mine that has a lake at the bottom of it. Its about 5 miles east of Hillsboro. We got to the open pit mine after following about 5 miles of gravel road. You wouldn't want to drive a car the last 1/2 mile or so of the road as it goes down to the lake. It's worth the drive once you get there. The water in the lake is the brightest blue we've ever seen. It must be because of the minerals in the rock bottom of the lake. The shore of the lake is full of rock coated with delicate white and brown crystalline formations. I tried to get a picture of the crystal stuff and a piece of copper ore. This mine also had some gold and silver mined out of it. The mining operation shut down in the 1980's but according to the sign might be reopened if copper prices go high enough. Hmmm -- I thought copper prices were pretty high now.

On the way back to the highway we stopped at an old mine shaft. Jim had to go check it out -- there was still machinery around it that was just abandoned. It was hard to tell if it was part of the bigger mining operation or not. It looked like someone had staked their own little mining claim after the big mine shut down but then eventually gave up. These old mines are dangerous to say the least, unstable, noxious gases, critters, etc. We would never go in one but it would be fun to at least shine a light inside it.

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

We took an overnight trip to Silver City which is about 3 hours southwest of Elephant Butte. Its a slow trip over there because you have to cross the Mimbres Mountains that are part of the Black Range. Lots of switch backs on narrow windy roads that are traveled by lots of people in too much of a hurry. You also have to share the road with bicyclists -- no guardrails, no shoulders and we actually met up with people on bikes on their way to one of the National Forest Service campgrounds in the mountains. Luckily there were pullouts along this route so we could get off the road and let folks get around. We met up with one truck later on that had been "in a hurry" and he was pulled over letting his brakes cool --they smelled pretty burnt.

Almost straight north of Silver City about an hour and a half through more mountains in the Gila National Forest are the ancient indian Gila Cliff Dwellings. There are six caves in the cliffs with -- at one time -- up to 40 rooms altogether in these caves. You can walk through them and see some pictographs and all the soot on the ceilings from their fires.

We also went up to the "Catwalk" in Whitewater Canyon. This is about 60 miles northwest of Silver City. The canyon was the site of gold mining in the early 1900's and used to have wooden walkways and bridges. It is now a park with metal, suspended "catwalks" that you can walk on through the canyon. There are beautiful quartz veins running through the rock walls. You can almost smell the gold in this canyon. The mining shut down because it cost more to process the gold than it was worth at the time.

We also stopped at the huge Copper Mines by Santa Clara. We took a picture of one hole in the ground but there were many more just like it in the area. The other interesting thing in this part of New Mexico is that there are a lot of hot springs that you can hike to that are on public land. We didn't check any out because the ones that are easy to get to are very popular. There are many that are 6 to 10 mile hikes. No thanks -- I've been enjoying the private hot springs in Truth or Consequences. One of the nicer ones is Riverbend Hot Springs. For $10 you can soak for an hour looking out over the Rio Grande.

Still Trying

Jim has not caught a walleye yet. The one he's holding is the one the neighbor guy caught. We've been going to the river almost everyday to try and catch more walleye -- no luck for us-- but a least the neighbors we've been fishing with have each caught one.

Our friends left camp but before they did they parked next to us to hook up their car behind their 5th wheel -- triple towing like us. We both have the same truck so I had to get a picture of them side by side. Our rig is on the left.

It's actually rained here a couple of times now -- the first real rain since we came in mid-October. Flowers and flowering trees are starting to bloom. Its starting to "green up" around here.

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WALLEYE !!

I finally caught a walleye-- in the Rio Grande river --not the lake. The walleye start to come up the river after the dam has been opened because it creates a nice current as well as makes the river a lot deeper. The walleye come out of Caballo lake and travel north up the river but can't go any farther than the dam on Elephant Butte lake. The first walleyes to go up the river are the big females -- ready to spawn. I caught one of the first females going up the river. We kept it and ate it but I have never kept a prespawn walleye before and don't really want to again. When I cleaned her -- she was full of roe -- but she fed four of us. Wonderful -- we enjoyed every mouthful.

Now we are going to wait until the smaller male walleye go up the river and then try to catch one of those -- maybe -- we hear the locals are all waiting for this action -- then it gets to be shoulder to shoulder fishing along the river. Not sure we want to deal with that but we will see. The roads down to the river are terrible --narrow, sandy, deep holes -- not really maintained --so we can't take our truck. Our neighbor went down with his truck and got stuck. We went down in another neighbor's truck and he ripped off the wheel well covering and mudflap on his truck. I'm afraid by the time the walleye are really running well the roads will be impassable except by 4wheeler.

There have also been reports of a few walleye being caught out of Elephant Butte. We will probably try the lake again for walleye -- who knows -- maybe with the snow melt run off coming down river into the north end of the lake and the dam letting water out of the south end there may be some current to get the walleyes active.

Water Canyon

We gave a ride to a friend we made in camp up to the Ford dealer in Socorro. He needed to pick up his truck after having a hub fixed -- warranty repair -- and his truck is exactly like ours. So we are waiting until we get camped in Minnesota before we try our 4wheel drive system in case we have the same problem.

Since we were up that way we headed west of Socorro on Highway 60 about twenty miles to Water Canyon National Forest Campground. We had seen the sign for it on our way to the Very Large Arrey so this time we decided to check it out.

The picture with the fencing on both sides of the road is the way into the canyon and you can see a little snow at the very top of the mountains. The picture with the pretty cliffs is in the canyon itself. We didn't actually see any water in water canyon and the campground was closed for the "winter" mid November through mid March. The picture with the mountain rising out of the desert was taken on the way out of the canyon.

This past week has been the warmest since the first part of December. It was in the 70's and even 80 degrees one day and this coming week promises more of the same. They are saying the temps are above normal but we just say bring it on!

Everyday guys have been running down to the river to see if the walleye are running yet. Jim thinks this coming week is going to produce so we will be down there ourselves checking it out.