Enchanted Rockies Trail

[alia176]

On a whim I headed down south New Mexico to explore that part of the state that I often neglect. The Enchanted Rockies Trail system is a large network of trails connected to make one beautiful loop around our state, and it starts way down south. I decided to skip segment number one since I have been on it when I ran the NMDDR so I checked out segment number two, which goes between the Lincoln National Forest and the town of Corona, NM.

This section of the trail is very chunky and slow going and starts at around 5000' elevation and raises up to about 7200'. I went from Corona to the Lincoln, in reverse just for fun. The town of Corona is an interesting little town.

I had to pop into the town of Capitan to stock up on supplies and checked out that little town. There is a Smokey Bear museum in the town, and lots of Smokey bear name businesses as well.

I camped here for the night next to a babbling brook! 33.65044, -105.41152. if you want to test out your suspension on 20 mi of rocky, chunky trails, this is it! I kept airing down until I was finally at 25 PSI for the smoothest ride. Beastie weighs in at 7500#.

This trail system takes you through vast open ranch lands before needing to air down and put it in four-wheel drive. Lots of wind farms down there. It was really easy to haul the mail down the straight stretches, only to pretend to be a rally racer and make those hairpin turns without flopping the rig . So if you are in that area, zoom in on your GPS so you can see where the sharp turns are located.

I'm looking forward to hitting segment number three! random pics are here: Enchanted Rockies Trail · Jul 11âââ12 ð¸ - https://photos.app.goo.gl/bUNZKAaZFeV1DR2M7

 

[BoomerUZ]

I was looking for the creek on the map view and I saw that black area, I thought it was a lake. "malpais valley of fires" that looks interesting too. and just below that is white sands missile range which looks completely out of place. and the roswell ufo landing nearby as well. seems like an interesting area to explore

 

[juane]

Corona is the town nearest the actual saucer crash site (or was it a weather balloon? ). The airbase at Roswell was the nearest military installation which is where the investigation and recovery efforts were located... forever becoming associated with the event.

 

[BoomerUZ]

sounds like you could make an event for all the space people who also mud lol

 

[alia176]

That explains why I saw this in Corona!

 

[alia176]

I was looking for the creek on the map view and I saw that black area, I thought it was a lake. "malpais valley of fires" that looks interesting too. and just below that is white sands missile range which looks completely out of place. and the roswell ufo landing nearby as well. seems like an interesting area to explore

Let me a screenshot of the black are you mentioned pls

 

[BoomerUZ]

Let me a screenshot of the black are you mentioned pls

Its this here. Definitely thought it was a lake but it is not

 

[alia176]

could that be lava rocks? That area has lots of lava rocks and that is a rather large field of lava rocks i suppose.

 

[pappy]

could that be lava rocks? That area has lots of lava rocks and that is a rather large field of lava rocks i suppose.

Ya, that's the malpais (lave flow) at Valley of Fire.

 

[BoomerUZ]

I thought it was interesting, farthest from silver ive been is cruces, otherwise usually around the condemning, akila, silver area lol