alia176
SILVER Star
This trip found us going through a very cool part of southern NM and AZ. Left home on Sat and checked out Springerville and Alpine AZ. Springerville has a nice museum, metal art work and their very first dispensary was about to open! The coffee shop was cool, full antiques and interesting people and we were off to Alpine, AZ.
There was a classic car show in Alpine that we checked out and of course had to have a pie a la mode at the Bear Wallow cafe. Awesome pie and the restaurant owner suggested we go camp in Blue, AZ, which is along the Blue river. This is a very luscious river valley full of residential hoods. Since the river is at the bottom of the canyon, no winds were felt all night. We saw a bear and decided NOT to camp there!
Sunday we pulled out of Blue, then stayed on the dirt roads heading due East and eventually came out north of Mugollon, NM. This drive took us out of a luscious Blue river valley into dry, arid NM high mountains. The tall trees went away and became dusty trails with shorter trees and scrawny cows! We saw couple of rocks with petroglyphs along the way.
Aired up and headed into the ghost town of Mogollon. If you've never been, this is a very cool active ghost town with 15 full time residences. This town was washed out during the flood of 2013 and the residences brought it back to life. Flooded town pics We explored the ghost town for few hours, grabbed lunch then headed into Glenwood, NM. This is where the Catwalk Rec area is located in the White river canyon and it is also a must see. There are catwalks attached to the walls of the White River canyon that were washed out during the flood of 2013 but opened up on the sat of Memorial weekend. We spent couple of hours there and then headed south until we found the Frisco hot springs. Sun night was spent near the hot springs. Word of caution about dogs, some of them don't like walking on see through floors!
Monday morning was spent in the Frisco hot springs then we headed into Reserve, NM where we grabbed coffee then meandered home through the Plains of St Augustine. This was Jessica's first view of the VLA.
All in all, around a 600 mile road trip with maybe 100 miles of it off pavement. A very easy, relaxing tour of the Southern NM/AZ that is worth exploring. Temps were fabulous in the river valleys but they were creeping up everywhere else. So, perhaps a trip in autumn to the ghost town of Mogollon is in order? The google map PDF has been attached to this posting.
There was a classic car show in Alpine that we checked out and of course had to have a pie a la mode at the Bear Wallow cafe. Awesome pie and the restaurant owner suggested we go camp in Blue, AZ, which is along the Blue river. This is a very luscious river valley full of residential hoods. Since the river is at the bottom of the canyon, no winds were felt all night. We saw a bear and decided NOT to camp there!
Sunday we pulled out of Blue, then stayed on the dirt roads heading due East and eventually came out north of Mugollon, NM. This drive took us out of a luscious Blue river valley into dry, arid NM high mountains. The tall trees went away and became dusty trails with shorter trees and scrawny cows! We saw couple of rocks with petroglyphs along the way.
Aired up and headed into the ghost town of Mogollon. If you've never been, this is a very cool active ghost town with 15 full time residences. This town was washed out during the flood of 2013 and the residences brought it back to life. Flooded town pics We explored the ghost town for few hours, grabbed lunch then headed into Glenwood, NM. This is where the Catwalk Rec area is located in the White river canyon and it is also a must see. There are catwalks attached to the walls of the White River canyon that were washed out during the flood of 2013 but opened up on the sat of Memorial weekend. We spent couple of hours there and then headed south until we found the Frisco hot springs. Sun night was spent near the hot springs. Word of caution about dogs, some of them don't like walking on see through floors!
Monday morning was spent in the Frisco hot springs then we headed into Reserve, NM where we grabbed coffee then meandered home through the Plains of St Augustine. This was Jessica's first view of the VLA.
All in all, around a 600 mile road trip with maybe 100 miles of it off pavement. A very easy, relaxing tour of the Southern NM/AZ that is worth exploring. Temps were fabulous in the river valleys but they were creeping up everywhere else. So, perhaps a trip in autumn to the ghost town of Mogollon is in order? The google map PDF has been attached to this posting.
