November 28-29, 2022 Faywood Hot Springs, New Mexico

 60 degrees, windy and sunny.

We filled up in Deming.  Fuel keeps getting cheaper. Only $4.29 a gallon. I finished this cute basket a few days ago. I may redo the top with beads or not. 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. It is made of dyed pine needles, polyester thread and glass beads. 

This one I finished before the last one. It has a small shell in the middle and made with dyed pine needles, polyester thread and glass beads. 6 1/2 x  2 1/4 inches. I am working on this one now. It is 7 x 1 1/2 inches so far. The center is a tile I bought in Hatch. It is made with dyed pine needles, glass beads and polyester thread. 

We are parked at Faywood hot springs for three nights. Very quiet and dark, and wonderful hot springs. Our friend Bev who lives in Silver City came down and soaked with us. Here she is in her cute Paris hat. We are going to get together and go to Gila Cliff Dwellings on Weds. 

Should we or shouldn't we wear clothes?  Sunset tonight. 

We spent the day soaking in the hot springs. It was lovely. I finished this basket too, I really like it. It is 7 1/2 inches x 2. It is made from dye pine needles, glass beads, polyester thread and the center is a piece of Mexican Tile I bought in Hatch. 

Side views. I put a chicken bead on the side where the coil ended. It matched perfectly. 

November 27, 2022 Hatch, New Mexico

 64 and sunny today.

We found the hike to Leasburg slot canyon in the Robledo Mountains just south of Hatch out side of Radium on the internet. It was very sketchy directions. But we found the trail head. We had to cross the Rio Grand river, the directions said not to cross if it was too deep or muddy. We lucked out, it was not deep or muddy. In fact it had almost no water at all in it. 

Then the directions said to bushwhack through some very thick and stickery brush. It wasn't' too bad. Then come to a corral and head toward the cliffs. 

Beautiful Chihuahua desert landscape. Ocotillos and sotol. They make a tequila like liquor from the sotol, it is much smoother tequila. I really like it, Barrel cactus, hedge hog cactus, sotol, and prickly pear cactus. 

Couple kinds of yellow flowers and a raven's feather in the canyon. John at the mouth of the canyon. 

Silhouetted in the canyon. There were still green leaves on the trees in the canyon. 

Very narrow and deep canyon. Beautiful twisty canyon, about 50 feet deep and very narrow. 

Sculpted canyon walls. 

John ahead in the canyon.

John ahead in the canyon. The canyon opening up at the end of the narrows. We turned around here. 

Cricket and stink bug, yellow flowers, yellow butterfly. Dried dead sotol. The canyon walls look like mud, but they are hard as concrete, parts even looked like asphalt. A red blotch on a rock, maybe lichen. 

Looking at the Robledo Mountains across the Rio Grand valley at the mouth of the canyon.  Friendly cactus waving and smiling, heart rock, screw bean mesquite seeds, On the way back on the backroad through the Rio Grand Valley we went through a border patrol check point and  they are hiring. I love the picture of them on horse back with cowboy hats, back in Hatch, with the world famous Chili Festival labor day weekend.  

Looking through the ocotillo branches at the Robledo Mountains and the Organ Mountains in the background. We were at the Organ Mountains yesterday. It was about 30 miles along the back way to Hatch. The whole way was pecan orchards. Here is the last light of day on an orchard and the Robledo Mountains. 

We stopped at the ruins of  Fort Seldon Historic site. It was closed, but I got this photo. It was one of many adobe forts along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail -the royal road of the interior which went from  Mexico city  through the heart of the Rio Grand valley to around Santa Fe. It was the principle  European trade route for 'New Spain'. The Buffalo Soldiers occupied the Fort. The Rio Grand Valley on the way back. No water in the river. 

November 26, 2022 Las Cruces, New Mexico

 65 and sunny today. We toured Las Cruces this afternoon.

Old Mesilla plaza., town square has historic San  Albino catholic church on one side and historic adobe buildings with galleries, shops and restaurants around it. The gazebo in the center of the Old Mesilla plaza. Soldiers raised the US flag in this plaza November 16, 1854 ending border disputes between Mexico and the US 

 with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase the last major territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States.

 

Billy the Kid Gift Shop is in a historic building that was the courthouse where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang. the chocolate shop had local chili pecan bark chocolate. We love chili chocolate so I went in and bought some. Next door in the pecan shop John got green chili pecans, a scarlet macaw in one of the restaurants, saguaro cactus cheese graters. There were two breweries next to each other, Ice Box Brewing and Little Toad creek downtown.  The Saturday farmers and crafts market on 7 blocks on Main street. downtown Las Cruces. 

The Christmas tree in the square next to palm trees. Beautiful raised pebble artwork in the square in Las Cruces. 

We stopped by the Railroad museum in the historic depot. The Organ mountains east of Las Cruces. 

The visitors center at Dripping Springs in the Organ mountains. It was too late to hike, but we checked out the trails. Organ Mountains near the Dripping Springs visitors center. 

We stopped at the Bosque Brewery for dinner and John had River Walker IPA. The Dona Ana Mountains northwest of Las Cruces. 

Sunset over the Dona Ana mountains with the Organ mountains in the background. Las Cruces is surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges all in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks national monument. .