DESTINATION Generic 80 Photosets
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| Santa Fe to City of Rocks, NM | | -
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| | Santa Fe to City of Rocks, NM | | | |
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Santa Fe to City of Rocks, NM
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| no partners | | After attending the burning of Old Man Gloom (Zozobra) at Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe for the 5th time in 6 years, it was time to start my journey back home. Unlike the first part of this trip which was planned out, I now was winging it (on a Labor Day Weekend no less  ). I wanted to do a night of camping somewhere, and my original plan was to head over to El Morro and go back by way of Show Low, Globe, etc. or over to Datil Well and back via Reserve, Mule Creek , and Safford. Both good ideas, but I wanted to pick up some roasted green chile along the way. I headed out of Santa Fe down NM41, completely avoiding driving through Albuquerque. When I hit US60 it was west through Mountainair to I-25, meaning I wouldn't be able to hit Sichler's at Los Lunas.
So, I was sort of changing my plan as I drove. I decided to stop at the Sichler's store at San Antonio (south of Socorro), where I usually go for roasting in the area anyway. Plus, I got the added bonus of stopping at the Owl Bar and Cafe across the street to enjoy basically the original green chile cheeseburger that started this whole modern day craze!  My kind of place, nothing fancy, simple menu, and still cranking things out in the same location, in the same way for 70 years. (Forget Manny's Buckhorn down the road...it doesn't have the history or ambiance, and the folks there just aren't very friendly). I'll take the Owl and Conrad Hilton's old bar any day. 
So now that I have my roasted chiles and enjoyed my glorious lunch, what next? It would be about a 10 mile backtrack to Socorro to hit US60 west if I wanted to go to Datil, etc. so I opted to head on down I-25 and then take the beautiful drive through Hillsboro, Kingston, and over Emory Pass (NM152). I like Iron Creek Campground and thought it might be an option. Nope, it was jammed with Texans! Must have been a big family reunion or something, I mean it was packed. Down the road is Railroad, but it was packed as well.  Same for Upper Gallinas, and Lower Gallinas was closed due to all the post fire flood damage. That meant it would be City of Rocks (if spots were available) or just throw in the towel and grind out 220 more miles to home. 
Regardless of where I ended up Saturday, at least I was enjoying some quality non-interstate road time...just tripping along looking for photo ops...in no hurry.  So it is getting to be late in the afternoon as I turn off NM152 at San Lorenzo to head south on NM61 for that pretty drive along the Mimbres River past Faywood to City of Rocks State Park. What will I find?
The campground was pretty full, plus there was a large group of Arizona bicyclists there (GABA). I drove through and saw that all my favorite spots were taken, and I was almost ready to give up and drive on, when I checked out a site I had camped at years ago (a sort of hidden one) and it was available! Yay, I was going to get to camp after all! 
It didn't take me too long to figure out why it was available, but we will save that for the next triplog. Let's just say it made for an interesting night.
Zozobra: https://youtu.be/yo ... LWVY
Chile Roasting: https://youtu.be/9s ... Lthg |
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