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| Hiking | 4.04 Miles |
309 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.04 Miles | 2 Hrs 12 Mns | | 1.86 mph |
| 309 ft AEG | 2 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Some folks from El Paso planned on a couple of easy hikes around Fort Bayard and a car camp at Cherry Creek Campground north of Pinos Altos. This sounded good to me as I like the area, so decided to join them. I drove over to Deming Friday afternoon and spent the night at the Quality Inn (excellent place to stay as I found out on a previous visit). After a trip to Pepper's Supermarket to get some beer and dinner at Campos Restaurant downtown, it was back to the motel for the night. Went over to the in house bar/lounge for a margarita. While enjoying my drink and telling the barkeep that this is the second Lazy Lizard I had been in for a drink (the other is in Ocotillo, California, which she found cool), two guys came in at about 9:15 and sat down at the bar. They asked if they could still order food and the bartender said the grill closed at 9. So, they munched down on some snacks and got a drink. I heard one of them say to the bartender that they owned a town/ranch in Arizona. That got my attention and I looked at them and thought I might know the answer. So, I asked where, and one said "Cowtown Keeylocko." Bingo! I told them I was from Tucson and have driven by the place on my way to hike Coyote Peak several times. In fact, some hikers I know stopped there about a month ago, and they think they remembered them. Small world. Ed Keeylocko was pretty quiet as his Rednecky BSer compadre did most of the talking (I wasn't impressed), but nonetheless that was really cool. I told them I would have to stop in for a visit, now that I had this chance encounter miles from home base. 
In the morning I met the El Paso people at the 5-R Travel Center on the north side of town, and we were off to the Dragonfly Trailhead to get the weekend started.  I didn't really know much of anything about these trails, though I knew about the Big Tree. Of the two hikes we did during the weekend, this was my favorite. I enjoyed the petroglyphs and the extended period of walking along Twin Sisters Creek. Beautiful country over there.
Following the hike, it was off to Pinos Altos. None of the others had been there, so I showed them the 32nd Street bypass to get to NM 15. They thought there would be more to Pinos Altos than there was.  We stopped at the Museum for awhile. I told them I used to frequent the area quite a bit back in the 1990's, sometimes staying at Bear Creek Cabins (and panning for gold along Bear Creek) and walking down to the Buckhorn Saloon for a good dinner. The Ice Cream Parlor/Post Office has closed, but not much else has changed. The Buckhorn, which looks abandoned from the outside, still rocks on (guess Melody doesn't work there anymore). From Pinos Altos it was up the highway to Cherry Creek Campground, which was pretty full, but we lucked out and got a spot. Yay! The last time I camped there was in 2003, so staying there again was fun. Very quiet mellow campers prevailed. I sat around as it got dark and the others went to bed, sipping my beer and letting memories and the sounds of nature sooth me.
In the morning, we broke camp and headed back to Fort Bayard in search of a really big Juniper tree.
Camp sounds as darkness set in: (no video)
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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