Just Trees

 Trees in my yard and at my favorite places in the New Mexico mountains.

Fall Leaves and Flowers

fall leaves and flowers found in my yard

Old Grapevine Chain

A couple of days ago on a post about the Gila National Forest I mentioned that I had a photo of my husband back in September of 1971.  In the photo he is sitting on an anchor chain off of an old Navy ship. the chain was around a huge, very old grapevine. the oldest and largest grapevine any one knew of. A year later there was a heck of a flood that took out the grapevine and the chain which I don't think were ever found. It is possible one of the hunting outfits that pack hunters into the wilderness on horseback may have found the chain and never let anyone know they had found it. That grapevine and chain were right on the edge of the Gila River right were we would start wading in the river when we would go hiking into the Gila Wilderness. The campground there is still called Grapevine Campground. The main paved road has a bridge across the Gila River almost over the campground.

Pie Town and Socorro

The next morning I left Springerville, AZ and headed back to New Mexico and my home near Rio Rancho. By noon I needed a break. I had always heard the stories of Pie Town, NM. A hundred years or so when it took many days to make the trip I was making in about 5 hours a resident of this little village decided to bake pies and offer them to the tired travelers that stopped here in their old Ford trucks and cars. So the tiny community became known as Pie Town. I'm not sure what else there is in this town but 4 eatery's that sell pies among other things and the people that own and run these places. I decided to stop at one of the oldest ones The Pie-o-neer which has been featured on several TV shows. It was open but someone hadn't know which was the brake and which was the gas earlier in the morning and had driven up the steps and almost into the building. The people that owned the place said their first though had been an earthquake. But they had gone on baking pies and selling them. If you go here remember this place only sells pies, although some of the other cafes do sell other kinds of foods. I had a really delicious piece of cherry pie and good conversation with owners and other people eating pie.

After leaving Pie Town I made it to Socorro, NM and took a wrong turn to get to the freeway. But that was alright as I found an old Spanish Catholic Mission Church and stopped for a few minutes. The church didn't look that old as it has been repaired many times. There was no one around so I didn't go in. As you can see by the signs below that they celebrated the 400th aniveresy of the church in 2015 and that it was actually founded in 1598.

This old adobe house was across the street from the church and is actually for sale. But to close to the street to suit me.

Going Back To Arizona

After our hike up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and then back down again we were really tired. We wanted to spend the night in one of the RV camps near the cliff dwellings but it was now that we finally figured out that there was no - and I really mean NO cell phone service any where near the cliff dwellings or even in the Gila National Forest. Worried that our men folks would be starting to worry that it had been two days since we had contacted them we decided to drive to a point where there was cell phone service. We were glad they had both had enough since not to worry and to figure you that we just couldn't call out. It took about an hour but seemed longer as tired as we were but we finally got cell service just before getting to the small village of Membres. We had decided to make the Loop Drive all the way around and through the Gila Forest instead of the winding, twisting road we had come in on. When we saw an RV park at Membres ( as it is another Indian word it is pronounced Mem-brays). The RV park and the people there were very nice. Sarah and I didn't stay up long after our long day. A quick super, a quick dog walk, a glass of wine, and a concert by the local coyotes and we were in bed asleep.

The next morning, after a nice, hot shower at the RV park our co-pilot decided we should get down the road toward her home in Springerville, Arizona.

In an hour or so the co-pilot decided she wanted a walk and hopefully with out her leash. Sarah knew of a dirt road that had some huge cottonwood trees on it. The road says Bill Evens Lake, (we had been there when we teens) but we decided we didn't want to take a chance on getting into an area where we would have trouble turning the motor home and we knew we needed to get back as we were running a day later than planned and we both had plans for the weekend.

I have seen some large cottonwood trees in and around Albuquerque but nothing as big as these were. We wondered if this was where Geronimo and his band of Apaches might have camped and had these sheltered them then about 150 years ago.

This big cottonwood had fallen and made a good seat.

 This section of the Gila River was dry which was right by where the big cottonwoods were.

As we went on toward Arizona we saw many, many of these yellow flowers on the hill sides. We were not able to stop were any were close by to get a good, close look at them.

The two wild women and their wild dog made the big loop over to Silver City, New Mexico, the Gila Cliff Dwellings and back to Springerville, Arizona. We won't be forgetting this great adventure.