Maureen's Blog

 Archive for the ‘New Mexico’ Category

A great little trail along Whitewater Creek, it was originally a pipeline which was built in the 1890′s to deliver water to the gold mining town of Graham. It has since become a recreation area within Gila National Forest and a metal walkway was constructed by the forest service in the 1960′s, so you are able to walk through narrow high walled canyons without getting wet!

~Maureen

The Gila Cliff Dwellings lies deep in the mountains of the Gila National Forest, surrounded on all sides by wilderness areas and over an hour’s drive from the nearest town …accessed only through steep, winding, twisting roads going over mountains and though deep valleys. The ruins of interlinked cave dwellings were built in five sandstone cliff alcoves by the Mogollon peoples between 1275 and 1300 AD and only occupied for a short 25-30 years:

~Maureen

Along historic route 66….it’s simply mind boggling how these immense rocks rise from the earth with miles of flat terrain surrounding them :

~Maureen

A small town made popular for tourism due to it’s trading posts which traditionally trades goods with local Native populations. I’m not much of a shopper myself so I skirted around the perimeters of town and took a few snapshots:

~Maureen

This is the question everyday in New Mexico territory and if you happen to cruise through it’s pueblo towns the answer is vital and may in fact save you from bursting into tears and having your mouth become a virtual flame thrower. The question is in relation to which type of salsa sauce you would like your given meal to be smothered in. If I had known this prior to arrival, I would have avoided the tearful spell I experienced when confronted with the question at 4:30am (still on ET, not that crazy!) while ordering an innocent little egg sandwich … travel at times can be stressful and all I really wanted after all was a plain egg sandwich to accompany my triple espresso americano …I wasn’t really in the mood for my lips to loose all sensation and feel like they were twice their size that early in the morning, or if ever, for that matter. The Red is of course related to the red chili pepper and the green is referring to the green chili pepper …not too hard to remember but the curve ball comes when trying to determine which is the milder of the two ….which just FYI, can change from day to day upon the discretion of the establishment you are eating at …so you must remember to ask EVERYDAY…which is the hotter/milder of the two today…Red or Green?

Today…was Red.

Im in NM territory for the next 4 weeks as I help the state of NM become good little therapites…. so far so good!

~Maureen

The above photographs were taken during my trapse through NM from Albuquerque to Silver City which cut through the south east side of Gila National Forest. I’m currently in Silver City for less than 24 hrs and once I figure out the new flickr account and am able to share the rest of my photographs, you’ll soon be able to appreciate as much as I do this little colorful town which is bursting with an artsy earthy air and simply draws you in to it’s laid back lifestyle…Loving it! Only wish I had more down time as the Catwalk Trail and the Gila Cliff Dwellings within the park are awfully tempting but simply too far out of the way to explore during this trip….next visit hopefully!

~Maureen