Trip Report: The Wild, Wild West

whazoo wrote:
Boy this is an impressive trip report. You have put some effort and time into it and it shows. I'd have to say it was professionally done, and what a trip it was. Thanks a bunch for posting!

Thanks Dave, I really appreciate that. Work has been eating up most of my time lately, and it's been difficult to find the time to update this. But, it's sort of a therapeutic endeavor when I have the brainpower to devote to it. I enjoy reliving the trip as much as I enjoy sharing the experience here.

The next day we left Leasburg Dam State Park, and drove a short distance down the road to Fort Selden Historic Site. This was another old west fort that was built to protect settlers and travelers in the Mesilla Valley from desperados and Apache Indians. Several of the units stationed at the fort were black troopers, referred to as Buffalo Soldiers.



Fort Selden was constructed primarily of adobe, and when it was abandoned in 1891 all of the wood was salvaged, leaving the adobe unprotected from the elements. Consequently, the remains of the fort are slowly melting into the desert.



A young Douglas MacArthur called the fort home while his father was post commander in the late 1880s. He's the small boy on the left in the photograph with his mother, father and older brother. He later wrote that he learned to ride and shoot here before he could even read or write.





Douglas MacArthur was actually born at the Little Rock Arsenal in Little Rock, AR, (where I currently live) though I don't think he liked to be reminded of it. I remember reading somewhere (probably at the MacArthur Museum at the Little Rock Arsenal) that he was once at a social event in Little Rock, and became impatient with a female member of the local press who was questioning him about his connection to Arkansas, and she must have referred to him as an "Arkansan". He eventually snapped at her: "Madam, you're referring to the place of my birth. I am a Virginian!" Oh well, Little Rock is proud to call him a native son, and has a fine museum in the building of his birth that you should visit if you are ever able.

These are the ruins of the post commanders quarters, that were occupied by the MacArthur family.





The parade ground.







Some of the walls are unstable, and have been supported with steel buttresses.







I found the list of daily rations and supplies interesting.





We continued north along the Rio Grande river, and stopped for lunch at Percha Dam State Park. The flow through this dam must vary widely through the seasons. The river is very low right now. The drying river bed is covered with green moss, which is adding a............... slightly unpleasant "fragrance" to the air. In other words, it smelled like rotting fish.









We needed to kill about a day in order to be near Trinity Site Saturday morning, so we decided to drive part of the Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway west from Truth or Consequences into the Gila Nat'l Forest. It looked like the road was easily drive-able for at least 50 miles, but it eventually turns turns into a 4x4 only road. That probably means it will be too rough to haul the camper over, but we'll see how far we can go.

The first 30 or so miles was paved, and the scenery was nice.



Very few vehicles on the road besides us. We could stop just about anywhere we wanted.





We eventually got to a fork in the road, and encountered this sign.



Stupid sign. It obviously never heard of Yogi Berra or his unique words of wisdom: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it!" He didn't say "Turn around" Mr. Sign, he said "Take it!" So I'm taking one of these roads, it's just a question of which one. I looked down the road to the left, and could see a warning sign saying there was a bridge in 2 miles with a 4 ton limit for 2 axle vehicles.



I guess that settles it, we're going the other way. The road from here on was graded dirt. Some areas were pretty wash-boardy, but it was passable. We drove at least 10 more miles down that road.



The only mud we encountered on this route was here. The rest of the road was pretty dusty.



It eventually came to a "T", and we tried both ways but they very quickly became too rough for the camper from big rocks and boulders poking out of the road surface. This must be a fun road to grade. NOT! :p Turning around was a challenge in one direction because the road had become very narrow amongst the trees, with a 12"-18" tall pile of big rocks along both sides. I found an area the plow had turned out away from the road to make a channel for water to flow, and was able to back into it just enough to get turned around. I had to make about a ten-point turn to do it, but I got it turned around. Sure was glad I wasn't towing anything!

This was just after turning around, climbing back up the hill.



Kinda steep.



We had passed a forestry service campground a few miles back, so we went back there and spent the night. I think the wilderness boundary the sign is referring to is for the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Area.



We had the campground to ourselves. It looked to be setup for horse owners. It had 5-6 sites with corrals.



The camper is taking on a more earthy hue.



We had to back-track to I-25 the next day, but the scenery was just as nice going as it was coming.



We found a place to spend the night near Socorro, in the ribbon of green vegetation along the Rio Grande known as the Bosque (bow-skeh).

We enjoyed a pretty sunrise, looking east towards Trinity Site.





Going to have to take another break. I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

:):)