March 2008 ...........

El Morro National Monument: From Zuni Pueblo we took H-53 to El Morro National Monument, an ancient landmark with hiking trails to the top - very strenuous - and with a 200 foot drop-off in places. There are some some ruins on top of the monument, and campsites and picnic areas in the park. We didn't go on any trails because they were closed for the day.
From there we followed H-50 around to Bandara Volcano and Ice Caves. The ice caves were closed, so we drove around and then continued on to the El Malpais National Monument( the badlands), a conservation area. Between El Morro and Bandara you cross the Continental Divide. We ended in Grants and came back to Gallup on I-40. Left photo: El Morro, right photo, Bandara Volcano.

March 2008 ...........

Silver City: Nestled in the foothills of southwestern New Mexico adjacent to the Gila Wilderness. It was once an Apache campsite, and then was a boomtown in 1870 after silver was discovered in the area. In 1893 the bottom dropped out of the silver market and the mining camps closed down, but by this time the cattle industry was going strong. Today cattle ranching and copper mining are the main industries. There is a huge ditch running through town, it was at one time the main street, but a flood washed away most of the town and left the ditch. There is a photo of it below. The town is sort of a artist/hippie/biker town, or at least that's the way it struck us. Very neat place to visit. It is also a jumping off place for the Gila National Monument. We ended up in Silver City because we had a few extra days and we noticed that H-16 that circles up from Silver City is a National Scenic bi-way and we try to travel all the bi-way's we can.

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