LITMIR.BIZ

      Las Cruces and Hatch

      Leave Interstate 10 at Exit 140 in Las Cruces, on the Avenida de Mesilla. While you’re in town, check out Las Cruces’ Museum of Nature and Science. It has, among other exhibits, fossilized footprints of animals that predate the dinosaurs in slabs of rock taken from nearby Prehistoric Trackways National Monument, which is possibly the world’s richest source for this type of Permian Age fossil. Contact the BLM in Las Cruces if you’d like to tag along on a guided hike to the fossil beds, which contain tracks left by lizard-like critters, giant bugs, and sea creatures anywhere from 250 to 300 million years ago.

      Otherwise, head north on Valley Drive, NM 185, which will lead you through the agricultural area north of town. The highway runs through the valley of the Rio Grande, the same Rio Grande that marks the 1,200-mile border between Texas and Mexico. At Radium Springs, pull off the road for the Fort Selden State Historic Site, the crumbling adobe remains of a 19th-century Army outpost, a relic of the days when marauding bands of Apaches preyed on pretty much everyone who came near their territory. After the last of the renegade Apache warriors were disarmed and herded onto reservations, small garrisons like Fort Selden were no longer needed; this post was decommissioned and abandoned in 1891.

      Lovers of chile peppers will have something to celebrate when they reach the little town of Hatch, the official Chile Capital of New Mexico and site of the annual Hatch Chile Festival. The spicy food and music extravaganza is held each year over Labor Day weekend, and draws as many as 30,000 visitors. There’s no question that the farms in this area produce some of the finest, hottest peppers you would ever dare to eat, and local shops do a brisk business. You can get the chiles fresh when they’re in season, from August through mid-September; the rest of the year they’re available dried, frozen, and pickled, along with every conceivable chile-related food product and curio. Favorite souvenirs include beautiful decorative wreaths made entirely of dried chile peppers, and traditional ristras: strings of dried chiles, as much a staple of Southwestern décor as they are of Southwestern cooking.

      Ristras of Hatch Chiles, New Mexico

Spelling LessonIn New Mexico, everything related to hot peppers is spelled chile, with an ‘e’, not chili, with an ‘i.’ That’s official, and they’re serious about it. Per the New Mexico Legislature: Any citizen caught using the word chili will be deported to Texas.

      From Hatch, drive 30 miles north on NM 187 to the intersection of NM 152, near Caballo Lake, a large reservoir on the Rio Grande that offers all the usual boating, fishing, camping, and picnicking opportunities. The route heads west from here, but you might consider an optional side trip: 15 miles north is the town of Truth or Consequences, the official gateway to Spaceport America, the world’s first “purpose-built, FAA-certified commercial spaceport.” It’s not an amusement park, and it’s not a movie set. It’s an actual spaceport, owned and operated by the State of New Mexico, with a 12,000-foot runway, launch pads for rockets, hangars for spacecraft, and a passenger terminal that boosters compare to the Sydney Opera House. When trips into outer space become available to paying passengers, this is where they’ll fly from.

      There’s not a lot going on out at the Spaceport just yet, but if you’d like to take a look at the staging area for what could well become the Next Big Thing, you can take a tour, the “Spaceport America Experience”; it lasts about 4 hours, counting travel time. All tours leave from, and return to, the Spaceport America Visitors Center in downtown Truth or Consequences, and advance reservations are required. If you stay overnight in the area, take advantage of the natural hot springs for which Truth or Consequences has long been famous. Several of the local hotels, including Riverbend Hot Springs and La Paloma Hot Springs, have private thermal pools right on their properties.

      Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

      Leaving Caballo Lake, head west on NM 152 up into an impressive wall of mountains known as the Black Range, or Sierra Diablo. If you like to drive, you’ll love this road. This segment, known as the Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway, is widely considered one of the finest driving roads in the United States. You’ll negotiate one S curve after another on a climb to almost 9,000 feet at Emory Pass, which marks the Continental Divide. Pull off the road at the scenic viewpoint for awesome vistas and some great photographs.

      Mural on the wall of the Hillsboro Cafe on the Geronimo Trail

      Seventeen gloriously curvy miles beyond the pass will drop you 3,000 feet to the Mimbres River, which runs along the base of the Black Range. When you reach the intersection with NM 35, in the small town of San Lorenzo, check your time. If you plan to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings, be aware that the gate to the ruins closes promptly at 4 p.m.—no exceptions. The distance from San Lorenzo to the site is only 45 miles, but you should allow at least 90 minutes for the drive. Late afternoon is a wonderful time of day to photograph the ruins—just don’t cut it too close.

      Wildflowers, Mimbres Valley, New Mexico

      The route to the cliff dwellings begins with NM 35, known as the Trail of the Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway. The highway follows the Mimbres River upstream, through the town of Mimbres. Twenty miles farther along is Lake Roberts, a small but quite beautiful lake popular with trout fishermen and bird-watchers. There are cabins and motel rooms for rent here, and a lovely campground. Four miles beyond the lake is the intersection with NM 15; turn right (north) and follow it all the way to the end, about 18 miles, to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The road to the ruins is narrow and winding, very slow going, with some sheer drop-offs and many hairpin turns posted as low as 10 mph—and for good reason! At one point, the highway skirts the edge of a collapsed volcanic caldera. Timeworn, overgrown, but still plainly visible, the caldera is a graphic reminder of the region’s violent geological past. Stop at Anderson Scenic Overlook for a breathtaking view of the Mogollon Range, the tallest mountains in southwestern New Mexico, and Gila River Canyon, 2,000 feet below.

      Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

      Continuing north on NM 15 you’ll pass Gila Hot Springs a few miles before the end of the road. Much of this area is geothermally active and there are several natural hot springs nearby, some on public land, some private. There are a few campsites here, with access to the hot springs included.

      At the National Monument visitors center, you can pick up maps and information about the ruins and the trails in the park. Even if you’ve seen your share of cliff dwellings, you’ll find this one is special. The setting is a narrow, wooded canyon with a perennial stream. On the west side of the ravine there’s a sheer cliff, and hollowed out from the face of it, high above the canyon floor, you can see a series of natural alcoves: interconnected caves that are open to the morning sun. In the late 13th century, a small group of perhaps 15 farming families from the Native American culture we now call the Mogollon moved into the caves and built an elaborate communal home there.

      It was a perfect spot: protected from the elements, easily defended, close to water. A lot of craftsmanship went into the construction, and the wonderful organic structure that they created is still standing and largely intact. There are graceful, curving walls built of flat stones stacked like bricks, cemented with adobe mortar, and then plastered. The walls enclose more than 40 interconnected rooms that fill the alcoves: large common areas, smaller private living quarters, a granary. Many of the outward-facing walls had windows, and some sections were left open. Clearly, the builders appreciated their view!

      There’s a tour every day at 11 a.m., but you can hike to the ruins and explore them on your own any

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