Today’s journey took us on the Old Geronimo Scenic Byway Trail thru the Black Range. The scenery – oh my..
In the first part of the journey, we were on a flat plateau. In this trip to the first town, I think we saw 5 cars.
We started the climb into the mountains:
Rancher’s road:
This was by a pull off. As I got closer to the fence I could smell that something had died there. Didn’t stay long.
The road gets curvy and no guardrails:
Yes, that is the road carved into the mountain:
We arrived at Hillsboro.
Lots of info here:
https://sierracountynewmexico.info/attractions/hillsboro-new-mexico/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsboro,_New_Mexico
The markers and a little park is the first place we saw coming out of the mountains. My initial plan was to go to the museum and get a self guided tour brochure and then check out the shops. Sadly, nothing was open.
So we drove around a little, checking out some of the sites.
I would have loved to know this woman – :
Sign outside one of the shops:
Old mining equipment:
Percha Creek ran behind this park. Check out the size of that cottonwood tree. I bet it could tell stories.
Backyard ovens…would love to try some of the goods baked here:
We continued on our way to Kingston with a stop at Percha Creek Overlook:
The Gorge – WOW!
The current highway – now how do they do those paintings??
Flowers growing on the ledge:
Love the rock shapes:
Looking back at the overlook:
Even a cactus growing high up!
We continued on thru the Black Range.
Notice the tree type changes:
We made it to Kingston and this is their main street – LOL!
https://www.newmexico.org/places-to-visit/regions/southwest/kingston/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston,_New_Mexico
There is a walking tour but the museum was also closed. (Yes, I did check before I left. Next time I will call.)
We decided to keep on going to Emory Pass. We were about 1 mile out of Kingston and the road was shut down. I did find out that there was a landslide and they are not sure when or if the road will open up again.
So we turned around and headed back to Hillsboro where I decided to do some of the side streets. I did find the Old Courthouse and Jail Site.
“Built in 1896, it was the site of many famous trials including the Oliver Lee trial for the murder of Albert Fountain and his son. After the County Seat was moved to Hot Springs, the Courthouse was sold and demolished. The Jail was immortalized in many Eugene Manlove Rhodes stories.”
The Jail:
Beautiful Church!
I was a little disappointed with some of the closures.. BUT.. the scenery was AWESOME! We headed back…
What a great road trip. I take a lot of pictures to try to show what the area is like. The hardest thing is that pictures do not show the vastness of a scene. Nature is truly beautiful.
Back home, we did some packing up. We are on our way north and east tomorrow so stay tuned and enjoy today.
No comments:
Post a Comment