Fall 2005 Trip to New Mexico

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After hurricane Katrina blasted New Orleans, we decided to spend several weeks in New Mexico and then end up in Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta.

We started out by stopping in Las Cruces. The next day we went to Old Mesilla and found an interesting old gate and wall. We are collecting photos of these to get ideas to build our own wall.

From Old Mesilla we went to Alamogordo to visit some friends for a few days. Then we went north to Ruidoso, then through historic Lincoln and then spent a few days at Valley of Fires national monument. The valley below the campground is filled with old lava flows.

After we left Valley of Fires and Carrizozo, we stopped at an old mining town called White Oaks. It has one saloon with an interesting name.

We continued north and stopped at a little settlement named Ancho, where there is a museum with hundreds and hundreds of things from ranch life, in the old railroad station building.

We continued north to Santa Rosa, along the old Route 66. Santa Rosa has a number of old buildings, diners, etc. left from the hey days of the Mother Road. The sidewalks had these impressions cast in them.

Joseph's Bar & Grill has been a fixture along Route 66. We stopped for some pretty good New Mexican fare: green chili being part of it.

The old courthouse in town was kind of interesting looking. It was undergoing renovation.

We took a drive south of town to Puerto de Luna, the original settlement in the area. It was a ranching and farming settlement but the railroad went north of it so the people moved to where Santa Rosa is now located. Later on Route 66 followed the railroad through Santa Rosa. We found this old, church building, made from adobe bricks. It was the original church in Santa Rosa.

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