New Mexico ADV loop - Day 2

Very windy and chilly night at Red Canyon! Got up at 8, finally forced out of the tent to pee… started coffee since I was up, no colder outside than in the tent.

Our plan for the day is to meander through the Salinas Missions, and eventually down to Three Rivers petroglyph site and rendezvous with Anna, who has her own plans for some canyon exploration east of Socorro, and is bringing the new dry bag.

Three Rivers BLM site does have water, but only 5 tent sites… hopefully we can get one, given it’s a Thursday in October. It’s only $10!

We headed out an excellent forest road to the south, with incredible views out over the Abo gap, until we intersected Hwy 60. We then headed east to check out the Abó pueblo/mission site, and after that picked up fuel in Mountainair and had lunch at the charming Shaffer Hotel before heading south to check out Gran Quivira.

The nav system gave us a route on good dirt roads, but it dead-ended at a private ranch gate and we had to back-track a bit to find an alternate route. The DMD2 navigation seems to have recurrent issues with private land and gates in the American West; I keep running into this kind of problem. I don't know if it is because the software is developed in Europe, or if it's their underlying map source, but it sure is annoying.

We did get to see a scene right out of the Old West -- cowboys herding cattle in the wind!

We eventually got to Gran Quivira and walked around the ruins for a while before heading south to Carrizozo, and continuing south to the Three Rivers road. Anna was ahead of us, and reported that the BLM campground only had uninspiring sites left, and she had gone ahead to get a spot at the Forest Service campground further up the road.

We arrived to find Anna had captured the most scenic spot, and it was wildly windy! More on that tomorrow.

Mileage for the day: 154
Trip mileage: 262
Google maps Route