Still traveling through dessert
This road will take us to Silver City, and over the Continental Divide
I had emailed ahead of time to the Silver City RV Park to
verify they could accommodate us; after all we have grown longer this year. Between the new coach (what’s an additional 4’)
and the new trailer (what’s an additional 4’) we are now about 65’ long. Although they said they could, it was touch
and go when we got here. Wayne does an
amazing job maneuvering us around, thank goodness. We eventually got into their only big rig
spot. Getting out on Friday could be
interesting to say the least.
Wednesday was our first real ride on the DRZ’s. We went north to see the Gila Cliff
Dwellings.
The sign said there was a trail out here somewhere, we just found mud and snow
Over looking the Wilderness Area
The bikes are working well
This national
monument was established by executive proclamation on November 16, 1907. In the
summer of 1878, Henry B Ailman found himself, along with a bunch of friends, on
a jury list. To avoid serving, they organized a prospecting trip to the Gila
River where the dwellings were discovered.
The dwellings were a perfect place for human living. The caves provided
adequate shelter, while the wooded area concealed the homes. Impressively, the
wood found in these shelters has proven to be original. Dendrochronology (tree
ring dating) determined that the wood used in the dwellings was cut down
sometime between 1276 to 1287. The nearby area also provided for growing and
finding food. Archeologists have identified 46 rooms in the five caves, and
believed they were occupied by 10 to 15 families. It is not known why the
dwellings were abandoned.
After a quick stop at the visitors center, we are off to the real deal
Must be this way
Burr, snow on the creek
Due to ice and snow on the return half of the trail, we had to go out and back the same way
The trail is an easy one mile round trip
It follows Cliff Dweller Creek
That's where we are going
That's original wood
The view from inside
Imagine being in here during a downpour rainstorm
One of the family rooms
It's quite a big area
After returning
to our planned loop, we continued around until we got to the Santa Rita Copper
Mine. This huge open pit mine was
started as the Chino Copper Company in 1909 by mining engineer John M. Sully
and Spencer Penrose, and is currently owned and operated by Freeport-McMoRan
Copper & Gold subsidiaries. The present-day open-pit mining operation was
begun in 1910. It is the third oldest open pit copper mine in the world, and is
still in operation. The pit is almost 1,500 feet deep and 1.5 miles across. 
We could see it way in the distance
Had to stop and look
It is huge!!
We had planned on leaving on Thursday morning, but we are expecting
a mail packet from Becca and it won’t arrive until Friday, so we stayed an
extra day. We spent the day walking around Silver City. We had to find the Post Office and visit the KTM dealer (Copper County ATV)
to see if there are m/c trails in the area.
There are! Something to do next
time we are in the area!!!
One street over from Highway 90 is the old town.
Wonderful old buildings, with lots of local artists
We also got in touch with Winegard, the maker of our automatic
sat dish. We were unable to stow our
dish when we left Bisbee, due to broken cables inside.
The cables caught on this metal box while turning around
Two out of three broke clear through, the third is rubbed down to the metal
When the cables got caught, they also pulled apart and disconnected the plastic plug
Wayne couldn’t fix it so we called Winegard. The dish is still on warrantee and Leslie in
tech support was wonderful to work with.
She is having a new turret sent to a RV dealer in San Antonio, who will
install it for us. We hope to have it
before Super Bowl!!! Go Hawks!!!
Friday we head to our next
destination: Big Bend National Park in
Texas.
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