A Plunge Into the Wilderness

Friday, April 29th – Las Cruces to Gila National Forest, New Mexico – Day 78 

 The trek to Gila National Forest was a good time. We woke up and got out of Leasburg Dam State Park. Nothing moves quickly. The kids are in school at 7am so everyone starts moving early. Breakfast is made and cleaned up. Everything needs to be packaged away before we wished a quick goodbye to Sue and returned the sleds.  

Sue’s last recommendation was a restaurant named Sparky’s in Heath. They had purchased these massive statues of aliens, teddy bears, Ronald McDonald and displayed them in front of their burger joint. We took pictures and, we were hesitant, but we decided to get a bite to eat. Inside the place was packed with all sorts of unique statues, pottery, and signs. The burgers were delicious, and we were stuffed by the time we left. 

 We filled up on gas before we started heading into Gila National Forest. Gila National Forest is over three million acres of protected forest including the Gila Wilderness, which you can only access by foot or horse. Cell phones don’t work in most of the forest. The drive was three hours, but we needed to complete some tasks before we lost an internet connection. It was necessary to submit the kids before school program application. We stopped at the City of Rocks State Park because any further and we had no connection. It was a great park. There were a field full of different vertical rocks with spaces between them. It looked like a huge maze or obstacle course. It would have been awesome to walk through it. For the most part, Gen and I stayed on our phones working away. 

 We then plunged into the National Forest. We had a brief stop at the National Forest visitor centre to stock up on Smokey the Bear swag. The country slowly got more and more hilly. The drive started to move up steeper slopes before we reached the crest of the mountains/hills and drove along the ridge. On the way down we started to smell something. By the time we reached the road to our campsites, our brakes were smoking, We stopped to let them cool. 

 At the entrance to the free campsite, we saw a sign that said “Trailers are not Recommended”. We did not follow that recommendation. Bouncing and braking all the way downhill to the river side I realized that the hill may be a bit tougher to go back up then I expected. A problem for later. 

We got one of the best campsites that I have ever had the pleasure of staying at. We were metres away from a beautiful babbling brook. Beyond the river, a towering face of rock with birds soaring above the cliff face. We set-up and then enjoyed the remaining daylight. There was a pair of women next to us that had been travelling for years. I ended up chatting and sharing a fire after the kids had gone to bed.