Shakespeare Ghost Town

    It take a lot of planning or a little luck to see Shakespeare because it’s only open to visitors the first weekend of each month. We fit into the luck part as we just happened to be passing through on the first weekend of December. :-)

   A small spring near the town has always been an attraction for travelers. The Army built a relay station in 1856, the Butterfield Stage constructed a stage stop a few years later, Confederate soldiers built a small stone fort, and after the war a new stage line reopened the stage stop but the town got it’s real start when silver was discovered in 1870. The town grew to 3,000 people with a boom that lasted for just two years. The discovery of gold in 1878 brought a second boom. The depression of 1893 and the lack of a railroad station led to the town’s demise.

  In 1935 Frank and Rita Hill bought the ranch land which included the town. They soon developed an interest in preserving it and passed that interest to their daughter Janaloo.  The town is still privately owned by the family and the tours are conducted by volunteers. The tour takes about 1 1/2 hours and is only $4.00. There are about six buildings with artifacts and lots of stories about everything. Some may be true. ;-)  Worth a stop if you’re in the area on the first weekend of the month.

        

   Attempts at wheelchair accessibility have been made. Most buildings have rudimentary ramps but they are difficult to use without assistance. The ground is hardpacked but rocks make for rough going.

        

   The dirt road to the town is bad washboard but navigable by any vehicle. There’s a parking area for RVs at the top of the hill overlooking the town. Small RVs will fit in the lot at the town entrance gate. Shakespeare   32.32475, -108.73834

Palomas and the Pink Store

  Palomas is just across the border from Columbus, NM. It’s a small town without all of the traffic and visitors that the larger border towns receive. Many of the buildings are empty, the result of years of fights for dominance by drug cartels. Things have calmed down over the last few years and the town has recovered somewhat. Our friend, Shane, who has been visiting Palomas since he was a teenager, was a great tour guide. We ate lunch at Taqueria Gamez, a spotless family run restaurant, where everyone speaks Spanish so Shane did all of the translating. We heard gringos mentioned in there somewhere. :– D The main attraction in Palomas is the Pink Store but we also stopped to see a little stone church and the statue of Poncho Villa.

   

   The Pink Store, one of the first buildings after crossing the border, is a bright spot, figuratively and literally. Opened almost 30 years ago by Ivonne and Sergio Romero, the Pink Store is stocked with colorful ceramics, silver, jewelry, and folk art from Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Queretaro and other areas of Mexico. A very popular restaurant is located at the far end of the store. Dentists, optometrists, drug stores, and larger pieces of merchandise can be found in Pink Store Plaza, around the corner from the main store.

   The border crossing is under construction so the walking route  is rough but should be completely accessible when it’s finished.  The Pink Store is accessible and the employees are quick to offer help if it is needed. The sidewalks in the rest of the town are very rough with missing curb cuts. Visitors using wheelchairs or scooters will have a hard time.

     

   Any RV will fit in the large dirt parking lot on the right just before the border crossing. There’s a $5.00 fee but the collection box is missing so for now there’s no charge. The port of entry is opened 24/7. Don’t forget your passport! Store  31.78663, -107.62927

LoW-HI RV Ranch

  Loners on Wheels, an RV club for single people, was started in 1969. As membership grew a decision was made to establish a permanent headquarters so in 1996 the club bought a small RV park in Deming, New Mexico. Many of the members worked on improvements and the campground now has 54 full hook-up pull through sites, 11 back-in water/electric sites, a large dry camping area (where we camped), an off season storage area, restrooms, showers, a dump station, laundry room, clubhouse and lots of planned activities. The campsites sites are roomy and the park is very well maintained. Campsites are open to the public but only single people can become LOW members. The sites are roomy and the park is very well maintained.

   Shane, one of our RTR friends, has a site for the winter season so we stopped and spent a few days visiting with him. Ms J., another rubber tramp, stopped by too and, with Shane’s help, hooked up her solar system. Then Stephanie came in and I think she got her solar installed too. Shane is a busy guy!  Hope to see all of them at the RTR. :-)  Ranch  32.21231, -107.73603

                

Fort Selden State Monument

   Fort Selden was established in 1865 to protect settlers and travelers in the Mesilla Valley from attacks by outlaws and Native Americans who considered the area their territory. Besides attending to their daily duties at the fort, soldiers provided escort services, responded to calls for help, and acted as relays to improve communications in the area. The fort was abandoned in 1891 when a decision was made to expand Fort Bliss which was closer to El Paso.

  The fort was built of adobe. When it closed the timber beams and other materials were salvaged and, with this small amount of protection gone, the walls have melted away.  All that remains are short stubs.

  The visitor center features a video, displays, and artifacts. A walking tour with informative signs circles the ruins. Visitors are also given a guide to the fort with numbered descriptions for all of the buildings.

 

   A fresh layer of gravel on the path from the parking lot to the visitor center makes rolling very difficult. The visitor center is accessible. The fort walking trail is hard packed and fairly easy to roll along.

       

  The parking lot is large enough for any RV.  Fort   32.48376, -106.9189

Giant Statues at Sparky's Burgers

  Teako Nunn’s collection of large fiberglass statues started with a muffler man that he bought on eBay to stand in front of his RV dealership. Then he and his wife, Josie, opened a restaurant and they added more statues to the collection, positioning them on the roof of the restaurant, on the sidewalk, and across the street – everything from Uncle San to a big pink pig!

   Are the burgers world famous? Unfortunately we had just eaten lunch when we stopped to check out the statues but the restaurant gets good reviews for it’s green chili cheeseburgers and it sure did smell good!

  RVs can be parked on the street or in the parking lot behind the statues.  Statues  32.66563, -107.15328

Truth or Consequences Boondocking

   The flood plain of the Rio Grande from Williamsburg, New Mexico to Caballo Reservoir is Bureau of Reclamation land which has the same rules as BLM land. Dirt roads providing access to camping and fishing spots run along both sides of the river (just a stream at this point). The easiest access is off of Route 187, south of Williamsburg. Turn east onto one of the dirt roads and follow it to the river.  We chose to use Old Ladder Ranch Road (route 8074), to avoid driving through a wash on the road north of Old Ladder. It be accessed by any RV but use caution at the narrow cattle guard.

  The best spot, under a large tree with water view, was already occupied but our spot was pretty nice too. Unfortunately people use the area to dump trash so a bit of  cleanup may be necessary. Boondocking   33.10068, -107.28519

Geronimo Springs Museum

  In 1950, as a publicity stunt, NBC Radio offered to broadcast the 10th anniversary show of their popular quiz program, Truth or Consequences, from any town that would rename itself after the show. The little resort town of Hot Springs, New Mexico was chosen and on April 1, 1950 the broadcast from the newly renamed town started an annual tradition. From 1950 through the late 1990s the producer of the show and Hollywood stars came to celebrate at the Truth or Consequences Fiesta. Photographs and memorabilia of these events fill one room of the museum.

         

  The museums rambles from the main museum building through added on rooms, outside to another building, and through a door to an old log cabin. Each room has a theme and is packed full of artifacts and information which includes fossils, ranch equipment, arrowhead collections, and the history of the Apaches. The collection of pottery is particularly impressive.

          

   All areas of the museum are accessible but visitors in wheelchairs may need assistance with some of the ramps and doors.

  Parking is on the street and may be hard to find at times. Museum  33.12985, -107.2525

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

   Years of overgrazing, logging, river diversion, and invasive non-native plants had destroyed the wetlands and flood plain of the Rio Grande in central New Mexico when President Roosevelt gave the  young men of the Civilian Conservation Corp the task of restoring the area. What was started in the 1930s continues today and the refuge provides a yearly winter stop over for tens of thousands of cranes, geese, and ducks.

   The scenery of the refuge is spectacular but viewing the large number of birds, especially when they all lift off in early morning to feed in the grasslands and fields or land again in the evening is what draws many visitors to the refuge. The refuge has a visitor center, a driving tour with two loops, short hiking trails, and a bike trail. We missed the sandhill cranes but did see hundreds of snow geese coming in for the evening.

  The visitor center is accessible. The observation decks along the driving route are accessible and the boardwalk trail is accessible. Several trails are listed as mostly accessible but we did not have time to try them.

  The visitor center has a parking lot for RVs. A paved trail goes to the visitor center however the curb cuts are poorly designed so it might be easier to just go through the parking lots. The parking areas at the stops along the driving tour are large enough for RVs. Refuge   33.80523, -106.89038

CR B90 Boondocking

   County Road B90 is maintained gravel and travels west for about 4 miles to the entrance of San Lorenzo Canyon. This appears to be a popular area for riding horses. There’s a large fairly level spot on the left hand side of the road just after crossing the cattle guard which was a great for us since we were only staying for one night. If we had been planning on a longer stay we probably would have driven farther to a more secluded spot.

  There isn’t an exit from I- 25 at Country Road B90 but it can be accessed from both the east and west frontage roads. The east access requires driving through a narrow tunnel that runs under the interstate. It’s 14’ 4”high and should be wide enough for any RV – use caution.  Boondocking   34.22294, -106.92297