Just Motoring

[Argonaut20]

No great adventures here, just some thoughts and pictures taken as I motored around New Mexico recently. First is an expedition to Fort Cummings, a 19th century fort built during the Apache raids in the 1800's. Final abandonment was about 1886. The Butterfield stage ran near fort and it served to protect miners who were in the Cooke's Peak area. It also saw black soldiers stationed there after the Civil War.

Not much left now.

I had wondered why the Butterfield Stage went so far north from Las Cruces. It went through a rather nasty pass west of Las Cruces when there was a fairly flat route a few miles to the south (the interstate route presently). Just west of the pass was one of the many hills named 'Massacre Peak' in the southwest. Well, the answer to the "Why go north?" question was here.

This is a house built over Cooke's Spring named for the leader of the Mormon Battalion who stopped here on the way to California. The house was originally built by the AT&SF railroad who used the spring as a water source for the steam trains that used to go on tracks about 4 miles away. The roof is relatively new.

Starting on another quest, I traveled from Lake Roberts to the (nonexistent) Wall Lake Campground Via FR150. The obligatory shot of the camper is in the appropriately named Rocky Canyon. More below after I doctor the photos.

 

[Argonaut20]

First the photo of the camper. Gotta be here, right? The canyon is, indeed, rocky, but not something that couldn't be done in a Subaru or similar. There are a few campgrounds on the route that are pretty primitive.

When was the last time you saw a picnic table like this?

Octagonal in shape. This was in the Black Canyon campground, a seldom used but beautiful spot. The effort to bring back the Gila trout was here.

The Black Canyon campground looks like this:

Sneaked in another photo with the Bobcat. The next time I am in the area I think I'll set up camp here. Stream nearby, great scenery, an old road to explore.

 

[Smokecreek1]

View attachment 15092
First the photo of the camper. Gotta be here, right? The canyon is, indeed, rocky, but not something that couldn't be done in a Subaru or similar. There are a few campgrounds on the route that are pretty primitive.

When was the last time you saw a picnic table like this?
View attachment 15093
Octagonal in shape. This was in the Black Canyon campground, a seldom used but beautiful spot. The effort to bring back the Gila trout was here.

The Black Canyon campground looks like this:
View attachment 15094
Sneaked in another photo with the Bobcat. The next time I am in the area I think I'll set up camp here. Stream nearby, great scenery, an old road to explore.


Sounds like the places we like to find-nice photos!Nice table also!

Smoke

 

[SunMan]

Nice photos Argo...appreciate the post....nice to see some new territory

 

[ski3pin]

Nice photos and appreciate the history. Thanks for sharing your trip!

 

[highz]

Thanks for posting these pics. I'll have to head over to the Black Canyon area, since it's so close. I read that 8 out of the 12 areas that Gila trout were introduced to were burned in the Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire. It'll be nice to see an area that survived.