Elephant Butte, Lizard Mountain and Peppers

You haven't seen any pictures of fish for Elephant Butte Lake because there aren't any in the lake... ok, there are fish cuz we see them on the depth finder, but they have not been interested in anything Mike has in any of the dozen or so tackle boxes. These little "blue catfish" have been the only thing that we did catch, and not very many of them. 

 

 

The lake itself is not as scenic as Navajo Lake, but I have taken a few pictures.  This is the view of the butte from the water and if you look closely, you can see the elephant.

Ok, now can you see his head, eye and trunk... maybe even an ear...

This is the view if you walk just a few feet from the back of our campsite.

One of the roads down to the lake - it is so low that RV's are using some of the former islands for weekend camping.

The land on the left is suppose to be all underwater.

You know I love reflections...

This is the only lake on which I have seen tumble weeds!

This mother Grebe and child kept us entertained for awhile - the young one just followed mom around and kept "yapping"; the only time the child would be quiet is when she was underwater and as soon as she came up, he started again. 

This monstrous piece of cedar root is now cleaned up and will end up in Minnesota adorning my garden.

Yesterday, I awoke to sounds of hot air.  At first I thought it was someones malfunctioning hot water heater and then realized a balloon had been launched just a block or so from our campsite.

It was up and down in record time - a perfect landing in the roadway.  There seemed to be a few people around the launch site so maybe it was a demo or an instruction or sale or ... who knows.

Last week one day, we took a road trip to visit a couple ghost towns in the area.  When we were here a few years back we went north and east so this time we took off south and west.  As this was a silver mining area in the 1800's, there are many ghost towns.

The town of Hillsboro is still occupied and believe it or not, this "court" is still open for business.

Down the street a bit is this sign on a refurbished building.

 

When we left town, we crossed a small dried up creek and stopped to look at the rugged walls.  This Apache, complete with war paint, greeted us (on the left towards the back) - pretty cool, huh.

 

When we got to Kingston, our guide was waiting for us.  He walked in front of the car for a block or more then turned into a yard and watched us go by.

This club is the oldest social organization still in existence today.

Certainly one of the most interesting parts of this old town was the cemetery with graves dating back to the late 1880's.

Each grave had a unique character - some had recently placed flowers.

This piece, found in a bush near the edge of the cemetery, was most unusual - metal mesh, triangular with many hand made God Eyes attached.  There was a lot of detail, bundled branches, stones glued in place, fringe - I would love to know the story behind it.

And near it was a suitcase... neither of us opened it, but I nudged it with my foot and it seemed empty - very mysterious.

We do love old cemeteries, you never know what you will find and the gates are always open... or can be opened.

 

Where else would we find out about James McNally.

 

(Click on picture to enlarge to make it easier to read)

 

The rest of this old town also proved interesting, but there was no one to tell us about the old buildings and no signs.  This one looked like a jail what with the bars,

maybe a school or public building,

and a beautifully decorative gate to nowhere...

From Kingston, we went back on 152 to Hillsboro and then down 27 to Lake Valley.  This was to be our "destination ghost town".  When we arrived, this is what greeted us. 

By the time we were finished with our gourmet picnic lunch, we decided what the heck when did four or six little padlocks keep us out and maneuvered around the fence.  We explored this old mining town for an hour or so and no one ever came to arrest us.  There were a couple of houses still standing.

And, of course, the outhouse.

This is probably an outbuilding.  Look carefully, and you can see Lizard Mountain.

Here is a closeup of it.

This is as close as we could get to the old abandoned mine that once tapped the richest veins of silver in the the U.S.

Oh, and the brothel that was in Kingston in the late 1920's, began here with Madam Sadie Orchard - that's her on the horse. 

This is the view of Lake Valley as it exists today.

 

Today, there isn't much around - hard to imagine when thousands of people lived and mined this area.

 

As we were driving down the road towards Hatch, I was reading about the back country byway we were on and I told Mike that we should watch for animals - no sooner were the words out of my mouth than this antelope crossed in front of us, along with several others.

When we got to Hatch, there were peppers everywhere; we learned that the harvest was just beginning.

So, of course, we had to go in search of where they grow in hopes of seeing how they were harvested, but it was too late in the day to see that.

This was a turn around moment - I guarantee this is one of the most memorable Along The Side Roads scenes.  Huh????  New Mexico really does have it all! 

In the park, we met a great couple of 3-year full timers from Illinois and shared cocktails with them a few times - good stories always come from good people!  This area may not be our favorite New Mexico spot but it has been a fun place to spend a couple of weeks.  In the next couple of days we will head for Globe, Arizona where we will spend the month of November.  Till later...