Guadalupe Mts., NM (Part 1)

So.... I used to work for the Forest Circus in the Guadalupe Mts., NM, USA. That
was in the late 70's. Our fire crews had a saying back then, "You can never leave the
Guads". I guess so. They're a really cool place, pretty much bland on the
surface, but there are lots of hidden caves and canyons and nooks and crannies
and cool tidbits to be found.

So I headed out from my humble abode between Albaturkey and San Taffy, headed
south, with 4 days for the trip. Since the route covered some of the same ground
going down and coming up, some of these pictures are jumbled and conglomerated.
You won't know the difference.

First stretch was down "South 14" which is now some other numbered road, as the
NMDOT decided to straighten things out a couple years ago, which confuses anybody
that's been here very long. It's still "South 14".

Anyway, here's the road, passing through lots of very old villages on the way
south to Mountainair.



The old villages (Chilili, Punta de Agua, Manzano, Tajique, Torreon, Escabosa)
are land grant places, meaning the King of Spain granted big tracts of land to
Spanish settlers, even though the land wasn't his to give away. (Ask the Native
Americans about this). But the land-grantees are very provincial and protective
of it all. Anyway, feelings can be strong in these places, and the locals were
quite hostile to newcomers (Anglo hippies) that wanted to move into the country
in the 60's and 70's. Some bad stuff happened. I think things have mellowed out
a little bit since then. That's probably more than you wanted to know.

Interesting places.

Mountainair is an old railroad/bean farming town, but it's trying to revive
itself as an Art Place. Best of luck to them, it's a cool place, and a real
community. For many years I've taken breakfast rides to the Schaffer Hotel, a
real funky place that just keeps on going.



Across the street is this old garage. Once worked on bean trucks, no doubt.



And across the other street is this old bean elevator



Back to the Schaffer (pronounce shay-fer). The hotel/cafe way back when...when Mountainair was "The Bean Capital of the
World".



The inside now, with it's 1920-1930's decorations. No sign of beans here, other
than on your plate.







When I pulled up, there was a spiffy BMW out front, and a guy coming out of the
hotel. We talked a bit, I went in, he was leaving. He was a loooong time
leaving, and I went out to the bike to get something and found out his brand-new-used
Beemer wouldn't start. It'd crank all day, but not fire. I had tools,
but.... it was pretty much of a fuel-injected plastic blob, and neither of us
knew where to start. He got on the phone, I went back in. End result.... he had
it in gear, clutch pulled in. He put it in neutral and it started immediately.

Gotta be in neutral to start, but it'll still crank if it's in gear... but not
fire. Clever, those Germans!

Outside, more decorations by "Pop" Schaffer.



Did I mention "beans"? Well, there was a lot of dry-land bean farming in this
area until the early 50's, when a drought happened. Wiped all the bean farming
out. My wife takes care of a cemetery from Hyer, NM, long gone, though the
water-retention berms for the bean farming are still there. South of Mountainair
was this display...



There were lots of old bean farming machines...





Ok, another old piece of machinery....



The area had a lot of abandoned buildings.





Even older stuff... Gran Quivira National Monument.
It was a busy place that's really quieted down.



But had once been much busier.









Local wildlife...





Great sign



Onward to Claunch. Capitans way to the left, then Carrizo Peak, then Sierra
Blanca straight ahead, and the Guads way somewhere beyond all that.



Well, I came over a hill, and there was a big thing in the road. Turned out to
be about a dozen buzzards on a fresh deer carcase er... a yummy lunch... but a
car coming the other way had scared most off just before this picture. (I need a
camera behind my eyes, no stopping and fumbling around for it, and trying to
figger out how to ride and photograph at the same time). Scared 'em off, but
they circled and cursed at me for quite a while. Buzzards are patient, they knew
I'd move on and they could return without a snoopy tourist watching.





Claunch. Another bean-town-gone-bust.



Past Claunch




The Jicarillas, instead of going straight south to Carrizozo on the slab (around
here a 'slab' is any well-traveled road) I took a detour through the Jicarillas
and stopped again at this old schoolhouse. Pretty cool.



Onward. The town of White Oaks is about straight ahead, where that little dark
patch is at the foot of the mountain.



My previous trip, (in two parts on the forum) http://klrworld.com/forums/index.php/topic,161.0.html was to the Capitans.
Then I went east to the Capitan Mountains from here. Now, I went southwest to Carrizozo. Despite
having worked in the area for a number of years, I'd never been to the old mining
town of White Oaks. Finally saw it. Once a big thriving place (boom/bust), now
there are a few amazing buildings left (preserved) in the middle of what would
otherwise be a dry, nondescript valley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Oaks,_New_Mexico







So down the hill to Carrizozo, then try to gas up with plastic, but the whole
town's web was down, so (horrors!) I had to pay cash. Headed east towards
Capitan, but took the road south to Nogal ("walnuts" en espanol). Headed through
'town', up the valley. I was going towards Ruidoso ("noisy" en espanol, because
of the major river - a "creek" to you Easterners)- going through there.

Up the valley, Nogal Peak in the distance. The road goes up the valley, then
pops over the ridge and comes down into Bonito Creek ("pretty") , the place I
worked for the FS when I first came to NM.



Kinda steep in places. The FS had just "maintained" the road which meant loose
and rolly-rocky, with no clue as to what was firm or soft. Slow going, as I'm a
cautious guy. Some nice oak groves. I didn't take any pictures, but at the
bottom of the climb, I saw a guy sitting on a log. Turned out he and his wife
were in a big hike and their doggy (lying behind the log) had cut his paw and had
to be carried out. When they got to the road, the lady went for the car, she
passed me on the way up, hauling ass. I'm sure the dog was ok, he looked perky
enough.



Going down the other side, some deer.



Down into Bonito, I'd called the FS about fire restrictions, and their web site
said there were no campgrounds in Bonito Creek. Ummm... I remember one.....
Well, there it was...



... but evidently it was closed because of the Little Bear Fire, and the FS was
afeard that big rains would come and wash all the tourists out of the canyon.
Legal paranoia, I think. (soapbox) I would have felt better if the lady would have
said that there's a campground up there that's closed because of the perceived
danger, rather than telling me there's no campground up there. (End of soapbox).

Bonito Lake.



Onward, down to the main highway (48) to Alto, then up towards the ski area for
camping. I headed to Skyline Campground because I figured it would be less
populated than Oak Grove, which was closer to the pavement. (Wrong, but not by
much).

Nice place, no water, had poopers. Middle of the night I got woken up by
tromping and snorting.... horses? They hung out most of the night, maybe there
was good grass around there, I dunno. Weird.





The place had been burned over by that Little Bear Fire.... nice grass, eh?
Nature heals, in Her own good time.



Nearby was Mon Jeau Lookout, a very rocky place. Nice road up there, though.
The FS sign said "Lookout Closed", which I figured meant the road up there was
closed, but I've learned to ignore my more sign-abiding habits and see what's
really up there. Onward... totally open. I guess the "closed" meant there was
no lookout person, which is pretty normal these days.








Looking up.



looking at Texas.



Horses? At the bottom of the hill was a small cluster of houses, and just uphill
from them were these guys/gals. Pretty nonchalant. Momma's in the road and
doesn't really care about me.



She comes up to inspect.



The kid comes up too.



Ok, let's get personal.



Onward to Part 2.....

Part II....

Here's a bit of photo-jumbling, but you wouldn't have known the difference. But
I stopped here for breakfast both ways. Alto Cafe, nice place, good people, good
food. I was fearing where to stop in Ruidoso, not get tourist-ripped or get bad
food. This place was "right there" and I'm glad I stopped. It wasn't as empty
as it is in the picture.





On past Ruidoso, not a bad place, but no pictures. I wanted to head out of town
and not take Hwy 244 to go towards Cloucroft, but rather take 10 through the
Mecalero Apache Reservation. 10 hooks up with 244 eventually, but looks more
interesting.

So off I go, about 8 miles down 10, then I hit dirt (expected). There's a
junction there, and a hand-painted sign lying on the ground saying something like
"Road Closed Fire Danger". Well, it's all cattywampus, sorta facing the other
way, and I've seen too many signs that don't really mean what they say, and it's
a long ways back around, so I carry on. This is about a 4-mile dirt stretch, ok?
No big deal to ride on through. Well, about a mile up, I see a car and a white
pickup parked by a pond. I smile and wave as I go by, and see that one of the
people talking there is a shave-headed guy in body armor. Hmmm.... Being happy
that I waved and smiled, I pick up the pace, watching in my mirrors. Whew.
Then... from ahead comes another white pickup, hauling ass, lights a-flashing.
Rats! So we get together, there's a nice Apache Police Lady in body armor. I
tell her to wait, take off my helmet and ear plugs. We have a nice conversation,
I tell her I didn't know if the sign meant this road or the other one, she tells
me the Sign People said they'd fix the signs but hadn't. She was very 'official'
but let me go on through. Here's a photo of the area.



As somebody that's spent 10 seasons working on forest fires, I can say that the
danger of somebody going down that road and tossing out a cigarette (or whatever)
and starting a fire was miniscule. Green green green. Some sort of power play
going on, I guess. Two armored cops patrolling a 4-mile section of backcountry
road? Beats me.

BTW, here's the sign at the *other end* of the road.



I'd say, avoid the Mescalero Apaches (and their casino). I will.

Hooo.. glad to be done with that. Onward through the mountains to Cloudcroft.
Didn't take any pictures on the way down, but here's one from the way back.



Past Cloudcroft towards the next place, Pinon.



Can you see that really really faint peak in the distance? Not the one you can

see, but the really really faint one behind it. That's El Capitan, the highest

point of the Guads. That's more or less where we're going.



Through Pinon, very small store open, got mucho Gatorade, this is 40 miles past
Cloudcroft, last place for gas (maybe). They had a tank and pump setting out
front, with an extension cord running out to the pump. Iffy, but I didn't really
need gas.

Off onto the 'dirt'. I wish it really was, but the next umpteen miles would be
'improved' rock, great in a pickup, rough on a bike. Ok sometimes, slow going
other times.



An example of why I don't believe signs without a second thought. "No
Trespassing"? This is a county road. You should stay on the road and not go off
to either side, but it literally says "No trespassing beyond this cattle guard".
Cheesh.




An interesting place...



...but this was more like it. Past Pinon, heading down to the Guadalupes fron
the west, is very very empty land.





The road snaked (forever and ever) towards the Guads. I really didn't have a
clear picture of what this was like, as I'd only been through here once, over 35
years ago. This was for the most part 'maintained', meaning rocky, which meant 20
mph. A very few sections were dirt, smooth and 40 mph. I'm sure other folks
would have made better time. (See "Is this stupid" below).



Occasionally, there were verdant respites, veritable havens of lushness.



And some flowering life! Amazing.











So... onward. I didn't pass another vehicle in over 60 miles. It was hot.
(being careful to keep the thermometer in the shade for a while).



I sometimes ask myself, "Bob, is this stupid?". I seldom answer "yes". This
time it was "probably", as it was really hot, seldom shade, NO other traffic, and
if I bit the dust and hurt myself,... well, I had lots of time to come up with
scenarios.

Rancher on his weekly way to town for supplies...chases the buzzards off my
carcass, "Yup, another dumb tourist. Guess I'll haul him down to the arroyo
where I put the last one".

El Capitan, the southernmost and highest point of the Guads is in view.



At last! El Paso Gap! The notch in the mountains that lets you get up to the
(relative) coolness on top.



More about the 'up top' later, I needed a place to hydrate and rest...
Going back to familiar places.....

Dark Canyon, at the base of the road to the Dark Canyon Lookout, where I spent a
short period of time when I first went to the Guads.



Camp, kneeling pad, Whisperlite, lotsa water. (Morning shot, cooking coffee and
ramen).



That night, there was a big blow about midnight... very strange, as the evening
was very calm.... so was the morning. Portent of things to come?

I also heard, just before dark, frogs! This is the only type of water that was
around....



... and the puddles were filled with tadpoles. I don't know how any could have
survived, I hope they do. We had totally unseasonal rains, I hope they didn't
trigger their frog-cycle too early. Never did find a grown frog.



Leaving camp.



At the place called "Queen", there's this monument, a fella used to fly over the

Guads dropping newspapers. Good reason to get some air-time! Had an old Piper

Cub type plane (a Cruiser), and for some reason crashed.





Stopped by the Forest Service site to bore the guys there with stories from 35
years ago (and top up my water bottles). Well, the "light engine" foreman (I put
that in quotes because all the terminology has changed) was really great. We
swapped stories, we had worked in some of the same areas (Oregon) and... he had a
cool t-shirt with the "Guadalupe District" and some other cool stuff on it.

Well, when I was there, we had patches made with "Guad Squad" (does that date
it?) but nothing like his spiffy shirt. As we parted, I told him I'd give half a
leg for one of those shirts. Well, I walked out with one..... hoooo! Thirty-
five years later....



The idea was to head off the north side of the mountains to the place called
Hope. The Guads are sort of a "L", the lower east-west part has Carlsbad Caverns
Nat'l. Park, and the northern leg is just an escarpment trending north. You
can't get from the flatlands on the west to the top, except through El Paso Gap
(we've been there). Here's a picture from the top, that road below is where we
suffered yesterday.



The drylands have some surprising things.



... that growing out of this...



Wonderful.

So the road winds around the mountains, mostly inland from the rim.



Here's a non-functioning water tank.



A metal tank with a big mass of barely-surviving cattails in it.



A cool old juniper.



The pump that did it. How deep is the well? Where did the pump get its power
from? Dunno.



Onward...my bike took a selfie.



Cornudas in the distance. Very distinctive mountains.



Stopped here to take a break, turned out that half a water jug had leaked inside
the pannier. Ruined some mac-and-cheese and ramen. Gave the noodles to the
critters, took the rest with me.



My trip almost came upon an insurmountable obstacle. Water! It was a very
frightening thing, but I screwed up my courage and barely managed to skirt by on
the side. Close call!



Ahhh... made it through the hazard. Onward to Hope.



Hope. Store closed....



... and blowing like hell, and a hunnert degrees..



Heading back towards the mountains and Cloudcroft. Doesn't look like much, but
the weather was 100/40.... 100 degrees and a 40 mph crosswind.



I was making myself stop and suck down some water every 10 miles, got up to 50
mph now and then, and was not really having any fun, and ran across this.
"Muerto" means "dead" en espanol. Holy shit!



Made it to the mountains! I was never so glad to get off 'the flats' in my life.

In Mayhill, there was a store... Gatorade! Cheetos! (??) But, this place was
just too weird for me, I carried on. Jeez, I'd let anybody pee in my pot. Better than in the parking lot.



Going up the valley to Cloudcroft, a great example of erosion.



Gassed up in Cloudcroft, I wondered if my spiffy IMS 10-gallon tank was really
necessary... well, after that loop, it took 6.1 gallons. Yup, no regrets about
it!

From Cloudcroft over to Ruidoso, here's the road I should have taken instead of
going through the Apache Rez.



Through Ruidoso, getting late, I'll try Oak Grove campground this time (right
along the paved road). Guess what, only one other couple here. Great!

So I called home, and learned that my son and his Sweetie had gotten engaged!
Break out the cheap wine!



... and a steak!



But the Forest was under fire restrictions, that's the only reason I was in an
official campground. But my fire was struggling within the confines of the fire
pit.



Ah! Liberated!



Great night, except that about 2 am. a godawful wind came up and blew the rain
fly clean off the tent. Put it back on, and at about 4 am., it happened again.
Weird. I've never seen such strong little winds come up in the middle of the
night, then go away.

Back down Eagle Creek, to the Alto Cafe (you've seen it already).



Up Bonito Creek again, but we'll take the paved road back to Nogal instead of the
dirt road over the hill. Signs of the Little Bear Fire.





Heading down to Nogal See that very dim bit of mountain in the distance? The

ones you can barely see? We'll
be heading just to the left of that. The Gallinas, if you want to look it up. I

really love these big landscapes!



These roads are kinda bleak...



...but have some cool spots. The extra rain runoff from the pavement and the
lack of grazing creates a whole 'nuther ecosystem between the road and the fence.



Ok, back the same way we came, just a couple shots of a church I didn't
photograph on the way down. This is in the Land Grant country.





Oh, and the chocolate covered espresso beans! I paid almost 4 bucks for these
things, and look what happened to them in my tank bag. Do you think I can get my
money back?



See ya!

Great report. I love the pics from out yonder!

Awesome ride and report Bob! Loved it! I really want to get down to the Guadalupes sometime and explore a bit. I've been to the far north end but need to spend more time to really experience the area. Thanks again for the great photos and story!

You might enjoy this, that Shaffer motel in Mountain Air....Spent the night there while doing the TAT several years ago.

Huge image, so using a link to it....
http://www.stephenbottcher.net/photos/Falltrip2008/DSCF3852.JPG

so its a bar now
great RR

Great report, I just drove through the Guadalupes headed to EP the other day and was wondering how the riding is. It looks very remote out there, I'd bet it'd be a great winter ride.

It gets pretty cold and snowy up top. The lookout's almost 7,000'. A winter ride could go either way.

Quote;First stretch was down "South 14" which is now some other numbered road, as the
NMDOT decided to straighten things out a couple years ago, which confuses anybody
that's been here very long. It's still "South 14".: Quote
It`ll always be South 10 for me. NM 10 was designated in 1912 and was changed to NM14 in the spring of 1978 when I-40 was completed in Tijeras canyon. My first trials was on South 10 in the old gravel pit just before tunnel canyon.
Again a very good ride and report Bob! Thanks.
I rode south 10 every day to high school on my XL350. Rain, snow or shine!

Great report and pictures.

I have ridden down there several times but had not seen a lot of the stuff you showed.

At one point you said you went thru the Jicarillas, maybe a mountain chain.

Not sure where this is. Did you maybe mean the Gallinas? They are about where you were at the time. Or maybe just two names for the same place.

You said something about taking an Apache road from Cloudcroft to Ruidoso. Is this the normally closed dirt road?

Boy I blew that. I always enjoyed the road from Ancho to White Oaks. If it is still open the museum in Ancho is interesting. Wonder if the property in the gold prospecting law suit is still all locked up?

The Jicarillas are NE of Carizozo, way south of the Gallinas. Here's a map....
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=937536

Dunno about the Apache road, I've only been there that one time. I have the feeling it's normally open, but they temporarily closed it because of the 'fire danger'.

Great report and pics!
My daughter and son in law moved out to Albq a year ago and i have just got to get out there on the bike for a visit and some riding.

I'm assuming the weather is better in Sept & Oct ?

Thanks for taking us along on your ride Bob. Great report. There is so much of NM that I have never been.

How many miles? 3 nights camping? Looked very hot in the badlands.

Yup, 3 nights, about 800 miles all together over 4 days. HOT, my cheapo thermometer said 100+. And that's the emptiest road I've ever been on.

Much better in Sept/Oct, that'd be an ideal time of year.

The Apaches were the Mescaleros. The Jicarilla Mts. are just sort of a little nondescript range, overshadowed by the Capitans to the east and Carrizo Peak (then Sierra Blanca) to the south.

Loved the report! I've visited the Guads in Texas twice. Would love to push furtherin to NM on my next trip out there. Again, great report!

Awesome report of some great "Trek'n" country.
Thanks for taking us along...

I`m still wondering about Drunk Sally!?:huh

He was referring to the small range on the county road between Ancho and White Oaks that goes through the old ghost town of Jicarilla and past the old school house.

+1