Raton is the first town you encounter when you enter New Mexico from the north via the interstate.  The name is actually Spanish for for ‘rat’ or ‘mouse’ which adds a bit of humor to any number of business that include the city’s name in their own.  (Want to stay at the “Rat Hotel” or eat at the “Mouse Cafe”?)

It’s a beautiful place, though.  Nestled between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the west and some younger volcanoes to the east, Raton sits on the transition from shortgrass prairie to mountain conifer forest.  That location was key to probably my best wildlife sighting since I’ve been here.

A little south of here, there must have been two to three hundred elk in two large groups between I-25 and US 64.  One group in a low valley, another up on a low ridge.  Both kept their distance from a small group of cattle.  They were way too far to get a good photo.  All I could do was watch from a distance as the group on the hill started to make its way down toward the group in the valley.  Magnificent.  I haven’t seen that many elk outside of a National Park ever.

I’m leaving this area tomorrow and just in the nick of time.  24 hours from now, they’ll be getting snow around here.  Several inches.  Good thing I’ll be going back to Wisconsin, away from all that.  Heh, heh.

I had some free time at the end of last week due to some faulty equipment.  Fortunately, we happened to be Santa Fe and took advantage of the many restaurants and bars in the old school downtown they have.  They are between tourists seasons in Santa Fe this time of year.  Between the end of the late summer/early fall Fiestas and the ski season, the town is pretty quiet.  But we still managed to catch some live music and eat a wide variety of good food and sample a bunch of local brews.

On Thursday, I got a chance to do a little hiking the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  I haven’t hiked at that kind of elevation for a long time, so keeping moderate pace was mandatory.  There was some snow up there, but nothing that would have required an upgrade in footwear.  It’s tougher to trek in mountains, but there is plenty of great views to reward the determined.

Only a few days until I head back to Wisconsin!  See you Saturday, Cheeseheads.

I’m currently working in the northern part of New Mexico.  We’re trying to wrap up these areas before the snow flies.  If it’s east of the mountains and north of I-40, we are on it.

Saw another elk earlier today.  It decided to run along the road for a while.

Look at all these pronghorn.  I’ve seen a few large groups of them like this in recent days.

Behold, the state bird of New Mexico (right along the edge of the mowed grass).

No sign of any pursuing coyotes at the time.  I’ve seen a few roadrunners in my time here, but this is the best picture I’ve been able to nab.

I’ve got a little off time coming up over Thanksgiving and get to fly back to Wisconsin for a week.  Should be nice to see some familiar, albeit flatter and woodsier sights.

Just a couple more pics from that little town of Mongollon.

It’s a little dark, but check out this upside-down building.

Here’s the ‘downtown’.

Google Street View for a before comparison:

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=33.397715,-108.798873&spn=0.011411,0.024784&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=33.397723,-108.79899&panoid=ZReNT8X1lkQlKIiTHgrKVA&cbp=12,283.21,,0,16.52

We are back to the Silver City area to collect some data on roads that were closed during September’s flooding.  Parts of those still need months of repairs as we saw firsthand today.

On the west side of the Gila Mountains, tucked in a narrow valley is a tiny, mostly abandoned mining town called Mongollon.  A hundred years ago, they pulled a lot of gold and silver from the mountains around there, but during all of our lifetimes, Mongollon has been an out-of-the-way tourist curiosity; home to but a small handful of year round residents.  It’s connected to the outside world via a windy, often one lane road that tries to distract the driver with its impressive views.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=33.39540,-108.79885&z=15&t=T

Back in September, however, heavy rains lead to some devastating flash flooding in Mongollon, completely obliterating the one road and damaging historic buildings.  The flood also beat up some old mining relics.

I challenge anyone to look at that and not think of the Temple of Doom and the mine cart chase.  How awesome is that?  That’s our collection van sitting where the road used to be.  Heavy equipment has made the route just barely passable since the flood.

That track leads out of this old mineshaft behind me at this spot.

Apparently they have a long history of getting smacked by floods in this valley.  I’ll put up some pictures of the town later.

Reporting from Silver City, NM.  (Oh and props to the Econolodge for having grills available to use.  We made our own meal tonight)