Benson to Silver City, New Mexico – 31 January 2023
It was sad to say goodbye to Arizona but we were excited to see what New Mexico would bring. Coming into Silver City, NM we saw an enormous wall of dirt which seemed to be a massive dam wall. We later found out that it was one of the two large copper mines in the area. Manzano’s RV Park was a basic park but the sites were large and it was nice and quiet. We were one of the very few that had our own patio furniture.
Our first day in Silver City we visited the visitor’s center to learn about the town. After picking up some literature we went for a walk around the historic town admiring their art and their preserved buildings. We stopped for a beer at the Little Toad Creek and sat on their back patio. There was another lady there who had a very friendly Australian Shepherd cross called Fay. Well Fay and Jax soon hit it off and managed to get in a bit of play – albeit on leashes, while the parents relaxed. On the way back we walked along the Big Ditch Park. This used to be the main street but it would repeatedly get flooded, so they moved the main street elsewhere and renovated the area alongside it into a brick walkway with benches. Back at the visitor’s center we took a look at the replica of the house that Billie the Kid’s grew up in. While he was not born in Silver City, he did move here when he was thirteen. His wild ways started when his Mom passed away. He was eventually shot down by a Sherriff of the town when he was 21 years old.
The following day we took a walk along the Dragonfly trail. This trail took us through the Gila national forest. While we didn’t see any wildlife, we did see a solitary leg of a deer which is a bit of a reality jolt to remind us that there are many animals in these parks. The trail is supposed to take you past various petroglyphs, some of them marked with dragonflies, however, we did not see any, but enjoyed the walk nevertheless.
I had heard a lot about the Kneeling Nun so we set off to try and find it. The Kneeling Nun is quite the icon here. It was formed by volcanic ash about 35 million years ago which formed a finger like piece of rock bending over – hence the name. We discovered that it was right next to the Santa Rita copper mine. This is the third oldest active open pit copper mine in the world. We were able to stop at a look out over the mine and were also able to get a glimpse and photograph the Kneeling Nun. Unfortunately, there was no way to get any closer.
One of the highlights of our trip to Silver City was a visit to the City of Rocks State Park. The same volcano that had formed the Kneeling Nun had also formed a number of rocks which had been sculpted into all sorts of shapes and sizes through rain and wind. We went for a hike around the whole area which eventually led back to the rocks. They were very impressive from the outside but even better when you walked in the inside. Very interesting trip.
The owners of the park were lovely people and put on a complementary BBQ pork dinner with tacos and fixings for all the guests every Saturday. Luckily we were leaving on the Sunday so we were able to join in and met a lovely couple Laurie and Mike who were travelling from North Carolina. It was great to be able to spend a few hours comparing stories and getting to know them.
We were lucky with the weather when we were there as a week later the RV Park was hit with snow.
