1997 New Mexico Trip
1997 New Mexico Trip
1997 New Mexico Trip
Trip Overview - This was a
Ham Radio camping caravan to New Mexico on Sep. 27 - Oct. 7, 1997. We spent
several days at Silver City where we visited a number of scenic attractions.
At Socorro we participated in a Star Party and the Trinity Site Open House.
Other stops were made coming and going. This was not a Mt. Vaca Radio Club
trip, but members and guests were invited. - Les, W6TEE
| Participants - The following
took part:
Ed Hendrick, KE6AFB, and Sunny, KE6AFA Les Cobb, W6TEE Jim Collier, WB6ZII, and Marsha, KD6TTS - The following had to cancel: Vern McGlynn, W3DLY, and Trish, WA3GKT Ed's sister and her husband |
Vehicles:
Jeep Cherokee Chev 1500 4X4 PU Chev 2500 4X4 PU (Lake Havasu, AZ) (Arkansas) |
Radio - We used 147.555 MHz. FM simplex between us while caravaning on the entire trip. I also made other contacts on 40 and 20 M SSB mobile.
Departure - Sat Sep 27 - Ed, Sunny, and I left the Sacramento area around 10 AM and drove south through Bakersfield and Mojave to San Bernardino, where we had motel reservations. Jim and Marsha left Auburn after 2 PM and had their own stops to make, so did not join us until we reached New Mexico on Monday.
Indio & Arizona - Sun Sep 28
- Traveling east on I-10 at 8 AM, I said hello on 40 M to
Jerry Fuller, W6JRY, another Pac Bell retiree near Chico. He is on 7268 kHz.
every Sun morning. We stopped at
Clark's Ultramar Auto/Truck
Stop in Indio and viewed Bruce Clark's collection of gasoline and highway
memorabilia in his food mart. Clark's is one block from the motel where we
stayed on our way to Anza Borrego in 1996, but he was closed for construction
then. We traveled on to Arizona where we had KOA cabins reserved that night
in Tombstone.
Tombstone & Bisbee - Mon Sep 29
- Our sightseeing in Tombstone started at the Boot Hill
cemetery. I checked in briefly on the Elks Net with Sacramento. The Elks
Net on 14328 kHz. at 9 AM Pacific on weekdays is an open net that welcomes
all hams. Net control location rotates each day. I then rushed to catch up
with Ed and Sunny at the Courthouse Museum. They visited the OK Corral while
I looked for the shop selling fudge since I'd already seen the OK Corral.
Next we drove to Bisbee and visited the museum, viewed the Lavender pit mine,
and picniked in the park. We continued on Hwy 80 through Douglas and
rejoined I-10 at Road Forks, New Mexico, just a few miles ahead of Jim and
Marsha. We had planned to use the Gila
Amateur Radio Society repeater near Silver City on 146.98-, 103.5 PL, to
rendezvous with Jim, but it turned out to be unnecessary.
Silver City is adjacent to
the mountains in a historic mining area on the Continental Divide in
Southwestern New Mexico. The town is good sized with all needed supplies
available. I had scouted this a year earlier. We
caravaned through Silver City to the
Silver City
KOA where we had cabins reserved for the next four nights.
Silver City - Tue Sep 30
- We took the two hour drive to the
Gila Cliff Dwellings National
Monument, which gave me time to check in to the Elks Net. We hiked to
the cliff dwellings, then had a tailgate lunch in the parking area.
On our return, we turned off on the "almost 4WD" McKnight Road,
which Jackie at the KOA had suggested. It took us to the crest of the range
to the east. This made it an official 4WD trip. We got in late, and rather
than cook, we went to the Jalisco Cafe, where we were served Mexican food
that was definitely up to what we consider Chama standards.
Catwalk - Wed Oct 1 -
This was another long drive that allowed time for the Elks Net. Ed and Sunny
were riding with me, and I wanted to demonstrate 20 M operation.
Unfortunately, the recovery from the sunspot minimum had only started, and
radio conditions suffered a major relapse this day. At one point, the Net
Control in Washington state could only copy me, and vice-versa. It was not a
successful demonstration. The Catwalk is a trail up a high-walled canyon
that once followed a pipeline to the mill below. In many places the trail is
on metal gridwork suspended over the water below. Everyone enjoyed this
varied and interesting hike, followed by another picnic by the parking area.
We then went a little further to the "ghost town" of Mogollon,
which was a gold and silver mining town in the the 1880s. It now has a
number of shops and summer homes in the old buildings, along with recent
summer homes and satellite dishes. It was interesting to see, although all
of the shops had long since closed for the season.
Mine Tour & everything else - Thu Oct 2
- We drove less and saw more things on our last full day in
the area. Jackie at the KOA had made reservations for us to take the Chino
Mine Tour. We started at the company headquarters in Hurley at 9 AM. We met
our tour guide, a mine retiree, and climbed into a 8 passenger van with two
other tourists. First we drove into and around the open pit at Santa Rita
where copper ore is mined with earth-moving equipment and huge trucks.
This is the oldest active mine in the Southwest (1800) and is the second
largest pit in the U.S., about 1 by 2 miles across. Next we visited the
crusher where the ore is reduced to a manageable slurry for transportation to
the smelter in Hurley. Last, we visited the smelter and watched copper
anodes being poured for transportation to the refinery. The tour took 3-1/2
hours and held everyone's interest.
Next we drove south from Hurley for lunch at City of Rocks State Park. Our picnic was fine, but if I omitted anything from a future trip, it would be this. Other area attractions are more worth the driving time and fees.
Then we headed to Silver City to see the attractions there that we had saved
for last. These included the Silver City Museum, the Western New Mexico
University Museum, the Royal Scepter Gems and Minerals rock shop (for Ed),
and Big Ditch Park, originally the town's main street, destroyed by a series
of 1895-1906 floods. Next we followed a Forest Service road out of town to a
fossil area near Bear Mountain, recommended by the rock shop. I had figured
this would be the one day when we would get back to our cabins early enough
to photograph them facing the bright afternoon sun. Fossil fever proved me
wrong.
Socorro - Fri Oct 3 -
We bid goodby to Silver City. This was the only day that I was able to talk
directly to Ross, WØXJ, MVRC member in Ellsworth, KS, on the Elks Net.
This was because of improved radio conditions, and our coming out of the
mountains with a clear eastern horizon. We drove to I-25 and north to
Socorro. After checking in to our motel, we had lunch at the local Sonic.
We then drove 50 miles west to the VLA Radio
Telescope (Very Large Array), where we enjoyed the self-guided tour.
This is the installation used in the filming of the recent movie,
"Contact". My kids and I were here in 1984. While returning to
town, I talked to AC5BX on the Socorro
Amateur Radio Association 146.68- repeater, who gave me a tip on a gas
station where Jim could get his new truck lubed for warranty. We hadn't seen
a lube-oil specialty place since Silver City. After dinner at K-Bobs, we
went to the public lecture given at NM Tech in connection with the annual
Enchanted Skies Star Party. We bought Star Party T-shirts to impress
everyone at a later date. We briefly met a very busy Dave Finley, N1IRZ, who
had tipped me off last December about this event. The talk was on Gamma-Ray
Bursts and was quite interesting. Everyone then went to the public observing
session at the campus Etscorn Observatory where such treats as Saturn and its
moons and Jupiter were viewed.
Trinity Site - Sat Oct 4
- After breakfast and Jim's lube job at Chevron, we drove to
the White Sands Missile Range for the twice a year
Trinity Site
Open House. This is where the first atomic bomb was exploded on July 16,
1945. A large number of people were there to see and walk around the site.
Afterward we drove back through Socorro and had lunch at roadside tables
near the VLA. We took back roads to El Morro National Monument, where we
camped for the night.
El Morro & Petrified Forest - Sun Oct 5
- El Morro National
Monument is a bluff located on the old spanish trail that was in use from
the 1600s until the Santa Fe railroad was built to the north. I
scouted this also last year. In the morning we took
a two hour hike from the Visitor Center past rock inscriptions made by
passing Spanish and American travelers. The trail led to the top of the mesa
where indian pueblo ruins were located. Moving west, we had another tailgate
lunch, just inside Arizona.
We reached the Petrified Forest National
Park where Ed and Sunny left us, continuing west on I-40 to arrive home
by Monday night. Jim, Marsha, and I toured the park, then spent the night
sharing a campsite in our truck shells at the Flagstaff KOA.
Grand Canyon - Mon Oct 6
- The next morning, Jim and Marsha toured Grand Canyon
National Park while I had my brakes relined. We met at Cameron on Hwy 89 for
lunch. Jim wanted to see a certain bridge which everyone said was the new
Marble Canyon (Navaho) bridge. When we got there, we decided it was really
the bridge at Page, on the other highway, that he wanted to see. Too bad.
We pushed on after dark to the Cedar City, Utah KOA where we shared another
campsite and dinner catered by the Colonel.
Home again - Tue Oct 7 - I left Cedar City a little before Jim and Marsha to make a slight detour through Delta, Utah to photograph an abandoned Husky service station. I caught up with the others in Ely, Nevada after contacting Jim on the 146.61- repeater. Jim unsuccessfully looked for a "Lonliest Road" cap with a mesh back, since the Ely T-shirt shop had closed, as previously reported by my barber. We had a tasty lunch at the burger stand in Eureka, admired the snow at Austin Summit and in Austin, then continued home, arriving mid-evening.
Conclusions - Everything on this trip came together as we had planned. Everyone said that they had a good time. If we repeat this trip, we might spend more time in Socorro and pay the shorter visit to Silver City to round out our experiences. Thanks to the four KOA Kampgrounds that met our needs on seven of the ten nights, with and without reservations.
Trivia Question - What
New Mexico city that we passed was named Hot Springs
until a popular 40s radio program asked for a city to take
the program's name?
Everyone correctly answered Truth or Consequences.
During the trip I asked, "Who was the MC of that program
on the radio?"
No one correctly answered Ralph Edwards.
Although this was not a Mt. Vaca Radio Club activity, we invited MVRC members and guests to help us plan it, and to come along. This invitation was only with the understanding that we take these trips as friends and equals and no responsibility or liability is assumed by anyone.
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