More Sweet New Mexico Motorcycle Roads
One part of this nice road.
We didn’t plan it this way but Judy and I spent two nights at Silver City, New Mexico. We heard great things not just about Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument but also about the road to get there (40 miles, two hours, through great scenery) that we decided to stay an extra day and go there.
First off, Silver City was a real surprise. I’ve been there before, but a long time ago. At this point Silver City is doing its best to become the next Taos but it’s a long way from getting there. What that means is that the very nice old downtown is intact and partially renovated, with several very good restaurants, a brew pub, galleries, and a lot of other upscale stores. But these stand side by side with empty storefronts. So it’s a nice place but it won’t break your budget.
The first half of the run up to the monument is on an extremely narrow, winding road that follows the contours of the land. This is NM 15. Very nice. After awhile NM 15 connects to NM 35 and from there the road is more cut and fill so it’s not as twisty but still very nice, and wider with actual lane markings. This dead-ends at the monument.
The monument is pretty interesting. The Mogollon Indians lived very briefly in a series of caves in the side of a hill, above a beautiful river valley. Not your typical cliff dwellings; these are really more like caves that go deeper back into the rock without the extended sloping ceiling/overhang you associate with cliff dwellings.
Once you’ve been to the monument, you backtrack at least as far as NM 35. From there you can take NM 35 as a different route down to San Lorenzo and there pick up NM 152 to US 180 and back to Silver City. We did, and it’s a nice route, too, though nowhere near as twisty as NM 15. Whatever routes you take, this is a beautiful part of New Mexico.
Biker Quote for Today
Riding a bike doesn’t make me a bad person, just like going to church doesn’t make you a good person.
