Moved to Silver City, NM

First, our last 7 days in Tombstone Territories RV Resort was great.  But hot.  Like 95 to 100 for the most part.  We were supposed to leave tomorrow but decided we needed to get to higher elevation - and chose Silver City, NM at 6005 feet, over 2000 feet higher than before, and more north and east.  We did manage to check off all that Dave wanted to do - visit San Pedro Riparian and Fairbanks Ghost Town and hiked there (me - 5.5 miles and Dave - 6.5 miles) but on a really hot day which just about killed us.  We also got to the town of Sierra Vista which we love, visited a quilt shop that I always manage to find fabric, shopping, and visited Ramsey Canyon Nature Preserve.

In all - we saw many humming birds but did not pay attention to which ones

Canyon starts at 5010 feet and climbs up to 6500 feet before switchbacks
to go to top of Huachuca Mountains and then to Mexico

Major migration for birds

Lots of Thanksgiving dinners, I see

Pretty babbling brook to walk along

Lots of feeders set up for the birdies, caught one of the hummers under the right one

The great thing about Ramsey - it was about 10 degrees cooler than at Tombstone.  We also walked the trail, stopping for long periods of time to take pics of humming birds, wild turkeys, deer, and Dave continued on the trail and up into the canyon top lands where he reached the overlook that you can see down into Sierra Vista and then to the south to Mexico.  Was a very pleasant day there.

This guy stayed with us on the log - about 8 inches long

Old cabins from the days gone by

Mama deer and her babies, saw 3 babies

This morning we packed up, drugged up Buddy, said our goodbyes to folks we met who probably will follow us to the next place, and hit the road by 9am.  And it was already 82 degrees.  Yuck.  Passed through the Border Patrol, and headed to Interstate 10 and parts east.  Very uneventful drive, we climbed up through the Texas Canyon just east of Benson, AZ, and on towards Willcox.  From there continued on I10 to the turnoff at Lordsburg, NM and headed north and east up into the Gila (pronounced Hee-lah) National Forest until we came to Silver City.

Lady turkey, she was scratching the ground to get at the bugs

Very restful/peaceful

Why here?  We wanted to 1. get higher elevation and more north to evade this heat (it's 93 right now but each day from now on gets cooler)  and 2.  visit Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument which is due north of here.  3.  We have only come into Silver City on a day trip to visit Fort Bayard, an old army fort.

A common thing to do - pass through Border Patrol inspection 

Through Texas Canyon (in Benson, AZ)

Very typical crop in AZ - pecan or pistachio tree farms 

Another common - 'in tow' to Mexico 

Hello, New Mexico

Will stay here for a week.  Lots of trails 'up there' and birding to see, some mountain lakes to observe,  and what ever we can find.  I don't often do this but I have made reservations to the next 2 campgrounds to get us through Memorial Weekend, the traditional weekend that all the weekender campers come out and go crazy.  As it was, a little tight to find something during that weekend but I am confident that what I found will be wonderful (near Taos, NM).

Moving up into the Gila National Forest

And crossed the Continental Divide