Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Touring National Forests

This is a long post. 

After leaving Silver City, NM we picked up Hwy 180 taking us through several National Forests. 

Gila National Forest:  We may not have seen the cliff dwellings, but we received a full dose of the forest. First off, a desert forest is in no way comparable to our Southeastern hardwood and Pine forests. The low trees and scrub dotted the landscape broken up with large boulders, buttes, washouts, and mud cliffs. It was beautiful and harsh. 


Apache National Forest:  No pics of this one, you have to see it to believe it. The desert landscape quickly gave way to a altitude gain to 9k+ With steep mountain slopes covered with evergreens. No place to stop for pics, but plenty of opportunities to think about an untimely drop with no guard rails and 2k foot drops just a few feet from the edge of the curvy roads. We crossed over the Saliz and San Francisco Mountains. 

Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest:  The beautiful mountain evergreens quickly gave way to green brush dotted plains with prairie dogs popping up out of their holes. 

Nelson Resevoir National Rec Site:  The lake in our community is larger, but it made a nice oasis to eacape the prarie land. No Elk spotted on this area. 



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