Travels with Shadow
New Mexico and Arizona
In order to allow more liberal use of photos without causing long download times,
I am primarily using black and white photos
It is 930 miles from Kerrville, Texas to Gila Bend, Arizona
On the second of March I folded up my trailer and headed out for
Arizona. As I had hitched up the car and disconnected utilities the
night before I managed to get on the way by six in the morning. On the
way to Las Cruces, New Mexico I made good time although it was a steady
uphill climb. I overnighted at the Coachlight Motel in Las Cruces of
eleven bucks and again got off at six in the morning, arriving in Gila
Bend Arizona and Augies RV Park at half past three. Altogether I did
over 930 miles in two days and was a bit beat from it.
On the way to Las Cruces, the terain changed from forested hills in the
Texas Hill Country to desert with messas and then mountains as we
reached the border. It was pretty much a steady uphill climb. Well into
Arizona we finally begain the descent, passing through a range of
gigantic stacked boulders in a pass at the top of the run. Most of it
was pretty impressive country, but for other than for scenic beauty,
not much use.
You would be hard pressed to even feed a sheep on much of it.
I pulled into Augie's Quail Trail RV Park near the old Butterfield
Stage Coach Station in Gila Bend. It is a new park with decent
facilities but is mostly a sand lot. They charged me a hundred bucks
for a week which works out to about 15 bucks a day. Tomorrow I will
head over to the nearby Air Force base and check out their RV camp
which reportedly went for seven bucks a night last year. As things are
still too cold to head north to the Grand Canyon and too expensive in
California (thirty to fifty bucks a night to park a rig), I will
probably sit here or in Yuma for the rest of the month. Anyway, I need
a breather.
Abandoned adobe after desert storm
The Air Force base checked out ok and I will be heading there when my
time is up at Augies. We drove 60 some miles north to check out
Phoenix. Halfway there there the smog was crawling down the valley. It
looked like another LA to me, congested and hard to breathe in. As far
down as Gila Bend, the smog can be seen crawling across the mountains
in the morning. I will not be stoping in Phoenix on the way north to
Flagstaff.
Old Butterfield stage coach route
The old Butterfield stage coach route cuts through here in Gila Bend.
About ten miles down the road you can follow the trail up into the
mountains if you have a four wheel drive. I checked it out and followed
it up to what was called "happy camp" in the old days. They would carry
water here from the Gila river ten miles away. They created an oasis
where man and beast could rest. The trip from San Francisco to Saint
Louis took 22 days, and we think we have it bad today. It was a rough
trip with a four wheel with rubber tires, shocks and springs. I would
hate to do it in a stage coach.
Sonorian Desert
This country is barely habitable from May through September. It is best to arrive in October and be gone
in April. Gila Bend is a small town of 1,700 which appears to make its living off from traffic flowing between I-8 and I-10
as it sits on the junction of I-8 and the route to Phoenix and LA. There is one grocery that stocks most needed items,
but don't expect a great variety. There is a Post Office where you can get your mail general delivery and a
library where you can check your email.