Summer Tavels (Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Roswell: renting, hotel, camping)

[BrianH]

Being Tourism Director / Film Liaison for the Town of Clayton I havent had any summer holidays at all, last summer I barely even had a weekend off but I plan on changing this year and travel alot on the weekends! Couple that with the high gas prices and the desire to see more of my State.

I am going to travel to the Taos / Red River area a fair bit, especially on the bike Ruidoso is my favourite place in the state outside Clayton (obviously ) Roswell is an interesting town that I want to go to again, relatives in Clovis will mean I am there more. I definately need to see Carlsbad too and am undecided on a few more places. Whats your New Mexico-wide travel plans ?

[Dancingearth]

I finally got to Las Cruces this year and would like to visit Silver City and Alamogordo. And get back to the Bosque del Apache and have tea and a picnic with the birds..maybe de rabbit will be there. D.E. aka Alice in Wonderland.

[GregW]

So. Why would I want to take the time to drive all the way to Clayton presuming I was a tourist flying in to albu and renting a car? Say instead of driving to Chama and taking the train through the mountains?

[Six Foot Three]

Not sure how far you plan to cruise on your bike Brian ...but the drive from Socorro west on U.S. 60 to Reserve and continuing down to Silver City on U.S.180 is an awesome ride. You'll see high mountain ranges one after another and Pine Trees galore as you can smell it in the air. You'll think your in Idaho or Western Montana so that's my thought .....

[GregW]

I did the trip from Silver to Socorro vis rt 180. It is spectacular.

[Devin Bent]

Go further west to see Chama -- take the train ride if you wish -- and then drive down through the area I can never spell -- Abiquiu.This spectacular scenery inspired Georgia O’Keeffe to come live in the middle of nowhere and paint.

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by GregW

So. Why would I want to take the time to drive all the way to Clayton presuming I was a tourist flying in to albu and renting a car? Say instead of driving to Chama and taking the train through the mountains?

It all depends on what you are into on whether its worth the trip for you. First and foremost we are an old Cowboy town with old time values. Many of the stores and buildings havent changed in nearly 80 years or so. We are a friendly town that is just "different". We have two great museumms, the Herzstein Memorial Museum and the very impressive WPA Museum. We do have an great museum just south of us in Amistad too and north in Des Moines.

Not a great thing to be porud of, but certainly interesting the last man hanged in NM was here, Blackjack Ketchum and his grave site is viewable and the building outside which he was hanged (Sheriffs Office now) is still there. The most fascinating thing about him was the circumstances in which he was hanged.

Clayton Lake State Park is beautiful and boasts one of the best Dinosaur footprint collections in America, if you havent seen them you must, they wont be around forever. The Lake also has some great fishing, camping and trails.

We are pretty much surrounded by the National Grasslands too which we get alot of visitors for. The Santa Fe Trail is fascinatting and you can still see some of the ruts too which I dont think will be around for ever too.

Our County's July 4th Celebrations are the earliest recorded celebrations in NM too. For July 4th celebrations they start on the 3rd with a free Street Dance outside the Eklund Hotel and on the 4th we have a Parade, Rodeo, BBQ and Fireworks and on the fifth will be more Rodeo I believe and a Chili Cookoff and Beer Brewoff, not as long as last year (lasted 7 days) but I hope to bring it up again.

This is a map I have in the "Exploring" section of my website.

There are too many interesting things to discuss here but if you have a quick browse around the site you will find something. Its not for everybody but it is certainly for me! hehe

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

Not sure how far you plan to cruise on your bike Brian ...but the drive from Socorro west on U.S. 60 to Reserve and continuing down to Silver City on U.S.180 is an awesome ride. You'll see high mountain ranges one after another and Pine Trees galore as you can smell it in the air. You'll think your in Idaho or Western Montana so that's my thought .....

I am contemplating that ride too. My friend from Ireland loves Clayton and New Mexico and bought a bike to do some biking around the area for two weeks in July so we are going to plan some things too.

[Devin Bent]

Originally Posted by BrianH

Our County's July 4th Celebrations are the earliest recorded celebrations in NM too. For July 4th celebrations they start on the 3rd with a free Street Dance outside the Eklund Hotel and on the 4th we have a Parade, Rodeo, BBQ and Fireworks and on the fifth will be more Rodeo I believe and a Chili Cookoff and Beer Brewoff, not as long as last year (lasted 7 days) but I hope to bring it up again.

Do you mean earliest recorded 4th of July celebrations in New Mexico? You are not saying that they are older than the dances put on at the pueblos? The fiestas in some of the older Hispanic places?

Or do you mean this literally -- that they were the first celebrations that were recorded -- i.e., written down somewhere?

After all, they couldn't have celebrated the fourth before 1775. And not likely before 1821 and the opening of the Santa Fe trail.

Clayton looks like a great little town and it is definitely on my list to visit. Not sure I would go there if I were only in New Mexico for a few days.

[BrianH]

Earliest recorded July 4th celebrations.