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FALL 2016 ISSUE 02 / VOL. 01
Forty miles south, the road turns west across 20 miles of lava flows. Antelope herds are common sights along the lumpy, rolling basalt masses, which make the road like a miniature roller coaster. In the distant south, the older pinkish rhyolitic volcanic formations are like forearms reaching to the sky.
I came to my first stop, the little cattle-ranching town of Quemado, 21 miles west of Pie Town( good pies there!). It’ s in Catron County, the largest county in the state but the most sparsely populated, with only about 3,500 people. This region feels like some of the last of the Old West.
I turned south on Highway 32, leaving the high plains behind and entering the great ponderosa pine forest of southwest New Mexico and eastern Arizona. I encountered all kinds of wildlife in the 40 miles to
Left: I rode through part of the mining ghost town of Mogollon. Right: This is an excavated part of the Atsinna pueblo site at El Morro.