Silver City Hikes

December, 2020 - January, 2021

It's now two months since we made the move to Silver City, and while we spend most of our time working on our new home (aka "The Bungle-oh", we've still managed to squeeze in a few local hikes, expertly guided by our old friend and new neighbor, Ann H.

San Vicente Creek

Our very first hike as residents was a stroll along San Vicente Creek, a perennial stream that runs through the heart of downtown Silver City.

Boston Hill

In addition to near-perfect weather, Silver City offers endless opportunities for urban hiking, including a huge network of trails that criss-cross an old mining site on a hill overlooking the town. The nearest trailhead is less than a mile from our house, so several times a week we hike up and over, returning via downtown, usually with a stop for coffee at Tranquilbuzz or the Javalina.

McComas Peak

Just a short drive from town is McComas Peak, an easy hike to a 7861-foot summit with astonishing 360-degree views, from Cooke's Peak in the east, through the Burros and west to the Pelloncillos and beyond.

Dragonfly Trail

There's another popular local network of trails near Fort Bayard, a worthy destination in its own right.

Ann and me demonstrating proper masking, social distancing and (c)attitude.

In addition to lovely, gently rolling high desert terrain, Dragonfly also features some intriguing petroglyphs.

Rabb Park

We did not adjust for the elevation on our first foray into Rabb Park, so we had to cut the hike short.

It is certainly an enticing area that we look forward to exploring in warmer weather.

Water trickling under ice — what a great sound!

Little Cherry Creek

We are very surprised by the variety of terrain in the Silver City area, including this well-watered narrow canyon north of town.

Cherry Creek

Heading south along the main stem of the creek we hiked the previous week.

An actual pussy willow! I hadn't seen one in decades!

Tree bark art

Just some leaf dander suspended in a bottle green pool.

Pictographs

In an area where I expected nothing but flat and featureless ranch land, we stumbled upon this curious ridge of tortured tuff.

The rock has a crust of travertine and is pock-marked and veined as if it spent a good bit of time underwater.

Pictographs on some cliff faces may be Apache in origin.

Chacmool.