Winter Travels 2019--Part 4:City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico

 Thankfully, on Monday everything seemed fine despite a low temperature of 27° and we had stayed cozy and slept well. After breakfast we biked about a mile down to the headquarters to explore their exhibits on how the distinctive rock pillars were formed and watched a short, old, not very informative video about the area. We returned to the main formation to climb around and take pictures. After lunch, since the temperature was still only in the low 40°s, we decided to take one of three scenic drives in the area that would take us to Silver City and around the long way back to City of Rocks. We visited the Silver City Museum and learned how a fierce storm and subsequent flooding in 1899 turned Main Street into “The Big Ditch” that remains today as a stream running through the town. The small museum, in one of the largest mansions built during the Boom Days in Silver City, was informative and interesting, telling more about the extensive mining, especially copper, that made fortunes that dissolved when the economy went bust. On our way out of town we stopped at an O’Reilly’s Auto Supply and had them analyze why our Check Engine light kept going on and off. We found out the truck had two cylinders that were misfiring and the air temperature sensor we have had trouble with before was again malfunctioning. Since Marv was no longer feeling the cylinders misfiring, we figured they had righted themselves and that the sensor wasn’t a problem so we won’t take time to fix them unless the problems seem to worsen. We took a scenic ride back to the campground along the now dry Mimbres River valley as the temperatures dropped into the 30°s. We made dinner and took a hike around the loop again by moonlight and went to bed early to stay warm and save the battery, which had been charging with the solar panel in the on & off again sunlight all day.

I called this "Kissing Rocks".

See how we're bundled for the cold?

This giant boulder is balanced on two points at the right edge
and one small rock right in the middle. Amazing!

This captures a little bit how one has to climb up into the rocks;
they are not on the flat plain of the surrounding area.