The other Las Vegas

Our few days in Las Vegas, New Mexico, were interesting in some ways and disappointing in others, although I'm fairly certain that any disappointment on my part has to do with grief for my boy, Darren.  It's been a month now since he was taken from us; thinking about it keeps me awake at night and is with me constantly throughout the day: wishing I could share with him what we are doing, remembering the feel of his wonderful strong calloused hands reaching out to help me up a steep slope, sharing a laugh over one thing or another, reliving our final interrupted conversation, going over and over his last days and wondering what he was thinking and was he afraid.  I feel an urgency to recall every memory of Darren's life as if somehow that will validate his existence.

We are heading home a day earlier than planned: I just need to be there, especially now that he has been cremated and the cremains are being sent to us.

What an awful start to a blog post, but that's where I am right now.  We did do some exploring in the region and found some to interest us.  Las Vegas is obviously a very economically depressed place.  I wonder if the New Mexico Highlands University, which was founded in 1898, and Luna Community College, plus the nearby United World College are a good part of what keeps it going.  Of course it's the county seat, so that helps.

There's also the historical aspect and access to the southern Rockies.  By the way, we saw quite a bit of snow in the Sangre de Cristos.  The town sits on a high plain at nearly 6,500 feet.  We saw many commercial and residential structures that dated from the 1800s that were beautiful architecture, but were in advanced stages of deterioration - a sad sight.

Despite the continual decline in population, there are some attempts to reverse the downturn.  The impressive centerpiece of downtown, the historic Plaza Hotel, is on its way to a lovely addition of outdoor restaurant seating across from the central plaza.  There is restoration underway for the historic Harvey House, Hotel Castañeda.

And the movie industry has utiliized Las Vegas for many films and television productions.  We could not resist taking our selfie in front of the door to Sheriff Walt Longmire's office.  Although no longer in production, the fictitious Absaroca Sheriff's office door has been left to attract fans such as us. 

In general, I thought the town was fairly seedy and down at the heels.  Still, history fascinates me and seeing the building pictured here was no exception.  It was built in 1836, and is notable because it was from its roof that Nuevo Mexico was claimed and proclaimed by the United States in 1846.

The verbiage of the actual proclamation by occupying General Phil Kearney is displayed on a plaque just opposite on the plaza.  We were a little shocked at its content, which basically stated that it was now U.S. territory and that all who were compliant would be protected from various native tribes but those who did not accept occupation would be hanged.

The countryside . . .

At one point or another, we drove out different directions to explore the region around town.  One jaunt took us along the Gallinas River.  

We would have expected to spy lots of wildlife through there, but a chicken drinking out of a puddle in the road was a bit surprising.

As we gained elevation fairly quickly, we came into thick ponderosa forest and the ubiquitous tiny New Mexican adobe settlements.

In Montezuma, we were astounded to come upon a magnificent Queen Anne structure peeking over the treetops.  It is now the campus of the Armand Hammer United World College, but was built in 1886 by the AT&SF Railroad as a luxury hotel at the site of natural hot springs.  We would have liked to explore the campus and the main building but were told that all was currently closed to tours, including the hot springs.

This was an odd remnant of a power plant from yesteryear.

As we ventured upward on a very narrow and winding road, we followed the Gallinas into its narrow canyon -  a place of great beauty, all posted private property, unfortunately.  By stopping in the road because there were almost no places wide enough to pull off, we shot a few photos and were especially intrigued by two small beaver dams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playas abound . . .

In that category I mentioned earlier of wildlife management areas that are duds, we found another one.  To tell the truth, this one may be awesome in the right season and conditions, but our visit did not fit that criteria.

There are many playas in this area: ephemeral lakes gone to dust without sufficient rainfall to fill them.  Without water, of course, the birds are elsewhere and game is scarce.  A fancy dancy visitor's center was locked up tight without so much as a notice of when or even if someone might deign to return to welcome visitors.

We did get some nice walking in, though, so there's that.

We were dressed for warm weather but low morning temps and a whipping wind insured that we were not overheated.

At least someone was interested in out passage . . .

We managed to consistently forget to note the birds we've added to the trip list; I will clump them all together here and hope I didn't leave any out.  New ones on this last leg of the trip include mountain bluebird, northern flicker, American goldfinch, black-headed grosbeak, red-tailed hawk, dark-eyed junco, horned lark, black-billed magpie, western meadowlark, northern harrier, Say's phoebe, red-naped sapsucker, lark sparrow, song sparrow, barn swallow and starling.