MARCH 07, 2011
We spent two weeks in Dragoon, then planned to spend one week at the Hot Springs Ranch near the Gila National Monument.
We only had a four hour drive (or so we thought)! It all started out great, we spotted the Kneeling Nun Site along the way. It was actually cooler than what I thought it would be.
When we got to Silver City we took highway 180 to 152 to 35 then back over to highway 15, that was the recommended route for larger vehicle's.We have a 2008 Dodge Cummings Diesel and a 40 foot trailer, we thought best to take this route!
We saw a signed that said the monument was 35 miles away, I was glad thinking that we are almost there.
Then we saw this sign:
it said it would take 2 hours from this point!We are thinking no way will it take two hours to drive 35 miles…
Then we started down the road and came across things like this:
About an hour later we saw this sign:
Doc Campbell’s Post Gila Hot Springs Ranch 14 Miles
(Doc Campbell’s Store is right across the street from the RV park)
Normally a sign that says 14miles, you’d think that that would be about 15 more minutes of driving; but we knew all to well that we were looking at another hour! I learned a trick on my Garmin GPS, and that is if you press and hold by the battery indicator, this screen pops up and shows you your elevation and your coordinates! I love this, as we were climbing from 4 to 7 thousand feet, we could watch and see how high we were.
The Dodge was working overtime with the elevations, then we heard the dreaded warning sound and then the light came on…
so we pulled over.
Dave read the Dodge manual it said, just to sit and let it cool so we did. Up to this point I was doing pretty good as far as being nervous goes.
When we pulled over our elevation was over 7400 feet, I was a little more tense when we got back on the road, then way more tense when we started seeing the steep downgrade signs!
We went down 1800 feet in 3 miles. We were no longer worried about the transmission, now we were worried about the brakes!
I was so glad when we finally got there, it was one heck of a drive!
The GPS Coordinates and Elevation of the Gila Hot Springs RV park
More information about the ranch and our visit there will be posted soon!
Hi Cindy & Dave,
ReplyDeleteAz. finally stepped in and confiscated some of Belle's livestock. I can send you the links if you want.
We cant say we are surprised.. Some recent helpers had contacted us and it wasnt good. I'm trying to find out about the dogs.
Hope you 3 are well.
We lost Checkers & Max in May..within a week of each other. VERY difficult. We still have little Cora.
Kelly