Life After Fire

Gila National Forest
With a plane, you can turn a long weekend into an adventure. You can travel a considerable distance, do some interesting stuff, then return, and all this in three or four days. Here are two such trips, assuming you live somewhere in the Southwest.

 Trip 1: Gila National Forest

 You fly to Deming, NM. Have the FBO put the plane into a hangar and rent a car; all available for a reasonable fee. Then drive to the Gila National Forest north of Silver City, and do some interesting hikes. At the end of the weekend, you fly back to your base.

An example hike is the Black Range Crest Trail 79. The trailhead is at Emory Pass, which is reached from Deming via US180, NM 61, and NM 152 in less than two hours. The elevation of Emory Pass is 8,200 ft. The trail rises gently over 5 miles to the fire lookout on Hillsboro Peak at 10,000 ft and is almost entirely in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

In 2013, a huge portion of Gila National Forest was devastated by a fire started by lightning.
Aldo Leopold Wilderness after the fire of 2013
Hiking there is sad, but also thrilling. Sad because of the loss of the forest. Thrilling because of terrific vistas and the start of new life among the dead trees.
Lupines
Asters
Grasses sway in the wind.
Grasses
Recently we hiked a portion of the trail with friends Lynn and Philip. It was wonderful.

There are many more hikes in the area; see Hiking in Gila National Forest.
 
Trip 2: Santa Fe

You fly to Santa Fe, NM, rent a car, and ... well, there is so much to do, we couldn't possibly include a list. Santa Fe is a town of artists. It has a number of museums and art galleries. Here is an offbeat suggestion: Visit the International Folk Art Museum. 
Sculpture collage in entrance hall of International Folk Art Museum, by Prescott, 1989
The Girard Wing of the museum contains 10,000 folk art pieces collected by Alexander and Susan Girard. The displayed pieces are just 10% of the entire collection of 100,000 pieces, assembled by the Girards from 1939 to 1982.

Alexander Girard supervised the arrangement of the displayed pieces. The result is an utterly stunning exhibition. Here are some example scenes. The scale is quite small; the figurines vary in size, but are maybe six inches or less high.
Festive meal with an international cast of dolls
Lifelike courtyard
Busy street scene
Main Street, USA . . .

As you exit the museum, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is on the left. We did not have time to visit it, but an extraordinary sculpture is displayed in a small courtyard.
Loretto, Estella, Morning Prayer, 2000



The message is simply this: New Mexico is full of wonders. Traveling with a plane, they can be readily explored over long weekends.

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