Hatch, New Mexico Chile Capital of the World

Following the same small road I ended up in Hatch and found out that, in fact, Hatch is the New Mexico Chile Capital of the World!

It is a nice little town but unfortunately it had no place for me to stay overnight.

It does have a famous restaurant - famous for it green chile hamburgers. Again I only found that afterward. but I did see the restaurant because it is hard to miss. I couldn't take a photo of the restaurant front and the line up in front of it because of the position of the sun. But truly you can't miss it. It has all those funky things all around it... in case you miss the line up.

This restaurant is famous locally but just the same the totally un-famous little restaurant where I ate: the Valley Cafe, made fabulous Mexican food. If you are in Hatch and don't feel like lining up for a burger (how ever delicious it might be) I highly recommend the Valley Cafe.

Fields of Pecans

In the same valley there was also orchards with some trees I had never seen before. I stopped, took some photos and a local farmer who stopped to see what I was doing was able to confirm what I had figured out at that point: the trees were pecan trees.

One more thing I eat which I have seen growing!

Fields of Chilies

I was driving in the Valley of the Rio Grande, in a rich agricultural valley thank to irrigation from the Rio Grande.
I stopped at a farm where they were selling red Chilies. Three men were in the process of sorting they out. Throwing away those that did not look good and bagging the others.

People usually buy the peppers in 10 pound bags. I honestly didn't really want to buy any but since I was hanging around, and I was the only one there, I felt I had to. So I bought one pound for $3.00. A pound of dry chilies is basically a big shopping bag full!!
When I stopped at the farm I hadn't seen the fields yet. I only saw them a bit farther along the road.

You can see they let the peppers get red on the plant. Apparently this is the "secret" of the superior taste of the red chilies of this area.

Fields of Cotton

After Socorro I stayed one night at Elephant Butte, mostly because I didn't feel like driving a lot on that day. They didn't really want people with small set up like mine. Their sign did say "no rig is too big", but apparently some "rigs" are too small. They let me stay one day but no more.
Anyway, the next day I drove off thinking that I would stop at Truth or Consequences, mostly because I like the name and because it has some hotsprings but somehow driving through I didn't feel like stopping. I jut looked decrepit or something. The entire area along the road looked like the bad-neighborood. Maybe there is more to it if you get off the main street but I don't know.
Either way I stayed off the interstate and drove parallel to it on a small road following the Rio Grande. this is where I saw some cotton fields.
Already harvested, but still neat. The white stuff on the ground is not snow, it is cotton.

Even though the fields were already harvested the end of the rows still had quite a bit of cotton on the plants.

Further along the road I saw on a side little road somebody in the process of harvesting the cotton.

Here is the field before it is harvested:

It is actually a fairly small "harvester". Form what I could see he could only do a row or maybe two at a time. i do not know if they are all like this because it is the only one I saw.

I should say, cotton on the plant is as soft as what you buy but inside the lump of cotton you can feel seeds all caught up in the fiber, one perlump. The seeds are about the third to a half of a coffee bean in size.

Socorro and Surroundings - some photos

There is an old opera house in Socorro.The brochure says no opera was ever performed in it.

This is what the sign says.

Supply at the take out restaurant where you can get a great pint of fresh salsa for just over $5.00.

A local restaurant. I love yellow buildings, but this one is really yellow.

The surroundings of Socorro along the Quebrada Back Country Byway

If you look carefully you can see little white dots at the foot of the mountain is Socorro.

Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Bosque Del Apache National Refuge is just 29 kilometers (18 miles) south of Socorro. And it is well worth the trip. In fact if you are a birder and you are in New Mexico it is worth the trip.

It is in the valley along the Rio Grande and originally it might have been a swampy area. I do not know. But now they do flood parts of it. You can well imagine that in this dry environment water attracts wildlife particularly migrating birds.

Even if there was no birds it would be worth the visit because it is a beautiful place.

I saw many types of birds, waterfowls, birds of prey etc but for me the highlight was the sandy hill cranes.

This year I seem to be either stoking or being stoked by sandy hill cranes. I saw them on my way to Hay River in early August, in Wood Buffalo National Park in August and September, then flying overhead in mid September in northern Alberta and now in December in New Mexico.
what is so nice is that now I recognize they call. And I heard them in Bosque before I saw them. I did not know that Bosque is known as a place to see cranes. In fact around Thank Giving time (US Thanks Giving) they have the Festival of the Cranes, a six day affair with workshops, tours lectures and hikes.

Bosque is where I got closest to the sandy hill cranes so far. It was really nice to see them again and be able to take some pictures.

In the day time they disperse and in the evening they all gather together in a few spots. I was able to take some pictures for a while and then the light was just to low for my crappy little camera.

I love to watch them land. they are quite graceful.

If you are in the area I recommend Bosque Del Apache National wildlife Refuge.