The New York Times
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December 19, 2008
Ski Report
Where Lifts Cost Less By SARAH TUFF
THE price of a one-day lift ticket on a weekend at Vail Ski Resort in Colorado is $97; at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont it is $89. (And don’t even start thinking about the potentially dizzying costs of lodging and travel.)
But there are ways around high lift costs, without pretending to be sick so you can ski on a work day, or that you are under age 12, or that you know how to skin up the mountain. Skiers and riders can head to some of the country’s lesser-known ski areas, where rates are often a fraction of those at the bigger resorts.
No, a place like Snow King Resort (www.snowking.com) in Wyoming may not boast as much thigh-pounding vertical or skiable terrain as its natty neighbor, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. But both areas share the same town, and many people will find themselves perfectly satisfied with (if not elated by) the $41 Snow King experience — and with a few extra dollars to spend on Jackson’s après-ski scene.
“You don’t have to be a jet-setter,” said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, who praised smaller, less expensive ski areas for keeping alive the feel of skiing in the 1970s. “You sit in the cafeteria after buying your lift ticket, and it’s a little reminiscent of a less complicated day.”
A day on the slopes at dozens of areas can cost less than $50. As Mr. Berry pointed out, many ski areas in the Midwest qualify, including spots like Crystal Mountain (www.crystalmountain.com) in Michigan and Afton Alps (www.aftonalps.com) in Minnesota. Here’s a nationwide ski sampler.
Camden Snow Bowl
Camden, Me.
Within a lobster claw’s reach of the Atlantic, the 80-acre Camden Snow Bowl gets an annual snowfall of 72 inches and has snowmaking on less than half of the mountain — so it’s best to nose the Subaru there right after a storm. The main draws of this municipal facility (on the verge of a major face-lift thanks to the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area Redevelopment Project) are its small-town charm and the views of Penobscot Bay. “You can see the ocean from the slopes,” said Greg Sweetser of the Ski Maine Association. You can night-ski on several runs, too.
The Camden Snow Bowl is also home to the United States National Toboggan Championships, on Feb. 6 to 8 this season. Skiers lucky enough to find a room in town that weekend will find everybody talking toboggan.
One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $33. Information: www.camdensnowbowl.com.
Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort
Vadito, N.M.
Mother Nature has already been kind to this 200-acre ski area in the Carson National Forest, 20 miles southeast of Taos. Some autumn snow and cold temperatures allowed Sipapu to open on Nov. 15. And while skiers and riders won’t find the knee-knocking steeps of Taos Ski Valley, they will discover 41 trails of decent length, including seven double-black-diamond slopes.
Sipapu’s two terrain parks are less crowded than those in larger resorts, making them a good place to try out new tricks. And for those who want to try a whole new sport on snow, Sipapu also offers lessons and rentals for ski biking (just what it sounds like). The ski area gives free lift tickets every day to skiers under 6, fourth graders, 40-year-olds (really) and those 70 and older.
One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $39. Information: www.sipapunm.com.
Ski Cooper
Leadville, Colo.
At 10,152 feet, Leadville, Colo., claims to be the highest incorporated city in North America, and its also lofty playground is this 26-run ski area. It sits atop Tennessee Pass, one of the training sites for the 10th Mountain Division for World War II, and if skiers and riders aren’t giddy from the altitude, they might be from the 2,400 acres of snowcat-served backcountry skiing on the Continental Divide. (Tours are a splurge, costing $290 to $325.)
But for those who want to stay inbound, Ski Cooper caters to families. Long, easy cruisers like Tenderfoot and Sitzmark mosey down the mountain, giving everyone ample time to admire surrounding peaks like Mount Elbert and Mount Massive.
One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $42. Information: www.skicooper.com.
Howelsen Hill Ski Area
Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Receiving the same “champagne powder” as the neighboring Steamboat resort, Howelsen Hill is a town-operated training area that has helped send more than 64 athletes, including the 2003 Nordic combined world champion Johnny Spillane, to the Winter Olympics.
Howelsen has 15 trails served by four lifts. If the fun runs out on the downhill side, visitors can switch over to cross-country skiing on nearly 13 miles of trails or try out the terrain park.
One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $16. Information: steamboatsprings.net.
Bridger Bowl
Bozeman, Mont.
Around Bozeman, the most reliable snow report is found atop the historic Baxter Hotel. If the blue light is flashing, it means that nearby Bridger Bowl has more than two inches of fresh snow.
And chances are that traveling powder hounds can actually stay right in town (and not crash at a friend’s pad) and ski 2,000-acre Bridger, thanks to the affordability of the nonprofit community ski area. “It’s one of those breathtaking places,” Mr. Berry said.
This season, Bridger is adding more than 300 acres of lift-served ridge terrain: steep, ungroomed and unmarked trails that will require expert skiers and riders to carry avalanche transceivers. Beginners and intermediates will find fully half of the ski area devoted to gentler runs.
One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $45. Information: www.bridgerbowl.com.
Badger Pass Ski Area
Yosemite National Park, Calif.
Long after the summer tourists have retreated from Yosemite National Park, winter storms turn Badger Pass into a friendly, low-key ski area. Most of the terrain is beginner or intermediate, and mild temperatures create tolerable learning conditions.
Badger has 10 runs, and plenty to do once skiers and riders have notched enough laps, starting with an expansive deck for soaking up the California sunshine. The park also works with Yosemite Mountaineering School to offer backcountry ski tours throughout the Sierra Nevada range.
One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $42. Information: www.badgerpass.com.
Cochran’s Ski Area
Richmond, Vt.
Blink while driving along I-89 near Burlington, Vt., and you’ll miss Cochran’s, which has just three lifts and six trails on 350 vertical feet. But since 1961, when it first opened for children and had a single rope tow, this little molehill has churned out a mountain of world-class skiers; the family’s own Barbara Ann Cochran won Olympic gold in 1972, while Jimmy Cochran now competes on the World Cup circuit.
Today, Cochran’s is still for kids. The nonprofit area claims to introduce skiing to more than 800 local schoolchildren each year, and teaches parents how to teach their little ones. It’s a rambunctious, winter-loving place and can be just as much fun for adults.
One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $20. Information: www.cochranskiarea.com.
Other Options
Larger, more expensive resorts don’t have to be a washout for those on a budget. Skiers can often find cheaper rates than the standard, one-day pass by checking the Web site of their favorite area and buying lift tickets in advance, or by buying a multiday ticket. In addition, the Web site Liftopia (www.liftopia.com) sells discounted lift tickets to resorts throughout North America.
Showing posts with label New Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Mexico. Show all posts
Friday, December 19, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
American Journeys | Gila National Forest, New Mexico Walking a Dream of Desolation By KEITH MULVIHILL
December 12, 2008
American Journeys | Gila National Forest, New Mexico Walking a Dream of Desolation By KEITH MULVIHILL
THE sun dipped overhead, casting a thick glow of yellow-orange light that radiated off narrow canyon walls. The sound of rushing water filled the chasm, a steady, satisfying whoosh from Whitewater Creek, a stream charging over boulders and through gaps about 20 feet below me. It would have been enough just to be standing there, taking it in. But I was walking directly into this spectacle on a zigzagging metal path high over the water, angling deeper into steep-walled Whitewater Canyon.
On Day 2 of a trip in and around the Gila National Forest, I had made my way five miles to this spot outside Glenwood, a speck of a town in a far-flung area of southwestern New Mexico. I was navigating the 300-foot-long namesake section of the Catwalk National Recreation Trail — a metal walkway clinging to towering vertical slabs of rock.
In the 1890s, workers using muscle power and ropes ran a pipeline along the wall of this canyon to carry water to a mill that processed gold and silver ore. They moved along on planks above the pipes, calling this their catwalk. In the 1930s, long after the mill went defunct, the Civilian Conservation Corps was assigned the task of salvaging the 18-inch pipe and turning the support structure into a safely walkable recreation attraction.
Some of the hand-forged hardware supporting the catwalk today was drilled into the rocks in the original pipeline project, and the entire trail, though only a mile long, is visually action-packed. The last leg is an Indiana Jones-style metal suspension bridge that dangles about 40 feet above the rapid stream. Then the path ends abruptly on a rock ledge.
But the catwalk trail barely scratches the surface of the natural beauty and abundance found in this area. Just beyond this canyon, the scruffy, jagged terrain surges skyward. Steep slopes form the flanks of the Mogollon Mountains, a solid wall delineating the western edge of the sprawling Gila Wilderness, which, in 1924, under the guidance of the conservationist Aldo Leopold, became the nation's first designated wilderness area. As envisioned by Leopold, the term "wilderness" would define "a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state, open to lawful hunting and fishing, big enough to absorb a two weeks' pack trip, and devoid of roads, artificial trails, cottages, or other works of man."
Today, the Gila Wilderness and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, which borders just to the east, together contain more than 750,000 acres of unspoiled land, forming the heart of the Gila National Forest — 3.3 million acres of publicly owned forest and range land. The forest, southwest of Albuquerque, straddles a 170-mile stretch of the Continental Divide and teems with wildlife. Flowing through it is the Gila, one of the few undammed rivers in the West.
This furrowed countryside, with its mix of canyons, mesas and grasslands, makes for a three- or four-day adventure with miles of vistas and a smattering of towns where meals smothered in green chilies set your tongue on fire. (After the Catwalk, hungry hikers can recharge with burgers and milkshakes amid the cowboyish ambience of the Blue Front Bar Cafe in Glenwood.)
It's farther down the road (about nine miles south) where sightseers can truly begin to appreciate the size of the magically desolate land that surrounds them. At the Aldo Leopold Vista, if you can tear yourself away from the dreamy view of the Gila Wilderness, there are plaques to read and local historical facts to ponder. But the glorious panorama beckons, the horizon taunts: "What are you doing over there? Come over here!"
On a short backpacking trip in the Mogollon (pronounced mo-go-YON) Mountains, I was lucky enough to get a taste of this rugged, wild place. About five miles in, just over Windy Gap (via Little Dry Trail No. 180), my hiking companion and unofficial guide, Michael Berman, a friend of a friend, stopped about 10 paces ahead of me to take in the view.
"This is the Gila," he announced, gesturing outward to a plunging ravine, up to craggy pinnacles, and over toward buff-colored rock faces blazing in late-afternoon sunlight. Snaking groves of ponderosa pine wended their way out of small box canyons and up steep gorges, spreading to dominate the hulking mountaintops.
Mr. Berman, an artist and photographer, lives nearby with his wife and has hiked countless miles in the Gila. He described once being startled by two bears tumbling out of a tree and, another time, coming upon a mountain lion with a freshly killed elk.
Exploring this wilderness takes patience, he said. "It can be hard to get into. There's no one place to go." But for anyone willing to devote a little time and expend the energy, there are hundreds of miles of trails and much to discover.
Mr. Berman's stark black-and-white photographs of the Gila capture the enormousness and mystery of this seemingly desolate land. A 2008 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for a project photographing grasslands in the Chihuahuan Desert, he is drawn to barren locales. "If you attend and look closely at a place," he told me, "there is a certain magic and beauty to it." The light was fading when we set up camp in Big Dry Canyon, at the confluence of Big Dry and Spruce Creeks. The streams were gushing from a recent spate of rain; water tumbled over boulders and splashed into deep, dark brown pools. We cooked steaks on hot coals, and tequila kept the chilly night air at bay.
The next morning, we made the strenuous climb back out of the canyon. "The Gila always makes you pay to get into good places," Mr. Berman said.
Later we drove north on Highway 180 to the small cattle ranching and timber town of Reserve, where Ella's Cafe, on Main Street, serves up tasty jalapeño poppers and green chili cheeseburgers. A few doors down is Uncle Bill's Bar, where the ceiling is adorned by T-shirts from teams of forest-fire fighters — called hotshot crews — and a smattering of suspended guns and rifles. A sign near the bar announced a pool tournament every Friday night.
Accessible from Reserve is a web of gravel timber and ranch roads crisscrossing the northern section of the national forest. Up here, grasslands spread out atop a high plateau, forming magnificent golden vistas: rolling hills dotted with piñons and junipers, dark green stands of conifers in deep crevices. Driving east along Forest Road 141, in the T-Bar grasslands, we spotted a lone pronghorn antelope in the distance, its white-blazed flanks flashing as it ambled in the bright sunlight.
Most people who visit the Gila make Silver City their home base. A former mining town, it oozes Old West charm, especially along Bullard Street, where handsome adobe and brick buildings line the pavement. Galleries, bars and restaurants are plentiful, and the Javalina Coffee House serves up strong brew and snacks. Down the road, Nancy's Silver City Cafe specializes in New Mexican food.
The most accessible way into the Gila Wilderness is Route 15, a narrow and winding road that heads north out of Silver City, stretching over 42 scenic miles. Visitors can stop along the way to bask in natural hot springs. Gila Hot Springs Campground has three large ones, varying in temperature, nestled along the banks of the Gila River. The spot is open to day-trippers and campers alike.
"Wow, this is a cool place," I said to a couple of soakers. "Actually, it's pretty hot," a tie-dyed-bikini-clad woman cracked. Her male companion grinned. "If you want to get cool," she said, "get in here a few minutes and then sit up on the edge in the breeze."
Two hot springs away. I chatted with Abel Hinojosa, who was relaxing, au naturel, in the steamy water. He and his wife, who live near Las Cruces, were on a three-day respite, camping no more than 50 yards from the hot springs. "This is a lot more rustic than the more developed spots," Mr. Hinojosa said. "We like that." The previous night's full moon had made their nighttime soak especially memorable. "It was awesome," he said. "You could see the outline of the mountain ridge, and the whole area was filled with moonlight."
At the end of Route 15 is Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, a spectacular collection of American Indian ruins. A one-mile loop trail gracefully ascends about 180 feet above a narrow canyon. Walking inside enormous south-facing caves, among the pale stone walls, it's easy to see the appeal of living in such a place. The serene, pleasingly minimalist structures and the jaw-dropping view of the adjacent rocky-canyon walls, decked out in tall pine trees, gave the feeling of being in a heavenly penthouse.
A trickle of water over the cave's gaping archway created tiny water droplets that sparkled like falling diamonds in the late morning sun. Zump Urycki, 33, a volunteer guide, summed it up nicely: "The perfectness of all this is pretty unbelievable."
OLD TIMES IN NEW MEXICO
INFORMATION about the Gila National Forest and the Gila Wilderness can be found at www2.srs.fs.fed.us/r3/gila/. Maps ($9) are available at any of the six ranger district offices listed on the Web site. The Silver City office is at 3005 East Camino del Bosque (575-388-8201).
The Catwalk National Recreation Trail is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Parking is $3 a vehicle.
The Blue Front Bar Cafe (575-539-2561) is on Highway 180 in Glenwood.
The turnoff for the Little Dry Trail 180 is about a mile north of the Aldo Leopold Vista on Highway 180. Turn right on Sacaton Road (Forest Road 147). When the road forks, turn left onto Forest Road 196 and drive to the trailhead.
In Reserve, Ella's Cafe (575-533-6111) at 96 Main Street and Uncle Bill's Bar (575-533-6369) at 230 Main Street are good stops. Rooms at the Rode Inn Motel, 200 Main Street (575-533-6661) are $58 to $79 a night.
Silver City offers numerous lodging options for a variety of budgets. The Palace Hotel (106 West Broadway; 575-388-1811; www.zianet.com/palacehotel; $48 to $79) is within walking distance of restaurants, bars and art galleries. On North Bullard Street are the Javalina Coffee House (No. 201; 575-388-1350) and Nancy's Silver City Cafe (No. 514; 575-388-3480).
The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument (575-536-9461; www.nps.gov/gicl) accepts visitors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; $3 a person and $10 a family
Gila Hot Springs Campground (575-536-9551; $3 a person for day use and $4 overnight) is on Access Road off Highway 15, about 3.5 miles south of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument visitor center.
Works by Michael Berman (www.fragmentedimages.com) are currently being exhibited at the Santa Fe Art Institute and Lannan Foundation Gallery in Santa Fe.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12american.html?ei=5070&pagewanted=print
http://snipurl.com/83l6r
American Journeys | Gila National Forest, New Mexico Walking a Dream of Desolation By KEITH MULVIHILL
THE sun dipped overhead, casting a thick glow of yellow-orange light that radiated off narrow canyon walls. The sound of rushing water filled the chasm, a steady, satisfying whoosh from Whitewater Creek, a stream charging over boulders and through gaps about 20 feet below me. It would have been enough just to be standing there, taking it in. But I was walking directly into this spectacle on a zigzagging metal path high over the water, angling deeper into steep-walled Whitewater Canyon.
On Day 2 of a trip in and around the Gila National Forest, I had made my way five miles to this spot outside Glenwood, a speck of a town in a far-flung area of southwestern New Mexico. I was navigating the 300-foot-long namesake section of the Catwalk National Recreation Trail — a metal walkway clinging to towering vertical slabs of rock.
In the 1890s, workers using muscle power and ropes ran a pipeline along the wall of this canyon to carry water to a mill that processed gold and silver ore. They moved along on planks above the pipes, calling this their catwalk. In the 1930s, long after the mill went defunct, the Civilian Conservation Corps was assigned the task of salvaging the 18-inch pipe and turning the support structure into a safely walkable recreation attraction.
Some of the hand-forged hardware supporting the catwalk today was drilled into the rocks in the original pipeline project, and the entire trail, though only a mile long, is visually action-packed. The last leg is an Indiana Jones-style metal suspension bridge that dangles about 40 feet above the rapid stream. Then the path ends abruptly on a rock ledge.
But the catwalk trail barely scratches the surface of the natural beauty and abundance found in this area. Just beyond this canyon, the scruffy, jagged terrain surges skyward. Steep slopes form the flanks of the Mogollon Mountains, a solid wall delineating the western edge of the sprawling Gila Wilderness, which, in 1924, under the guidance of the conservationist Aldo Leopold, became the nation's first designated wilderness area. As envisioned by Leopold, the term "wilderness" would define "a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state, open to lawful hunting and fishing, big enough to absorb a two weeks' pack trip, and devoid of roads, artificial trails, cottages, or other works of man."
Today, the Gila Wilderness and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, which borders just to the east, together contain more than 750,000 acres of unspoiled land, forming the heart of the Gila National Forest — 3.3 million acres of publicly owned forest and range land. The forest, southwest of Albuquerque, straddles a 170-mile stretch of the Continental Divide and teems with wildlife. Flowing through it is the Gila, one of the few undammed rivers in the West.
This furrowed countryside, with its mix of canyons, mesas and grasslands, makes for a three- or four-day adventure with miles of vistas and a smattering of towns where meals smothered in green chilies set your tongue on fire. (After the Catwalk, hungry hikers can recharge with burgers and milkshakes amid the cowboyish ambience of the Blue Front Bar Cafe in Glenwood.)
It's farther down the road (about nine miles south) where sightseers can truly begin to appreciate the size of the magically desolate land that surrounds them. At the Aldo Leopold Vista, if you can tear yourself away from the dreamy view of the Gila Wilderness, there are plaques to read and local historical facts to ponder. But the glorious panorama beckons, the horizon taunts: "What are you doing over there? Come over here!"
On a short backpacking trip in the Mogollon (pronounced mo-go-YON) Mountains, I was lucky enough to get a taste of this rugged, wild place. About five miles in, just over Windy Gap (via Little Dry Trail No. 180), my hiking companion and unofficial guide, Michael Berman, a friend of a friend, stopped about 10 paces ahead of me to take in the view.
"This is the Gila," he announced, gesturing outward to a plunging ravine, up to craggy pinnacles, and over toward buff-colored rock faces blazing in late-afternoon sunlight. Snaking groves of ponderosa pine wended their way out of small box canyons and up steep gorges, spreading to dominate the hulking mountaintops.
Mr. Berman, an artist and photographer, lives nearby with his wife and has hiked countless miles in the Gila. He described once being startled by two bears tumbling out of a tree and, another time, coming upon a mountain lion with a freshly killed elk.
Exploring this wilderness takes patience, he said. "It can be hard to get into. There's no one place to go." But for anyone willing to devote a little time and expend the energy, there are hundreds of miles of trails and much to discover.
Mr. Berman's stark black-and-white photographs of the Gila capture the enormousness and mystery of this seemingly desolate land. A 2008 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for a project photographing grasslands in the Chihuahuan Desert, he is drawn to barren locales. "If you attend and look closely at a place," he told me, "there is a certain magic and beauty to it." The light was fading when we set up camp in Big Dry Canyon, at the confluence of Big Dry and Spruce Creeks. The streams were gushing from a recent spate of rain; water tumbled over boulders and splashed into deep, dark brown pools. We cooked steaks on hot coals, and tequila kept the chilly night air at bay.
The next morning, we made the strenuous climb back out of the canyon. "The Gila always makes you pay to get into good places," Mr. Berman said.
Later we drove north on Highway 180 to the small cattle ranching and timber town of Reserve, where Ella's Cafe, on Main Street, serves up tasty jalapeño poppers and green chili cheeseburgers. A few doors down is Uncle Bill's Bar, where the ceiling is adorned by T-shirts from teams of forest-fire fighters — called hotshot crews — and a smattering of suspended guns and rifles. A sign near the bar announced a pool tournament every Friday night.
Accessible from Reserve is a web of gravel timber and ranch roads crisscrossing the northern section of the national forest. Up here, grasslands spread out atop a high plateau, forming magnificent golden vistas: rolling hills dotted with piñons and junipers, dark green stands of conifers in deep crevices. Driving east along Forest Road 141, in the T-Bar grasslands, we spotted a lone pronghorn antelope in the distance, its white-blazed flanks flashing as it ambled in the bright sunlight.
Most people who visit the Gila make Silver City their home base. A former mining town, it oozes Old West charm, especially along Bullard Street, where handsome adobe and brick buildings line the pavement. Galleries, bars and restaurants are plentiful, and the Javalina Coffee House serves up strong brew and snacks. Down the road, Nancy's Silver City Cafe specializes in New Mexican food.
The most accessible way into the Gila Wilderness is Route 15, a narrow and winding road that heads north out of Silver City, stretching over 42 scenic miles. Visitors can stop along the way to bask in natural hot springs. Gila Hot Springs Campground has three large ones, varying in temperature, nestled along the banks of the Gila River. The spot is open to day-trippers and campers alike.
"Wow, this is a cool place," I said to a couple of soakers. "Actually, it's pretty hot," a tie-dyed-bikini-clad woman cracked. Her male companion grinned. "If you want to get cool," she said, "get in here a few minutes and then sit up on the edge in the breeze."
Two hot springs away. I chatted with Abel Hinojosa, who was relaxing, au naturel, in the steamy water. He and his wife, who live near Las Cruces, were on a three-day respite, camping no more than 50 yards from the hot springs. "This is a lot more rustic than the more developed spots," Mr. Hinojosa said. "We like that." The previous night's full moon had made their nighttime soak especially memorable. "It was awesome," he said. "You could see the outline of the mountain ridge, and the whole area was filled with moonlight."
At the end of Route 15 is Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, a spectacular collection of American Indian ruins. A one-mile loop trail gracefully ascends about 180 feet above a narrow canyon. Walking inside enormous south-facing caves, among the pale stone walls, it's easy to see the appeal of living in such a place. The serene, pleasingly minimalist structures and the jaw-dropping view of the adjacent rocky-canyon walls, decked out in tall pine trees, gave the feeling of being in a heavenly penthouse.
A trickle of water over the cave's gaping archway created tiny water droplets that sparkled like falling diamonds in the late morning sun. Zump Urycki, 33, a volunteer guide, summed it up nicely: "The perfectness of all this is pretty unbelievable."
OLD TIMES IN NEW MEXICO
INFORMATION about the Gila National Forest and the Gila Wilderness can be found at www2.srs.fs.fed.us/r3/gila/. Maps ($9) are available at any of the six ranger district offices listed on the Web site. The Silver City office is at 3005 East Camino del Bosque (575-388-8201).
The Catwalk National Recreation Trail is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Parking is $3 a vehicle.
The Blue Front Bar Cafe (575-539-2561) is on Highway 180 in Glenwood.
The turnoff for the Little Dry Trail 180 is about a mile north of the Aldo Leopold Vista on Highway 180. Turn right on Sacaton Road (Forest Road 147). When the road forks, turn left onto Forest Road 196 and drive to the trailhead.
In Reserve, Ella's Cafe (575-533-6111) at 96 Main Street and Uncle Bill's Bar (575-533-6369) at 230 Main Street are good stops. Rooms at the Rode Inn Motel, 200 Main Street (575-533-6661) are $58 to $79 a night.
Silver City offers numerous lodging options for a variety of budgets. The Palace Hotel (106 West Broadway; 575-388-1811; www.zianet.com/palacehotel; $48 to $79) is within walking distance of restaurants, bars and art galleries. On North Bullard Street are the Javalina Coffee House (No. 201; 575-388-1350) and Nancy's Silver City Cafe (No. 514; 575-388-3480).
The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument (575-536-9461; www.nps.gov/gicl) accepts visitors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; $3 a person and $10 a family
Gila Hot Springs Campground (575-536-9551; $3 a person for day use and $4 overnight) is on Access Road off Highway 15, about 3.5 miles south of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument visitor center.
Works by Michael Berman (www.fragmentedimages.com) are currently being exhibited at the Santa Fe Art Institute and Lannan Foundation Gallery in Santa Fe.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12american.html?ei=5070&pagewanted=print
http://snipurl.com/83l6r
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