A Ghost Town & Sunset in the Desert

Shakespeare, New Mexico
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After leaving Arizona, we tasted a sliver of New Mexico. At one of the first exits off the freeway in the state (Lordsburg), we took a small side trip to visit New Mexico's best preserved ghost town - what used to be a silver mining town from the 1870's called Shakespeare. Its 3000 inhabitants abandoned it when the silver dried up. The Hill family turned the land into a ranch in the 1930's and still live on the land to this day and care for the buildings, including the Grant House saloon, the general store, & the Stratford Hotel, where Billy the Kid washed dishes as a young boy.

Ghost Town with a Truck
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Unfortunately, the gates were closed for the day when we got there, so we had to content ourselves with peering through the gates at the real "cowboy town" and taking pictures from afar.

The last town in New Mexico La Cruces burned itself in our memory with a sunset that bounced rose light against its sheer mountain walls...

We entered Texas at twilight and slept hard in soft hotel beds in El Paso.