Day Trip to Silver City Area

Thursday March 14th

We planned a day-trip to Silver City today.  That meant an early start (for us); we were on the road before 9.  Stopped at the Denny's in Deming for breakfast and then drove the remaining 50 miles to Silver City.  Silver City is an old mining town and the county seat of Grant county.  The altitude in Silver City is over 6000 ft. so the temps here don't stay as warm as in Las Cruces, although it was warm enough today.  We looked over the town and then drove up NM-15 north into the Gila National Forest.  The only town on this road is Pinos Altos; which is mostly a ghost town, although there is some population there, probably supported by the tourist industry in the summer.  There are many Forest Service Campgrounds and hiking trails along NM-15, and I imagine that it has lots of visitors in the summer.  

We drove N as far as the junction with NM-35.  NM-35 gradually turns S and eventually connects with the highway that goes into Silver City.  The NM-35 section of the trip was perhaps not as scenic but the road was much straighter and more level.  Before heading back to Deming, we stopped at a roadside viewing area at the Chino open pit mine near Hannover.   The Chino mine is the longest continuously operating mine in the US; since 1799.  The typical ore at this mine is only .6% copper.  They grind the ore into small particles and use acid to leach out the copper.  Then they use an electroplate method to extract the copper from the acid solution.  It's common to see flatbed trucks with bundles of copper plates, on the roads in AZ and NM.