I awoke resolved to be sensible and go south. I followed I 25 south towards Las Cruces. There was a road that headed up through the mountains, west out of Sococco, and I decided to take that. I stopped at the Highway Patrol office to ask if they thought the roads would stay clear for a few hours. With their blessing, I headed west.

for a long was, skirting the bases of the mountains.

With no other cars, I could stop and take a couple pictures.  The road heads gradually up, entering the Gila National Forest.

I stopped just over the continental divide to have lunch.

A but further down the road, there was a BLM road leading to a campground, so I pulled off the highway and Chico had a good 20 minutes of running off leash.

From there, the road drops and drops to the desert below.

When you look back at the pass, it’s quite impressive.

We made it to Phoenix, and despite competition for beds (baseball spring training, conferences and a “family reunion” of the biker group the Nomads) and pouring rain, found a place to settle for the night.