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TRIP

4 A Green Chile Adventure

38 Albuquirky

47 Take the High Road…and the Low Road

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Ice Caves & Wolf Dens on Hwy 53

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WHY GO Forget Route 66, get your kicks on Hwy 53 between Gallup and Grants. The alternative route features a trippy line-up of weird and wonderful distractions – lava badlands, ice caves, wolves and historical graffiti – set against a surreal landscape of crimson arches, crumbling pueblos and volcanic craters.

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TIME

2 days

DISTANCE

85 miles

BEST TIME TO GO

Aug – Oct

START

Gallup, NM

END

Grants, NM

ALSO GOOD FOR

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Used for centuries as a Zuni, Hopi and other Pueblo Indian trade route, Hwy 53 runs parallel to Route 66 and serves up a Pandora’s box of one-of-a-kind attractions. Reach the byway via Hwy 602 south from Gallup pausing at the Ellis Tanner Trading Company on the way. The shop doubles as a sort of social gathering place for the Navajo community and still operates a functional trade counter. If you don’t have anything to swap, your dollar is good in the huge pawn room. Dig around for one of the unique pieces of turquoise jewelry tucked away behind a collection of vintage sheep-wool rugs in the massive pawn room.

It doesn’t matter how small a New Mexican town is, if it’s on the map, it likely has a restaurant where the community gathers for gossip, fresh guacamole and green-chile stew. In the Navajo sheep-farming village of Ramah, just east of the entrance to Hwy 53, this restaurant is the Stage Coach Café. Whether you order a T-bone or enchiladas, make sure to sweeten your experience with a slice of creamy, crusty pie for dessert.

Animal lovers will want to make a short 20-minute detour to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary after lunch. A non-profit organization, it provides food, shelter, love and even a multivitamin to abused and abandoned wolves and wolf-dogs that are unable to survive in the wild. Take a right on BLM Rd 125, about 10 miles east of Ramah, and follow it 8 miles to BLM Rd 120. Turn right onto this gravel road and continue for 4 miles to the sanctuary. You can take a tour (offered six days a week). Besides learning all about wolf-conservation efforts, behavior and eating habits, tours take visitors on walks through the natural-looking habitats and allow you to get quite close to these big, shaggy, long-nosed, dog-like creatures.

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DETOUR

For a real backcountry adventure, take a detour to El Malpais’ Wild Western side. County Rd 42 leaves Hwy 117 about 34 miles south of I-40 and meanders through 40 miles of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) country. It passes several craters, caves and lava tubes (reached by signed trails) and emerges at Hwy 53 near Bandera Crater. Since the road is unpaved, it’s best to have a high-clearance 4WD. Go with a companion – this is an isolated area.

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Having got your wolf fix, get back on Hwy 53 and head for some ancient graffiti. El Morro National Monument, also called “Inscription Rock,” has been autographed by passers-by since 1250, when the first pueblo petroglyphs were etched near the top of this 200ft hunk of sandstone rising above a permanent pool of water. Spanish conquistadors, Anglo pioneers and railway surveyors all paused to fill their canteens at the 200,000- gallon waterhole, and when they stopped many couldn’t help leaving a record of their visit behind. It’s quite a sight – more than 2000 messages were carved into the soft rock before President Teddy Roosevelt turned El Morro into America’s second national monument.

By this point you’ll be ready to relax, and luckily the region’s best B&B is in El Morro’s backyard. The Cimarron Rose sits in a peaceful locale in the Zuni Mountains just east of the national monument, and the innkeepers take pride in being eco-friendly. Rainwater is collected