MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM RODEO, NM

Snow in the desert is mysterious, beautiful and somehow disconcerting.  The temps gained enough above freezing to melt the road ice and allow our escape to Rodeo, NM.

Ah, at last, sunshine.

A young Lark Bunting was finding slim pick'ins in the snow.

SAINT CATHERINE CHURCH

Traveling west from Columbus, NM along the utterly barren Highway 9, we turn off

at Hachita (Little Hatchet) to take a break and have a look at the closest living thing to a ghost town and yet still have a few inhabitants. The silver and copper mines of yesteryear have shut down, the train tracks pulled and all commercial life boarded and still.

Saint Catherine, The Patron Saint of Italy, known for her "Mystical Marriage" with Jesus wasn't even able to save the town of Hachita from it's slow demise. 

The church is in a ramshackle disarray, with windows busted out and doors boarded. The the statue of St. Catherine has even been stolen from her outside perch.  

The town is but 4 miles from a wide open Mexican border and sees a lot of green and white Border Patrol vehicles.  I was out of the rig prowling around looking for a good photo-op, on the sunless side of the church, when I came on fresh footprints in the snow.  My first thought was the tracks were mine but quickly realized I hadn't yet been here.  The prints ominously ended at an open window on the church.  I backtracked much more quickly than I had come.

Rusty's daddy.

The owner of Rusty's RV Ranch

From Jackie and I

Merry Christmas

Rodeo, NM