First Visit, September 2000: The highpoint of Socorro County is topped by the Langmuir Laboratory, which studies lightning. Sticking buildings and lightning rods and other metallic tower-like structures at the top of the tallest peaks for miles around in a region noted for its summer monsoon storms is a good idea for researchers, but underscores that this is lightning territory, so be aware. With the labs up top, there is a road to near the summit, making this highpoint relatively easy to get. Earlier in the day I had climbed Mount Taylor, so a long drive and a short hike to another highpoint sounded good to me.

From Grants up on Interstate-40, near my Mount Taylor hike, I headed east toward Albuquerque but bypassed the city by taking a highway to Los Lunas (note the gender confusion- their spelling, not mine) on Interstate-25. From there, it was about 70 miles south along I-25 to the town of Socorro. From Socorro I took US-60 west about 13 miles to the Water Canyon turnoff on the left, and up into the mountains. The road is paved for the first 4.5 miles. The pavement ends at the campground, and a sign pointing to the Langmuir Labs points to the road to the top. It was about 3 in the afternoon when I started up, and the weather was very nice, the monsoon taking it easy on this day.

The road to the top is about 9 miles in length and is dirt and gravel. It clings to the side of the mountains as it climbs about 3,000 feet up toward the top. In places it was rocky and rutted. Although 4-wheel drive is not necessary, I went ahead and put my truck into 4wd just for better purchase on the road. After about 40 minutes along this road, I came to a locked gate, within sight of the buildings and a mere few hundred feet from the summit. There were relatively numerous vehicles up here as the North Baldy trailhead starts from near the South Baldy summit. Most vehicles were high-clearance trucks or jeeps, but I did see one passenger vehicle which suggests that it can be done if the driver is very patient.

I parked at the gate, which is at about 10,500 feet, just below the bare summit. A very old sign from 1980, featuring shotgun blasts and very faded writing, seemed to indicate that access beyond the gate was not permitted, but I can't be sure as the writing was near illegible. I decided to head straight up the very steep hill at about a 45-degree tilt. This was just a tad steep and I was kicking loose some rocks so I started to sidehill a little more. Eventually I found an old footpath and was at the summit very quickly. From car to the top was about 15 minutes. I explored the poles and towers and then started down. This time I just followed the footpath into the Lab lands, then walked out on the road back to my truck.

The drive out was easy enough, and I was back out on to US-60 at about 5 pm. To the west about 50 miles is the Very Large Array (VLA), a huge bank of radio telescopes situated in a triangular pattern. But I didn't go see them. I headed back into Socorro, got dinner, then drove south into Truth or Consequences and took a hotel for the night.

Second Visit, September 2005: Beth and I were planning our Labor Day getaway and we originally planned to drive from Chandler to Grants, New Mexico, hike up Mount Taylor, then drive down to visit South Baldy, stay in Truth Or Consequences, and go home. But... we realized we were trying to cram too much into the three days, and with gas prices over $3 per gallon we excised the Grants and T or C portions of our trip, and stuck mainly in and around Catron and Socorro Counties. We still planned to visit South Baldy, as well as the Very Large Array, the San Mateo Range, and the areas in and around Datil, Reserve and the Plain of San Augustin. We left Friday afternoon and made the 310-mile drive north and east through Payson and Springerville and on into Datil NM along US-60, arriving about 9 p.m. well after dark. In a slight drizzle, we pulled up into an open campsite at the Datil Well National Recreation Area, and pitched the tent. With no moon and clouded skies, and no city lights nearby, everything was ink black. My lantern gave me just enough light to get the tent righted correctly. We ate dinner in the cab of the truck as the rain picked up, and had a decent night's sleep in the tent. The rain gave away during the night and we awoke to cool and foggy conditions.

We took time to explore the Datil Well campground. This was one of a few dozen wells strung out along a 200-mile corridor called the Magdalena Cattle Highway, in which stockmen drove their cattle herds eastward to the trains in Magdalena for market. It was one of the largest of its kind and was even active up until about 1970. The well is hardly the attraction at Datil Well, but the area is a nice hilly region of classic pinon and juniper woodland. We stopped in the tiny town of Datil (pronounced "daddle"), read the amusing poem on the ceiling of the gas station, and got moving. We went east along US-60 about 35 miles through the town of Magdalena and another 10 miles or so to the Water Canyon entrance toward South Baldy Peak in the Magdalena Mountains, arriving to the turn off about 9:30 a.m.

From here to the top was smooth sailing, the road having been greatly improved! I was wondering if I was simply overstating the condition of the road on my first trip, but definitely there were parts on my first visit that were rough, while the entire trip up this time was nice and smooth. We eventually parked at a turnout near a guard shack, a few hundred feet short of the gate, and below a trailhead for the North Baldy trail. A small herd of cattle sat in the open meadow grass and watched us, but after a few minutes got up and moved on. We hiked up the trail about 70 vertical feet up to the ridge, truned left, and followed a sketchy use path partways up the ridge to the top. It's open and navigation is trivial. We arrived to the top and snapped some photos, then walked down the road down the other side, coming back out onto the main road on the grounds of the Langmuir Labs. No one was around and we mosyed out back to our truck, a short hike of maybe a mile round trip in 30 minutes. It was cool and breezy, with moderate cloudiness. The drive down went well and the entire round trip took maybe 2 hours.

We stopped in Magdalena for lunch and a visit to some local shops. We were told a new optical observatory is being built on a peak east of South Baldy (we had seen the construction but assumed it was Langmuir Lab stuff). The telescope is a joint venture between New Mexico Tech Univeristy and Cambridge University in England. We were told that Prince Andrew had visited to cut the ribbon... probably a place he never thought he'd get to. We ended up staying the night in Magdalena when the rains picked up and precluded from letting us even drive to our campsite in the San Mateo Range to the west. Here we met Ringo the friendly kitty. He let us pet him and he entertained us with his jumping ability, plus his overall friendliness.

The next day we visited the Very Large Array as well as making a somewhat hasty drive-up visit to the summit and lookout atop Mount Withington, the highpoint of the north sector of the San Mateo Range, immediately west of the Magdalena Mountains. Rain was threatening and the roads looked they might become a mess in wet weather, so we didn't dally long. The Very Large Array is pretty cool. 27 monster satellite dishes arranged in a Y-pattern, able to pick up the faintest radio signals from the most distant quasars on the furthest realms of the universe... and possibly, if arranged just right, ESPN-Classic, or so I hear. We ate lunch in Reserve, a tiny city in western New Mexico, and camped that night in the mountains along the state line. Next day: home!