NM-152 and NM-15: City of Rocks to the Gila Cliff Dwellings

The Route at a Glance

The drive starts among the volcanic pillars of City of Rocks State Park, on the grassland between Deming and Silver City, and turns north on NM-61 up the valley of the Mimbres River, country where Mimbres potters lived a thousand years ago. Where NM-61 meets NM-152, the route turns west.

NM-152 climbs over the hills toward Hanover and passes the overlook of the Santa Rita copper pit, with the Kneeling Nun on the skyline beyond it, then comes down through the old mining towns to US-180 and Silver City. Silver City was founded in 1870 after a silver strike at Chloride Flat. Its Main Street is gone: the flood of July 21, 1895, and another in 1903 cut it into a gully about 55 feet deep, the merchants turned their shops around to face Bullard Street, and the ditch is a park now. Billy the Kid spent part of his boyhood here, and his mother is buried in the town cemetery.

NM-15 leaves Silver City heading north through Pinos Altos, a gold camp founded in 1860 on the Continental Divide, and then winds for some forty miles over the mountains of the Gila National Forest. Much of it is narrow, with stretches of ten to twelve percent grade and no center line, and the last leg alone takes an hour and a half to two hours. It ends at the West Fork of the Gila and the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

There is no fuel and no cell service beyond Silver City. NM-15 is no road for long trailers or motorhomes; NM-35 from the Mimbres valley is a gentler way in from the east.

The Drive, Stop by Stop

3 stops along the route, in driving order from City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico to Gila Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico.

1. 1

   City of Rocks State Park

   Deming

   The start, off NM-61 north of US-180.

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2. 2

   Santa Rita Copper Mine

   Hanover

   The overlook on NM-152 east of Hanover.

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3. 3

   Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

   Silver City

   The end, 44 miles north of Silver City on NM-15.

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That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let NM-152 and NM-15: City of Rocks to the Gila Cliff Dwellings do what it does best.