Boosters of the Trail of the Mountain Spirits scenic byway want to make it more than just another pretty place.

By David A. Fryxell

When you set out to enjoy the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway, which winds from Silver City to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and back, don't sit in the back seat. Or, if you must, keep your eyes on the road rather than on your traveling companions. Otherwise, somewhere along twisty Hwy. 15 north of Pinos Altos, you may have to ask your driver to pull over—right now!—so you can get a breath of fresh mountain air and your face can lose that greenish carsick color.

The winding, mountain-hugging quality of this drive is of course part of what makes these 110 miles so scenic—and why driving the entire loop, according to the National Scenic Byways Program Web site at www.byways.org, takes about three hours. If you just want to get someplace fast, stick to I-10. After all, the whole idea of the America's Byways program, which includes 126 designated routes nationwide, eight of them in New Mexico, is to point tourists to "adventures where no two experiences are the same" and to invite these automotive adventurers "to come closer to America's heart and soul." You may not risk carsickness—just a speeding ticket—going 85 on the interstate, but you won't see much of America's heart and soul, either.

And, fortunately for back-seat passengers who really should keep their eyes out the window, there's plenty to see along the Trail of the Mountain Spirits—half of which winds through the Gila National Forest. Depending on whether you prefer to travel clockwise or counterclockwise, the scenic byway follows the "inner loop" from Silver City via Hwy. 15 to Pinos Altos, north to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, back down Hwy. 15 to Lake Roberts and Hwy. 35 south through the Mimbres River Valley. Finally, the byway follows Hwy. 152 and Hwy. 180 past the Santa Rita Copper Mine and Fort Bayard, returning the scenery-besotted traveler at last to Silver City.

With stops, of course, the trek could take as many hours as you wish; you could even stay overnight in Lake Roberts at the Spirit Canyon Lodge. There you'll be met by the beaming presence of proprietor Frances Land, who's also one of the original driving forces behind the Trail of the Mountain Spirits' byway designation and marketing. Before moving to New Mexico, Land spent 20 years teaching advertising and marketing at Roosevelt University and served as a Wisconsin tourism-board appointee and rural-tourism specialist for then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. She blames "very poor retirement skills" for her current occupation owning and operating Spirit Canyon Lodge and Cafe.

Land will greet you, offer a nice glass of wine on the cafe's cheery porch, and get even the greenest back-seat passenger swiftly on the road to recovery. Soon you'll be eating sausage and sauerkraut—German food being the cafe's specialty—a prospect that would have been unthinkable just a few hairpin curves ago.

Land's is only one of many businesses that depend upon the byway to bring them customers, of course. The Trail of the Mountain Spirits' handsome Web site at www.tmsbyway.com lists businesses ranging from art galleries in Silver City to Doc Campbell's Post all the way up by the cliff dwellings, from the Mimbres Valley Cafe to Manzano's RV Park in Bayard.

"As promoting the byway increases traffic," Land says, "we hope it helps put dollars in the till as well."

Part of the US Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration, the National Scenic Byways Program since 1992 has provided funding to help recognize, preserve, promote and enhance more than 2,100 projects from coast to coast. Only 126 of these routes, however, have been designated by the US Secretary of Transportation as either National Scenic Byways or All-American Roads. The designation recognizes a route's archaeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities. By "scenic," the program doesn't necessarily mean only breathtaking vistas—although the Trail of the Mountain Spirits certainly qualifies there: "All of America's Byways are 'scenic,' representing the depth and breadth of scenery in America—natural and man-made panoramas; electrifying neon landscapes; ancient and modern history coming alive; native arts and culture; and scenes of friends, families and strangers sharing their stories."

Besides the Trail of the Mountain Spirits, America's Byways in New Mexico include: the Billy the Kid Trail, through the Lincoln National Forest; Historic Route 66; the Jemez Mountain Trail, north of Albuquerque; the Santa Fe Trail; and the Turquoise Trail between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. In Southwest New Mexico, three byways including the Trail of the Mountain Spirits were officially designated on Sept. 22, 2005: The 299-mile El Camino Real byway descends the Rio Grande Valley from Santa Fe, with its southern section tracing from Truth or Consequences through Las Cruces. The 154-mile Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway follows Hwy. 152 from San Lorenzo over the Black Range through Kingston and Hillsboro to Caballo Lake; it then goes north to T or C, winding back westward on Hwy. 52 and Hwy. 59 through Cuchillo and Winston to Beaverhead in the Gila National Forest.

Scenic routes can earn several different, overlapping byway designations. So the Trail of the Mountain Spirits, for example, was named a National Forest Byway in 1989, under the name "Gila Scenic Byway." The state Highway and Transportation Department designated the route a New Mexico Scenic and Historic Byway in 1994.

Federal designation is the holy grail for byway boosters, however, as it brings inclusion on the national Web site and in nationwide promotions such as the "Come Closer" byways map. The America's Byways program is also one of the few to escape the funding ax of recent years, says Land. It targets automobile tourism, which 80 percent of US tourists do in some form.

"When we started working to get national designation, we had two meetings before we even realized that it was already a state byway," Land says with a smile. She and Keith Lemay of the Old West Country tourism marketing program are the only two of the original byway group still with the organization. That effort started in the late 1990s. "The hardest thing was to figure out exactly what we needed to do. We had to work like heck."

Several months and two seasons after that winding drive along the byway to Fran Land's lodge, she's sitting at the head of a table in the US Forest Service office in Silver City. The byway's steering committee—minus only Lemay and Steve Riley, superintendent of the cliff dwellings—is gathered for its monthly meeting, dealing with twists and turns of bureaucracy that would make anybody a little queasy.

Take grant writing, for instance. Land reports on finalizing a $164,000 grant application, which is the byway group's most ambitious to date. "We put on a full-court press," she says, explaining how the granting agency required applicants to obtain a Dunn & Bradstreet number and register as a government contractor. Next she'll have to defend the proposal at a series of meetings.

But she's not worried. "Success builds on success," she says matter-of-factly. "We've now been the recipient of four federal grants. When you're going for number five, that makes a huge difference. Money gets money."

Last year, the Trail of the Mountain Spirits got $25,000 in federal byways grant funding to implement a corridor management plan and $38,800 for interpretive projects.

The new grant would go in part toward refurbishing the visitors center at the Gila Cliff Dwellings, the national monument that's celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Besides being a "high-profile" project, Land says, the funding would be matched by the National Park Service, which manages the cliff dwellings.

Other grant money would help fund a history-themed auto-tour map encompassing the region's three scenic byways. This would be modeled on a highly successful map aimed at drawing birders to the byway area.

Land also reports on the interpretive kiosk, with drawings by noted local artist Fred Barraza, recently unveiled at the Santa Rita mine in cooperation with Phelps-Dodge. That project was two and a half years in the making—byways groups learn patience, if nothing else. Now they're looking for volunteers to serve as docents for "step-on" bus tours and as weekend interpreters.

Another patience-trying project is a set of interpretive road signs designed to be placed along the Trail of the Mountain Spirits. "We hope to have them up by spring," Land says as committee member Bob Pelham, owner of Pinos Altos Cabins, finishes his report. But she doesn't sound optimistic.

Besides bureaucracy, both governmental and corporate, the byway boosters' biggest challenge has been limited funds. But Land says they've turned that into a plus: "We've been so incredibly frugal, it impresses the grantmakers."

Meetings, grant applications and savvy penny-pinching are all part of making the scenic byway more than just another pretty route. Bob Pelham, who's also president of the Pinos Altos Organization, says, "This route is what brought me to the Silver City area 14 years ago. When I left Florida, people told me there were no trees in New Mexico!"

This brings knowing laughter around the table. Pelham continues, "The original byway is the old Inner Loop, one of the most beautiful drives in the United States. I drive it two times a day, sometimes on a motorcycle, and still marvel at the diversity along the route—it's beyond belief."

Cecilia Bell, who's sitting in on the meeting on behalf of the Fort Bayard Historical Preservation Society (see the January 2007 issue), chimes in about the importance of the "byway" designation: "If I go to another part of the US and see there's a scenic byway, I know it's an approved route that's been researched and that meets certain standards."

"The national designation is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval," says Ralph Gauer, who created the Trail of the Mountain Spirits Web site and represents the Silver City/Grant County Chamber of Commerce on the byway committee.

Ysabel Luecke, who operates Doc Campbell's Post—named for her father, the first ranger at the cliff dwellings—adds, "I've lived here most of my life, and the cliff dwellings and Grant County are totally unknown to people outside this area. The state of New Mexico can tend to forget this part of the state. We have a lot of stuff, but nobody knows what we have. Most people are amazed when they arrive and see pine trees and rivers—they think it's all desert."

It's not just the scenery, but also the diversity of history that enriches the byway, Pelham says, adding, "Of course, at Pinos Altos Cabins, naturally we'd like to see more people use the byway. There's a real economic benefit to the area. And tourist dollars are the greenest dollars, as they say."

"People come, spend money and leave," Land elaborates.

"Tourism jobs are not mining dollars, it's true," Gauer concedes. "But at some level we have to invest in five or 10 years from now, and that has to start with groups like this. Maybe this will be another Blue Ridge Parkway, or maybe it will be much more modest. But this is part of how we'll pay for schools, police and fire."

The average dollar spent through tourism "turns" at least three or four times over in terms of economic impact, Land says. Unlike some other programs, she notes, the byway's impact is measurable: "We have good numbers; none of the other tourism entities can keep track as we can. We know how many people visit the cliff dwellings. The highway department road counters can put hard numbers on how many people travel the byway."

She smiles. "I'm a hard-numbers kind of gal."

It is true, however, that the "hard numbers" for the byway have slipped in reaction to high gas prices—just as other, similar attractions, including national parks, have seen attendance declines. That's all the more reason to develop more things to draw tourists to the Trail of the Mountain Spirits, Land says, to overcome the drag from the gas pump.

"Regional marketing helps everybody," she adds. "It helps Joe—" a nod toward Joe Saenz, who outfits trips into the Gila as well as spearheading the annual Red Paint Powwow in Silver City "—market his guiding and outfitting. We're all byway businesses or byway agencies."

"From an economic-development standpoint," says Gauer, "it helps make the roads here a two-way street. We can lose our kids to the outside, our businesses to the outside. But the byway brings people in. It says there's a reason to be here. People come here to see what we value, and that allows us to continue to value those things, to reverse some of the economic flow."

Some of the people who come to see the byway, Pelham adds, decide to stay. "It's not so obvious, but a small percentage of tourists fall in love with the area and relocate here. They bring their abilities and maybe build their own businesses here."

He nods his head and raises his palm, as if warding off the objection he knows will follow this statement. "I know there's some negativism about that," he says. "There's fear of change. I grew up in Sarasota, Fla., so I've seen what a disaster growth can be and how it has to be controlled. But we are far from out of control here, and we are so protected on all sides by public lands."

Part of the byway's mission is to educate people about those public lands and the rich history the route represents. "I'd like to see wilderness training," says Saenz, "and education about the history of native peoples in the area."

Gauer picks up on this thread: "People have been here for thousands of years. There's a whole continuum that forces us to confront. We are not the first ones to discover this place."

"I hope we can leave something to those who come after us," Land adds. "If we can't make schoolchildren see the value of these places, we'll lose them, because these children as adults will vote on what happens to our public lands."

Toward that end, the byway group hopes to collaborate with the state game and fish department to develop a wilderness-education center. The byway already has funding to partner with the Corre Caminos transit system and the public schools to set up buses to the cliff dwellings.

"There's an absolute correlation with the decline in attendance at national parks," says Gauer. "People don't value what they don't see. We have to fight to get this message out to kids."

Land nods agreement. "It really hit me because when I went to school, we had all this stuff. Now we have a wonderful opportunity to use the byway as a tool to get this education going again.

"We have a lot of work to do," she adds. "We're just getting started."

For more information on the Trail of the Mountain Spirits scenic byway, see www.tmsbyway.com.

 

David A. Fryxell is editor of Desert Exposure.

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