September 12th, 2025
GAS: in NM $3.19 ish
When we crossed the border into New Mexico today, the time jumped forward an hour onto Mountain Time.
The first town of any size was Quemado:
then we turned off towards our friends’ place in Pie Town:
We arrived in Pie Town at our friends’ place in the early afternoon. Geneva and Mike are overlanders who also got stuck in Brazil when COVID hit in 2020 but stayed much longer than us – nearly a year(!) due to vehicle issues. Upon their return to the US they purchased 30 acres of land in Pie Town that had power and a few out buildings. They parked a trailer on it and put in a few additions, like water, built a shower hut and outhouse and there’s plenty of room to squat. They have a dump and water, some power depending where you park and Wi-Fi with extenders (wasn’t so great where we parked) but good in the community area which has a large concrete slab and there is an indoor kitchen space with chairs as well as outdoor cooking facilities and a fire pit.
We arrived in the early afternoon, got parked and met the people that had already arrived. She thought there’d be 15 in total but that blossomed into 29!
Friday night we all took part in the Pie Town Festival’s spaghetti dinner and had intended to stay for the dance but the wind really picked up and it began to rain – it was quite chilly because of it, too. The meal was quite good and there were maybe 50 people in attendance there. We were given spaghetti, green salad, yummy bread rolls and a choice of two desserts along with drinks like lemonade for $10 a head.
We were both very sleepy which we believed was caused by the high elevation. This property outside Pie Town is at 2374 m / 7789’. Saturday morning a few of us got up to go to the the Pie Town π fun run. It was 5 km / 3.14 miles on an out and back dirt road behind the festival grounds – mostly downhill on the way out to the turn around and then the slight uphill slog on the way back.
Doug came in first in the 55+ men’s category at just over 29 minutes. Fran walked the distance at a brisk pace and completed in just over 50 minutes and was happy with that.
We returned to the camp after getting our free t-shirts, a Christmas tree ornament, two pies as well as a wander around the booths not purchasing anything but two different sets of raffle tickets (which netted us nada!) and got changed before returning to the festival grounds to enjoy the day.
We signed up for a horseshoe tournament (neither of us had ever played as adults) and after two rounds we were eliminated – no surprise.
We went to sample some pie, of course – they give you a sampler for $5. There was some strawberry/rhubarb, apple, berry and cherry in each tray.
At 12:30 they announced the run winners and Doug got up on the podium after receiving his medal.
(the third place entrant was 82 years old and we had chatted with him at the start line).
We then got in line for some food which took over 1.5 hours! There were only two food trucks there and had to be several hundred if not a thousand people.,
While waiting in line Fran went to the pavillon to see if she’d won her raffle and before they announced that, they announced the winners of the pie baking contest. These pies were then auctioned off in a silent auction with winning bids from $43 to $105 per pie!
We observed the horned toad race – bring your own toad!
The winning toad had just been caught out behind the grounds 1.5 hours before and it was a rather small one. There were six frogs contestants in total and the other five took a long time to get motivated to moved so they were helped along a bit.
Next was the raffle Doug entered followed by the pie eating contest which had to be moved under cover because it began to rain again. We only stayed to watch the under 5 and the 6-11 age groups:
Quite entertaining they were. By now it was 4 and we had enough besides there wasn’t much else to do.
Back at the property everyone pitched in for a pot luck dinner of tacos with 3 winning pies for dessert which Geneva had bid on and won. We saw the sun set on the mountain nearby:
The skies had cleared up quite a bit and enjoyed some time at the campfire for a while and then again went “home” to bed as we were again sleepy early.
Sunday morning we were up around 7 and it was cold; that clear night sky did a number on the temperature up this high. We went for a shower around 8 and after enjoying coffee/tea with the group before they ate dinner we went to pack up while they ate as we don’t generally eat brekkie.
At 9:30 we said our goodbyes and went on our way.
To see all the photos from our “pie” time, click here.
On drive north to Grants, NM, we passed by an area called the Narrows:
Then we drove through the El Malpais National Monument:
where we stopped at La Ventana Arch for lunch and a short hike to see the arch.
It’s hard to make out this time of day but it is a large arch that does look like a window (ventana is the Spanish word for window).
We made it about 177 km / 110 miles to Grants where we found another Walmart to shop at and spend the night. We’ve been trying to only average about that much mileage a day. The sun was still shining here and it was lower down at 2011 m / 6600’ feet.
We spent the afternoon walking, catching up online and relaxing. We had a relatively quiet night and it was rather cool in the morning; cool enough such that we had to turn on the furnace for a while. We headed out and after stopping for gas in Thoreau, we made it to the Bisti Wilderness halfway between the I-40 and Farmington, New Mexico. Here is where the Valley of Dreams is located in the badlands of Bisti. We found a spot on iOverlander just about a half mile down the dirt road to the boundary and set up. Doug went for a run and we relaxed in the afternoon able to sit outside and read.
Shortly after we sat down for dinner we heard a honk outside and a couple in red truck pulling a horse trailer pulled up and said we couldn’t camp here – we responded that we had believes we were on BLM land; she advised no that was further up the road and we were on private property. So we finished dinner and hitched back up to the truck and drove the two miles further down the gravel road (that we had been trying to avoid doing with the trailer) to a trailhead with a pit toilet and one picnic table. Luckily there was room alongside the other ten or so campers and we settled once again and saw the sunset.
After a very quiet, dark night with a quick rain shower, we were up around 6:30, had a cup of tea/coffee, packed the cooler and went just in the truck out to the Valley of Dreams trailhead parking 35 km / 22 mi into the wilderness. This was a very cool hike amoungst the hoodoos and rock formations. The round trip was about 6.5 km / 4.3 mi and the weather was perfect: cool, sunny and dry. Some of the creek beds were wet but they were passable as they were mostly just wet mud.
You first walk just over a .8 km / .5 mi and you come upon the Three Wise Men –
then about another 1.21 km / .75 mi and you reach the valley – this had so many formations and Fran took way too many photos:
The final one we had hoped to see was the Hoodoo with two legs but it appears to have fallen over.
Here are several wide shots of the hoodoos:
On the return trip we detoured slightly around the Three Wise Men and came upon the Mushroom Seat.
The hike took about 90 minutes and was so worth it and to Fran’s liking as there was very little elevation gain or loss.
If you click here you’ll so many, many more shots we took along this hike.
Next was the hike to see the King of Wings. We had to drive about 23 km / 14 mi to get to the trailhead and well, really, there was NO trail. Luckily our maps.me app showed something but it was very hard to follow and it showed we had to cross deep, steep gullies. We lost the path many times and gave up following that. Doug just headed us in the right direction and eventually we find the final third of a trail and then just went in the correct direction once again. This was a cool formation but it took more than twice as long to get there than it should have. The one way was supposed to be a mile. We walked more like 6km / 4 mi return in the end.
On the way back we followed a secondary trail through the Green Lichen Valley; while it was somewhat green there it is probably greener different times of year. It did get us back to where left the truck in a round about fashion.
It was a slog back through this area as it was lots of short gullies to cross and Fran’s knees had really begun to become painful on this hike.
This link will bring you to more photos of this harder hike.
By the time we got back to the trailer, it was past noon (we had hoped to be done both hikes and be on our way before this). Doug rehitched the truck, Fran made quick lunch and we hit the road by shortly after one.
We headed north through Farmington to a suburb city called Aztec where the municipality here kindly offers a free dump station, free potable water and trash receptacles. So nice to find these services. We continued north and crossed the state line into Colorado.
