New Mexico Trip, Chapter 5: In Search of Sabinoso

Lonely NM Highway 419 winds languidly beneath the baking sun.  Come up a hill and around a bend to find a regular green and white sign that announces the village of Sabinoso, turn left and go five miles.  The sign is as authoritative as any sign pointing the way to Santa Fe or Taos.  But really?  Just try it.  Just turn left and travel the well-maintained gravel road for five miles...and before descending down into the canyon where the village stands, you'll come to this open gate.  "Private property."  No outsiders allowed.  This whole town is mine now!  Scram.  And so we turned around and left without seeing the ghost-town we'd set out to explore.

It's barren countryside and kind of bleak in a lovely, blinding sort of way.  But we drove a pretty "far piece" (as my grandpa used to say) to get to Sabinoso.  It was disappointing to find it posted.

Before reaching the gate, you can peer down from the roadside onto the floor of the canyon far below to see this pleasant ranch.  A broad green valley surrounded by rocky mesas and juniper bushes...so scenic and so very southwestern.

There's a lot of information on the internet about the newly-accessible Sabinoso Wilderness Area, which is nearby and named after the village.  But there's almost nothing about the ghost-town itself.  Here is a photo of my friend taking shelter in the shade of a juniper...like the Buddha beneath the bodhi tree.  I was disappointed to miss out on Sabinoso, whose church at least--Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe--seems to be pretty and worth a visit.  It also has a cemetery.  Does anyone know who owns this place?