LAS VEGAS - LOMA PARDA - FORT UNION NAT'L. MONUMENT

I was up and out fairly early Sunday morning as I usually was every day on the trip. I wanted to get to the Walmart in town to get some sunscreen, a water bottle and some water so I would be more prepared for hikes in the sun and heat. Before going there I went past a couple of other film locations for No Country for Old Men. This was where the Mike Zoss Pharmacy was located, where Anton Chigurh blew up a car on the street to distract customers while stealing medical supplies.
The Regal Motel was the motel in Del Rio, Texas where Llewellyn Moss hid the satchel of money in the air conditioning vent.
With supplies bought and a coffee purchased at McDonalds, it was back on the road to see stuff.
There was a small dirt road that lead to...
...what is left of Loma Parda.
There is not much left there, but this was one of the places I researched online before the trip. I wanted to see some ghost towns and this was one that was listed on the New Mexico Tourism website.
Loma Parda was once where soldiers from the nearby Fort Union would go for a wild night on the town. The town had saloons, gambling and dance halls and prostitutes to keep the soldiers as well as cowboys and others looking for a good time entertained.
But as Fort Union lost its importance, so did Loma Parda and by the 1940's it had been abandoned.
There do seem to be a few people who still live there in some rather run-down structures with lots of junk strewn about.
Here's where those soldiers would have been stationed, at Fort Union.
There isn't much left of it. There are some ruins of buildings in the middle of nowhere. I think that is what is left of the Enlisted Barracks.
If you were an officer, you would get to stay in the Officers' Quarters with your family. They probably looked a lot nicer back in the 19th century.
Old Storehouses? I didn't see a sign.
Maybe if you were AWOL in Loma Parda and were dragged back to the fort drunk, you might get thrown in the fort prison.
This was the best hospital for five hundred miles. Probably for that reason they took in not only soldiers at the fort but also civilians who happened to be travelling through the area.
And here we see the small metal post that put a big damper on my trip. It is on a little pull-off on the road to Fort Union. I stopped here to see the sign explaining what was there and when I got back in the vehicle I pulled forward to be on my way. As you can see on the left there are some stones marking the edge of the area. Unfortunately there is also this small metal post that I was apparently right up against. When I drove forward, thinking I had room to turn, I heard a terrible noise. When I backed up and got out of the vehicle, I saw...
...this. I had pushed the bumper up against the post and dented it. Always remember, in the eternal struggle between the plastic bumper and the small metal post, the small metal post always wins. I generally do not like large vehicles like this and this is one reason. I was up so high the post was below the line of sight over the hood. I'm not saying I would have necessarily seen it in a car, but it might have been visible enough. It bugged me the rest of the trip, knowing I would have to deal with it later on, but I obsessed about it less as the trip went on.

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