586. Pig in Purgatory
Sweet loop along the "Trail of the Mountain Spirits" in southwestern New Mexican "Wolf Country"

While wandering along route 35 about 3 miles west of the Continental Divide Trail crossing near Sapillo Campground, well northwest of Mimbres and just a mile or so east of Lake Roberts, we came across this wonderful little 2-mile loop trail starting from a trailhead parking lot along the north side of the road just east of a wash and across from a Gila National Forest Picnic Ground and Boat Ramp sign. You can access the trail either by walking west along the road a bit and picking up the trail heading north by a brown sign with an arrow pointing right, or by following a small trail west from the parking area and soon crossing the arroyo. In either case you will quickly reach a sign that tells you are now in wolf country, so naturally we thought this might be a good place to drop off a little carved critter that might look a bit like a pig if you squint at it and perhaps draw in a tiny curly tail.

Anyway, we didn't plant the pig very far down the trail because we didn't want him to get in trouble going into a wilderness area or anything like that, but we would definitely encourage anyone else to go and do the whole loop, except after heavy rains that could cause flash flooding, as it is a very cool area with a name reminiscent of a similar rocky area in Massachusetts. If you're just after the pig, though, simply go up the trail for a few minutes to where it divides to form the head of the loop. In front of the "Purgatory Loop Trail" sign, the rocks bordering the trail form a "V". Immediately behind and to the left of the dark rock at the front tip of the "V", under a small 2-inch triangular gray stone and an even smaller flat gray stone lies a tiny little camo-bagged pig stuck into the crack formed by the next rock to the left. Please make sure you keep his hiding place looking completely natural so that no wolves will ever suspect that he is there and come huffing and puffing to try to blow his little underground rock shelter house down!

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