CANMT Trip: Billy the Kid Trail (Visitor's Center and Smokey the Bear)

 Now the Visitor's Center was open.

 This was a fun one. It had an area where you could walk on a "road" and there were displays about each stop along the trail. Melodie got a kick out of it.

 

We gathered maps and information, pressed a penny, and started the drive. Along the way some deer started to cross the road! Being the city slickers we are, we pulled over to watch the deer attempt to cross the road. I was so nervous for them!

It took several false starts, but they finally made it to the other side.

Our first stop on the Billy the Kid Trail was the Smokey the Bear area. I'll say area because there was two buildings and an outdoor area that included a historical park, a museum and a gift shop, but I'm not sure what was what.

It was surprising to me that before we told her who Smokey was in the car (yay for all my car activities) she hadn't heard of him. I suppose it shouldn't have been surprising since most of what she know comes from us, and we'd never told her about him. But here was our chance to learn more. Plus, we learned about forest fires and fire safety. It was hard for Mel to understand that some fires were good for the forest.

I always manage to find a little Disney       The real Smokey the Bear's burial place

 We took a chance on our next stop on the trail. I knew Fort Stanton museum and store would be closed (not open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) but we could still walk the grounds. We went and left within a few minutes. We just didn't know what we were looking at.