U.S. Highway 60 enters the state from the east on the Staked Plains near booming Clovis, crosses Rio Pecos Valley at Fort Sumner—near Billy the Kid’s grave—goes straight as a beeline over the plains to Vaughn, then crosses the low southern end of the Pedernal Hills where tan Permian sandstones lie abruptly on Precambrian granite, quartzite, and schists. Near Willard, the highway crosses the southern end of the Estancia Valley, with the salt lakes of Laguna del Perro mere remnants of the huge Pleistocene lake that once filled the Valley. West from Mountainair, Abo redbeds border the highway; limestone walls of Gran Quivira lie to the south and the red sandstone church ruins of Abo and Quarai are to the north. Through Abo Pass between the Manzano and Los Pinos mountains the highway runs, then down the long alluvial fan slopes to the Rio Grande Valley at Bernardo. From Bernardo to Socorro, U.S. Highway 60 joins Interstate 25; westward from Socorro, the road climbs out of the Valley onto Snake Ranch Flats, parallels the snow-tipped Magdalena Mountains to Magdalena, then crosses the north end of the grassy San Agustin Plains. Westward to Datil and Quemado, the highway is always in sight of volcanic mountains, up and down winding canyons, and across intermontane plains. Still westward into Arizona along U.S. Highway 60 are Springerville, fabulous Salt River Canyon, the mining cities of Globe, Miami, and Superior, and booming Phoenix. Into this west-central New Mexico country of volcanic peaks and grassy plains comes U.S. Highway 180 from Deming northwestward. Along the scenic, winding route are City of Rocks, the copper smelter at Hurley, Santa Rita’s huge open-pit copper mine, famous Silver City, colorful canyons of the Gila and San Francisco rivers, and, crossed by passes or bordering all routes, the rugged rhyolite, andesite, and basalt ledges and cliffs. From El Paso to Raton Pass, 515 miles, U.S. Highway 85 (Interstate 25) crosses New Mexico from south to north, from Mexico to Colorado. As far as La Bajada Hill, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the highway parallels the Rio Grande. Northward from El Paso, past Las Cruces to Radium Springs and old Fort Selden, the green Mesilla Valley borders the route; then through Selden Canyon into the Hatch Valley near San Diego Mountain, and along the west side of the bold cliffs of the Caballo Mountains, past Caballo Reservoir to Truth or Consequences (old Hot Springs). Eastward lies Elephant Butte Dam and reservoir; the road cuts across alluvial plains to the west of the Rio Grande all the way to Albuquerque, with the mountains to the west the San Mateo, Magdalena, Socorro, and Ladron and to the east, the Fra Cristobal, Los Pinos, and Manzano.