On this past Sunday, September 21, 2025, Evelyn and I hosted our 3rd Annual Zuni Mt. /Mt. Taylor Willys Jeep Roundup. The old Willys wagon seemed to be trail worthy, or perhaps just road ready. No leaks, no oil drips, and only need to touch up the duct tape covering holes in the floorboard. We loaded Duke our dog and the goodies and prizes and our traveling crucifix on the dash and headed to the drive-thru on Santa Fe Ave, to start the event. There we were surprised by the 8 Jeeps waiting there for the cruise to start. We introduced ourselves and started our games here, cards were drawn for a high card poker hand and we passed out 3” crafted foam rubber dice with “I did it…in my ...J...E...E..P” lettered on the faces were rolled, in hopes of completing the phrase by the cruise end would win a prize, as well as high poker hand. Score cards and stickers featuring Charlene (and Andy’s) jeep were distributed.
We then took pictures of all Jeeps and owners. Jeff, Liz and Jason; John and Susan; Terry; Andy and Charlene were there again this year. New cruisers this year included Steve and Ricki as well as Matt and Brenda; Brandon and Megan & 2 sons. and headed down Zuni Canyon road past the old KMIN radio station building to the turn-off to Ojo Redondo where Randy, L.J., their son, and daughter- in-law and grandson waited for us in vintage Willys Jeeps along with friends Larry and Candy. As we traveled west on Zuni Canyon Road I was caught up with the Malpais all around us and remembered Martin Chavez, from whom I got this 1959 Willys wagon from. He spent years searching the Malpais looking for silver and gold. We are spending the day with mostly silvered haired Jeep people and all with hearts of Gold. Thanks Martin!
We caught up the dice roll and poker card draw, and discussed the trail we would travel this year, deciding to spend more time visiting and playing games we agreed to go to the Ojo Redondo Campground. The trees were starting to change into their beautiful yellow-orange fall colors and the slight breeze was cool.
At the campground Jeff headed up the game events including a horseshoe toss for “closest to the post”, dart toss and whiffle ball toss into a metal pail. The slight breeze challenged the dart and ball toss, but at last we had winners. We did our final poker draw and kept tossing our dice until we had winners. Prizes included hand-made ornate metal flowers and hummingbird, a wooden Jeep, a Jeep hat courtesy of Kaiser Willys and a beautiful hand crafted walking stick. We chatted about things from last year to date and family events and we all shared lunches and talked about the next year cruise. We talked about the history of the Zuni Mountains and of timbering and mining from years ago, and ironically three Jeeps were sporting the New Mexico State “Miners Heritage” license plate, with its pick and shovel design. As we wound down the day’s event, the last game was to sing the State Farm jingle to win a backpack and water bottle courtesy of Chris Winch. Steve wowed the crowd and won the prize, (‘like a good neighbor….”). We then left the campground and assembled for this year’s group picture. Great day…12 Jeeps… and friends with hearts of gold!