(ABQ) and Farmington, N.M. (FMN) . Durango/Purgatory is located in the Southwest corner of Colorado, near the intersection of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. It's six to seven hours by car from DIA, a 340 mile drive via US-285, and three and a half to four and a half hours and 214 miles from ABQ using NM-44 and US-550.
In addition to its popular use for hangovers, prickly pear remedies have been used traditionally in Mexico for a wide variety of disorders. The heated cactus pads have served as poultices for rheumatism, and the fruit of the plant is consumed as treatment for diarrhea, asthma and gonorrhea.
Great Plains. Prickly pear was record- ed up and down the Plains from 1804 by Larocque (Wood and Thiessen 1985) to 1849 by Stansbury (1852). Lewis and Clark (1983), on the upper Missouri in 1805, recorded The prick- ly pear is now in full blume and forms one of the beauties as well as the greatest pests of the plains (Figure 3).