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New Campsite for Thanksgiving....

12/29/2014

( Writing this from Pancho Villa in Columbus, New Mexico on December 29.
Went to El Paso, Texas today for a One-To-One class at the Apple Store; had a very good teacher! )

Entering the city of Deming, New Mexico for the first time on November 25, we were very impressed with how clean a town it is and with all the old refurbished buildings in the downtown.

Downtown Deming.

We would be coming back here often, but first we needed to set up camp. Driving to Rockhound State Park, about fifteen miles outside of town, we passed beautiful farms, orchards, ranches and open range land.

As we approached the campground, the Florida Mountain Range provides a stunning background for the many trails, the unique visitors center and the campsites.

We were lucky enough to get the last available campsite with electricity. We set up camp and went to the center to pay the $4/night electric fee for our two week stay,
from November 25 (two days before Thanksgiving) until December 8.

At our site, Cow's Tongue Cactus...

....Soaptree Yucca and Ocotillo.

Another part of Rockhound is the Spring Canyon Recreation Day Use Area just two miles west of the park enterance but up a very steep elevation. We drove up there but it wasn't open that day, we think it has restricted hours in the off season. I did get some cool pictures from up there of our campground below.

The little white dots in the middle of the picture our our campsites.

A cool balancing rock on the ridge.

Then back down to camp for a New Mexico sunset !!!

Good Night All. Love You Mom !!!

Last Days at Alamogordo and Oliver Lee....

12/28/2014

( Writing this from the Pearson Laundry in Deming, New Mexico, north of Pancho Villa on December 28. Very good laundry on Spruce Street accessible from Rockhound and Pancho Villa State Parks. )

One last post about Alamogordo before we move on to the next campground on November 25. I used the Alamogordo Library on many of the days of our stay at Oliver Lee between November 11 to 25th. That is were I went to write blog posts while staying in this area, because the signal was weak at camp and our data usage was almost used up for that month. It's a very beautiful library with a friendly staff. I liked to sit in the Southwest History Room to do my work. I have a couple pictures of the antiques in the room.

The day I took these pictures, I was at the library for five hours and only got one blog finished because the system was unusually slow that day. But I did get most of the Christmas cards addressed while I waited for each picture to upload. It was a lot nicer to do the cards there than it our small camper, so I was happy.

Furby thought this was a pretty cool Agave in front of this restaurant.

On of our favorite mountains is the Organ Mountain.

We also thought this peak was quite interesting.

And we just can't get enough of these New Mexico sunsets. These are for real !!!!

Hike at Oliver Lee's Dog Canyon.....

12/28/2014

( Writing this from Pancho Villa on December 28. Very chilly the last few days, good time to get these posts caught up. )

Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is located at the foot of Dog Canyon at the Sacramento Mountains. It was the last strong hold of the Apache Indians. On Saturday, the 15th of November, we went on the ranger lead hike part way up the canyon. Ranger Charles is very knowledgable about the nature and the history of the area and presented a very interesting two hour walk. The next day he also lead a tour of the refurbished ranch house of Oliver Lee, also very interesting.

A stream and fresh water pool that provided year round water supply to the Indians and their animals.

View from the base of the canyon with the visitors center on the right. There are also trails up to the peak and over to the other valley.

Saturday night's sunset.

Picture of ranch house as seen from our campsite.

The base of the original house was there but they had to re-do the entire roof and porches.

Many pieces of furniture were donated by the Lee family and other period pieces were found locally. The pattern of this quilt is called broken wagon wheel.

Sunday night's sunset.

White Sands, New Mexico....

12/27/2014

( Writing this from Pancho Villa State Park on December 27, at 9pm with an outside temperature of 30˚ . " But it's a dry cold! " )

On November 13, we did a day trip to White Sands National Monument only fifteen miles west of Alamogordo. The pure white gypsum sand dunes were there to climb and slide down if you liked or to just admire and photograph; we did them all. The sliding down part was not intentional on my part though and I got a boot full of sand to boot. Ha, Ha! If you want to slide, they sell saucer sleds at the gift shop and if you don't wish to keep them they buy them back. We've never heard of an arrangment like that before. Here are a few pictures to show how beautiful this unique desert area is.

One of the picnic areas, as you can tell the word Dunes goes with the word Wind. Needless to say, November is not a busy time for this park.

Though it is just as beautiful any time of the year and is open all year long.

David at the top of one of the dunes.

The roots of these plants hold some of the sand in place creating these strange formations as the wind blows the surrounding sand away.

If the wind blows the sand over the yucca plant the stems will grow tall enough to get enough light to stay alive until the sands blows away again.

We were so fortunate to have this gorgeous sky.

And even more fortunate to come back home to this unbelievable sunset.

Good night all !! 😊

Sunspot, New Mexico....

12/27/2014

Our little snow
on the truck
in the high desert.
Dec. 27, 2014

( Writing this from Pancho Villa State Park, on December 27, three miles from the Mexico border town of Palomas and watching the snow fall on us. Washed the dishes out at the picnic table while it snowed. Are we having fun yet?!!! )

Sunspot ( elevation 9200 ft. ) is a very little town, it has it's own post office, that is the location of the Sunspot Solar Observatory and the Apache Point Observatory. It's official name is the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak. ( www.nsosp.nso.edu ) It is located 40 miles southeast from Alamogordo and the drive up to the Sacramento Peak includes a curving road with a 4500 foot altitude difference in a 16-mile span. The drive takes about one hour by car from Alamogordo and is a gorgeous drive through the Lincoln National Forest with many deer sitings and beautiful views of the valleys and canyons with pull-offs for taking pictures. Cloudcroft is the nearest town for gas and amenities.

We drove up to the peak on November 12 and drove into the clouds.

Saw mule deer all along the drive.

A hazy photo of the valley.

Deer where feeding right in front of our truck while we ate lunch in the parking lot of the visitors center. Unfortunately the center closed early that day so we didn't get to see any of the exhibits. We did walk around the grounds on the self-guided tour and plan on getting back here someday.

On the way back, we pulled up on a hill and took a photo looking back at the mountain that we crossed. You can see the top of our truck in the bottom of the picture.

Ending this post with that evenings sunset. These photos were taken from a moving vehicle. We couldn't pull over and the sky changes by the minute so I just keep snapping and hope for the best. XOXO

Oliver Lee Memorial State Park in November....

12/26/2014

( Writing this on December 26, at Pancho Villa State Park in New Mexico. )

On November 11, we moved from Vista Linda N.F. Park to Oliver Lee State Park, off NM-54, south of Alamagordo, New Mexico; trying to stay ahead of the ever cooling night temperatures. We paid for five nights at $10/ night for a non-electric campsite. then we found out about the New Mexico Annual Camping Pass. For a non-resident the annual pass is $225.00, it is good for 12 months from date of purchase and covers the $10.00 nightly camping fee for the 365 days in that 12 months. ( For an electric site there is a $4.00/night additional fee. ) There are 36 state parks to choose from and they have showers and flush toilets. They also have great ranger lead programs through out the year. For us full timers this is a very wonderful and economical way to explore this beautiful state. Actually we fell in love with New Mexico before we heard about the pass, but since we bought it we keep wanting to try more of their parks. So far, since November 11 to December 26, we have stayed at Oliver Lee, Rockhound, Leasburg Dam and now Pancho Villa State Parks. Everyone of them have something special about them and defiantly made us want to return.
The national parks and national forest campgrounds are very beautiful and affordable, and we will use them also, but it's sure nice to have a hot shower for the same price as a campground with only pit toilets and a hand-pump.

Campsite at Oliver Lee.

Our camper was at the base of the Sacramento Mountain.

Furby had to check out the cactus at our site.

This was our first site with lots of cactus.

The road leading to our campground, the white dots at the base of the mountain are the campers.

Just Furby again !!!

He wants to say hi to all the Hooligans !!!!

I took this from the door of our camper.

The sunsets every night are unbelievable, these are all from one night !!!

One little thing we would like to add, a special thank you for the wonderful Christmas Card from our friends at the Friends. That was a special surprise for us and greatly appreciated. Miss you all !! Happy New Year !!!!!

From Us....

.... To You.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS....

12/24/2014

As we write this on Christmas Eve, we know there are so many good things going on for all of you this holiday and we want you to know we love and miss everyone. We know you are happy that we are able to be on this wonderful adventure and that makes the missing bearable. We send all our love and kisses and hugs!!!!
Merry, Merry Christmas, To All Of You !!!!!!

From our simple home....

....to all of you. We love you.

Bandelier National Monument....

12/20/2014

( Writing this from Leasburg Dam State Park, New Mexico on December 20. Hi, Mom. )

One of the day trips we made from Vista Linda, on November 1, was to Bandelier N.M. This was our first time at seeing ancient Cliff Dwellings. They are so beautiful and you can really feel the spirituality of the ancient ruins as you climb into their homes carved into the mountain.

As you approach Bandilier from the top of the crest, you curve around to the bottom left hand side of the picture you can just make out the road as it descends into the valley. Looking in the the middle, the cliffs have a vertical line with a reddish color near the top of the cliff and getting whiter toward the bottom.

After leaving the visitor center is is a very nice walk through the villages communal buildings ruins and then up to the cliffs. The views down the valley were especially beautiful with the fall colors.

Xavier, we knew you like the indian rock art; what do you think this is a drawing of?

The trail follows along the cliff with many dwellings and pictographs and goes down to the floor of the valley where you walk along the area that floods in the spring melt. The tree debris are washed down from the floods. Can you see the row of dwelling openings above the vegetation line on the cliff side?

The mule deer watched as we left the park.

Night all !

Jemez Falls, North of Vista Linda Campground....

12/17/2014

( Writing this from Leasburg Dam State Park, New Mexico on Dec. 17. )

We left Clear Creek near Cuba on October 27 and moved south to Vista Linda National Forest Campground which has a 3000 foot lower elevation thus a warmer climate. In a previous post, (Present Time: Our New & Best Campsite So Far... on 10/30/2014 ), we described Vista Linda as the best camp site so far. Now at the end of December that is still true. The three campgrounds we have stayed in since are all great but the prettiest site was still at Vista Linda with the Jemez River flowing by our camper; and the Cottonwood trees and the Virgin Mesa as our landscape. Since we showed many pictures of the site before, we will share some of the surrounding attractions that we visited during our two week stay.

Battleship Rock north on Highway 4 from Vista Linda where we stopped to eat a picnic lunch.

We were heading up Hwy. 4 to visit the National Forest Campground and to hike the trail to Jemez Falls. Battleship Rock and Soda Dam were two beautiful sites to stop at on the way.

The giant Ponderosa Pines were gorgeous in the fall forest. Jemez Falls is up at 8000 ft. elevation and would be perfect for camping in the New Mexico summer. The campground was still open for Elk hunters to use as a base camp for their hunting, but would close when snow started. Vista Linda is open all year.

The village of Jemez Springs, just north of camp, has a beautiful church and the Cor Jesu Monastery both located on Hwy. 4. I really liked the sculpture outside the church and would find myself photographing it many of the times we drove by.

At the foot of the mesa, toward the left of the photo, you can almost see our campsite from Hwy. 4.

Camping in Cuba, New Mexico in October....

12/12/2014

Tea Kettle Rock not far from camp.

The other side of Tea Kettle Rock. So Cool!

( Writing this from Radium Springs, NM in the Leasburg Dam State Park on Dec. 12. )

Cuba , New Mexico during October 25-27 was very pleasant. It is a place we would go to again but in warmer weather since the campgrounds were up in the mountains at 8200 feet elevation, a month earlier would have been great. We stayed at Clear Creek National Forest Campground for $5. night (senior pass), on NM Hwy126 with beautiful Ponderosa Pines.

On this mountain, the public land is available to ranchers for open grazing.

Ranchers on horseback guiding the cattle home.

These ranchers use a more modern method, while the grandsons waved a feed sack so the cows would follow them home.

I call this the flying cow picture. Does the cow on the left look like all four hooves are off the ground?

This big boy didn't understand the meaning of the cattle guard at our campground entrance. He really liked the grass at the back of our camp site.

This great little Grill inside the
Phillips 66 is where we had our first taste of
Fry Bread and fresh Green Chilies.
Caliente! Yum. Yum.

Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico....

12/1/2014

( Writing this from Deming, New Mexico on Dec 1, 2014. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We sure did with our chicken, sweet potato and green bean dinner. And a hike on the trail that got us a cool iPhone video of a tarantula walking on the rocks. I am not able to include a video in this blog but if you have a iPhone I can text it to you. )

Now, I will get back to the Aztec Ruins, which we visited on Oct. 25 while we where camped in Farmington, NM. It was a short drive out of Farmington, so we packed a lunch and did a day tour of the National Monument ( it is also an International Heritage Site). At the ruins you can walk through the actual pueblos and they have a reconstructed Kiva that you can enter; it is a chamber built underground for religious ceremonies. Walking through this park is a very beautiful and inspirational experience. Stop at the visitors center first to watch the short film and pick up a written guide describing the ruins.

These timbers are over 1000 years old and still holding up an upper floor. It's so amazing to walk right under them and see them up close.

A partial Kiva in it's original form without a roof.

This is a two story pueblo, some were even three stories.

After walking around the site, we had lunch in their beautiful picnic area.
Love to all, Barb and Dave

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