Santa Fe, NM

Our first stop in Santa Fe was the Hyde Memorial State Park, which was in the mountains at about 8400 feet. The air was a bit on the thin side. This state park lays claim to be the first state park in New Mexico. It was a bit rough to get to, we had to tow through some VERY skinny streets, with A LOT of closures and construction going on. But we finally made it. The sites with power (only) for trailers were off the main road that leads to a ski area. There were several good hiking trails in the area and we had fun on the East and West Circle trails. I think it was the East Circle trail that we took which was a 3 mile hike up the mountain with a 1,000 foot elevation change. At the top we were at 9,440 feet above sea level.  Good hike!

A view of the valley floor from the East Circle trail.

"YeeeeeHawwwwwww, we made it to the top, 9440 feet!"

But, of course, we did have weather issues, GO FIGURE?!! On our third day, after temperatures in the 60's and 70's, we just had to get snow! We got several inches of the white stuff. Is this what snowbirdin' is all about???!!!???

Our campsite at Hyde Memorial State Park. Nobody told us that to be "snowbirds" in RV terms, we were supposed to follow the WARM weather!"

We only stayed at Hyde Park for 4 days. There was no cell reception and no internet access while we were there, so we headed to another RV park outside of Santa Fe, the Rancheros de Santa Fe Campground. It was an old run down KOA campground, but they had laundry, cell reception, and wifi albeit weak signal. We had to hang out for at least 2 days and maybe 4 because we were waiting for our Alternative Resources mailing. So to kill time, we went into Santa Fe to walk around the Plaza area. That looked to be one of their main touristy things to do. Other than that, it looked to be geared toward the summertime activities being so close to the Rio Grande river. The "highlight" of our stay at this RV park was the New York style pizza we got at a nearby shop called Pizza Centro.  Mmmmmmm, tasty. Looks like we will be outta here tomorrow, on to Amarillo, TX!

New Mexico views...

From Deming we headed to the City of Rocks, a New Mexico State Park halfway between Deming and Silver City.  This was a spectacularly scenic spot, the campsites are scattered among very large boulder outcroppings.  I felt like we were in the middle of a Star Trek location shoot.  The New Mexico park system has reservation sites, first-come-first-served sites, some with power and water, others without.  We found a perfect site for our fifth wheel, site #18. It was extremely spacious and secluded, no hook-ups boondock style, and the park itself had no dump station or sewer hook-ups.

Site #18

Jeanne and the kids at City of Rocks

A Star Trek alien planet?

Unfortunately, our stay was marred by high winds and dust storms, but we still had a good time.  There were hiking trails around the perimeter of the park and up to a scenic overlook area.

A few days here and we headed to Rockhound State Park just outside of Deming.  This is a small state park that actually encourages "rock hounds" to hunt and take rock samples (15 pound limit is requested). The campsites were spacious and spread out, this park had a dump site, and we took space #13 which had water and electric.  It was still a bit windy at this park too.

Home at Rockhound State Park

The park as seen from the mountain trails

From Rockhound State Park we went to the Oliver Lee State Park outside of Alamagordo, NM. This is another tiny state park at the base of the Sacramento Mountains at Dog Canyon.

Space #24 at Oliver Lee State Park

If you are ever near this area, a must see is the White Sands National Monument area adjacent to the White Sands Missile Testing area. (Don't worry, they block the roads to this area when they actually are testing missiles).  The monument area is 275 square miles of awe-inspiring whiteness. It felt like being in the snow fields, like we were supposed to put our jackets on, except it was 80 degrees and sunny. We watched as our footprints in the sand disappeared quickly with even the lightly blowing winds sweeping across the desert. Eerie!!!

"Where's my jacket?"

That is one big dune!

We packed up from Oliver Lee and went to Roswell, NM looking for UFO's or aliens. We stayed at the Bottomless Lakes State Park.  This time we made reservations for a 5 day stay, but I would probably forgo any more reservations in New Mexico State Parks.  They charge an extra fee for reservations and every park we went to had plenty of vacancies in the first-come-first-served spaces, many of which were better sites than our reserved ones. We continued acting as a magnet for terrible weather, encountering a HUGE dust storm with 50 mph winds in Roswell. The temps also fluctuated big-time, one day we were in the high 70's and the next there was a flash freeze warning in the morning. Oh well, that's how it goes with our travels. Now you all know that if you know we are approaching your location......RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!  While in Roswell we just HAD to see the UFO museum. It was only $5 to get in and it was interesting to see.

Looking for a first-come-first-served camping spot?

Well, we are about done here in Roswell. Next up, we will probably head towards Santa Fe. We'll let you know next post. If no post ensues, just figure we got abducted by aliens...

Arizona in my rear-view mirror...

Next stop, the Saguaro SKP park in Benson, AZ. This was our last hurrah in the state of AZ. The SKP park was very spacious and nice, with a large tract of desert and walking trails out the back gate. Again, as in Nevada, we quickly spotted a big corn fed farmer type wandering into a local restaurant packin' heat in a belt holster (in layman's terms, openly carrying a firearm in public). Later in our stay, while I was getting fuel at a local gas station, the mechanic from the garage next door wandered in, him too packin' heat in a belt holster. I spoke to him about it and he says AZ has no concealed weapons ban, no permits required, and all firearms can be carried loaded. WOW! I guess you don't argue the cost of a brake job here!

Our home in Benson AZ at the Saguaro SKP Park

Hiking in the desert, one would think texting on a cell phone should not occur!

Madison, "The Princess" waits on mom to finish texting during their desert walk.

Our first touristy thing was a visit to Tombstone, about 25 miles from our park. Several of the streets are blocked off to traffic and you can wander shop to shop, check out the bars and restaurants, or see several wild west shows, including the re-enactment of the Shootout At The OK Corral. The drawback to this whole experience is that EACH attraction/venue charges separately, so you could potentially rack up a hefty entertainment bill for the day. They do trolley tours and a stage coach tour of the town, and there are numerous folks wandering around in character wearing period costumes. Of course we could not leave without checking out the Boothill Graveyard.

Downtown street of Tombstone AZ

Things don't change over the course of decades and centuries!

One of the old West characters wandering the streets of Tombstone...

My new pal in the Tombstone Jail. Quick, send bail money!

One of Boothill's residents...

These are the ones who put Tombstone on the map.

Next on our tour we decided to visit a place called Council Rocks. It took us 16 miles out a 4-wheeling type dirt road outside of Tombstone. A short walk up a trail into some picturesque rock formations to a "cave" created by massive rocks leaning on each other. The local indians of ages ago used the area, there being evidence of holes ground into the stones, used for grinding grains in, as well as petroglyphs painted on the rocks.

In the hills of the Council Rocks, outside of Tombstone, AZ

Rock formations at the Council Rocks area.

Bisbee, AZ was an interesting town, kind of jammed in canyons and reminded us of the French Quarter in "Nawlins". We walked downtown and took the Queen Mine tour. That tour took us into the Queen Mine that was huge in copper production, as well as some gold and silver, until they ceased mining there in 1975.

"47 degrees down in the mine and you are going dressed like THAT?!?!?

The streets of Bisbee, AZ

Down in the heart of the beast, Queen Mine.

After a week at the SKP park, we said, "adios" to good ol' AZ. We drove to Deming, NM for a short stopover at the Dreamcatcher RV Park SKP/Rainbow Park. We scouted two of our next stops, New Mexico's Rockhound State Park, and the City of Rocks State Park. Descriptions of those escapades are soon to follow...