City of Rocks SP

 Sunday March 6, 2023 -  We headed out Sunday morning for our next campground, City of Rocks SP, Faywood, NM.  The Pancho Villa campground's septic system was under repair (where we had been staying the last 3 nights), so we needed a sani-dump since our next campsite doesn't even have a dump station.  We decided to make a quick detour to Rock Hound SP to use theirs.  We had been wanting to check Rock Hound out, since it had been recommended by other campers we've met during our travels.  It looks like a great SP (only 29 sites...we love a small SP campground!).  It was on the side of a mountain and from the SP map, looked like lots of good hiking, and crazily enough they let you collect rocks and minerals that you find in the park(quartz, agate, common opal, jasper, thunder-eggs and geodes).  We'll definitely stop here on our next NM trip.  We got to City of Rocks, and found that our campsite wasn't available yet, so we decided to hike the Observation Point Trail, about 2 miles round trip.  Looks like it will be a great spot for the next 3 days.  Each of the campsites are fairly isolated and the non-electric sites are located in the rocks.  

one last sunrise pic from Pancho Villa SP

The road up to Rock Hound SP.

The view of City of Rocks SP, as we're driving in

Most of the rocks are in the main part of the campground, but there are a few little groups of outliers.  We're headed up to the observation point to explore the rocks up there and to get a look down at the campground

View from the observation point

We hiked through the rocks at observation point

The rocks, at City of Rocks SP are from a volcano that exploded 33 million years ago.  The eruption was 1,000 times greater than Mount St Helens.  The rocks have been slowly chiseled away over the many years from wind and water.   These rock formations are so unique that they are only known  to exist in 6 other places in the world.

I'll keep this one from falling over

Site 12 (Corona Australis - each site is named after stars or galaxies).  They even have a telescope here, which would be great viewing because it's in the middle of NOWHERE, so there isn't any light pollution

Tiny's hiding

Kev found a book at the free library in the visitor center

the view from Tiny as the sun is beginning to set

We decided to walk up the hill to watch the sunset (and get some internet/cell service...we had very sporadic service at our campsite, I guess the cell tower is on the other side of the campground)

Beautiful views out to another group of campsites

We found a great little spot to sit and watch the sunset every night

and this was our view

nice view through the rocks

walking down the hill after the sunset.  That's a big moon. 

Monday March 6, 2023 - Today was a low-key day.  Some biking, hiking in the rocks and just enjoying the views.

We have to walk up the hill to see the sunsets, but the sunrise happens right out our window

views

and more views

another walk up the hill for internet

funny to look out the front window and see a rock

bike ride to the visitor center and botanical garden

The 5 mile hydra trail around the outside of the park

a break from the bike ride and a view of Table Mountain

can you see the bench underneath the tree?

lunch at our picnic table

view of the main part of the campground from the Hydra mountain bike trail

The SP has a Planet Walk, that has plaques with info about each of the planets, and they are spaced along the trail at intervals corresponding to their actual positions and distances from each other in space.  This walk goes right through the middle part of the rocks and ends at the telescope.

The rocks are really fun to get lost in.  We spent a lot of time wandering in them

another hike up the hill for the sunset

it's a bit cloudy today

Kev brought his book to read while we wait for the sunset

cloudy sunset

Table Mountain above our campsite (with the moon just to the right of it).  There is a hike to the top of it, that we're planning to do tomorrow.

pretty skies

nice view of Tiny

such a great campsite, with the rocks all around us and a tree over our picnic table.  So perfect!

Tuesday March 7, 2023 - We have found plenty to do at this SP, we parked the car on Sunday and won't move it until we leave tomorrow.  Today we hiked through the rocks, and we'll hike to the top of Table Mountain for lunch at the top.  Another great day with so many pics!

another morning another sunrise

up the hill for morning internet and phone calls

observation point in the distance

a morning hike through the rocks

a video of our walk through the rocks

Our hike to the top of Table Mountain (about 4 miles roundtrip)

love the colors of the sky against the yellow desert

I stop to take lots of pics

We've hiked up the first part of the trail, we're now even with the first tier of the mountain

We made it to the top

And the views were great!

gotta take a selfie

there's even a bench up here, what a great spot for lunch

view of City of Rocks from above

a little closer view 

and a zoomed in view so we can see Tiny (in the front left of the pic)

Kev called his Dad, to chat while we were eating lunch at the top (there's good service up there!)

looks like some weather coming in

maybe we should head down

It got a bit windy on the way down and luckily, the rain seemed to miss us

at the bottom of the trail we found this huge hole.  Looks like something really big lives in there.  We showed the pic to the ranger and he said it's most likely a badger den

nice sunset views over Table Mountain, what a great hike to the top