Wednesday March 8, 2023 - Today we’re headed to Elephant Butte SP in Truth or Consequences, NM. It’s a 2 hour drive with a quick stop in Hatch NM (chili pepper capital of the world) for lunch and a walk. I booked 6 nights at Elephant Butte in the same site we stayed at 5 years ago, when we were tent/clam campers.
Early morning moon shadows of our campsite in City of Rocks
a little reading before we start the day
One last spin on the Hydra trail
Love the contrails in the sky today
looks like lots of planes fly over this part of New Mexico
The Sparky's corner in Hatch, NM
hmmmmm, a little weird?
we love hatch chili peppers
Uncle Sam and chili peppers
Site 19 at Elephant Butte
our view for the next 6 days
March 2023
Feb 2018
we took up the whole site with everything we needed to be comfortable while tent camping!
a walk out West Lakeshore Trail for the sunset (the trail runs 11 miles along the reservoir)
Thursday March 9, 2023 - It was a quiet day at the campsite, biking and enjoying the views.
another nice sunrise view from our window
biking on the West Lakeshore Trail
stop for lunch
Sunset pics
Friday March 10, 2023 - Today was a catch-up day. It's a 30 minute drive to the nearest town, Truth or Consequences for laundry, Walmart, a bike shop, and propane. So we spent the morning on a walk, enjoyed lunch at our picnic table and headed to the big city. Truth or Consequences used to be called Hot Springs, NM but in 1950 for the 10th anniversary episode of the game show Truth or Consequences, the radio host offered to broadcast the anniversary episode from the first town to rename itself after the TV show. Hot Springs became Truth or Consequences on March 31 of that year and has been T or C ever since. It's a quirky little town with lots of bath houses (utilizing the hot springs), cute little shops and art galleries.
morning hike
Our next door neighbors (Lee & Claudia) also had a Coachmen Nova. We had fun talking about our RVs and our love of camping.
groceries and laundry make for a messy RV
it was a cloudy sunset walk tonight
Saturday March 11, 2023 - We had a fun chat with the girls this morning and then Kev replaced his bike inner tube with a puncture resistant tube we bought in T or C yesterday. He's had 3 flats since we've been in New Mexico, all due to small thorn punctures. Hopefully this is the last tire change! Today was a windy day...I guess they're right about March being a windy month in NM.
HeeHee, Elaine looks like she's got ears on the top of her head
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
