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 campground 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 van 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
Thursday Mar 2, 2023 - It was a chilly morning when we woke up, and as we left our campsite, it actually snowed! The drive to our next state park (Pancho Villa SP, Columbus, NM) was 2.5 hours and we hit some crazy weather on the way. It rained, hailed and of course it was windy. The campground is located on the site of Camp Furlong, and the site of the raid on the city by Pancho Villa (a Mexican General during the Mexican Revolution). There is a nice museum at the campground that we're looking forward to checking out.
Snow on the mountains, as we left, and rain/snow clouds above
We could see the rain falling ahead of us
The last part of the drive was directly next to the Mexican border, and the wall
Another bright yellow NM sunset
Friday, Mar 3, 2023 - When we woke up on Friday, it was a sunny, relatively warm day, so we headed to Mexico. It was extremely easy to get into Mexico, no one asked us anything...we just walked in. The town of Puerto Palomes is full of pharmacies, dentists and optometrists for Americans looking for cheap options. We walked around a bit and then decided on lunch and shopping at the Pink Store. It was a bit more involved to get back to the US, but only took about 5 minutes, waiting in line for the border patrol to look at our passports and x-ray our backpacks. When we got back to the campground we decided to bike around Columbus. It's a teeny tiny town, with 2 or 3 restaurants and one small shop. We stopped at the library and then back to our campground for dinner.
Our campsite is surrounded by cacti
The wind is sure blowing the flags on Coots Hill (view from our window)
The walk into Mexico
Some really huge pinatas for sale
2 beef burritos, 3 pan fried chicken tacos(so, so good), rice and beans, and a margarita
pretty window
shopping at the pink store
The Pink Store is actually pink
The Puerto Palomas sign
Campsite 13
bike ride down Main St.
nice bench in front of the library
Saturday, March 5, 2023 - We spent an hour this morning in the State Park museum, which was quite interesting. The campground is on the actual site of Camp Furlong, which was attacked by Pancho Villa's Villistas. Many of Furlong's structures are still standing in the middle of the campground, many with permanent overhead shelters to protect them from the sun and rain. After lunch, we decided to ride our bikes to Mexico. It was 3 miles to the border and there was a bike rack that we locked our bikes to (guess we're not the first people to ride our bikes to Mexico). The road from Columbus to the border was a little busy, but there was a nice wide shoulder to ride on. We walked the town again, and went into the pharmacy to see what it was like. We had heard you could buy all sorts of drugs only available by prescription in the US, but the pharmacy was very tiny, and it seems you had to ask the pharmacist for any drugs you wanted (so not sure if a prescription is needed). We hung out at the bar with some cheap beers ($3 modelos), cheap margaritas ($4) and really good chips and salsa. It was another fun day, and pretty cool to get to ride our bikes to Mexico!
we walked up Coot Hill...
for the view
Two Jenny's! The one behind us is a Curtiss JN-3 used by the Army in NM
Our site includes a structure from Camp Furlong that vehicles used to drive up onto to be loaded and unloaded
Almost to Mexico
locked our bikes and walked in
the border
the courtyard of the Pink Store
pretty door and I love the chili covered garbage can
Statue of Liberty lamp on the roof
a large bunny on the bar (although it's a bit hard to see with so much color in this room)
View from the observation point
