City of Rocks SP

4/20/2017 cont.

City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico is a unique camping experience.  Most of the campsites are nestled in among the rock pillars.  The park is located in the northern edge of the Chihuahuan desert.  35 million years ago, a violent volcanic eruption (1000 times greater then Mt. St. Helens in 1980) deposited a layer of pumice, ash, and hot gas that compacted and welded  to form dense rock. Erosion did the rest to form the rocks we see today.

Here's some pictures from in and around the park...
 .

See picnic table and fire ring for this campsite surrounded by rocks.

View from a bench on one of the trails

View of our campsite facing east as the sun sets in the west.

View from our campsite picnic table.

Colorful eastern sky after sunset.

On-site observatory opened up for Star Party on 4/22/2017.

There were about 5 telescopes trained on various objects. 

During the Star Party we saw some of the colored bands of Jupiter and 5 of it's moons, Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), Andromada Galaxy (M31) among other heavenly bodies.

These astronomical signs a places all over the park.

Ancient native american grinding stone.

End of another day.

Another beautiful sunset over City of Rocks SP.

Spent 4 days at City of Rocks and had a great time.  We plan to return.

Coming next , On to Cave Creek Canyon Visitors Center - Portal, AZ and our new workcamping job for the month of May..