A few years ago we stayed at a coulpe of New Mexico state parks. We really liked the small intimate feel and the price was reasonable, $15 for electric and water hookups, $8 dry camping.
Elephant Butte Lake State Park is not small or intimate.
It's the largest New Mexico state park and surrounds the states largest reservoir. At 36,000 acres it occupies a huge area with various campgrounds spread over many miles of shoreline. As for dry camping, you can camp anywhere that's not fenced off. Beach camping is very popular, and the sand is firm enough to support big rigs.
Because of the upcoming holiday weekend (Easter) the staff didn’t know if there was any "first come first serve" developed spots available so we opted for a free range dry camping spot. Not being familiar with the park, we drove around to see what was available.
We found a spot that wasn't the best site but it had a lot going for it. It's on a main road, but a paved, so less dust. The site had some slope to it, but nothing we couldn't deal with. We're across the street from an established campground so we had access to hot showers, a trash dumpster and free WiFi. WiFi is a rarity in state parks. Oh, and one other plus, no neighbors! All in all not a bad site.
Because of the slop, we had to lower the tongue almost to the ground to level the camper.
As the sunset eluminates the far bank, the moon rises.
Here's the Elephant Butte. In better light it does look somewhat like a Elephant with the head, trunk and tusks on the left, the back on the top and tail on the right.
April 21, 2019
After Elephant Butte, we headed to the Dancing Eagle Casino campground to wait out some weather. I wouldn't call it a destination, but it was convenient. With full hookups, a gas station across the street, a grocery store next door, a restaurant in the Casino... and a reasonably priced laundry... and good free WiFi... all for $11.38 a night, tax included, what's not to like. We stayed there 3 nights. Sorry, forgot to take a picture of the campsite.
While at Dancing Eagle we took a day trip to El Malpais National Monument about 20 miles west on I-40. Acording to the park brochure, EL Malpais means "the badlands" in Spanish, pronounced el-mal-pie-EES. It's main feature is a 3900 year old black lava flow that butts up against yellow sandstone clifs.
There's a free BLM Campground at El Malpais and we considered staying there after the weather passed. Then something else got our attention...
Coming next, Chaco Canyon.
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