Elephant Butte Lake SP, NM

April 18, 2019

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. 

Silver City, NM

April 11, 2019

We stoped in Silver City to visit Joan's niece and her husband who recently moved here from California   They have a nice large back yard and offered it to us for some driveway surfing.  

 We'd planned to do a lot more sight seeing during this stop but got busy doing mundane things like maintenance, cleaning and cooking. 

Here's some pictures from a Sunday  walk through the old down town area.  

Some local color.

These tiles were also made by local kids

It took a lot of drinking to build this wall.

A little art deco.

This house looks like it hasn't changed since the late 1800's.

City hall.

Now that we have family in Silver City, we'll be spending a lot more time here exploring the history and beautiful countryside.

Coming next, Elephant Butte Lake State Park, NM

The Desert Blooms

Spring 2019

Coming next, Return visit to Portal AZ, Cave Creek Canyon.

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

March 26, 2019

Buenos Aires NWR was formed out of many ranches dating back to the mid 1800's.  The most prominate was Buenos Aires or (Good Air) developed by Pedro Aquirre Jr.  Due to various droughts and over grazing the once lush grass land suffered from erosion when the rains returned.  The lack of natural grass prevented fires that provided vital nutrients to the soil and naturally pruned the woody vegetation that invaded the valley.

One of the missions of the refuge is to limit the spread of invasive Mesquite and restore the native grass lands.  There's an estimated 200 miles of fences criss-crossing the valley hampering the movement of some wildlife.  An ongoing program to remove these barriers is underway. 

Another focus is the protection of the endangered Masked Bobwhite quail.

Our goal was to scout the 84 established campsites for a return visit. With the help of the ranger and a great reference book on all the campsites including pictures, we identified about 10 sites that had enough room for our rig.  With all our scouting it appeared we were the only ones camping on the refuge at this time.

Our site, #41

Along with our research, we took time for a short hike on the Arivaca Creek Trail.

A short side trail takes you to an abandoned homestead that suffered a fire many years ago.  The ruins provided a terrific subject for some interesting photography.

Which do you like, Color or Black & White?

***

When is a Crack in the wall just a crack in the wall...

On our last evening at Buenos Aires we explored the Pronghorn Loop Drive looking for wildlife.  All we saw was 1, maybe 2 Kestrels and a nice sunset.

Coming next, Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (Empire Ranch).