2018-12
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dandelion's cove the ground and lawns
throughout Chama New Mexico adding
lots of color to the area |
Chama New Mexico
(Home of the Cumbres-Toltec Railroad) One of the best railroad tours in the country.
I’ve done it twice)
Ghost Ranch NM
Echo Canyon NM
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At Echo Canyon: nature made or man made?
high up on a cliff |
FROM THE HEART OF THE OLD WEST
Campground: Echo
(Canyon) Amphitheater, Carson National Forest. $5 senior discount.
Water available at entrance to campsites. No other utilities. Small
campground, beautiful mountain views and site of Echo Canyon.
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| no hookups, but water is available. |
Campground: Heron
Lake State Park. Chama New Mexico. $4 electric, I purchased the
season pass which gives me free camping for a year, New Mexico parks.
30 amp electric, water. Dump station available. Some sites are
full hookups.
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Heron Lake State Park
Water and 30 amp Electric (no water views from elec. sites) |
Distance traveled:
100 miles
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| hyw 84 leading north out of Santa Fe |
Note to self:
Stop
off at the small settlement of Abiquiu New Mexico as they have one of
Georgia O'Keeffe's home’s and studio available for touring. There is also the Purple
Adobe Lavender Farm. Might be well worth stopping for.
Along the route (hwy
84) there’s a sign pointing to a monastery off one of the dirt
roads. Needless to say, this area would be awesome for contemplation
and meditation. I continued onto Echo Canyon for an overnight of dry
camping (no hookups) and once again tested my new generator for a
short time. It started up fine, even with being at 7111 feet
elevation. Daytime temps were a comfortable 70 degrees and night
time was down into the 30’s. Ekk, that’s a bit chilly for me,
with many blankets on the bed and the furnace running half the night.
Though I turned it off for a couple of hours trying to conserve the
batteries used to run the fan on the propane furnace.
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| Echo Canyon, no hookups, used solar panels and new generator |
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| awesome rock formations |
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| small park, with picnic areas |
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| Echo Canyon formation, hello, hellooooo.... |
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| Western Douglas Fir |
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high up on the side of a shear mountain side,
this tree has found a footing |
I could have stayed
at another Army Corp campground which has electric sites, but wanted
to spend a night at the Echo canyon site.
RV TIP:
My friend Kathy S gave me one of these ECO Cloth's to use for cleaning my RV windows. She found it at a flea market. I gave it a try, wiping all the windows down with the one cloth which was run under tap water, wrung out so it was barely damp. Could not believe how clean it got all the windows, no streaks either. Thanks Kathy, it worked great. ps
did not rinse the cloth between wiping each window clean.
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| Eco Cloth, works great! |
Distance traveled:
37 miles.
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lots of pine-cones at my
next campsite |
Ok so this is
perhaps one of my shorter trips to get to the next campground.
Because of the short distance, I took the opportunity to stop for
fuel ($3.61 a gallon diesel) which is about 61 cents higher than in
more populated areas. Also stopped and had breakfast. Which would
have been good except the hash-browns (which I shouldn’t have
anyway) were ice cold, as if they had just taken them out of the
fridge. So it was onto the state park, which isn’t busy this time
of year and the ranger said I could take any unoccupied spot for a
couple of nights, even though most sites indicate they are reservable
sites and only one night permitted. The lake is diminished in size
as the water level is extremely low. Some boat access points have
only a grassy lake bottom. The locals tell me that this winter they
have had virtually no snow on the ground, which quite often would
still be on the ground this time of year. We are at 7,871 feet
elevation after all. A few of the mountain peaks have a small bit of
snow remaining on them. All adding up to little to no water to fill
the lake/reservoir. Drought is a common word for this area.
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| no views of Heron Lake from electric campsites |
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| near dam spillway |
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| over half of lake is empty, drought years |
Talking to a forest
ranger, she was telling me about a group of hunters coming to the
area. One of the family members, a young man in his 20’s, in
excellent health, started to feel like he was coming down with the
flu, headaches etc. Didn’t go on their first day of hunting. A
few days later, he didn’t make it. It was altitude sickness. Said
it’s a hereditary thing. What ever the case, it’s worth noting
the symptoms. I did notice one shop in town advertised that they had
oxygen available. I do notice when walking/hiking that I seem more
out of shape, just a sign of the thinner air and need to get more
oxygen into my system….
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| Mule deer are prevalent everywhere in Northern New Mexico |
There are lots of
mule deer in the area. A fairly large deer. Blinking signs are on
the main highway leading into Chama warning of deer crossing. I’ve
seen quite a few in the park and heading into town.
The town doesn’t
seem to be doing very well. Of course it is before the summer season
when many tourist arrive to go on the Cumbre’s/Toltec Train ride.
it’s one of the top train rides in the country and I’ve enjoyed
it a couple times. They also tell me this is one of the poorest
counties in New Mexico.
More photos:
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