2018-12 Echo Canyon, Chama New Mexico

2018-12

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

 

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.

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.

Heron Lake State Park
Water and 30 amp Electric (no water views from elec. sites)

Distance traveled: 100 miles

hyw 84 leading north out of Santa Fe

Leaving the Cochiti lake/Santa Fe area, I quickly enter the northern part of New Mexico with it’s wide open spaces, stunning rock formations and an area that Georgia O'Keeffe painted many times. I even visited the Ghost ranch where she had a home looking out onto the colorful scenery. I would have liked to have taken a jeep tour around the property where she did many of her paintings, but I would have had to have made arrangements in advance as their limited tours fill up quickly. I settled for taking a tour of the two museums they have on site. One of the museums had a nice exhibit on the influence of women on preserving the many historical sites out west.

log cabin near front entrance to Ghost Cayon

Georgia O'Keeffe home at Ghost Ranch

large collection of water jugs
used by native Indians

Ghost Ranch, chimney rock

many colors changing throughout the day

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.

Echo Canyon, no hookups, used solar panels and new generator

awesome rock formations

small park, with picnic areas

Echo Canyon formation, hello, hellooooo....

Western Douglas Fir

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.

Eco Cloth, works great!

Distance traveled: 37 miles.

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.

no views of Heron Lake from electric campsites

near dam spillway

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….

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.

entering Chama

your business here...

not much traffic in town this time of year

only two shops open in the mini mall the day
I checked out the place....

one of the top train rides one could ever take.

The area consists of high country pastures with many horses grazing and even some alpaca ranches. All surrounded by mountains off in the distance. Heron Lake State Park is quiet this time of year, with just a smattering of campers. My little home on wheels sits backed into a cozy site surrounded with Western Douglas Fir, cedar trees and pinion trees.  

More photos:

Echo Canyon and Chama New Mexico