2018-9
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| Leaving City of Rocks New Mexico |
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| wide open spaces where the winds can really pick up |
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| a favorite shot of the week |
City of Rocks, New
Mexico
Elephant Butte, New
Mexico
Truth or
Consequences, New Mexico
Campground: City of
Rocks, see previous report for details
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| City of Rocks, at electric sites |
Campground:
Elephant Butte State Park, $4 for electric, site previous paid for by purchase of a yearly pass. Many sites available, some with and
without reservations, dry camping in the desert landscape and along
the lake front (park at your own risk)
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| Elephant Butte St Pk |
I enjoyed the rest
of the week at City of Rocks. It is approx 24+ miles to either
Silver City or Deming NM. I usually like to be closer to a town, but
the scenery in this area is so awesome, it’s a good fit for me. As
a few of the pictures shown below will attest.
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| City of Rocks, remains of extinct volcano 30 million years ago |
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| another favorite shot of the week |
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can you see the picnic table and chairs
this is one of the dry campsites |
It’s interesting
to check out small towns in the area. Hurley (pop. 1,200) is on the
way to Silver City. Along with the gas station/restaurant along the
main highway, the town itself has one restaurant, a bar, post office
and some really wide streets. One store in the downtown block had an
indoor Yard Sale, but it was closed when I was there. Most of the
buildings being vacant. Back in the early 1800’s many streets were
made wide enough that a horse and buggy could turn around on the
street, requiring fairly wide streets.
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| small town of Hurley |
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| if has a new roof, so it's not gone yet |
Distance Traveled:
117 miles
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every journey begins with the
first mile |
Elephant Butte
(population 1,341)
Truth or Consequence
(population (6,023)
Truth or
Consequences, formerly known as Warm Springs, until they changed
their name do to a contest put on by the T of C show on tv years ago.
Elephant Butte Lake is low and from what understand Texas made a
sweet deal with New Mexico a number of years back that guarantees
Texas the right to a certain amount of water each year, no matter if
there is a drought or not. Forcing NM to release water from the
dams/lakes along the Rio Grande and Pecos rivers. Sad to see the
lakes lower and lower each year that I come by this area.
This is always a nice
stop along the way, visiting a small town, with a number of
commercial hot springs establishments. One favorite is right on the
river called Riverbend Hot Springs. The local Walmart has covered
parking for all the parking spots and the roof doubles as solar collectors
for the store as well. Out here, the summer months can be brutally
hot, so having shade for your vehicle is a plus.
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| the local Walmart with covered parking/solar panels above |
I took a walk down
by the lake from my campsite last night and watched across the lake
as a truck was backing into the water to drop off his boat. Now don’t
you know, he got stuck for a while after finally releasing the boat,
but darn it if he didn’t get unstuck and got his truck back on dry
land. Obviously had beefy tires and 4 wheel drive. But still, I
don’t think I’d ever try something like that.
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| the truck was stuck for a while |
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| camping is free along the lake shore |
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| pictures from my walk along the lake shore |
Camper note: Even
though there are a ton of campsites, if you don’t want to make
reservations, get here by noon, no later and you’ll be able to get
a first-come-first-served sites with electric and water.
Reservations cost extra even if you sign up for a reserved site in
the park. They will let you stay one night only at a reserveable site without a reservation.
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| great camping aid |
Camper note: I
found these at the Dollar General, disc cones (10 pk) for $4. In
their spring sports section. I use them all the time for backing
into a campsite. You can also find them at Walmart, but I think they
are in smaller bundles and cost more.
The lake water is
still too cold this time of year for swimming, though of course I did
see a few kids playing in the water, at least up to there knees….
Although there are a
number of ghost towns in the area, of which I’ve gone to the
better ones already, I’m just enjoying the weather and local area
for a few days before heading to Las Lunas to pick up my new
generator and mail before getting into the Albuquerque area.
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| entrance to a new development of some sort |
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| abandoned |
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| springtime in the desert south west |
Have a great spring
and hopefully it will show up for some of you across the country
who’ve been fooled by Mother Nature of late.
More pictures at:
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