Our View From The Road

Sharing where we've been and what we've seen

Tag: NM

New Mexico

  • Day 11: When is wood not wood?

    Day 11: When is wood not wood?

    , , , ,

    We awake to look out across a lava field left by a volcano some 10,000 years ago. It seems alien in what can already be considered by many an alien landscape.

    Lava from ancient volcano in Grants, NM

    Oh, and we discovered that we have a mouse in the van as evidenced by buns having been nibbled as well as a banana. Traps were procured.

    Argh, we have a mouse! Not happy campers.

    New Mexico is harsh. It gets hot, very hot in the Summer but we awoke to 1C this morning. The sky is almost always bright blue, clouds just don’t seem to form here and yet when it does rain torrential floods can wash away bridges and towns. It’s dry today, no floods to worry about. As we drive we wonder what life is like day-to-day in this environment, one that doesn’t seem to have seasons where trees leaf and then fall, where every road seems to lead to the horizon and the only evidence that anyone knows about it is the large plume of dust they leave as they traverse the landscape. Harsh.

    Our first stop today was the Continental Divide, the place in the Rockies where water either flows towards the Atlantic or the Pacific. There’s a small plaque that we stopped at to commemorate our passing from East to West.

    Soon we crossed into Arizona, another time zone change. This time from Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) to Mountain Standard Time (MST). Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time. So, we are now at the same time as those on the West coast but not yet in the same time zone.

    A little ways into Arizona we make a stop at the Petrified Forest National Park. We entered at the North gate and followed the 28 mile road through the park to the South Gate. In the North you get to explore the Painted Desert from overlooks that expose a wonderful array of colors in the hillsides.

    Painted desert

    As you travel South the landscape becomes more barren and moon-like before depositing you into the petrified forest. As you look about you see what appears to be rocks strewn about the landscape, but when you get close you realize that they are all petrified wood from trees that died 10’s of millions of years ago. We stopped in a few places and walked amongst these ‘logs’ and were amazed by the variety of colors of crystals that had replaced the original organic wood fibers. Some look like a lumberjack had recently felled the trees and cut the logs into short lengths but then left the logs instead of taking them away. To look at, it’s wood. To touch, it is rock.

    Petrified Forest

    After leaving the park we continue westward and stop for the night at Homolovi State Park near Winslow, AZ. A quiet spot in the desert to spend the end of the day amongst the sagebrush & tumbleweeds.

    Tomorrow a certain flatbed Ford will be sought out and then onto western Arizona and into Nevada.

  • Day 37: We get our kicks on Route 66

    , , , ,

    Up and at ‘em. The sun’s up and so are we, ready for a day of driving eastward out of New Mexico and into Texas.

    Today Barb has decided to drive our campervan leaving me to be passenger and photographer. The other rigs that stayed at the brewery we us left at about 8:30am and we headed out by 9:00am as is our habit.

    We start by joining I-40E and heading toward Santa Rosa. The highway seems extra busy with truck traffic as the scenery slowly changes from that of the high desert towards the central plains.

    On the road again

    We take a small detour into the town of Tucumcari, NM. This detours takes us onto historic US-66. Although the town is surviving it is clear that it has seen more affluent times when Route 66 was the primary east-west route that ran directly through town.

    Tucumcari, NM

    After a couple of hours we leave New Mexico and enter Texas. The sky seems larger as the land flattens to become the grasslands of the plains. Again, we leave the interstate and head into Adrian, TX. We stop at the Midway Cafe that sits at the mathematical midpoint of the historic US-66. Halfway between Los Angeles and Chicago. We take a few photos outside at a sign that marks this point and then we head into the cafe for lunch.

    Adrian, TX

    The Midpoint Cafe has operated in this location for decades under various names and owners. It is decorated as a 1950’s diner and the menu reflects this era containing hamburgers, fried bologna sandwiches, hot dogs, milkshakes and homemade pies for desert.

    Midpoint Cafe

    We settle on each having a cheeseburger and Coke Zero. The owner is working in the kitchen and is delayed on a complicated order ahead of ours and so instructs the waitress to offer us a complimentary piece of pie! Barb chooses Chocolate & Peanut Butter which tastes amazing. When the burgers are delivered we they are large and look delicious, we are not disappointed, in fact we both agree that the burgers are the best that we have tasted in a very long time.

    Returning to the interstate we notice that the West Texas winds have returned and Barb is working hard to keep the van in our lane. Nearing Amarillo we pull off to top off the gas tank before driving a short distance to what has to be the weirdest stop along Route 66, the Cadillac ranch. Ten 1950s-era Cadillacs have been partially buried hood-first in a field and visitors are encouraged to use spray paint to decorate the cars. We do not bring paint, only our cameras to capture the absurd art installation.

    Cadillac Ranch

    Our last driving segment takes us around the western edge of Amarillo towards Canyon, TX where we drive to the Bar-Z winery where we are staying the night. We enjoy a flight of wine and purchase a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to enjoy on another day. The evening is enjoyed relaxing in the van.

    Bar-Z winery, Canyon, TX

  • Day 36: Onward to Moriarty, NM

    , , ,

    So, no wind at bedtime (or in the forecast). Strong winds overnight, van shaking winds. No wind at daybreak. The winds were so strong that our tenting neighbors bailed in the middle of the night as they were gone before 6:00am when I awoke.

    The view is still as stunning as the evening before and we continued to enjoy it while enjoying breakfast.

    Angels Peak in the morning

    We departed our parkup by 9:00am and headed toward Albuquerque, NM. The drive took us across the continental divide at 7,380ft before descending into the city.

    Along the way

    We stopped at a Chili’s for lunch before going to a Krispy Kreme to pick up a few donuts for later. Taking advantage of having stopped in a shopping district, we took some time to browse around a Barnes & Noble bookstore where Tony picked up another book to read.

    Time for a treat

    Leaving the city we drove East on I-40E towards our destination, Moriarty, NM. Tonight we have booked a Harvest Hosts stay at the Sierra Blanca Brewery and upon arrival we checked in and then rested in our van for a couple of hours. Later in the afternoon we went into the brewery and joined some other folks who were also staying at the brewery in their campers. We met folks from Rochester, NY, Wisconsin and California. We swapped stories and enjoyed a beverage or two before returning to our campers for the evening.

    Sierra Blanca Brewery, Moriarty, NM
    Sierra Blanca Brewery, Moriarty, NM

  • Day 35: Angels Peak

    , , , , , ,

    Driving day today as we awake from another quiet night of slumber. The wind has picked up a bit and is from the West so that should help with our travels today.

    A normal pre-travel morning routine sees us enjoy a small breakfast and then it’s time to disconnect from the campground services and prepare to depart. All is good to go.

    Our first stop will be very familiar to anyone who has watched the movie “Forrest Gump” for we stop and take some pictures at the place where Forrest ends his running and decides to go home.

    It had to be done

    From here we drove just a short distance to Mexican Hat to view Mexican Hat Rock. Let me save you the time, it’s a rock that happens to look like a sombrero balancing on a much smaller rock. The picture says it all.

    Next stop, the Four Corners. This is the place where Arizona, Utah, Colorado & New Mexico all meet. It is marked with a plaza where you can walk between the four states or stand in two states or if you include your hands, like Barb, you can be in all four states at the same time (almost). You see, Arizona does not use daylight savings time & so you can also be a time traveler and be in multiple states at different times! The plaza is on Navaho land and as such an $8/person tribal fee is required to access the plaza which also contains many Navaho vendors selling all kinds of authentic goods. Enjoy the pictures.

    Four Corners

    Leaving the Four Corners we drove South and reconnected with the US-64E towards Farmington, NM and then onto Bloomfield, NM where we turn SE towards our stop for the night, Angels Peak, NM. This is a BLM night and so we will have to hope that we can find a nice spot. Oh, were we lucky. We found a quiet corner of one of the picnic areas that overlooks the Angels Peak Badlands & for the first time on this trip we snagged a gazebo under which to eat our meals! Bonus.

    Angels Peak Badlands, NM

    The evening is super quiet as the sun sets. There are almost no clouds in the sky & there shouldn’t be any light infiltration to detract from the starry skies.

    Sunset

  • Day 20: Stranger Things

    , , , ,

    Today is planned to be a day of travel as we head into Southern Arizona. Up by 6:30am and out for my walk through a new housing development near the KOA. Total distance of 4.3km with a 79m elevation gain, phew. Nice homes being built here in the southwestern adobe style that is so popular. The development is on a hilltop and has wonderful views across the Rio Grande valley and Las Cruces.

    It was while walking that I saw the first unusual thing of the day, a scrap metal roadrunner structure perched on the hilltop adjacent to I-10. No picture taken though.

    Breakfast and packing up was the typical routine and we were on the road shortly after 10:00am. We settled into the drive and were again marveling at the starkness of the desert along with the surprise of yellow poppies that grow in the verges along the highway.

    Yellow poppies

    We stopped in Deming, NM at the Walmart to reprovision as supplies were starting to run a little low.

    Leaving Deming we returned to the I-10W where our windshield was struck by a small rock. Damn! A small chip now exists near the middle of the windshield. It does not spread the remainder of the day so will see what happens.

    Further along the I-10W closer to the NM/AZ border we passed the continental divide and then ‘Fraggle Rock’. Some of you may recall the children’s TV show in the 1980s of the same name. The rock we saw today is simply a large pile of rocks with the name painted on the side facing the highway.

    Fraggle rock

    Shortly afterwards we arrived at the NM/AZ border and stopped to have lunch at a rest stop on the south side of the highway. It’s the NM visitor center so we took a picture of the ‘Welcome’ sign as we didn’t pass one when we entered NM a few days ago.

    I know, we’re actually leaving the state, but…

    The far Western side of NM is prone to dust storms and strong winds. We came upon a couple of these strong gusts accompanied by tumbleweeds. Luckily we were able to avoid hitting any tumbleweeds.

    In NM they have many large signs warning of dust storms, zero visibility and actions to take if caught in one. Entering AZ the signs changed to state that the area is prone to blowing dust. Meh.

    Dust storm warnings
    Welcome to Arizona!

    A little further along the highway we pulled off for fuel at the hometown of movie character John Rambo the much anticipated Bowie, AZ. There is a mural of Rambo at the gas station and a picture had to be taken so we are sharing below. There’s nothing else in Bowie that we could see, and I mean nothing.

    Besides the desert we were also accompanied all day by Union Pacific trains running on tracks that Paralleled the interstate.

    One of many UP trains seen today

    Our stopover tonight is the KOA in Willcox, AZ. as this will setup our touring tomorrow. All for today. Good night.

  • Day 19: Sand or Snow?

    , , ,

    Sleep in the overflow camping area was easy. Peaceful. We were awake early and enjoyed muffins and coffee to start the day. I walked about the campground again and marveled at how rugged the landscape is and the type of person it would have taken to settle on it over 150years ago.

    Good morning sunshine.

    Packed up, off the site and tanks dumped by shortly after 10:00am. Seems to be our preferred departure time. We headed to the gas station and filled up the van for what today will be a fairly short drive.

    Our first and only stop of the day would be at the White Sands National Park. It was only about 30 minutes from Alamogordo and we soon arrived. $25 entrance fee (yikes!) and one road into the sand dunes. It was paved about 2/3s of the way and then we were driving on hard packed sand. We drove back to the primary area where folks seem to go and hike about and found a mostly empty parking area.

    White Sands, NM

    The dunes are pure white sand, almost appearing to be snow or table salt. It is actually gypsum crystals that have formed from the repeated submerging of the land in sea water and evaporation of that water millions of years ago. The dunes are about 30ft tall and we were free to climb and walk about on them.

    White Sands selfie

    A common pastime is to bring a toboggan or sled and use the dunes like they are snow. Many people were sliding and taking pictures of themselves frolicking in the sand. Not us. First, we have no sled and 2nd we’ve sledded on real snow. Instead, we took off our sandals and climbed the dunes only to find the sand cold. Yep, the sun was blazing and unlike any beach we had walked on the sand was cold to the touch. We took some pictures and looked about and then returned to the van as the sun was blinding.

    Fun with panorama pictures

    In fairness people are advised to cover up, apply sunscreen, where dark glasses and drink lots of water. We did not cover up or apply sunscreen but we both wore dark glasses and hats and drank lots of water (the air is really dry in New Mexico). The air temperature was only 17C but the sun was blazing and if we were to be out for more than the hour that we were, sunscreen would have been essential as there’s nowhere to hide.

    We stopped briefly at the gift shop on the way out to pick up a pin for in our van and then we were on our way to Las Cruces, NM where we have a spot reserved at the KOA for the night.

    White Sands souvenirs.

    However, before arriving at our destination we had to cross a mountain range. The highway was really good (albeit an almost dead straight road most of the way) and had a slow lane for the trucks and us on the ascent. The descent went rather quickly and before we knew it we had arrived into Las Cruces.

    Our plan was to stop at a Mexican restaurant recommended to us for lunch before going to the park for the night. It being a Sunday and the restaurant being in a historic area with very narrow streets and no parking my stress level went way up as I tried to simply navigate the streets and not hit anything low or higher up like a tree. Not finding an obvious place to park a rig the size of our van in such an environment we drove onwards to the KOA and settled in for the night. It’s a really nice park and our site has split rail fencing and a patch of grass and 2 trees! Maybe we can find a nice place to enjoy lunch tomorrow.

    Nice campsite for the night.

    Until then, good night!

  • Day 18: To the clouds

    , , ,

    Good news, we awoke in the same place we parked last evening. The winds dropped fairly quickly last night and it was peaceful on the range.

    We departed before 10:00am and headed towards Carlsbad, NM. First a quick stop in Whites City to take a couple of pictures.

    Whites City, NM

    Carlsbad is a fairly large town with all of the associated amenities should you need them. We stopped for gas and moved on.

    Heading North on SR-285, we drive to Artesia and came across several orchards of Pecan trees. We turned West onto SR-82 and drove through the nicely decorated town center. Heading out of town we were buzzed by student pilots practicing touch-and-go circuits at the local airport.

    Pecan trees, Artesia, NM

    Continuing West we entered ranch land. Lots of cattle ranches with large gates with names above them along with their branding symbol. Slowly at first and then more noticeably, the land climbed into the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains and onto the Lincoln National Forest. The grasslands became conifer forests as the road climbed to 8,676ft as we entered Cloudcroft, a small town clearly a year-round outdoor destination that had a small but quaint downtown, food trucks and BBQ joints. The ski hill was closed for the season but there were still a few remnants of snow from this past Winter to be seen.

    Changing scenery on the way to Cloudcroft, NM
    Cloudcroft, NM

    We stopped and picked up pastries from a small bakery and tacos from a well reviewed food truck.

    Lunch and bakery treats!

    The road from here was all downhill, literally. 6% grades for several miles westward has us taking it easy on the brakes and letting the transmission do its job of managing the speed. We stopped halfway down at a rest stop to eat our Mexican lunch (delicious) and take a few photos before completing the 6% descent into Almagordo, NM.

    Lunch stop on the way to Alamogordo, NM

    Our destination is the Oliver Lee Memorial State Park just South of town. No reservation but they tend to have some ‘walk-in’ sites available. We arrived at about 2:30pm and all of the walk-in sites had been taken and all reservation sites were booked for the night.

    We were contemplating our next steps when the park host came by and told us that he had room for one rig in the ‘overflow’ area. We took it. No services where we are camping but we have access to the comfort station should we need it and can dump our tanks before leaving. Good for one night!

    Overflow camping, Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, NM
    The end of another beautiful day

  • Day 17: Carlsbad caverns, Whites City, NM

    , , ,

    Good morning. We woke at 8:00am to the wind still blowing and a forecast of very strong winds this afternoon. The night was quiet (putting aside the aforementioned wind). No coyotes or other critters about.

    Today we are visiting the Carlsbad Caverns, a well known large cave system in the Guadeloupe mountain range of New Mexico. We have entrance tickets for 12:30pm and so take the morning easy relaxing in the van (to windy and sandy to sit outside comfortably).

    We arrived at the Carlsbad cavern visitor center at 12:15pm and were allowed to start our self-guided tour immediately. We had heard that they were strict about observing entry times based on reservations so this was a nice surprise.

    We chose to walk into the caverns using the natural entrance as opposed to taking an available elevator directly down the the ‘Big room’ so as to fully experience the caves.

    Natural entrance into Carlsbad caverns

    The entrance is huge and is a good indicator of how large this cave system is. They have bat viewings at the entrance in the evenings when the bats swarm out of the caves into the sky to hunt for insects, we were not planning to stay quite that long.

    Slowly receding from the light of day

    The caves slowly get darker but there are plenty of low level lights that show you the way of the walkway.

    The walk down the entrance cave is done on a paved walkway with stainless steel hand rails, there are only a few stairs in very steep sections. As per the signs at the entry, we had to walk down about 750’ (230m) or the equivalent of 75 stories (the height of the Empire State Building in New York).

    Along the walkway down the natural entrance cave

    In a nutshell, this is one big hole in the ground! It took us about an hour to descend to the level of the ‘Big room’ which is the main spectacle of the cave system stretching many hundreds of feet in multiple directions and containing so many different stalactite and stalagmite formations all lit with accent lighting. The temperature in the caves was a little warmer than we expected at 12C and so the sweaters we wore were off before we completed the descent.

    Navigation map when you arrive in the ‘Big room’

    Our walk about the ‘Big room lasted about an hour before we chose to take the elevator back up to the visitor center which of course drops you off directly in the gift shop. We purchased a couple of pins for our collection before departing.

    Carlsbad Caverns, Big Room
    Elevator information

    In all we were in the caves for a little over 2 hours and really enjoyed the experience. The walk down is not hard but your knees and legs do get quite a workout. You do not need to be Uberfit to complete the walk, but you will want to take advantage of the seating provided along the walkway to rest, hydrate and enjoy the various views.

    Not our van, but a serious German adventurer

    We drive back to the BLM land on which we camped last night and managed to snag the same site.

    The winds had risen significantly while we were underground with wind gusts now at 64km/h. These are supposed to drop steadily overnight, so hopefully we will awake in the same place we parked.

    Look at that Wind!

    All the best everyone.

  • Day 16: from wineries to refineries

    , , , ,

    The wind let up around midnight and the cool air arrived bringing with it a heavy morning dew and fog down in the valley. We slept in. We ate a simple breakfast. We organized the van for a day of travel. We vacated the overlook parking area at 10:00am.

    Good morning
    Looking back up the valley to where we stayed
    Remains of Fort Lancaster, TX

    We headed West down the SR-290 towards Sheffield, TX. Stopping briefly at the Fort Lancaster visitor center to take a photo of the fort ruins. Sheffield is a depressing, small town that time appears to have forgotten about around the time the I-10 bypassed the community.

    Returning to the I-10W we continued toward Fort Stockton, TX where we stopped at the visitor center. The town mascot is a large Roadrunner statue that stands across the road from the visitor center. The visitor center itself is in a renovated train station that stands beside a SantaFe rail line that ran into Mexico. It’s no longer used.

    Fort Stockton, TX

    We tried to procure a coffee at the local McDonalds but it was being overrun by teenagers when we arrived and so we chose to move on.

    Leaving Fort Stockton our route turned NorthWest on SR-285 towards Pecos. We were entering Texas oil country. Everywhere we looked there are oil pumps, storage tanks, pumping stations and refineries. The oddest sight to us were the workers camps setup along the side of the highway that consisted of rows of RV shelters and temporary housing structures. The road was undergoing a major reconstruction and as such there were many reduced speed zones.

    West Texas Oil

    Arriving in Pecos, TX we stopped at the Pecos Museum where we parked in the RV parking area and made lunch in the van. Afterwards we walked about and took some photos around the museum.

    Pecos, TX

    The SR-285 North of Pecos was also under construction right to the New Mexico border, which, because of construction was marked by a bump in the road. No “Welcome to New Mexico” sign. Construction continued into NM however, reduced speed limits of 45mph instead of the Texan reduced speed limits of 65mph meant much slower progress was made. Eventually we turned from the SR-285 cross country towards Whites City.

    We are trying for the first time camping on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. This is US Gov’t owned land and is open for public use. Camping is considered ‘off-grid’ as there are no amenities or even paved roads. Site selection is on a first come first served basis. We have chosen a spot about 500yds away from the highway on a dirt track in the middle of the desert. It is windy, but peaceful. Yes, there is some limited cell phone coverage. We plan on staying here for a couple of days.

    BLM camping near Whites City, NM
    Another beautiful sunset

    Take care everyone.