State: New Mexico
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Where we stayed: City of Rocks State Park We debated if we should make the two hour drive out to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument or just skip it. After reading over tripadvisor's things to do in Silver City (the closest interestingish town), we decided to add another pin to the kids' growing junior ranger badge collection. All the guide books (and online posts) said to take the longer scenic route north from Silver City on Hwy 15. It's a windy road and thankfully no one barfed. I drove. So it was a prettyish drive, but not too different from any other mountain road we've driven in California. So I would say do it if you have lots of time to kill and want to see a few trees, otherwise, the longer but less windy road (Hwy 35) will do the trick too. We stopped at the visitor center to pick up junior ranger books and watched a video on the area. Then hopped back into our car and drove 5 minutes to the trail head for the walk to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings. There were volunteers and rangers at the trail head and up at the dwellings to help answer any questions.
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State: New Mexico
Where we stayed: City of Rocks State Park Faywood, NM For our second pass through the Deming, NM area, we picked a different state park to stay in this time. Last time down I-10 through New Mexico we stayed a little bit closer to the freeway at Rock Hound State Park (the state park that lets you collect rocks and take them home...in case you're looking to lug some extra weight home). Keeping with the rock theme, we took the last spot with hook up at City of Rocks. They had a bunch of awesome spots that backed up to the rocks with no hook ups, but not all were level enough for our 'bago and I find it's so handy to have water and electricity. No sewer or dump station here, so fellow rvers, be sure to get out of dodge before your cup runneth over. This was my favorite rv in the campground. Check out the rooftop kayak with the cloud/sky paint. State: New Mexico and Arizona
On the road again... After almost a week stay in Alamogordo we decided to start heading back toward Phoenix to spend Christmas with my brother and his family. The weather wasn't looking too bad, so instead of taking the main interstate (I-10) back to AZ, we decided to take a more northern route and check Petrified Forest National Park off our list. Here's Matt sporting his 'stache and long hairdo. And yes, that's a little snow on the ground out the window. State: New Mexico
White Sands National Monument Where we stayed: Alamogordo KOA So we've been in Alamogordo, NM for about 5 nights now. Truthfully I have a really hard time keeping track of the days. Is it Sunday? Thursday? When did we get here? Homeschooling M-F helps me keep track, but now that we're starting winter break (yay!), I'm sure I'll really be lost! Or maybe I should just remember to look at the new weather/date/clock we got! With Matt's back tied up in knots, I tried to let him rest and took the kids to the place Jack's been most excited to experience - White Sands National Monument. We grabbed some sleds from Sandy, hostess with the mostess of Alamogordo KOA where we're staying and headed over to check out the sand dunes. With every new place we visit, I'm amazed at how outstanding and unique all these national parks are. This white sand was so white and clean, gorgeous mountain ranges in both directions... just awesome. The gypsum sand was so much easier to walk on than our beach sand. You don't sink into this sand as much as you would at the beach, You can see from the photos how the sand will even hold the detailed prints of a sneaker. Like any trip to the beach, we did accidnetaly end up bringing a ton of it home in the car and in our shoes. Matt was feeling a bit better the next day, so he rallied for a mile hike and even a sled ride! State: New Mexico
Middile of Nowhere Where we stayed: Casey's Socorro RV Park You may have seen these gigantic radio telescopes on tv or in the movies. We watched the movie Contact with Jody Foster to get us in the mood for our visit. :) The Very Large Array (VLA) is a group of 27 radio antenaes spread out in a Y shape over the the plains of New Mexico. There are four main configurations that the telescopes are placed in depending on what the researchers want to study. I'll have to point you to Matt if you want to know more details (unfortunately, my brain space has been compromised by grocery shopping lists and shutter speeds). I can tell you that it was super windy while we were there (not uncommon) and fuh-reezing. If you happen to be heading west from here, be sure to stop for some pie in Pie Town. State: New Mexico Coronado Campground We stayed at a city run campground in Bernalillo, a suburb just north of ABQ (Matt and I started watching Breaking Bad to learn more about the area). A deal at $20 a night (plus a $10 registration fee). We had a nice flat site with a water and electricity, and a view of the snowcapped mountains and Rio Grande. Each site had a little enclosed adobe picnic table room (great for putting your bikes if they're not already frozen onto your bike rack). Took a picture of a cricket I found in the bathroom for Kaylie's new bug collection, and decided to skip taking a shower here. We had to pull our slides in on our rv because the wind was blowing like mad and we didn't want the awnings over the slides to tear apart with the gusts. When we woke up in the morning all was calm, but there was a decorative layer of snow on everything. Luckily, the snow just lasted the morning and we were able to head out on some adventures without much delay.
State: New Mexico
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument Friday we packed up the RV and headed out of Santa Fe since the temps were supposed to drop and snow was looking likely. We decided to drop down to Albuquerque since elevation was lower and temps were a little bit warmer. Since the drive was so quick, we decided to travel separately. I left a bit earlier and scoped out a parking place off the highway so that Matt wouldn't have to drive the RV up to Tent Rocks. We parked the RV in a nicely paved, very empty parking lot for a Mormon monument. I've only seen one episode of Breaking Bad, but I did have visions of some drugged out wingnuts breaking into our RV and running off with it while we were gone. But good vibes at the Mormon monument and our RV was still there when we returned. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (let's just call it Tent Rocks) is AWESOME! This has got to be one of my all-time favorite hikes. It's got a narrow, slot canyon that's fun to squeeze through, sides to climb up, hoodoos... all kinds of eye candy. It's especially great because the kids could do it on their own too with no major cliffs for them to fall off. We had a bit of a rough start, but everyone made it back to the car without having to be carried (too long). State: New Mexico
Where we stayed: Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV Park in Santa Fe We decided to take a day trip up to Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument. As we headed up into the mountains, I had to pull over to soak in the gorgeous view. As I was looking out, we spied a few bird soaring above (anyone know how to tell the difference between a hawk and falcon?). State: New Mexico
Where we stayed: Los Suenos de Santa Fe Rv Park The weather looked clear for a few days so we decided to head north to Santa Fe. We wanted to visit Taos also, but unfortunately it was too chilly. It was fun to see the pueblo style architecture in Santa Fe - nearly all the buildings had flat rooves with rounded edges, were earth toned and felt a little more authentic than that Barvarian town we visited in October. Instead of colorful Christmas lights, most of the buildings had quaint looking luminarias sitting along the rooflines (think brown paper lunchbags with a white light inside). I didn't find the capitol city to be particularily kid-friendly, but we did have a nice day walking about town. We checked out some sculptures along Canyon Road which is known for having a concentration of art galleries. State: New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns National Park Where we stayed: Whites City RV Park We stayed at the only rv park in the area - Whites City RV. Our first mistake was to pull in after dark to a place we had never been before. After making a wrong turn which led to a little offroading in the rv (holding on hoping we wouldn't tip over during each bump), a few phone calls to the office and the use of my handy dandy cell phone flashlight feature, we found our way into a campsite. If you are only going to be in town for a couple days and plan to just go to the caverns, then this is the place to stay. It's about an eight mile drive to the visitor center. We did drive drive twenty miles to the town of Carlsbad, NM to do some grocery shopping. It was the saddest Albertson's I had ever been to, and driving through I was happy not to be staying in town. Our first day in town, Matt took the big kids on a special 5 hour tour of Slaughter Canyon Cave. A deal at $7.50 for each kid. This tour was an hour's drive from the visitor center, requried a hike to the cave and then they spent about two hours in an unlit cave (they wore headlamps to see). Unfortunately for Emmett the Explorer, the minimum age was eight, so he had to stay home with me doing laundry. A huge thumbs up from Matt and the kids. |
aboutI'll be sharing our travel plans, some reviews, cooking ideas (because I know you are all jealous of my easy-bake oven), and ... oh who am I kidding?! I'll be lucky to get our photos posted! categories
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February 2016
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