City Of Rocks

We revisited City of Rocks - one of our favorite New Mexico State Parks. Located between Deming and Silver City in the southern part of the state it is remote, quiet and beautiful. A dense array of boulders formed from volcanic ash welded together 30 million years ago, then sculpted by wind and water, give the place its name.

As seen at sunrise our motorhome is on the far right of the group in the center. Other camp sites hidden among the rocks are occupied by tent campers, so there are more people there than is apparent.

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White Sands National Monument

Just a short journey south from Three Rivers Petroglyphs, near Alamogordo, we visited White Sands National Monument. It is huge, covering 275 square miles in south-eastern New Mexico.
Photo below courtesy of Wikipedia.

The sand is actually gypsum crystals. Gypsum is rarely found in the form of sand because it is water-soluble. Normally, rain would dissolve it and carry it to the sea. Since the basin in which the Monument lies has no outlet to the sea rain water that dissolves gypsum from the surrounding mountains is trapped, leaving the crystals on the surface when it evaporates or sinks into the ground.

The sand shifts constantly and often covers any vegetation that tries to grow but some like these Yucca survive, for a while at least.

There are other forms of life here as well, including forty-four species of mammals, twenty-six species of reptiles. six species of amphibians and nearly 100 families of insects according to the books. This lone beetle is the only thing we saw ...

... other than our matching puppy Mr. Zax. He seemed to like it a lot. What Terrier wouldn't, with all of that sand to dig in.

There is a large picnic area at the end of the loop road, populated with futuristic-looking aluminum tables. It was too cold for a picnic but they seem to be waiting for warmer weather. Anyway, I liked the serial geometry of the scene.

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Three Rivers Petroglyphs

The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site north of Alamagordo New Mexicois is one of the few locations in the Southwest set aside solely because of its rock art. The number and concentration of petroglyphs here make it one of the largest and most interesting petroglyph sites in the Desert Southwest.

There is a picnic area near the start of the trail that provides access to the glyphs. We drove past it on the way in but were mislead by signs that said the "campground" was about 13 miles farther on a dirt road. After driving there we discovered that was not where we wanted to be. We were prepared to stay anyway but could not find a camp site that was level enough so drove back to the picnic area. There are two RV spaces there with water and electric hookups, and we got one of them.

Our site had a beautiful view and was very quiet and peaceful. The gate is locked at 5:00 pm and does not reopen until 8:00 the next morning so we had no choice but to stay in camp in the evening. There is no place to go anyway. The nearest town is about 20 miles.

Petroglyphs at Three Rivers were created by Jornada Mogollon people between about 900 and 1400 AD. The site includes the remains of a Mogollon village whose inhabitants were likely responsible for the petroglyphs. The site, which was partially excavated in 1976, was occupied for about 400 years.

All of the glyphs we saw were carved on loose bolders and were fairly small. There are some larger ones deeper in he site but we didn't try to reach tem because there were a lot of rattlesnakes in that area at the time.

Nearby there is a small chapel called Santo Nino. It is just shy of 100 years old and is still in use. The building is not particularly remarkable but I liked the way the late afternoon sun was lighting up the bell tower.

The interior of the chapel was lavishly decorated in a style typical of the southwest.

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Cochiti Lake - Tent Rocks

Cochiti Lake, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is formed behind a large Corp of Engineers dam on the Rio Grande River. Nearby Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is home to cone-shaped rock formations that are products of volcanic eruptions that occurred 6 to 7 million years ago. We enjoyed the Monument and also the Corp Of Engineers campground overlooking the lake. We had a beautiful site and the price is right - just $6/night with our National Parks pass.

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Balloon Fiesta 2008

We arrived at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta a little earlier than usual this year, checking in on Monday ahead of the opening on Saturday. We wanted to be sure we got our favorite spot but overdid it a bit. There was only one other RV in that section when we got there and it didn't start filling up until the end of the week. That may have been at least partly because overall attendance was down this year.

Oue spot is on the edge of what was the launch field until the new facility was built two miles to the north a few years ago. It is a great spot because the balloons often come south directly over the RVs, and sometime land there. There are no electrical or water hookups but it costs only $25 per night.

This big cathedral-shaped balloon, new this year, looks like it is landing on the roof of our motorhome but actually came down directly in front of us.

When the wind takes the balloons north instead of south we enjoy hopping in the car and going with them, trying to reach the places they land. On this day many of them came down in a housing development, much to the delight of the residents. The pilots did a good job of setting them down in the streets without breaking anything.

This year I volunteered to work on a chase crew, which means that I helped launch the balloon and recover it after it landed. I was assigned to help a professional pilot from eastern Utah named Kevin Morgan. The white balloon in the photo above is one of several his company, Teton Balloons, owns. If you are ever in that area and want to take a Tetons sightseeing ride look them up. Kevin is a great pilot.

I later had an opportunity to ride with Kevin and of course grabbed it. It was my first ride and it was terrific. The wind took us about 15 miles north to the town of Bernalillo where we made a good landing in the fire station parking lot.

Getting all of the air out of the balloon and packing it up is not the most fun part of the adventure but it has to be done before the champaign comes out.

Key Grab Day (Friday) is one of my favorites because the balloons launch from off site and come over the field in tight formation as they compete for prizes attached to poles. The top prize is a new Honda car or truck.

This turned out to be the last good day of this year's Fiesta. Events for Saturday and Sunday were cancelled because of rain and high winds.

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