NM State Parks Spring 2019 Summary

Now that I'm home, it's time to summarize the experiences of the last six and a half weeks, including a comparison with Mom and Dad's weeks spent in the New Mexico State Parks during their retirement. It was quite nostalgic to visit many of the same places they loved so much. Richard even remembered which camp site in Navajo Lake Pine campground they liked to reserve. Unfortunately, site 4 is now designated as a camp host spot, so we couldn't camp in it, but every time I walked the loop with Hanna, I thought of them. Every time, I stood overlooking the lake, I thought of Dad taking his boat out and finding a favorite fishing spot. Every hour I spent reading, I thought of Mom relaxing in their fifth wheel while Dad was out on the water. And many of the sight seeing side trips Dale and I took were because I had read about them in Mom's journals.

Mom left a stack of journals where I rediscovered the excitement of their travels.

I didn't track all my expenses or mileage this year. After traveling in my Minnie for 3 years, I know what my gas mileage is (~7.5 towing my Fit), and my campground expenses were mostly covered by the annual pass I purchased for $225.

We camped in four state parks; Percha Dam, Bluewater Lake, Navajo Lake and Heron Lake, as well as a couple of boon docks outside the parks. We visited three more parks; Caballo, Elephant Butte and El Vado. My favorite campground was Heron, but the lake was so low we didn't enjoy the view much. That award goes to Navajo, especially since that lake has several arms and varying perspectives from the campgrounds and roads around it.

The best part of the trip was spending it with Dale. We really enjoyed camping together, each with our own Minnies, taking lots of trips to see the sights or running into the Walmart in the nearest town, walking the campground loops and trails, and sitting around an evening campfire making S'mores.

I really appreciated him accommodating my desire to visit certain locations. He might have wandered a little farther east or stayed longer in each spot if I hadn't been spurring him to move and discover a new adventure with me.

His summer plans are to mozy around northern Arizona, and try to find places to put his kayak in the creeks, streams and lakes there. I think I will try to escape the Valley heat and join him for a few weeks up in the mountains. Then next fall, I hope to head back east and drive the Nachez Trace Parkway end to end. Maybe I can convince him to tag along with me!

Maybe I can convince my readers to tag along too, via this blog!

Headed home

Dale and I left Navajo on Saturday morning, and drove south to Thoreau, where instead of turning east and driving into Bluewater Lake State Park, we kept going into the Cibola National Forest. Dale had boon docked in a nice location a couple of years ago, and we drove directly to his old site and set up camp. The road was a little rough, but doable with the big wheels on our Minnies. We spent a quiet night in the forest without seeing another soul, not even the four legged kind.

On Sunday morning, we said our good byes (for now), and I drove back to I-40 and turned west, while he made plans to turn east and back to the Bluewater Lake campground. I turned south on Highway 87 in Winslow, and made my way to Blue Ridge Ranger Station, and an overnight site next to Richard and Dianna. After Dianna and I took a nice forest walk, we had elk burgers for dinner, and I discovered they are delicious! Much chatting and an NBA basketball game filled the rest of our evening.

I made it home just before noon on Monday, to find 98° heat awaiting me.

She climbed up on the seat as we came through Mesa. She knows we're almost home!

Throughout the afternoon, I managed to get my Minnie put away in my back yard and emptied. I'm pooped! No walk for Hanna and me tonight.

Back to Navajo

After a wonderful week at the Heron Lake campground, Dale and I discovered the weather forecast had turned nasty and that area was in for cold and snow the next week, so on Sunday, we packed up and headed back to Navajo. We pulled into Pine campground and took two electric sites, with plans to hunker down a few days before the weather turned nice again. I discovered I have an electric heat setting on my heat pump AC, and it sure came in handy when the snow began to fall there!!

On Wednesday night, the campground began to fill with folks getting an early start to the long Memorial Day weekend ahead. At 10:30 p.m. some campers pulled in across the road from me and made raucous noise until 3:30 in the morning.

Dale and I decided it was time to move up the road to Juniper, the quieter non-electric campground. We found two great sites next to each other on the end of the far loop, and it was bliss for the next 10 days.

Waiting for graham cracker crumbs to drop

We mostly hung around camp for the week, walking 2-3 times each day and ending the evenings with a campfire and S'mores. It was lovely to just relax and enjoy being together.

On Thursday (May 30), we piled Hanna and ourselves into the car and drove north to Durango, Colorado. We had googled "things to do in Durango" and found a list of sites and attractions. We started at the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, wandering through a lot of artifacts of both the railroad, and also other historical forms of transportation. From there we went to Nini's Taquerio for huge delicious burritos. With full tummies, we made our way to the Animas Museum, which was also quite interesting, well worth the $4 senior price of admission. We drove another dozen miles north to visit the Pinkerton Hot Springs, a cool little pull-off site where warm soda water bubbles up and over the rocks creating streaks of color that cascade down the hill. The green and snow capped mountain behind it is the perfect backdrop.

By that time, it was mid afternoon, so we headed back south, meandering down the pretty road through the Colorado landscape.

The following weekend, a bunch of twenty somethings filled the campsites around us, and we knew it was again time to move on. Home was calling, chores and appointments are building up, and I'm longing to see my kids and grandkids again.