Eastern NM to TX Panhandle

October 5-17, 2018

We have really grown to love the west so it was with much sadness we headed east, also might be sad because we were no longer traveling with Curt & Glenda. Our next stop was at Sumner Lake State Park near Fort Sumner NM, here for two nights as we slowly work our way down the east side of NM.

We had site 9 at Sumner Lake State Park, $14/night, the sites in this area share a power\water pedestal, the even numbers are closer to the utilities otherwise your electric and water lines go under your rig. The pull thru sites looked real tight, at least we had plenty of room. No problem with our Verizon signal or getting Dish satellite. NM state parks have gotten into geocaching, each park has at least one cache in it.

Site 9

What to do while in Fort Sumner NM, it’s all about Billy The Kid since he was shot to death here at the age of 21. The Billy The Kid Museum did have things about Billy The Kid but was mostly a collection of old stuff. 

Is it? Switchboard, dentist, cash office

We used to have a base like this one in our laundry room

Hey Dad, anyone you know?

Then there was his grave which I guess has disappeared before, hopefully the cage will keep it in place.

Our next stop was 186 miles away at Bottomless Lake State Park in Roswell NM. We had site 27, $14/night, water and electric, nice long pull thru across the street from Lake Lea. Another 2 night stay. Of course there was a geocache there but Dave didn’t have his camera with him.

Of course when you’re in Roswell you have to at least check out the aliens a little bit. We hit up the UFO Museum and enjoyed some street murals.

Local courthouse has alien dome

Our next stop was Brantley Lake State Park a short 65 miles away, north of Carlsbad NM about 10 miles. When we arrived we traded our reserved site for a walk-in site. We knew the weather forecast was calling for some cold air to come thru and we were headed to Davis Mountain with an elevation of 5k and more. We chose site 35, $14/night, water/electric and paid for 4 nights.

Carlsbad Caverns National Monument has the largest “rooms” that we’ve ever been. We take the Natural Entrance, going from the top down, wind ourselves through the “Big Room” and eventually taking an elevator back to the top.

That same evening we came back for the bat flight program, one of those bucket list things. You’re not allowed to take pictures in the amphitheater, all electronic devices have to be turned off, no pictures of the bat flight till we got back to truck. The Natural Entrance we had hiked down earlier in the day was where the bats came out. Check that one off the bucket list, two things down in one week J

Since we had seen what was below the Chihuahuan Desert it was time to see what was above it. The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park was a great place to get some steps in one day, not much in the way of plants but there were animals to see.

Of course there’s geocaching to do.

After watching the weather we decided to forgo Davis Mountain State Park and save it for better weather one day. We added a few nights to our Brantley Lake stay and did some rerouting. Our next reservation is for San Angelo State Park on Friday the 19^th. On Sunday, 14^th, we headed east to Lake Colorado City State Park, a time zone and state change, 224 miles later we’re set up in site 43, $20/night-we have a TX State Park Pass, water and electric, with lake views. Since we knew cold weather was imminent we got out and found the TX Parks geocache, we’ll be looking for one in all the TX state parks we’ll be in for the next month.  

We arrived on Sunday, on Monday the cold weather set in, highs of 40’s and lows in the low 30’s brrrrrr. We paid for 4 nights, the last few days we’ve hunkered down made some chili, vegged out and  I’ve gotten 3 blog posts done. Since the park is just 5 miles off the interstate it makes a great overnight stop. We’ll see when we decide to leave for San Angelo a short 77 miles away.

Until next time…