Southern New Mexico Sites & Sights:
Yep, Valley of Fires BLM Campground is very nice, has water, electric & free showers in a nice bathhouse.
Las Cruces Area & Southern NM Mexican Food plus camping and attractions in the area. At least try a Green Chile Cheese Burger.
VideoTaste of NM Pecans:
Stahmanns or
Salopek In Las Cruces: Hacienda RV Resort and Siesta RV Park are the easiest to get to, just of I-10 exit 140. Las Cruces KOA and Sunny Acres RV Park off I-10 exit 135. KOA on the mesa over looking the Mesilla Valley, Sunny Acres in the Valley.
Park Reviews Siesta RV has gravel roads & pads, Hacienda RV has paved roads, maybe concrete pads. Sunny Acres more into town, maybe cramped???
South of Silver City is
City of Rocks State Park, a neat place to see & would make a nice overnight stop.
Around the Deming Area:
Pancho Villa SP is south of Deming right on the Mexican Border in Columbus, NM. Pancho Villa raided Columbus on Mar 9, 1916.
HISTORY Of THE COLUMBUS RAID It was only a few years before the US would enter World War I which was already raging in Europe.
North of Deming towards Silver City is
City of Rocks State Park. I've never been to Pancho Villa, but have enjoyed out trips & stays at City of Rocks.
Ditto on City of RocksSilver City Area -Videos Leasburg Dam State Park is about 17 miles N of Las Cruces on I-25. With
Fort Selden State Mon't near by. A young Douglas Mac Arthur called the fort home while his father was post commander in the late 1880s.
Our 3 days at Brantley Lake State Park 10 miles or so North of Carlsbad. Had to stay an extra day when the road up to the Caverns was closed due to Flash Flood warnings, very heavy rains on Friday. Water & electric, no cable, but good TV signals which helped on rainy Friday. Not crowed, but several camping. Didn't check out the dry camping area. These all had water & electric with a few with sewer. Saturday was overcast & cool. Walked in from the entrance, about 2 1/2 hrs. The oil field traffic is extremely bad now up there from Balmorhea to Pecos & on to Carlsbad. A great many tankers on the highways plus dump trucks, flat bed semis & other trucks.
1 night at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park 12 miles South of Alamogordo. We would have stayed in Cloudcroft, but it was rainy & going to get pretty cold at night. Choose not to get water & electric to see how our two batteries would work (did very well), but poor TV reception. Almost no traffic west bound from Artesia to Cloudcroft, more east bound. Some rain & sprinkles going up as well.
Cloudcroft & Drive Down the Mountain
Only HWY Tunnel in New Mexico
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park
If you chose to used I-25: Around the T or C area, three state parks, Elephant Butte SP and Caballo SP with Caballo being closest to the interstate as well as Percha Dam State Park a nice place on Rio Grande, near Caballo Lake.
Elephant Butte Lake State Park headquarters are 5 miles north of Truth or Consequences via I-25 exit 83. Caballo Lake State Park is 16 miles south of Truth or Consequences via I-25 exit 59 and NM 187. Percha Dam State Park is 21 miles south of Truth or Consequences via I-25, exit 59.
Off I-25 by San Antonio, the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge.
Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park Never stayed there, but have read about others staying there to see the Bosque.
One of the most talked about green chile cheese burgers for years, is in San Antonio, NM at the Owl Bar.
I have now been hearing about another green chile cheeseburger in San Antonio. The Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio. I believe the chef at Buckhorn beat Bobby Flay on a Throwdown with him.
San Antonio, New Mexico was the birth place & boyhood home of Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton Hotels.
Valley of Fires BLM Campground (near Carrizozo) is a first rate campground with electric & water hookups, good dump station and a fine shower house. Not Alpine area, warmer. Pics & description can be found:
Campground . . and . .
Cloudcroft, Lincoln/Capitan, Carrizozo/White Oaks. Campgrounds not open yet end of March and early April.
More to the West, the Silver City & Gila Nat'l Forest Area can be neat places to see & explore.
The Gila Area (Pronounced Hee-La & means 'Spider') Plus a Scattering of Other NM Sites & Sights.
:)Here's some sites & sights for Northern New Mexico (Colder than Southern New Mexico, of course):
Georgia O'Keefe Museum, in Santa Fe. A neat town with lots of arts to see. Not only the O'Keefe Museum will have her work, some of the NM State Museums do as well.
http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/As for Indian Art & Culture, The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology is located on Museum Hill, which has The Wheelwright Museum.
https://wheelwright.org/Lot of Indian Vendors on Sidewalk in front of the
Palace of the Governors most of the time. As well of other vendors along many of the streets around the plaza & to it. Not to mention all the galleries & shops.
Hyde Memorial State Park above Santa Fe (most of the state parks have free showers, but none here).
Find a Park Map. NM State Parks: $10 no hookup, $4 for electric, not entry fee on top of camping fee.
:C Cochiti COE Campground & Tent Rocks Nat'l Park in Northern New Mexico Off I-25:
Near Santa Fe - Very Neat Area. We were there in June last year & it was very pleasant weather wise.
In ABQ, the
Indian Pueblo Museum should be of interest to you as well.
:C
Santa Fe & Bandelier Nat'l Mon't area of New Mexico -A Trip Report 2012. This was in August.
Los Alamos is a very neat small city in itself. Free bus system with very neat buses. Very pretty setting up in the high country. Somewhat of a gated community as well. We only drove through & stopped at a SuperMarket. A nice town.
http://www.visit.losalamos.com/http://www.losalamosnm.us/transit/Pages/default.aspx Between Santa Fe & Taos as well.
More on the Santa Fe Area Expanded & ABQ.
Just minutes north of Albuquerque (off of I-25, exit 242) in Bernalillo, is Coronado State Monument where Francisco Vásquez de Coronado—with 300 soldiers and 800 Indian allies from New Spain—entered the valley while looking for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold. Next to it: There is a Bernalillo city campground (used to be a state park) at the entrance to the State Monument. Wasn't a bad site some years ago, haven't been there in some time.
Coronado CampgroundOver by Grants (I-40 W from ABQ): El Morro National Monument is neat to see & has a small campground; there is a private campgound near by as well. Near Grants or can be reached from Gallup. We went from Gallup to Zuni Pueblo then to El Morro (we lingered too long at the Pueblo and didn't get to hike the trial at El Morro, got there too late in the day; its a neat trail too, we had hiked it before). Of course one could go to it from Grants as well.
An old post
Flagstaff - Gallup - Grants- Albuquerque - Santa Fe - PlusThis was a neat place to camp and visit (have not been to in it many years), even with a museum nearby, all close to Gallup at Red Rock/Churchrock just off of I-40 east of town. It was a state park when we used it.
http://www.campingroadtrip.com/campgrounds/campground/campground/11212/new-mexico/red-rock-state-parkBlue Water Lake State Park, by Grants, west of Albu'que on I-40. Bluewater not a bad area, but more of a fishing site. But not at all bad for an overnight, even some hiking trails.
http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/bluewaterlakestatepark.html :C El Morro National Monument is neat to see & has a small campground; there is a private campgound near by as well. Near Grants or can be reached from Gallup. We went from Gallup to Zuni Pueblo then to El Morro (we lingered too long at the Pueblo and didn't get to hike the trial at El Morro, got there too late in the day; its a neat trail too, we had hiked it before). Of course one could go to it from Grants as well.
http://www.nps.gov/elmo/index.htm:C More on Santa Fe (Eating):
We had very good Asian from
Jinja Bar & Bistro in Santa Fe. Just stumbled onto it in a thunder/rain storm in 2012. We did carry out, but it was a very nice restaurant. June 2014, we ate there again inside. Very good food.
Someone at the AAA office recommended
Tortilla Flats in Santa Fe; it prove to be very good as well.
Normally, we would eat on the Plaza, from Cart Vendors, such as Roque's Carnitas.
Cart Cuisine, but they were not there that week-end. Due to the 'Santa Fe Indian Market', "a 91-year-old Native art market", we didn't find the normal street food venders on the Plaza. We did eat once at one of the 'Indian' vendors, but the lines were extremely long. Also at a roasted corn vendor. This was in August 2012.
A little on the
Chama Area. The very neat Cumbres Toltec Steam Train runs from & to Chama & Antonito (Colorado); turns soon after Cumbres Pass Station & head cross country to Antonito. One can do a halfway trip (which we did a few years ago), a 'free' meal at halfway point (price included in tickets). Good food there & plenty of it.
Two neat stops, north of Abiquiu, worth a see would be the Echo Amphitheater, a Natural rock formation, and the Ghost Ranch Piedra Lumbre Education and Visitor Center, located on U.S. Highway 84 just one mile north of the main Ghost Ranch entrance, has exhibits and a gift shop. A very nice museum in "O´Keefe Country." The Echo Amphitheater is past the visitor center some miles.
http://karlfmoffatt.blogspot.com/2010/08/ghost-ranch-piedra-lumbre-visitor.htmlChaco Canyon is neat to see, we used the entrance route off US 550 from ABQ last time in 2012. We have driven in to see it in the past. With a TC once & with a TT once. It could be done, depending on how bad the road is when there.
Our
Chaco Canyon Trip Part One in 2012. A hard one to get back into at times.
Part Two Why we wanted to do the trip only in the pickup. One could see a good part in one day if get there early enough. If not in an RV.
Sugarite Canyon State Park by Raton is a neat area. And a short drive from Raton is the Capulin Volcano Nat'l Mon't.
A Neat Place. ------
But no CampingBetween Raton & Las Vegas, Not far S of Springer, just off I-25 is
Fort Union Nat'l Mon't.
At Las Vegas (older place than the one in NV)
Storrie Lake State Park, but we have used the Walmart there to do a few overnights. Lot of mountains behind Las Vegas (west) with National Forests campgrounds.
Off I-25 between Santa Fe & Las Vegas,
Villanueva State Park. It is off the 25 a bit. Somewhat off the beaten path. However, one can use NM 3 to cut down to the I-40 from Villanueva. We did that one visit.
