Elephant Butte State Park

We made a move this morning to Elephant Butte State Park. This park is New Mexico's largest and most popular, I'm sure the reason is the water that is here. There is very little water in this state so this is a major draw. Elephant Butte Lake is a reservoir along the Rio Grande river. The park has a marina, boat landing, shore line camping and four large campgrounds with electric and water hookups. We managed to get a spot high on a hill with a great overlook.

The weather for the next couple days sounds terrible (for here) highs only in the 60's lows in the 30's and wind gusts to 50-60 miles per hour. We are regretting now that we didn't head for Arizona last week instead we are now thinking of heading that way next week.

Today being Friday meant laundry day so once we set up camp we set out to find a laundromat. We found one right outside the park at a beautiful RV Resort. After laundry we took along walk and had our supper. Right now the winds are still but they are suppose to start again later this evening and last through the day tomorrow.

Another plus to this park is that it has wifi and so far it has been very fast. 

 Our campsite

 More of our campsite

Caballo Lake State Park Day Two

With the call for a very windy day we thought another car ride was in order.Once again we would try to get to the Gila Cliff Dwellings we tried last year and it was too cold and snowy this year we made it as far as Silver City and decided it was just too late in the day to go over another mountain pass, it was just another 40 miles but because the pass is almost 10,000 feet it would take another two hours, so we stopped at McDonalds in Silver City and after a drive through the old section of town we started the two hour trek back over the pass and  home.

 We are staying in Truth or Consequences New Mexico at Lake Calballo State Park and to get to Silver City we had to go over the Emory Pass, which is almost 9000 feet elevation. The switch backs were so tight that the speed limit was only 10 and 15 miles per hour on the curves. Needless to say the trip up and down was just beautiful it takes you from the desert floor up to the Evergreen forest of the Black Range and the Mimbres Mountains and back down to the desert.  The weather turned out very nice, not as windy here as they predicted and a high of 80degrees it has been pretty cloudy though, which is unusual for New Mexico. 

 Lower elevation

 Climbing

 Emery Pass

 Emery Pass

Emery Pass

We passed through the town of Hillsboro on the way, this is main street.

Hillsboro Church

We also passed the Santa Rita Cooper Mine which is the oldest working mine in North America