Today, we finally moved on to New Mexico!  We had planned to pick up information at the Welcome center as we crossed the border but it was closed.  Maybe we aren’t welcome? Never daunted by a lack of information, we chose a park and pushed on hoping for the best. On the way to our park we stopped by White Sands National Monument. The white sand dunes are amazing. They look like Michigan sand dunes but shorter and much whiter. The sand is gypsum sand. They even rent sleds to sled down the dunes! It felt like home. Sand dunes, but they looked like piles of snow!

We arrived at our chosen state park to find that they only had 27 campsites and only 6 had electric. Of course, they were all full so we camped off grid for the night. The park was out of state park information, the park ranger was not very friendly but worst of all, no petroglyphs. We chose the park because a fellow camper in Texas told us there were petroglyphs nearby! They did have one steep hiking trail which we went part way on. It was quite steep but we still couldn’t understand why we got winded so quickly since we've been hiking mountains nearly every day.  But, when we got back down, we found that the trail started at 4000  feet in elevation and climbed quickly to 6000 feet. So, we are blaming thin air 😁

Janet, leading as usual .

View from the top (or as far up as we went).

We also went on a short river walk.

So, after only one night and one hike and still no park information, we chose another park at random and moved on. We arrived at said chosen park to find that it also had an unfriendly ranger, no information, no water and only a few (full) electric sites. We chose to move on toward Gila Bend Cliff Dwelling National Monument, our destination. After a 2 ½ hour drive where we only went 67 miles, we arrived at the only RV park within 50 miles of the monument.  The drive was twisty, winding, and narrow, on the edge of mountains with hairpin turns and few guard rails, but oh, so beautiful!

Wait....why did we drive 3000 miles to see snow?!

 

Gila Bend Hot Springs Park is small and privately owned with pastures of sheep, goats and some free range horses. Now, we feel at home. 💓 And, a short walk down to the river brings you to a small hot spring where you can soak for $5. And, on the walk you see the goats and it is birthing season, nothing cuter than lots of a few days old baby goats playing!

These guys were just hours old and still damp. This is how they move them from the birthing pasture to the baby pasture. Mom just follows along.

The only downside is there is no internet, no WiFi, no cell service and no TV reception, which is why this is being posted days later!