Rocks and Rolling

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It was Sunday morning quiet as we drove through Deming heading north up Hwy 180. We had been told by several people that we needed to see City of Rocks State Park twenty-some miles to the north. They weren’t kidding, it was spectacular with great boulders tumbled together in a fairly flat valley. And the cool thing was the campsites were tucked among the rocks. It was mostly dry camping (no hookups) but they had a few sites with hookups, but they were out in the open. It is definitely a place we’d like to come back and camp. At one campsite there was a female long-eared owl in a nest high in a rock cavity. We looked for the male, who is normally nearby, but never spotted him.

From there we traveled on to Silver City where we stopped for gas and a few items at Walmart, our home away from home. Our plan was to drive up state hwy 15 to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, but after 7 miles of steep, winding road we were turned back by a bicycle race which had the road closed. We could have gone to Gila on another more circuitous route, but decided instead to come on to Roper Lake State Park in Arizona. This park has a lake for swimming and hot springs for soaking, along with lots of birds and plenty of daytime heat, though it cools nicely at night.

We’re not due in Phoenix until Tuesday, so we’ll see what’s next.

More later.

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