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Published: July 25th 2009
Leaving Texas
and entering New Mexico...not exactly enchanting...just yet.We finally left the West Texas country and entered into The Land of Enchantment. The landscape as you can see in the photos changed from the creosote bush (AKA greasewood) to grassy rangeland. BTW, the creosote bush can live up to 900 years! Betcha didn’t know that. In fact, the plants can clone themselves and may be the oldest living organisms on Earth…things that make you say…hmmmm. We also left the heat in the lowlands as the grassy plains go up to 5,000 - 6,000 feet in elevation. The cooler temps were an unexpected and welcome treat.
We rolled into and through Carlsbad. This region is a major pecan growing area. I was surprised by the number and size of the groves. I guess I associated pecans with the Southeastern part of the USA.
We finally reached out destination of Rosewell late in the afternoon. It was too late to hit the UFO museum and so we headed out to the Bottomless Lakes State Park. First of all, the lakes aren’t bottomless and they aren’t exactly lakes. I would classify them more as very large ponds. They are located in a cool canyon like area and the state of New Mexico
Bottomless Lakes State Park
If you can waterski on it, then it is a lake...if not...it is a pond...says I. has developed a very nice rv/campsite. One of the lakes, closest to the camp site, has a little beach and a swimming area cordoned off for that purpose.
We set up camp and immediately headed over for a swim. After the long drive going for a swim in the evening was an excellent way to finish off the day. The water was cool and refreshing.
Afterwards we hit the showers and then set about to grill the evening meal. Our plans for dining outdoors were dashed when we were set upon by clouds of mosquitoes and flying ants. The bugs really came out when the sun goes down. Vincenzo had to dash in dash out of the rv to keep an eye on the grill - it was that bad. Meanwhile, I set about killing all the flying bugs that had made it into the rv. Fortunately the rv’s shore AC and copious amounts of vino made our dining experience quite comfortable.
The next morning we headed into Rosewell and went to the UFO museum that is dedicated to the famous “Rosewell Incident.” The museum opened at 9AM and I expected that we would be the only one there. Wrong!!
Driving into the park
red sandstone cliffs on one side of the park... There were already folks inside when we arrived and there was a steady flow of people coming into the museum. The museum has a map of the world where visitors can stick a pin to indicate there hometown. There are visitors from all over the world.
We got our fill of UFOlogy and aliens and hit the road for Albuquerque. By this time the landscape had changed to the desert vistas one associates with New Mexico. It is quite picturesque and interesting.
We stopped briefly in Albuquerque to re-stock and refuel at the Costco in town. BTW we mostly hit Wal-Marts and available Costco stores for gas and supplies. I had mapped out the location of the Costco stores so we could drive straightaway to them without doing any searching. Wal-Marts are literally everywhere and located in easy to spot locations.
Our plan was to visit the Acoma pueblo but unfortunately it was Sunday and closed to visitors. We did stop briefly at a small pueblo in Laguna. We went to the church that had been built in the late 1800s. We hit the road and stopped at some rv park for the night. It was ok but located too
Picturesque park
I think the locals come out to camp and swim in the lake/pond. close to the freeway. The facilities were very clean fortunately. We had a good night’s sleep got up the next morning and headed to Winslow, Arizona.
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