We were in Las Cruces for 3 days and Tucson for 7, very dry, very windy and hot, not a lot else to say about our trip through the ‘Grand Canyon State’. A few years ago we visited Phoenix to go to a Tina Turner concert and went to the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest so on this trip we concentrated on the southern half of the state.

In Las Cruces we had the ‘normal’ crushed rock site with no grass for 3 days. We had to visit Hatch which is World famous for its chili festival and crop each year, well – famous in the Southern States of the US. Then we were blown away when we visited the White Sands National Park – words are really useless in trying to describe this area so enjoy the pictures.

Hey – wait for me

White sands almost as far as you can see

In Tucson we decided to stay at a KOA, sometime a little iffy on the site, we had to move to another site in Williamsburg as the first one was just not level. Tucson – amazing level site with a patch of grass next to the concrete patio with bushes between sites and citrus trees, Rusty was in doggie heaven.

We drove up to Mount Lemmon, over 8,000 feet – one way up and one way back down, and some fantastic views. On the way back down we had a job keeping ahead of the cyclists barreling down the hills and around the bends – total insanity, we were doing over 40 MPH.

View from the top looking on the road we travelled

Interesting stretch of road with a drop on each side

Local wildlife on Lemmon Mountain

Looking back up the mountain

The next trip was to Tombstone, very touristy but what are we on these trips? part-time tourists. There’s a small theme park with gun fight shows, the OK Corral – another gun fight, and the main street – interesting to walk down. Boot Hill Graveyard is free to walk around though I had to carry Rusty, animals are not allowed to walk around – that dog needs to go on a diet. We had a picnic near to the courthouse – munching on a Jimmy Johns sandwich we picked up on the way – yummy, beats Subway hands down.

Boot Hill – the Clantons

Big Nose Kate Saloon in Tombstone

Tombstone local transport

Tombstone theme park jail

Saguaro National Forest was our last trip, who forgot to charge the camera battery – I did, though Connie forgot to remind me – casting blame is always good for a slap on the head. Though once you’ve seen one huge cactus the rest are just a blur, I just didn’t realize that they would have such bright flowers.

Red flowering cactus

Flowering Cactus in Saguaro Forest

From here it was a one night stop in Yuma before tackling the hills (over 4,100 feet from sea level) into the San Diego area.

So, what can you say about New Mexico? Mountains, windy, dry, windy, hilly, dry, mountainous, windy and high altitude – did I mention windy and dry? On the dry part – we decided to take the car through Big Daddy’s car wash in Las Cruces yesterday, this morning it rained!!!

Having said all that there are some really amazing sights and places to visit in New Mexico. Albuquerque was our home for a week at the High Desert RV park, Amy the owner keeps this place ‘sparkling’ clean and organized, the landscaping is amazing – true desert landscape.

Our first trip out was to the Jemez Pueblo and Mountains, we thought we were fairly high at over 5,200 feet (Albuquerque is at a greater altitude than Denver – the mile high city) but the road through Jemez went up to over 7,000 feet – ears popping. We’d bought some sandwiches and had a picnic by a stream near to the Battleship rock, then were amazed by the sight of the Jemez River rushing through the Soda Dam, formations created by the minerals in the river. The trip ended by going back to Albuquerque via Santa Fe, the state capital.

A road through the Jemez Mountains

Just happy we’re not in the RV

Battleship Rock

The Soda Dam on the Jemez River

The rock formations at the Soda Dam

Albuquerque Old Town, founded in 1706, has a wonderful, tree shaded plaza facing the old San Felipe church. Lunch was in a small Mexican restaurant just off the plaza, not mentioning the name as it wasn’t that great – they nearly forgot the beers. Then we took an 80 minute tour on an old renovated trolley bus around the town, including a detour around a film crew. Apparently Albuquerque has been home to filming a number of movies due to the 330 days of sun and 25% tax break. Later we took a drive to look at the petroglyphs just north of the town, Indian paintings on rock, interesting but nothing to write home about – oh – I am!!!

Albuquerque Old Town Plaza

San Felipe Church in Albuquerque Old Town

Sculptures tracing some of the history of Albuquerque

On board the trolley bus

That brings us to Sunny Acres in Las Cruces, on a damp Sunday morning, who said they’re in the middle of a drought. The drive south was HAIRY, gusting winds blowing in from the west that at one point literally moved Junior (RV) halfway into the next lane, from that point there was a tighter grip on the steering wheel. On that drive we were amazed to see the number of huge Pecan tree farms and then learned that some are Pistachio trees, literally thousands of trees. As we are only here for 2 days we decided to fill the first day with sightseeing and do nothing the next day. Hatch is just 35 miles away from Las Cruces – self-proclaimed Chili Capital of the World for the Chilies they produce each year, so that was a must – complete with lunch at a small café where the salsa removed the lining of my mouth – or so it felt. We visited an old adobe fort on the way – not too much to say about that, then off to White Sands National Monument, passing the Missile Range on the way which had been closed until a week ago due to testing!!! If ever anyone reading this is in this area that is a must do, a huge area of pure white gypsum sand dunes – words are not really enough so enjoy the pictures.

Re-enactment at Fort Selden

Pecan farms

Some of the dried red chilis M, H or XH – mild, hot or extra hot

White sands with the mountains in the distance

Pure white sands far into the distance

We leave for Tucson in the morning.

After leaving our winter home on March 18^th we travelled via Georgetown to Aubrey, Texas just north of Dallas. We all needed to get our annual medical, including Rusty. We also needed to visit the storage and leave the Christmas ‘stuff’ to make more room for our trip. Then trips to stock up on wine and other essentials followed, this is why we needed the extra space.

Amarillo was our next stop, our second visit to the Fort Amarillo RV Park, we’re here for a week – leaving for Albuquerque Good Friday – wow that’s tomorrow. One of the things we’ve discovered we enjoy is people watching, just seeing the different RVs and their owners and the many different pets they carry with them, including a few cats in harnesses!!! The RVs range from a 20 foot towable, through the fifth wheels to the million dollar Newell luxury homes, we’re not kidding – people do pay that kind of money – the 2015 models are listed at $1.9M.

Last time here we visited Palo Duro Canyon when they were having a bike rally, about 500 cyclists were in and out of the roadways, into the trails – manic, ‘share the road’ is the common phrase wish they would have shared the road with the cars. This time was much more enjoyable and relaxing, and we had a picnic lunch, even went walking on some of the trails.

On the scenic view over Palo Duro Canyon

In Palo Duro Canyon – just one of the amazing views

Hiking the trails in Palo Duro with the cave in the background

A cave in the canyon

An outcrop of rock in Palo Duro

Not sure if everyone has heard of the Cadillac Ranch where the owner buried 10 old Cadillacs nose down into the field, here is a shot from our 2013 trip and a picture from this trip of the RV that had the same treatment.

Planted RV – a take on the Cadillac Ranch cars

Another reason to revisit Amarillo (really) was to go and buy some steaks and beef jerky from Ede’s custom meats. They are absolutely amazing so we bought some tenderloin and New York strip steaks, aged beef – they vacuum seal them so we can freeze them individually. Didn’t make the same ‘mistake’ as last time when I asked for a porter house steak, they ask how thick you want it cut – so the newbie said an inch and a quarter – it weighed in at over 2 pounds, but it was good.

While leaving the canyon we spotted a sign for Happy Texas, you really have to go there even if just to say “We’ve been to Happy Texas”. Happy is not a good name for this old town, 2 railroad tracks, a volunteer fire station, post office and not much else apart from the Happy Center – not even guessing what happens there.

The water tower from Main Street in Happy Texas

The Happy Center in Happy Texas

So that is Amarillo, on the Route 66, continuing to Albuquerque in the morning.