"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... And sorry I could not travel both. I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference." --Robert Frost

Friday, March 13, 2015

This place ROCKS!!

Faywood, NM
City of Rocks State Park




This is our campsite (#6) in City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico.  This "city" of volcanic rock formations sits at 5259' elevation.  It's made up of large rock pinnacles and columns formed 34.9 million years ago when a large volcano erupted.  Beautiful hikes and views all around.



It's amazing that while driving up to the park you see nothing but flat desert landscape.  Then you come over a rise and there's all the boulders!

We are camped here with Curt & Glenda of Camp Lowry.  We have no electricity, water or sewer hookups at our site so we are boondocking (or dry camping).  After we both set up we went over to their rig for appetizers and dinner.  We had previously picked up some goodies at St. Clair Winery in Deming so we munched while the guys grilled up some delicious steaks.
 
We taught them how to play Mexican Train.  It's a domino game my parents taught us.  It's a lot of fun.  Curt was in the lead most of the time and then Steve won at the end. 
 
Curt & Glenda's rig (site #2)

We took several hikes around the area and climbed up and around the boulders.
 
 
   
Amazing balanced rocks everywhere.
Look at Glenda hold this boulder up!
 
 

What a view.  You could see forever!

It's like being on another planet.


 


Here is Hurley checking out a grinding rock.                Having some alone time.
 
One really cool campsite.


 

      

My favorite.  The "leaves" are very stiff.  It feels like it's ceramic.

 

Hiking to the top of another hill just across from the main area of rocks and the campground  There is a covered rest area that had a lightning rod constructed in stone.  Not sure why but it was interesting.

View from the rest area back towards the campground.
Curt and Glenda's rig to the left, ours to the right.



We loved our campsite.  Here are some more pictures of it.  We had a very private picnic bench and fire pit surrounded by more rocks.
 

 


 
Well we had a great time with Curt & Glenda and now they are headed east to visit family in Illinois.  We will see them next winter in Arizona.  We were going to head out too but I got an e-mail from Pam saying they were in the area and wondering if we are still here.  Well, we decided to stay a couple of more days.
 
Shorty after Curt and Glenda pulled out, Red & Pam arrived.  Yay, more company :-) 
 
Red & Pam
They just bought a new Solitude Toyhauler.  It's beautiful.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it.  They have a garage that houses Red's toys and there is a nice deck off that!
One of  Red's toys.  It's a helicopter-like drone with that takes areal pictures & video.  Very cool!
 Here's a little demo
 
 
Pam and I decided to do a little more challenging hike to the top of Table Top Mountain.  We hiked about 5 miles or so.  There are some geocaches at the top we hope to find too.

Going up the first tier.

 
We made it to the top!!

At the top looking across the plateau.

Striking a pose at the edge.  I love this picture!


Our view at the top while we have a rest and some lunch.  This is looking down at rocks with the campground in the far distance.  Great 360 degree view!
 
   

 
   
We found both of the geocaches.  They were hidden very well!

We saw this way out in the distance before we headed back down and wondered what it was.  Well, good to know!

Since we did not actually follow the trail down because we were exploring, we had to bushwack our way down.  This was the least steepest part.  No broken bones, so we did ok.

Looking back up at the second tier where we had to climb down with no trail.

This picture was for my niece.  She's a Disneyland fanatic.


After our great hike, Pam made a great hearty soup and we had dinner at their place.  They taught us a game called Joker.  It's kind of like Aggravation with cards instead of dice.  It was fun and the girls beat the guys 3 - 2.

We had a great visit.  The last time we saw each other was the Rally back in 2014 when we were both wannabe Full Timers.  We will see each other again in the winter in Arizona.
 
We were going to head out the next day but I received a notice from Art & Suzan from Ontario, Canada on RVillage.  RVillage is kind of like facebook for RVers.  A great way to meet up with others while on the road.  Anyway, they wanted to know if we'd still be in the park the next day so we could meet each other.  Well, we decided to extend our stay again.  That's the nice part of having plans in jello as they say.  We can change them anytime we want.  Art & Suzan have been fulltiming for at least 15 years.  They boondock almost exclusively.  They were such an interesting couple.  What was nice is that they were previously boondocking out in the Gila National Forest where we were headed next.  They gave us some great hiking info and the location of the spot they had camped in.  Boondocking is generally free if you're on BLM or National Forest lands (as well as others). Sometimes a small fee may be required.  What a great way to be "out there" with no one else around!
 
We did some hiking around the rocks and searched for the pictographs and petroglyphs.  What is the difference?  A Pictograph is painted on with powdered minerals, blood, charcoal, or other substances.  A petroglyph is made by carving directly into the stone with a rock or other instrument.
 
Two pictographs of Kokopelli, a fertility deity.

A petroglyph.
 
Another awesome campsite.

And another.
 
 
 What a great place this is!
 
 
 

18 comments:

  1. Wow wow wow . Those were the most amazing campsites I have ever seen.

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    1. Thanks Trace, it's a place we've wanted to see. I sure didn't disappoint! Verizon cell/internet was iffy in our site of 3G, but nada on AT&T. Being up against the rocks was the iffy part. Some areas were better and some sites had strong 4G. Just need to check as you go. Site #2 (Pams) was strong.

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  2. Wowzers.. .we are sooo regtting we didn't get up there. It was our plan until we had to wait for the Tracker. (all is good now and we are heading home) Sooo next time we HAVE To get up there. We wanted to stay there and then day trip up to Silver city too....
    KarenInTheWoods and Steveio
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    (Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com
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    1. Glad the tracker is back on the road! Definitely next time. Very awesome. We left there the other day and are now boondocking in Gila National Forest just outside of Silver City. :-) Safe travels back home and hopefully no more snow!

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  3. Bookmark! That is fantastic, Debbie!

    Hey, we thought about you guys today. We got first day of spring hitch-itch, so we yanked the skirting and we are headed out. We have an appointment to get the new Goodyear G614's tomorrow. Do you still like yours? Did they check to see if your rims could handle the extra pressure? I won't be able to tell until they get the wheels off the trailer.

    Have fun and thanks for the great post!

    Jim (and Diana)

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    1. Yes, still love them. Yes, there is only one rim style and they are good. Have a great trip!

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  4. I love reading your posts. I know when we met you with Ruth and Dale you had no idea what to expect. What a great lifestyle. Safe travels and I hope to meet up with you down the road.

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    1. I know, right? We love it! And the work from the road is going very well. We arrive in Kartchner this Sunday for a few days and would love to see you!

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  5. We had wanted to stop by there on our way through to Florida but skipped it. Now you have me regretting it! Love your campsite, the pictographs/petroglyphs and the fact that you got to meet up with Red and Pam!

    Sounds like a lot of us are going to be in Arizona next fall!

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    1. Oh I think Arizona is going to be very fun this winter!!

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  6. I love rocks so I am looking forwarding to spending a little time at this park one day when we get around to spending time in NM. You did a great job sharing the area and all the beauty:) Thanks! How nice to meet up with so many friends and you didn't even have to move!

    I see that you are heading to Glacier this summer. You'll have to check out our blog. We visited Glacier twice last year. Once on our way up to Canada to visit Jasper and Banff NP and again on our way back. We, also, spent time in Waterton-Glacier NP. We spent all our time on the east side of Glacier which is so much nicer than the west side because there aren't the crowds and the hikes are amazing!! We were in Two Medicine and St. Mary's.

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    1. Thanks John & Pam. I've been reading your blog carefully as we will be where you are now in a week or so. I'll re-read your Glacier entries too. Knowing you liked the east side best is very helpful. That's the kinds of info I'm looking for. Looking forward to lots of hiking and kayaking up there.

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  7. Can't wait to get set up for boondocking so we can enjoy City of Rocks. We'll be workamping in Mesa next winter so maybe we'll finally get a chance to meet.

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    1. We don't have solar yet. Not 100% positive we'll get it. So far we get by pretty well with 2 6 volt batteries and our generator. We're thinking of adding a couple of more batteries and a 2K - 3K inverter. But were towards the end of our first year. We'll be spending a lot more time in the SW for winters so we'll be able to better see how we spend our boondocking. Sure enjoyed our time at City of Rocks. I'm sure we'll catch up at some time. We'll be spending April in AZ this year.

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  8. That place looks awesome. We are going to do some boondocking as we head north from Brantley. I think we will leave today...maybe not. Gotta love the flexibility.

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    1. It's worth a few days. Lot's of nice hikes or just meander through the rocks.

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  9. Great post! You guys have embraced this lifestyle with such gusto - I love it!! The pic of the giant boulder seemingly held up by the little pebbles is so fun :-) Glad you got to spend some time with Red and Pam, they seem like such a fun couple - yes that's a wonderful pic of her "pose". We're off to Ruidoso next week for the family reunion so I'm glad to see blue skies in NM!

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    1. It really was a great park and one really wanted to spend time in. Pam & Red were part of our Class of 2014. We have a great bunch and we've seen all but maybe 2 couples out of our 15 couples. It still a bit chilly. I hope you get some nice weather for your reunion. I loved that pose picture! Steve copied it while we were in Gila and it was hilarious. I won't post it though ;-)

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