Brantley Lake SP
Our 4 hour drive up to Carlsbad started off sunny and warm.
There were several windmills.
And even a blimp. It's used for surveillance. Border Control is all over down here.
Then the wind picked up. On this one stretch of road, several tumbleweeds were blowing across the road. Some were large and tossed into the wind rather than rolling on the road. We were afraid they might scratch the truck. Luckily there were no collisions.
Then the clouds built up quickly
and then started lowering.
And then this! SNOW! Luckily we only had to drive through it for about an hour. We went slow and made it there just fine. It was not fun backing into the campsite though. I told Steve he'd better get it backed in on the first try. It was SO cold outside and I was guiding him back.
But Look who found his chair as soon as we got plugged in! We had electric and water, but never kept the hose connected because of the freezing temps. We had plenty of propane too so we weren't worried about being cold. We also kept the engine block plugged in to Hoss was toasty warm too.
Our site #38 was very nice and easily fit us. It had a nice covered patio that we never got to use because the temperature never went above 34. It's a nice campground on a lake with lots of space between sites. New Mexico's State Parks are typically $14 for electric and water. The rain gutters had icicles and the poor rig has never been so dirty.
The snow broke for a few minutes and Hurley and I decided to take the trail down to the lake.
While watching some tv, we almost fell out of our chairs when a huge BANG happened. It was very loud and the trailer shook. I thought one of our propane tanks exploded. It sure sounded like something blew up. A call to the ranger station left them wondering what happened also. No smoke or fire could be seen so they figured it was a sonic boom.
One day when it wasn't snowing we headed up to Carlsbad Caverns to check it out.
There was snow and ice covering everything except the road which was in good condition considering.
I thought this was funny!
Even the aliens were shivering.
A Swiss Army RV?
Despite the cold, there were many cotton tail and jack rabbits, roadrunners and quail.
Finally the sun came out, but the temp didn't change much.
A heart cactus, how sweet!
By the end of the week the sun was out and it even warmed up to 40 degrees for our decent into Carlsbad Cavern. We walked down rather than take the elevator. According to the park, the caverns began 250 million years ago with the creation of a 400 mile long reef by an inland sea that used to cover the region. Another fascinating part of the caves system isn't what's growing inside, it's what flies inside. Hundreds of thousands of Mexican Free-tailed bats migrate here from Mexico each year. They give birth to their "pups" in June and the bats will stay until late October.
We took a drive up to Roswell once the roads were cleared to look around a bit. We were looking for aliens.
Found some in an empty field.
At the UFO Museum they had some entertaining UFO related items.
"The Palenque Astronaut" This replica carving comes from the lid to a tomb belonging to the temples of the Mayan peoples in Mexico. It portrays an astronaut sitting at the controls of his space ship.
It turns out there is a Roadside Attraction in Roswell. It's called the Tree of Knowledge. Its a community based sculpture celebrating the centennial of the public library with word tiles made by the community. It is beautiful. Even though it was cold, it was entertaining to read the tiles. There were famous quotes, names of musical bands and random words.
Even the leaves of the tree had positive words woven into them.
Success! Alien spottings everywhere!
Now, on to warmer weather!