Week 24: the one with the supermoon!

Back to New Mexico!

Hello friends! Welcome back for another weekly update. It’s been 24 weeks since we sold our house in Austin, Texas to travel full time in our converted camper van — and what a week it’s been!

Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado

We started the week off at Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We didn’t mean to stay here all week, but it sure was nice to hang out in one spot for a bit.

The view out the window from the van!

Cheyenne Mountain SP is near the Fort Carson Army base, and we got a 6:30 wake up call of “Reveille” every morning — it was a neat way to start the day. At first we thought there was an actual person playing the bugle, but we later learned that it was just a recording played over a sound system — I must admit it took away a little of the charm!

Cheyenne Mountain Complex. (Photo credit: crysknife007)

If you’re sci fi nerds like us, you may also recognize Cheyenne Mountain from Stargate SG1 — so of course we had to watch it. A blast from the past!

Supermoon!

On Friday, November 15th we were lucky enough to see the last supermoon of the year — the Beaver Moon! It was so beautiful and peaceful. I couldn’t stop taking photos!

These were taken from right behind our campsite.

I think this photo is my favorite with the last bits of snow and the big bluestem in the foreground:

It made me forget all of my troubles for a bit and filled me with such a feeling of peace.

Lathrop State Park, Walsenburg, Colorado

On Saturday, November 16th, we finally left Cheyenne Mountain and headed to Lathrop State Park after checking the weather repot and discovering that we were in for another big winter storm — we didn’t want to get snowed in!

Lathrop State Park was Colorado’s first state park, founded in 1962.

The view from the gas station.

The 1.5 hour drive sure was pretty — Colorado really knows how to do mountains! Here was the view from the gas station — whoa:

We were sad we had to get on down the road to beat the weather — just look at these beautiful views from the lake near our campsite — definitely have to come back here again someday.

We could see the Spanish Peaks from our campsite!

The Spanish Peaks. That lake water was COLD!

Back to New Mexico!

We crossed back in to New Mexico via the Raton Pass yesterday (Sunday) — New Mexico sure knows how to do mountains, too!

Fort Union National Monument, New Mexico

We stopped at Fort Union National Monument to check it out and make lunch. We were surprised to see all the prairie — and we even heard meadowlarks!

You can still see the ruts from the wagon wheels on the Santa Fe trail.

One of the signs mentioned that the soldiers at the fort were woken by “Reveille” every morning and I started humming it — Jason looked at me funny until he read the sign too! HA!

If you dropped me here I would have guessed we were in Kansas!

This was the dramatic view after we left Fort Union — we were worried we were really in for some weather! We made it a few more hours but then it started pouring rain. Luckily it didn’t snow!

Valley of Fires Recreation Area, Carrizozo, New Mexico

We made it to Valley of Fires late Sunday evening safe and sound, whew! What a long drive. On the way here I kept calling it “ValleyS of Fires” — and then J started calling it “Valleys ofs Fires” and I kept laughing! Guess that’s what happens when you’ve been driving for 5 hours…!

If you’ve been following along for a while now, you may recall that we stopped here back in July. What a contrast from then! It was in the upper 90s before — waaaaaaaay too hot to camp. This time it was in the 50’s during the day and the 30s at night — much better.

And I can’t believe how much has happened since then. I’m feeling so lucky that we get to live this life of our dreams.

Here’s the view from our campsite where I’m typing this right now:

Those dark patches are all lava flows — so cool! And so many sotols!

We went for a walk on the nature trail to stretch our legs and I loved seeing the light play on the cacti and the lava.

We made it back to camp just in time for sunset — and what a sunset it was!

The sky just seemed to glow behind the mountains.

Carrizozo Peak glowing at sunset.

I put brown rice and black beans in the Instant Pot before we left for our hike, and it’s all ready for dinner tonight. Yum!

So good, especially with Trader Joe’s chile lime seasoning and fire roasted corn from the TJ’s in Colorado.

Well, that’s it for this week!

We’re plotting our next moves as we make our way towards Tucson to visit the saguaros, so stay tuned! — Lisa & Jason