Week 53: Traveling across New Mexico!
From the mountains to the desert and back again.
Hello hello, and welcome back to another update on our grand advanture! Last week we celebrated our one year anniversary of full time travel — still can’t believe it’s been a whole year!
This week started off dispersed camping in Lincoln National Forest near Five Points Vista, New Mexico, bordering Guadalupe Mountains National Park — then we drove across almost all the way across New Mexico! Here’s a handy map so you can see where we’ve been, starting at A and heading north to C:
I’ll catch you up on our adventures this week!
Sunday: Hiking Devil’s Den Spring Trail
Sunday we hiked right from our camp spot to Devil’s Den Spring Trail. It was an awesome hike!
First we made a new friend — this was the biggest horned lizard we’d ever seen:
She was very photogenic, although I did feel like she was giving me the side eye, ha!
Then it was on down to the canyon.
The day was getting hotter — eventually hitting the mid-90s — so we decided to stay down in the canyon for a while. I did some sketches but forgot to take photos, darn! We did some botanizing and found so many cool plants, including a canyon grape, gray oak, Virginia creeper, and even a claret cup cactus. I also found what I think is a fossil — anyone know what kind it is?
The spring was just a moist puddle (darn), but there were twin tail butterflies puddling off and on.
We also found an unexpected stand of Douglas firs right before the descent into the canyon and I just had to sketch one on the way back — one of them reminded me of a Dr. Suess tree:
We made it back to camp, had dinner, and then we were treated to one last Guadalupe Mountain sunset — this was the view from the back of the van:
We’re really gonna miss this place — gotta come back when it’s cooler!
Monday: Artesia and Roswell, New Mexico to Villanueva State Park
Monday morning we woke up early, broke camp, and headed to Artesia, New Mexico where we dumped our gray tank at a city park and then did laundry. I’ve been dreading doing laundry since the Great Laundry Incident in Fort Davis but this place was really nice — five stars for Soft Suds!
Then it was on to Roswell, New Mexico where I was on the lookout for aliens and finally found one at Walmart :)
This was one of those days in van life where we didn’t know where we’d be stopping for the night when we left camp in the morning. It’s both liberating and kinda stressful, all at the same time. We made a reservation for Villanueva State Park while in the Walmart parking lot and then got there 20 minutes before they closed the gate for the night, whew!
Tuesday: Villanueva State Park
One of the main reasons we wanted to stop at Villanueva was because it’s right on the banks of the Pecos River and the pictures made it look gorgeous! We’re used to how the Pecos looks in Texas from our trips out to Big Bend National Park — it’s usually almost completely dry out that way.
It rained off and on all night, and the Pecos was swollen with muddy water:
I just love the color of the muddy water against the sky and desert cliffs.
We walked along the banks and did some botanizing, finding lotsa cool plants, including a prickly pear we haven’t been able to ID yet:
Then on the way out of the park we had to stop the van to check out this cool plant along the side of the road — which turned out to be a penstemon!
It’s Penstemon ambiguus, or Gilia Penstemon, and I’d have never guessed it was a penstemon at all!
Ambiguous, indeed!
Tuesday-Sunday: Cimarron Campground, Carson National Forest
After leaving Villanueva SP we made our way to Cimarron Campground in Carson National Forest. We’d been here before way back in Week 9 of vanlife and loved it — just so beautiful!
This amazing view of Baldy Mountain, elevation 12,441 feet, is just a short half mile hike from camp:
There are so many cool plants blooming, including wild irises (above) and golden beans (below):
It’s been such a treat to be here in all kinds of weather, from cloudy and rainy to sunny and windy:
I’ve loved trying to capture this scene on paper — when I’m sketching I zone out and become part of the mountain. Here’s a quick video of one of my sketch attempts from the picnic table in camp — when it started raining again:
Our campsite (at 9,446 feet) has a cool view of Baldy through the trees:
We’ve really been enjoying our time here — it’s really quiet and peaceful. We had 3 deer stop by one day:
We’ve also had all kinds of birds, including hummingbirds, robins, and hermit thrushes.
We’ll be here for a few more days and then our next stops are Great Sand Dunes National Park then Lakeview Campground near Leadville, Colorado as we make our way to Rocky Mountain National Park. So excited for that! I’ve been checking on the Rocky webcams almost every day and looks like there’s still snow at higher elevations. Cannot wait to try and do some sketches here — it will be totally out of my wheelhouse!
In case ya missed it, we have a grand plan to visit Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park on our roundabout trek to Ohio to visit family. So far we’ve scored reservations at all of the parks but Yellowstone — cross your fingers for us!
That’s a wrap for this week — see you next week from Colorado! — Lisa, Jason, and Walter-the-Van
Thank you for all the beautiful photos!
Hope that you get your Yellowstone booking