Weeks 88-89: the one with the city of rocks!
City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico that is!
Hey, hi, hello, and welcome back to another update on our grand adVANture! It’s hard to believe it’s been 89 weeks since we sold our house in Austin, Texas to travel full time in an AEONrv we’ve named Henry — but there you have it!
When we left off last time we were camping in Aguirre Springs Campground in Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, New Mexico and our two week time limit was almost up.
We had a hard time deciding where to go next — and finally set our sights on City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico. We’d camped here before way back in Week 25 in Walter the Van and loved it!
But first we needed to do laundry and go on a grocery run, so we decided to camp one night at Tortugas Mountain, another BLM area, so we could go to Las Cruces.
Errands in Las Cruces, New Mexico
I thought this would be a good time to share before and after photos of the fridge since we’d almost eaten everything excpet our stash of tofu, ha!
On the left is our fridge typically looks after two weeks off-grid — and on the right is the fridge stuffed to the gills LOL! I’m still getting used to the new fridge — it holds a TON of food!
It’s deeper than you can tell from the photos so I’m still figuring out the best use of the space.
Hiking La Cueva Trail
Tortugas Mountain was just a few miles from the La Cueva Trailhead so we just had to hike it and see if the waterfall was running…
…and it was!
Would you ever guess that this trail leads to a waterfall?
Pretty amazing, right?
We also saw lots of ferns (!) and cacti — including barrel cacti!
Barrel Cacti
On our way to the trailhead we passed this giant cluster of barrel cacti, so we had to stop and check them out on our way out:
I think this was the most barrel cacti we’ve ever seen in one place! iNaturalist thinks they’re Fishhook Barrel Cacti (Ferocactus wislizeni) — we just thought they were super cool!
City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico
We originally only planned on spending a few nights at City of Rocks, but we liked it so much we just didn’t want to leave - it rocks! So we kept extending our stay, moving campsites every few days since we couldn’t get a bigger block at a time at any single spot.
I still marvel at how much easier it is to move sites from our tent camping days!
Here’s a bit about the rocks from the park website so you know what you’re looking at:
The park encompasses a one square mile area in the scenic Chihuahuan desert region of southwestern New Mexico at an elevation of 5,200 feet. The “city” is a geologic formation made up of large, sculptured rock columns, or pinnacles, rising as high as 40 feet and separated by paths or lanes resembling city streets. These rocks were formed about 34.9 million years ago when a very large volcano erupted. Then, erosion over millions of years slowly formed the sculptured columns seen today, creating a stunning, otherworldly landscape.
Here are a few favorite photos from our time among the rocks, in no particular order. Think of it as a love letter to the rocks:
We got to see so many amazing sunsets:
I had fun trying to photo them between the rocks:
The light was just so good here.
One day a big storm blew in — it was so cool to see — and the desert smelled so good after the rain.
Last but not least, here was the on sunset our last night there:
Just so darn beautiful!
Which one is your favorite? I’d love to hear!
Art for the Park
We were camped near a heart-shaped rock and since Valentine’s Day was coming up I just had to try and paint it, with the intention of giving the painting to the park.
One of my goals for 2026 is to learn how to paint with gouache, so I gave it a whirl, painting on a Trail Tile — you can see my setup here on Instagram:
I didn’t think it came out all that great — but I had fun and that’s what counts! I stuck to my plan of taking it to the Visitor Center on Valentine’s Day — and they loved it and promptly hung it up! Yeah!
Some of you asked what gouache I’ve been using — it’s mostly this starter set of M. Graham gouache, plus burnt sienna and yellow ochre. When we lived in Austin I used gouache from Holbein, Daniel Smith, and Winsor and Newton and they all work great, so if you’d like to try your hand at gouache you can’t go wrong with any of these four brands.
I wanted to try the M. Graham to see if they honey in them would allow for a more working time since gouache dries so quickly — and I do think it’s helping a little. I also picked up a tube of Daniel Smith quinacridone magenta gouache at Michaels to round things out. (It was super $$ — when did Michaels raise their prices so much?)
Tucson, Arizona
After leaving City of Rocks we headed to Tucson, Arizona to do a bunch of errands. (I actually wrote this post in the parking lot at the laundromat, ha!) More on that in the next update since this post is so long already.
That’s a wrap for now — stay tuned for where we’re heading next as we continue on our grand adVANture. I still can’t believe that we get to do this and I’m savoring every moment.
I love your trail tile painting!
Hi Lisa, I'm kinda new to your substack and really enjoy reading about your adventures! Nature journaling and camping are two of my favorite things, so I look forward to reading your updates each week. Plus I lived in Austin for decades and am now in Dripping Springs - too bad we didn't connect when we lived close together. I did a deep dive and read all of your older posts, too-they're so much fun, and your photos are spectacular :-). I love the sunset photo that shows the green lichens, and also the last one of the sun just as it started to dip behind the rocks. I hope you've found another wonderful place to explore this week. Thanks so much for sharing your dream life with us!