State Parks – The Wandering RVer

Into Arizona

On the way to Tucson, we visited Rope Lake Sate Park, just outside of Safford, AZ. I hadn’t really planned any day trips, it was just a place on the way. Had I done ANY research, I would have known, there is plenty to do!

The drive from New Mexico took us less time than we thought, so we arrived before check-in. A $10 day pass was our penalty. Luckily, on an overcast Friday in March, there was plenty of room for Waldo in the day use parking area. We disconnected the Jeep for a drive around the park while we waited for a call from the ranger’s station. In the loop we would be camping in, I saw some Gambel Quails, they always make me smile…

Mt. Graham was still wearing a thin blanket of snow…

Once we were settled into our site, we spent a relaxing afternoon playing Yahtzee (one of our favorite pastimes).

Looking at the map, I found several places of interest. The first was the Black Hills Rockhound Area, renowned for its deposits of fire agate.

Not one to miss a chance at picking up pretty rocks, we headed out. I spent our drive time reading about how to find and identify fire agate. I found a great post by The Rolling Rockhound which gave me, at least, a clue as to what we might find. I showed Steve what to look for and we set off it opposite directions. Every so often, I’d look up to make sure I could still see the Jeep…

In the end, we found lots of pieces of chalcedony and 2 containing fire agates. Without the proper tools and skills to reveal the agate, they will remain just pretty rocks in my collection.

Another area which drew my attention was the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area. I confess, I had to look up what “riparian” meant. For any of you who don’t know either, it means “relating to or situated on the banks of a river.”

There are lots of off-road trails, but since we still don’t have 4 wheel drive, we stuck to the easy trails.

Our first stop was the information kiosk and scenic overlook…

As with several other of the places we’ve visited lately, the spring wildflowers were dazzling…

With so much scenery to take in, it’s hard to see everything, but we did our best!

We realized how a campground, chosen strictly as a place en route to Steve’s upcoming job, really could be a destination for adventures! Until next week…

Coming up…

While Steve goes to work, Laura goes to play!

New Mexico – Land of Enchantment

Booking our travels months in advance can be a definite struggle, especially if we have to coordinate with an event or a meet-up with friends. By the time we got confirmation Steve would be working at an RV rally in Tucson, the only RV site available at Rockhound State Park just outside Deming, New Mexico was a boondocking site. But I wanted to go to Deming!!! We would just have to make do!

Normally, boondocking isn’t an issue since we have a generator plus our fridge and furnace run on propane, as well as electricity. With forecast lows in the 40’s, we knew we’d have to run the furnace. Do you think we remembered to check the propane level before heading to New Mexico? Of course not. We were about 17 miles from the campground when Steve realized we needed propane. Shouldn’t be a problem, most Love’s truck stops dispense propane and so do a lot of Tractor Supply companies. The was a Love’s in Las Cruces AND a Tractor Supply! Wouldn’t you know it, that Love’s didn’t and Tractor Supply was out. Yep, I’m still inserting choice words! Several phone calls later, I finally found an RV park in Deming who sold propane IF we could get there by 4:30. Phew! Shouldn’t be a problem. At 4:29 we rolled in and thankfully their clocks weren’t fast. Finally we could head to our site.

We spent our first day in Deming picking up the remaining Jeep parts (yep, it still wasn’t completely back together) and checking the visitor’s center for interesting things to do in the area. We discovered Deming has a Historic Landmark Walking Tour and an app to tell you about the buildings. Our first stop was the Deming Luna County Mimbres Museum, built as an armory in 1917…

Unfortunately, the museum was under repair so we couldn’t go in. The app would give us relative information about each building and often an interesting story as well. Like at the J.A. Mahoney building (no relation)…

Apparently, in 1906, the superintendent of the Deming public school and the principal of the high school, both married men, got into a shootout over the “rights of favors” of a school teacher. The shootout left the principal dead, shot in the middle of the forehead. A grand jury declared the shooting was in self defense and no charges were filed.

While I enjoyed hearing about all of the buildings, I was intrigued by the murals and sculptures…

We thought we would wrap up our first day with a stop at the Luna Rossa Winery…

But, as it turned out, we met some of the locals who convinced us to go with them to the Happy Camper Clubhouse for dinner and “mix tape bingo”.

While we didn’t win at bingo, we definitely won with new friends!

The plan for the next day was for Steve to button up the Jeep and I would go in search of some of the famous thunder eggs, geodes and jasper found in the region. It didn’t take me long to get distracted by the wildflowers…

There are marked trails, but you are free to explore everywhere on the mountain and surrounding hills. One of the things which makes Rockhound SP unique is its “finders keepers” instead of “take only photos” policy. I had picked up quite a few “pretty rocks” when I looked back towards Waldo to see if Steve was done working on the Jeep. That was when I realized how high up I had climbed.

In hindsight, I should have stopped, but then it became about reaching the top, not about “pretty rocks.” When I had climbed as far as I felt I could, I took a picture of the campground…

I had to zoom to 10 on my phone before Waldo was clear…

I texted Steve and asked him to take a picture from Waldo, but, try as he might, he couldn’t quite find me…

Upon my return to Waldo, I found Steve still slaving away. Come to find out, trying to work without a bench or all the proper tools can be a challenge. At long last, he was ready to re-install the front drive shaft, my off-roading plans would be saved! But wait!!!!! The new to us front drive shafts took different bolts than my old driveshaft. Special bolts, the kind you can’t buy in a parts store or hardware store. (I’m running out of choice words and beginning to recycle them now.) Since there was nothing more he could do until said special bolts were ordered, we called it a night…

Coming up…Spring Canyon and the Florida mountains

Just so you know, in New Mexico they pronounce it Floor -ee- da! Thanks for coming along.

Finishing Up Our 17 Days Across Texas

Grateful to have the Jeep back, we set off to explore our new surroundings. We started at the park’s visitor center. They have a wonderful museum which explains the history of Seminole Canyon going back 12,000 years. The park contains over 200 pictograph sites. There are ranger guided hikes to several of the canyons and one site is only accessible by private boat. The hikes range from easy to moderately strenuous. Since I’m not one for “moderately strenuous”, Steve and I walked the Maker of Peace Trail around the visitors center.

Bill Worrell created this sculpture as a tribute to the Desert Archaic people. It is their pictographs that adorn the canyon walls.

Once we were done, we headed to the Pecos River High Bridge…

Just like the Amistad Reservoir, the Pecos River is at a near all time low. You can see from my 2022 picture just how narrow the river has gotten in the last 2 years…

We stumbled onto a former RV park managed by the Corps of Engineers. The state park ranger told us it has been closed for over 20 years because of the falling river levels.

The drive to the boat launch did provide several overlooks to the river…

We drove down to the long closed boat ramp which ended almost a 1/4 mile from the edge of the river.

The blue dot is us and I promise, the Jeep was not in the middle of the river!

Across the river, we could see and hear the cows, sheep and goats grazing on the other side. We drove up to the picnic area and walked the nature trail. It doesn’t look like much maintenance has been done in recent years, but there is still signage to identify many of the native plants and a view of where the Pecos River ends at the Rio Grande River…

Unfortunately, you can no longer actually see either river, but some of the wildflowers were already in bloom…

The next day we headed out to the Box Canyon boat launch on the Rio Grande River. This launch was in even worse shape than the Pecos River launch…

But it did provide a great view of the Rio Grande…

Our last day at Seminole Canyon was spent ordering batteries for Waldo and parts for the Jeep. But I did take a walk along the Birding Trail. They have a nice bird blind and the trail is paved…

Before we headed out, I was excited to find my first cactus in bloom…

Fort Stockton was on the way to our next campground. Steve parked Waldo at the Love’s Truck Center to purchase and install the new batteries. He disconnected the Jeep and I headed to the parts store to pick up parts. The battery install went smoothly but the parts run turned into “awww crap” since not all of the parts came in 😦 Still inserting choice words.

Our final stop in Texas was the Saddleback Mountain RV Park in Balmorhea. It is a no frills park for sure, but $20 a night full hook-up sites are a rarity. When we arrived, there were several semis in the gravel lot adjacent to the park. They were transporting windmill blades. It’s hard to fathom how huge they actually are…

The red truck you can see on the left is a full size quad cab pickup. And there is a person in a yellow shirt in the center of the picture. This gives you an idea just how monstrous they are.

The reason for picking this park was its proximity to Balmorhea SP. They are renovating their campground so it is closed right now. The CCC built the park in the 1930’s and it is the world’s largest spring fed swimming pool, described as “a cool oasis in the high desert”…

More than 15 million gallons of water flow through the pool each day, gushing from the San Solomon Springs. The pool is up to 25 feet deep, covers 1.3 acres, and holds 3.5 million gallons of water. The water temperature stays at 72 to 76 degrees year-round. Excerpt from their website.

We didn’t swim, but I couldn’t resist taking off my shoes and letting my feet dangle in the pool…

I imagine, in the heat of summer, this place must be packed!

It was an interesting, sometimes frustrating, mostly wonderful 17 days in Texas. Waldo left, happy with his new batteries and the Jeep is still a bit sad with no 4X4, but happy to be drive-able! Thank you for coming along.

Up Next…Deming, New Mexico

Home of Rockhound State Park

What Else Can Go Wrong?

Leaving Mustang Island SP was a bit of a challenge. Usually, we drive the Jeep to Waldo to hook it up as our “toad” (towed, for those of you unfamiliar with RV speak). But since the Jeep was still out of commission, we had to back Waldo up to it. Not the easiest way to hook-up, but we managed. Our next stop was Lake Casa Blanca International State Park in Laredo. I agree, it is a hell of a long name for a state park.

Before we could head to our site at the state park, we had to drop the Jeep off at the shop. They were quite understanding of our instability to back up with the Jeep attached to Waldo and offered to tow it from the parking lot across the street. We lucked out in finding this shop because they also ran a salvage yard and happened to have a Jeep identical to ours. With assurances the Jeep would be ready on Wednesday, we headed to the park. I was quite excited about getting the Jeep back, there were quite a few things I wanted to see in Laredo. We were only going to be in town until Friday morning. We found an H-E-B (H-E-B is my favorite grocery store in America!!) in Laredo with a parking lot large enough to accommodate Waldo and stocked up on provisions before heading to our site. Once there, we were stuck until we got the Jeep back.

Once we were settled, a walk across the park road brought us to the edge of the lake, a perfect spot to kick back and fish. The sweet acacia ( uh*kay*shuh) were in bloom, showing off their yellow puffball flowers…

But, the nearly constantly gusting winds prevented us from doing any fishing, instead, we contented ourselves with playing Yahtzee. Tuesday evening, Steve noticed a problem with Waldo’s chassis batteries. One of them wasn’t charging. Gee, I don’t have any way to go into town to buy new ones. Hmmm, what to do. Insert choice words here! The decision was made to keep the battery charger on it until we could get replacements. An inconvenience, but not really a problem. I spent Wednesday anxiously awaiting the call from the shop saying the Jeep was ready while Steve serviced all the batteries. Around 5pm, a call finally came, only to inform us it wasn’t ready…insert more choice words here! Thursday morning we got the call….YAY! The shop was kind enough to send someone to pick Steve up so we didn’t have to call an Uber. With the Jeep finally back where it belonged, I took our site picture…

While the Jeep was drivable, it still didn’t have any 4X4. Steve wanted to rebuild the used front drive shaft he bought before installing it. I nodded and smiled while he explained what that entailed all the while thinking, “Yada, yada, yada, is my Jeep done yet?” I have to confess, when he talks about working on vehicles, all I hear is the mumbled sounds of the adults on the Peanuts cartoons.

Friday morning found us packing up and heading west to Seminole Canyon State Park near Comstock, TX. Several phone calls on the way confirmed there weren’t any Waldo batteries or Jeep parts to be found within 100 miles of Comstock. Not to worry, we have a battery charger and I didn’t want to have fun 4 wheeling anyhow.

We had to drive through Del Rio to get to Comstock. Del Rio is home to The Amistad Reservoir. When we drove passed it in 2022 is was pretty low…

But conditions are worse now…

The reservoir is only at 26% capacity. All but 2 of the boat ramps are closed and there are numerous warnings on the National Park Service website about boating hazards.

Settled in at our site at Seminole Canyon…

Thoughts turned to dinner and the tomahawk steak we purchased at H-E-B…

Steve did a fantastic job of grilling it!! Trust me, it tasted even better than it looks! We spent the evening in a meat coma and planned our adventures for the next four days.

Coming up…

Exploring the Comstock area and up to Balmorhea (and Waldo gets batteries!)