Hello New Mexico!

Rockhound State Park is located in the southwest corner of New Mexico, less than 30 miles from the border with Mexico. It’s a desert location, surrounded by spires of rock, which are reportedly home to imported Ibex, although we didn’t manage to see any.

Trail above the campground at Rockhound State Park, NM

 Like the name suggests, rockhounding is encouraged, and there are several trails into the hills around the campground that we spent many hours exploring. The area is mostly known for jasper, common opal, and geodes, and given our history of rock hoarding, we were pleased with ourselves for limiting our take to less than half a shoebox full. 

Bullock's Oriole in ocotillo cactus

 A note about New Mexico state parks: all the campgrounds are priced the same, a very reasonable $14 for a site with power. While the amenities are different at all the parks, most include free hot showers. Rockhound State Park was especially well laid out and tended, and had the cleanest, nicest showers I’ve seen on the entire trip. When you’re traveling for 3+ months, the quality of bathroom facilities take on an enormous importance.

After a few days spent collecting ballast for the RV rocks, we moved on to White Sands. Unfortunately, unless you hike in to camp in the backcountry, there is no camping at White Sands. Without a tent and other supplies, that wasn’t going to be a possibility, so my dream of photographing a sunset over the dunes was dashed. Of course, the storm clouds that rolled in probably would have made seeing any kind of sunset impossible, so maybe next time.

 

Dunes at White Sands, NM

White Sands is made up of gypsum sand, and is ridiculously white and much finer than ordinary sand. Even with dark clouds obscuring the sun, and wearing sunglasses, hiking into the dunes brought on the kind of dazzle usually associated with the beginning stages of snow blindness. Cooper had a fantastic time running up and down the dunes nearest the parking area, except for one face plant when he jumped directly at the side of a dune and misjudged the softness of the landing. 

Because of the lack of camping options, we decided to push on toward our next destination, Carlsbad Caverns. While crossing a small mountain range along the way, we noticed that the moisture in the air was crystallizing, before turning into a driving snow. Rather than stopping to camp and risk getting stuck if the snow piled up, we kept going and ended up in Artesia late at night. There, we settled in to get some sleep before the last stretch to the caverns.