Watching it Rain in Balmorhea

Location: Balmorhea State Park (el. 3,300 ft); Balmorhea, Texas

All pictures (except one) was taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone
click pictures to enlarge

My plan was to be here in Balmorhea for only 3 days. Well today is day 5 and I'm still here. Sunday was suppose to be moving day with plans to move on to a state park in Junction, Texas about 250 miles from here. But, plans change. I checked the weather forecast on Saturday and it indicated heavy rains in Junction for Sunday and Monday. I extended my stay here at Balmorhea and have been stuck inside watching the rain since yesterday morning. Looks like I will be able to leave tomorrow morning. Since I have reservations at Bastrop State Park for Wednesday thru Friday, I'll only stay one night in Junction. I have plans to enjoy some great BBQ with another RV'er/Blogger at Junction. I've been told the state park in Junction has flooded out so I have reservations at a commercial park close to the interstate. 

Before the rains hit, I packed a lunch and drove over to Davis Mountain State Park. I stayed there for a few days back in February of last year while waiting for the weather to clear around El Paso before heading to the west coast. Davis Mountains were a real "wow" for me last year and I wanted to see if they had the same effect on me this year. The difference this year is that I will have recently come from the Rocky Mountains while last year I would have came from the dry desert of extreme southwest Texas. It wasn't as much of an impact this year, but when I got to the overlook in the park, and gazed out onto the open plain, a small, but audible "wow" came out of my mouth. As is usual, there was no one around to hear it but me. 

After enjoying my bologna turkey sandwich with a great view of the plains, I continued on with a long swing through the mountains to intersect I-10 west of Balmorhea. It was a nice drive.

This isolation due to the rain and no over the air TV stations has given me lots of time to think about things. 

The rest of the post will be pictures since too many thoughts are racing in my head for any reasonable blogging. 

On the way into the Davis Mountains

Remember my question about why Mesa's are flat? I wonder if these are the beginning stages of Mesa development. They have the steep sides and only need to have the material on top erode away. In a few hundred years, well, maybe.

A nice bench to enjoy the view

This was my view while enjoying my lunch

This structure was built by the CCC in the 30's. 

An overall view of the structure

The view through the large "picture like window" from inside the structure. I took a picture from the same spot last year.

American and Texas Pride. Flags proudly flying in the middle of nowhere. It was great to see!!

Clinging to life.
Never give up. 

For my Louisiana friends,,,,the junction of I-10 and I-20.
I-20 begins here.

The swimming hole at Balmorhea. It was built by the CCC when they enlarged a natural spring. Today, that spring produces 15 million gallons of water every day.

A view of the CCC's handiwork.
Well done. 

A cloud coming up over the activity center.

A nice picture of the campground with the dark clouds.

One decent sunset while I've been here.

This is the first in a series of 3 pictures. I was barreling along the highway doing about 70 mph when I noticed an isolated tree on the top of the mountain. I stopped quickly and took out the fancy camera. 

I'm still not familiar with all the settings on the fancy camera because I don't use it very often.

Now that is a nice shade tree growing all by itself. It would take a pretty good hike to get to it. I wonder how many people have sat under that tree and enjoyed its shade. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.

Carlsbad Caverns and Moving Day to Texas

Location: Balmorhea State Park (el 3,300 ft); Balmorhea, Texas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone
(click pictures to enlarge)

On my last day at Brantley State Park, I visited Carlsbad Caverns. I've heard about them all my life but really never had a big hankering to see them. I'm not sure why that is, so it will stay a mystery, I guess. The drive to the Caverns took about 45 minutes since they are 30 miles south of Carlsbad.
Once you arrive at the main visitors center, the view is just spectacular as you gaze our onto the open plains. They say it was all under water a few million years ago. Maybe, maybe not. 

This is still at Brantely. The two cars belong to two women traveling by themselves and sleeping in tents. They are not traveling together, they just happen to be in the same campground. I only briefly talked to one of them. They are rightly "stand-offish" of strangers, especially men. Safe travels, ladies.

This carpet that is chewed up is from a visitor I had the first night.

This is the carpet after the third night. I left it in the garbage. Luckily, that is all they did. I checked my engine compartment and saw no evidence of their handiwork.

This is the view looking out over the open plains from the hilltop where the caverns are located.

I was given two choices to enter the caverns: 1) walk down a switchback path through the open entrance. This entry would be about a 1 mile walk, OR 2) ride an elevator down 750 feet right into the caverns. Hmmmm, after a split-second decision, I headed towards the elevators. As you leave the elevators, your 750 underground in the caverns. My mind had a hard time adjusting to it since everything seemed fake in the dim lights. If "It's a Small World" had been playing, you would swear you were in DisneyLand. To screw with your mind even more, there is a snack bar and T-shirt vendor within sight after leaving the elevator. I didn't feel like a snack so I hit the pathway. You follow the path for 1.3 miles and see different formations along the way. It was interesting in places, but mostly, it was repetitive. I'm glad I went, but I'm pretty sure I won't go back.

This is the dining area where you can enjoy a snack or drink while being 750 feet underground.

The walkway had handrails on each side.

Large formations. I think they were the Land of Giants.

I liked this location because it had a lot of fragile looking formations.

This old ladder represented how the founders got around the caverns

I don't remember the name of this spot. 

I think this was called the The Drapes (curtains)

I did find a bench where you can sit and look at the formations.

I pulled out of Brantley State Park this morning with only 150 miles of towing to get to my next stop which is Balmorhea State Park. I didn't take any travel pictures since it was similar to most of the flat land of central New Mexico. The difference today was the high number of oil field traffic on the road and well sites adjacent to the road. Except for the barren land, it looks like any other oil field I've seen. 

I'll be here at Balmorhea for 3 days before moving on. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, but will most surely will be enjoying the 50 amp service at my campsite. The temperature in bumping 90 degrees with direct sunshine on the side of Liberty. The 50 amp service allows me to use both A/C units at the same time. 

Campsite at Balmorhea State Park

The three New Mexico State Campgrounds I've stayed at only had 30 amp service. I've been disappointed in New Mexico State Parks. Granted I've only stayed at 3 of them, but the odds of being disappointed in all 3 is pretty high. The Corps of Engineer campground was great, which helped balance out the state somewhat.

It feels good to be back in Texas.  

This was a quick post. I'll go back and proofread it later. Maybe.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

Sitting Bull Falls

 Location: Brantley State Park (el. 3,300 ft); Carlsbad, New Mexico

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

I arrived at Brantley State Park on Monday, the 19th after a short tow of only 100 miles. With such a short haul, I stopped on the way to do some grocery shopping at Walmart in the town of Artesia. As I was approaching Artesia, it seemed as though I crossed an imaginary line in the oil/gas fields as there were oil service industries everywhere. Quite a change from the last several weeks. 

Brantley State Park is located several miles off the main road and is on a small oasis. This is my third New Mexico State Park and none of the offices/visitors centers have been opened. The volunteer camp hosts seem to be running the camp grounds. Routine maintenance is being ignored in 2 of the 3 parks. I can only assume there must be a budget crisis in the state.

The campground is somewhere down this road

At least the clouds were putting on a show

Brantley Lake. I only saw one boat on the lake.

Liberty's campsite

View from my window

One of the reasons I came here is to visit Sitting Bull Falls. I had heard of this place as I passed through the southern part of the state during the early spring of last year but didn't stop. This time, I paid it a visit. It is located 31 miles off of the U.S. Highway. The road is in very good condition but has few travelers. During the 31 miles, I saw only 2 other passenger vehicles and a couple of tanker trucks. It is a nice drive through some pretty country. Although it is pretty country, it is not pristine. There are many signs of oil and gas exploration with a few visible pipeline locations. To me, it was not a problem.

Lonely road, but a nice drive.

I can imagine that cone shaped hill being used as a guidpost/landmark in the past.

You cross this valley and the falls are in those mountains in the distance.

The road surface changes for the last few miles, but still in very good condition

The road begins to follow the dry streambed. This is definitely a flash flood location during heavy rains upstream.

 Other than a volunteer host, I was the only one at the falls. It was very peaceful and quiet. The water fall is 150 feet high and flows year round. Within about 300 yards of the base of the falls, most of the water goes underground with very little of it flowing on the surface. Most of the rockwork was constructed by the CCC from the 1930's. I've seen their work in many locations throughout the country and it is always top-notch. It was a successful program in the 30's and it should be modernized and re-vamped for use today.

That is the camp host's RV on the right. He just started a 6 month stint and will be here through the winter. Very isolated duty. 

The rock shelters are picnic locations.
I found a bench too. :)

Nice view over the whole picnic area.

A bench at the falls

The camp host was told this place is packed in the summertime.

I took this picture mainly because of the strange looking cloud. 

I'll be seeing the famous caverns today. I'm preparing myself for a let-down because of the hype surrounding the caverns. I hope I'm not disappointed.

Mediocre sunset last night. Hopefully a better one tonight

Tomorrow is moving day. I'll be headed to Balmorhea State Park in Balmorhea, Texas. I'll be moving every 3 days for the next couple weeks as I head back towards Louisiana.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.   

Roswell UFO's and Bottomless Lakes

Location: Bottomless Lakes State Park (el 3,500 ft); Roswell, New Mexico

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

I left Cochiti Lake about 10:00 a.m. on the 16th with a 230 mile tow across some of the least populated and desolate area of New Mexico. Over a 100 mile stretch, I may have seen only a few dozen vehicles going in the same direction as me. The road condition was good and the weather was nice with the temperature in the mid 60's. Every so often you would see a gate going to a ranch but only rarely could you see the ranch house and buildings because they were so far away. Surprisingly, there were very few cows on the acreage. Actually, I saw more deer than cattle in that 100 mile stretch.

It was a nice sunset at Cochiti Lake the night before I left.

Desolate stretch of highway cutting through New Mexico. It had very little traffic and I wondered why it was four lane with such a low traffic count. Oh well. 

My destination was a state park located just east of Roswell, New Mexico. The state park is called Bottomless Lakes State Park. It is composed of a series of small circular lakes formed by sinkholes at the base of a limestone cliff. Lea Lake is the only one that allows swimming and is adjacent to the campground. The campground is not one of my most favorite but OK for the three days of my stay. It must be a super popular place for the locals during the summer months.

My campsite. Nice and level with full hookups.

Looking down on the campground and Lea Lake

Lea Lake, the only one that allows swimming

I was told by the camp host that some of the stone buildings were built by the CCC and WPA during the late 30's, but I wasn't able to confirm it. The quality of work does not look as good as some other CCC work that I've seen. The tall building on the left is a water tank that is no longer in service.

My stay here will only be long enough to see some of the UFO places in town. A portion of the town of Roswell centers around the Roswell Incident from 1947. The way the story goes, a UFO crash landed on some ranch land north of Roswell and the U.S. Military recovered alien bodies and the damaged spacecraft. Afterwards they covered up the whole incident. 

The UFO Museum. Entrance fee of $5.00. Most of the information inside is available online or on any of the many documentaries on the Roswell Incident. It was still worth the $5.00.

The kids in the museum loved this display, especially when the spaceship would spew smoke and make a whirring sound.

I got lucky in that there is a festival going on in town this weekend. It is their annual Pinata Festival that is staged around the courthouse square. It reminded me of the old Blueberry Festival that used to be around the courthouse in Mansfield, Louisiana. Sadly, once it moved to a location away from the courthouse, it never was the same.

The Pinata Festival

The Ten Commandments located in front of the courthouse. I hope it stays there, but many have been removed by force.

The poor ponies going around in a circle. They all looked so sad. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed about 100 miles south to Brantley Lake State Park just outside of Carlsbad. I'll be there for three days which will be just long enough to maybe visit the cavern. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.