Our last stop in New Mexico was the City of Rocks State Park. We've been camping in the desert or near-desert for quite awhile and, as beautiful as it is, we've about exhausted our tolerance for all things dry, dusty, and windy. I am crying in the wilderness for the sight of something green and for some humidity. The City of Rocks is pretty cool, though, if you're a fan of megaliths rising from the desert floor. It's like a natural Stonehenge rising from the desert floor, with the campsites nestled among giant boulders.
Here's the approach: You're riding through the desert and you go
over a rise and there it is: a large pile of boulders.
There's only one hiking trail and, not surprisingly, it wends its
way through boulders.
Suddenly a meteor crashed to earth. Just kidding. We were there during
an episode of the 'super moon', when the full moon occurs while
the moon's orbit is closest to earth. My camera (Astral Wendy's
not at fault for these), was set to auto-exposure and was apparently
using a slow shutter speed because it was getting rather dark.
Once I discovered that, I tried to make a carbon atom.
Cows? Of course.
This nearby mountain has yet to undergo the erosive forces that
will someday turn it too into a City of Rocks. Or, perhaps, just
an outlying Suburb of Rocks.
Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.
This cactus looks like it belongs on another planet.
Astral Wendy sees a rabbit here. I see something else.
Yes, more rocks.
Not quite the regularity of Stonehenge. If anything special happens
here on the Winter Solstice, it's purely by chance.
Otis has his spot in the shade and, apparently, doesn't give a crap about rocks.
Ingrate!
The super-moon also rises.
Way to shoot Astral Wendy! Take that, Ansel Adams.
Here's the Eurovan, nestled amongst the boulders.
Time for the winning field goal attempt.
It was a super moon indeed. It was so bright that night you didn't even need
a flashlight to walk to the bathroom.
We did a bit of hiking and it was dry and dusty.
One day it was so windy, we just mostly stayed in and read, We are
sick of eating dust.
Luckily, it was not hot, so we could keep the flaps mostly zippered
to keep out the dust.
The hiking trail.
If this doesn't look like a mountain lion resting its head, I don't know
what it looks like.
There were lots of huge boulders balancing on other boulders.
Yeah, these rocks are huge.
Here I am lounging out in the dust.
Except for Otis and some vireos, there was very little wildlife here.
There were more trees than we've seen anywhere else in the desert.
We really have the jones for some temperate environs or, at least,
a beach. I need to see some green soon.
Here's a final shot of the super-moon.
We're currently hunkered down in Tucson AZ. Gonna see what's going on here but I think we're done with desert camping so we need to also figure out our next steps.
