El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

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We took the auto route tour out of Elephant Butte, New Mexico.  It takes you to some pull outs where you can see the El Camino Real.  This is the royal road that started in Mexico City and went all the way to Santa Fe.  This would have been a sixteen hundred mile journey.  The Spanish started the trail in 1598 which goes through Mexico, west Texas, and New Mexico.   We did the mile and a half hike to see the old "road".  The top picture shows whats left of the road/trail going through the New Mexico desert.  There is an offshoot of the trail that is called the trail of death because there is no water along it and people died trying to cross.   The trail/road was used until the 1880s when the railroad finally took over the job of hauling people and freight through this part of the country. 

We have been enjoying the weather in New Mexico and have been visiting friends who have decided to make this area their permanent home after years of being full time RV'ers.  Of course they think we should make this our permanent place as well but we think the winters are too cold.  Also the lake here draws huge crowds in the summer.   A town of 2000 people swells to 100,000 over fourth of July with every inch of beach covered with an RV.  No thank you. 

Sandia Peak Tramway

We stayed in an RV park in a northern suburb of Alburquerque.  We were close to the tram ride that takes you to the top of the Sandia ski hill.  What the heck we took the ride.  At the top you are at over 10,000 feet and have a great view of Alburquerque.  The top picture was supposed to show the rock house at the very top of the peak.  Its the tiniest white blob.  Once your at the top and get off the tram you can hike to it.  Its about a mile and at 10,000 feet a little to high of an altitude for us to hike.   There is also a restaurant up at the top called the 10 -3 meaning 10,300 feet.  A little too pricey for us.  The ride back down was great.  We had the whole tram car to ourselves.  On the way down the wind started to kick up and the car started to rock.  The driver said that when we got to the bottom they would be adding water to the car for ballast.  That keeps the car from swaying too much which might cause it to hit a pillar.  The pillars anchor the cables on which the tram travels.  So glad we took the ride it was well worth the price (not bad) and you can stay up at the top and hike around all you want and come back down whenever you want. 

We are now in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.  The weather is great and we are taking our four wheeler out.  We have been up in the mountains and out in the desert.  We have also been visiting friends while here.   We still know people here from when we spent our first winter here in 2008.  The RV life has been very good to us and the best part has been the people we have met along the way.

Rio Grande Gorge

We took a drive to Taos, New Mexico.  Taos is in the north central part of New Mexico.  It's known for its art galleries and various artsy venues.  Lots of shops selling authentic Native American wares.  We didn't see anything we couldn't live without and the traffic and narrow streets were a challenge for our big truck.  We did find this gem about 8 miles northwest of Taos.  The Rio Grande runs through here and there is a very large bridge across it.  This gorge can be viewed from a state park/wayside rest area on the west side of the bridge.  I walked to the bridge and took pictures from it.  There are rafters on the river in the top picture.  We didn't see where the rafts put in and don't know how far the raft trip goes but it looked exciting.  You can see the rapids the rafts were about to hit.  The bottom picture shows the river looking pretty flat and green.

The state park was free and there were one or two sites you in which you could park an RV and "camp".  There were also Native American's selling all kinds of goods in the park.   They had stalls set up and it looked like they were selling there all the time.   You were probably better off buying things here than in Taos.  At least in the park the parking was free unlike Taos where you have to pay to park and the parking spaces are too small for big vehicles. 

Capulin Volcano National Monument

We left La Veta and went as far as Raton, New Mexico just 75 miles.  Our first day on the road after sitting for so many months we like to just make a short trip and see how everything tows.  The truck started to overheat a few hundred feet before we got to the top of Raton Pass.  We pulled into a weigh station at the top and the truck cooled right down.  That happened on a Sunday and we couldn't get it looked at until Tuesday because of the holiday.  Since the truck behaved when not towing we took the 30 mile drive east of Raton to see this volcano.

The big deal with this volcano is it is the youngest volcano this far east.  It erupted 60,000 years ago.   It is extinct now but the 8,000 square mile area around this volcano is a called the Raton-Clayton volcanic field and it could become active again but not likely.   The other thing that made me want to see it is that normally you can drive almost to the top and then hike down into the volcano itself.  Unfortunately, the road to the top washed out a few weeks ago so they weren't allowing anyone up there.  Oh well maybe the next time we come through we can try again. 

We got the truck fixed and will be headed to Alburquerque for a few days.  Its still in the mid nineties but its a dry heat!