City of Rocks

Before departing the Alamogordo area on Tuesday, we spent an afternoon visiting the Space History Museum.  No pictures for the blog.  However, it is well worth the admission price; especially if you have school age kids with  you. 

It was a rather short 2 hour drive to our destination at the Dream Catcher Escapees RV park in Deming, New Mexico.  The road passes through the southern end of the Organ mountains.

We passed a Border Patrol checkpoint  while enroute.  They waved us on thru.  Generally they ask how many people are in the motorhome and if they are American citizens.  We have not been asked yet to allow then inside.  I guess we aren't very suspicious looking characters.

Deming is some 40 miles west of  Las Cruces.  The Escapees campground is basically a gravel parking lot, but has full hook-ups.  Most of the RV parks in this part of the country are like that.  Parks like this are nice as long as there is a sufficient amount of gravel to keep the dust to a minimum.  The Holloman AFB camp we had just left was much more dusty and needed an inch or two layer of large gravel.

After a good night's rest, we took care of some banking business at Wells Fargo in Deming and had lunch at a local restaurant.    Driving 22 miles north of Deming we found City of Rocks State Park.

The rocks of the park emerge from the floor of a desert valley of at lease 30 square miles. From a distance the park doesn't look too  impressive.  However, up close the rocks, most of which are as tall as a 3 story building, make for very interesting campsites.

 Walking among these monoliths makes one feel like you are in a natural stone henge.

It seemed as if it wouldn't be surprising to see cowboys or indians around the rocks.   This area has got to have been used to film some of the western movies I've seen in my childhood.

 It' too  bad we did not know about  this park before registering at the Deming RV park.

The Crimson Hedgehog cactus in bloom at the park's desert garden.

 Here is a video shot from a hilltop within the park.