My Trails

These sites not for big RVs.

After five days at Navajo Lake State Park, I decided to drive 80 miles east to Heron Lake. Navajo is a nice park but too warm this time of year without air conditioning. While I was there, I fortunately had an electric site so I could run AC and stay cool. Navajo Lake is around 6000′ elevation and Heron Lake is 7200′. Logic told me to put the money for electric in my gas tank and drive up to the higher elevation.

There is a good road to Heron that curves up to the north and swings south at Chama. Unfortunately, my GPS saw a lot shorter route through the Apache Indian reservation, and beckoned me on another shortcut. It was a mistake! The road was sort of paved most of the way, but dangerous potholes littered every bit of the black top. That was bad enough but then the road turned to dirt. With all the rain in the last few days many places along the road were washed out and muddy. I half expected to come to a dip filled with water where I would have to back-track many miles.

I made it as you can tell. The campground I’m in is quite pretty with trees and views of the lake. I’ll do more exploration tomorrow. There is a thunderstorm firing up this afternoon and forecast is for more all week. The temperature is 82 degrees.

Swallows nests in Bluewater canyon.

My 14 days were up at Bluewater Lake State Park so I packed and headed 150 miles up to Navajo Lake State Park. I was a little worried about finding a spot with it being a holiday week. Navajo Lake is over 1000′ lower than Bluewater so I was hoping I could find an electric site to run my AC for a few days. Forecast for Navajo Lake was high 80’s through the weekend.

I pulled into the main campground, called Pine, and drove a couple of loops looking for a site. Everything was filled or reserved, even the non-electric sites. I thought for sure I would have to go up to one of the loops on a back dirt road look for an empty site, but I turned the corner in the last electric loop and there was one electric site open. It is fairly small but Minnie fit fine. After I parked and paid the extra for hook-ups, I walked all the loops and discovered I got the last one.

Rain on the way.

Later that evening we got a pretty good rain storm. The dark clouds brought a pretty rainbow before the rain began.

This morning I unloaded Honda and rode around the lake to Sims Mesa campground. Sims Mesa campground is only a mile across the lake as the crow flies, but it is 40 miles on paved road as the motorcycle drives. The campground over there was as crowded as this one. I drove the loops to check it out and headed back after a butt rest.

Navajo lake from shortcut road.

On the way back I noticed a dirt road that followed the lake shore, and a sign announced it as the Navajo Dam shortcut road. I’m all for shortcuts but it usually means a rough road. The road lived up to my imagination and bounced me all 10 miles to the dam. A lot of the road was so rough that I had to stand on the pegs to keep my internal organs in place!

Nice view of the dam and San Juan River below.

I was here a couple of years ago and parked down below the dam by the river. There is a campground along the river called Cottonwood but I didn’t get any cell signal there. All the campgrounds here are nice but warm for this time of year. I will probably move on after the weekend and look for something a little cooler.

Free is good!

I rode into Grants today with my camp neighbor and friend John. He was getting brake work done on his truck and wanted to pick up groceries and do laundry. He had mentioned before that this laundromat was newly open and offered free dryers. The washers were reasonable, and free drying made it a good deal.

Each day the clouds move in in the afternoon but so far no rain. The temperature has fallen into the low 80’s which is a good thing. I will move in a couple days. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Malka and Nate.

This is a picture of my grandson Nate with his girlfriend and her Dad on her college graduation day.