Park Hopping

Even have a little shelter.

It’s amazing how many multiple names of towns there are in this country. Yesterday I drove past signs for Cuba, Algodones, and Las Vegas, none of which are the places I first think of when I see those names.

I’m presently camped 4 miles north of Las Vegas, NM, at Storrie Lake State Park. I got one of the last developed sites available. If an electric site had been open I probably would have ponied up the extra cash to run my AC. It’s not too warm yet and there is a nice breeze that helps. The sky is dark overcast and may dump some rain soon. At least I have good cell signal and open sky for satellite.

After only one night at Fenton Lake I packed up and headed for Hyde Memorial SP. Hyde Memorial is 8 miles north of Santa Fe in what is called Black Canyon. It’s a good description because the park is narrow, heavily treed, and crowded. I found only three sites open and managed to squeeze into one of them. I was not level, there was no way my satellite could see through all the trees, and I had zero cell signal. The one good thing I can say is that at 8500′ the temperature was perfect – 75°.

Overlook on road above Hyde Memorial at 10,000′.

I’m a little miffed at New Mexico Parks because the last three parks have had no dump station. Fenton Lake never had one and Hyde Memorial was closed because of flood water. When I pulled in here at Storrie Lake and saw the sign that the dump was closed, I was a bit disappointed. When I asked the girl working the entrance booth about it, she directed me to a nearby RV park that charges $10.

The main reason I purchased the park pass is so I would have free access to dump, water, garbage, and a nice site. I guess my main objective this year is to explore the state parks and decide which ones fit my lifestyle. So far I haven’t found any better than Bluewater Lake and Heron Lake for warm summer months.

4 Responses to “Park Hopping”

  1. RICHARD says:

    Are there any wind surfers on the lake? It is popular for that.

  2. Dale says:

    I haven’t seen anyone out on the lake since I got here. Maybe more activity this weekend. One family down by the shore swimming and fishing.

  3. Donna says:

    I’m glad you’re doing the scouting out of the NM state parks. I was very interested in spending some time there, but after your experience, my enthusiasm has waned. I’m more interested now in southern Colorado.

  4. Dale says:

    Right Donna. I’m thinking next year I will just stay in Arizona. As long as they don’t have fire closures it works out to move around from south to north with the weather.

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