Elephant Butte, errands and more off-road meandering

 In other posts regarding Elephant Butte, I'd posted pictures of the rock formations I thought had been the inspiration for such a name.  I was wrong all the previous times.

This morning, I was perusing a Garmin map and lo and behold, it showed a small rock formation near the dam that forms the Elephant Butte Reservoir!

So after breakfast, I headed on down to Elephant Butte, the town, and eventually found the spot shown on the map.  I must say two things.  First, maybe I see the elephant's head but the naming person had a better imagination and I and Second, it was not worth the effort to find it?  Still, it's done.

Maybe it looks more like an elephant from the other side....

Next, I drove over to the town next door: Truth or Consequences or T or C as the locals apparently refer to it.  I found the Carquest Auto Parts store I'd ordered the PCV valve from and picked it up along with some other supplies.  I also stopped at the town's supermarket: Bullocks and stocked up on some food items.

Returning to the URRV and after I put away the groceries, I replaced the PCV valve and ensured the associated rubber tubing was nice and clean.  I'd found it coated in slimy oil residue you see; hoping this will help things.

Then of course it was time to do a test drive and I headed back towards the foothills of the Cibola National Forest to the northwest.  I got actually pretty close to some of the foothills I'd shown a picture of in the last blog posting.

I found that FR936 meanders its way to the foothills and beyond:

At the top of the ridge looking towards the wind vane and tanks

Back at junction of FR139 and FR936

The rest of the afternoon I spent sitting inside the URRV mostly, the winds had picked up along with the cloud cover which made things a bit chilly for me.

The winds had died down by the time sunset came along but now with the sun gone, the night's chill came on...

Pretty good day I must say, the "mystery" of which formation is Elephant Butte is solved, Mariko continues to do well off road and on pavement, and my supply of Spam has been replenished!  :)