Returning to Colorado

Tuesday, March 17

I spent St Patrick's Day driving along I-25 to Albuquerque from Elephant Butte New Mexico. 

I spent Monday night lot docking at Suzuki Samurai Guru Mike W's home in Elephant Butte.  Dinner was with neighborhood friends Ed and Luana where I learn to play the game called Aggravation, quite a lot of fun actually.

I woke late on Tuesday, it was almost 8:00 a.m.! Coffee inside with Mike and Laura while we chatted for a while and then I left them at 9:30 to head north along I-25 towards Albuquerque. 

This time though, I decided not to use the same old route of staying on I-25 all the way back to Denver metro. I thought I would explore the US 285 route between Albuquerque / Taos in Northern New Mexico. 

The first BLM campground I tried was still closed for the season, damn it. They don't open till April. This was the Santa Cruz Lake Recreation Area Overlook campground.

So I continued on to the Rio Grande Gorge recreation area which had four open campgrounds but no dispersed spots that I could see although there was a small primitive camping lot that was very small. 

I checked them all out, I ended up at the first one closest to the highway, since it had open spots and the RV sites had electricity. No water at the site though since I guess it's still winter in there schedule even though the weather has been very warm. 

It was close to 5:00 before I was fully set up, long day, lots of windy roads through hilly terrain. 

After dinner I took Yagi out for a ride hoping for some kind of nice lighting. But the lighting went away pretty quickly after these pictures due to the high canyon walls of the gorge.

Wednesday, March 18

I left the Pilar campground shortly before 9:00 a.m., having waited fruitlessly for sunlight to come out enforce so I could get some pictures of the Rio Grande waters.

It was hilly driving north and I crossed into Colorado at 10:00 a.m. 

About an hour after that I was nearing the Great Sand Dunes National Park area and the sign Luis Lake Wildlife Area.  I am now staying at the campground there where there is free electricity at some of the sites and great Mountain views of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.