MONDAY - Today is our travel day and we have just over 100-miles to go east on Interstate-10 to reach our destination.
Even with over 30 miles still to go we could see our destination out on the horizon on the southeast side of Las Cruces, NM.
Those are the Organ Mountains you're looking at and they are all part of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Last week one of our blog readers (Lucy Schultz) described the Organ Mountains as if "someone dropped the Tetons in the desert".
We've haven't visited the Tetons yet (SPOILER ALERT - that will happen this summer), but if they look anything like these mountains we'll be looking forward to our visit.
While we were still west of Las Cruces on Interstate-10 I had to do a double take at what I saw up on a hill as we passed by one of the Rest Areas.
Is that a 20-foot tall Roadrunner I see?
They say "Everything's Bigger in Texas", but we're still 30-miles inside of New Mexico.
As you can see we've now left the Interstate behind and are getting close to our desired campsite location. We don't have reservations for these next three days, we'll be looking to find a "dispersed campsite" on the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land that is part of the National Monument.
We have three locations on our list of possible campsites. The first location we checked out is the Sierra Vista Dispersed Camping site. There is less than ½-mile of decent gravel road here to camp on before it deteriorates into something I wouldn't tow THE POD down. There are only about 6 campsites here where a trailer our size would fit and they were all already occupied.
So we moved on to our second location which is the Baylor Canyon Dispersed Camping site. Here we found a ¾-mile long gravel road with camping, but the road was in pretty poor condition right from the start. After traveling just a few hundred yards I was beginning to regret even trying to traverse down this nasty single track road (i.e. - no way to turn around). That's when we spotted an empty campsite and everything changed for the better.
It's a fairly large site, large enough to pull the trailer in forward, so our back windows have the best view. I was still able to squeeze the truck out from in front so we could go sightseeing while we're visiting here.
Looking out the back windows we have quite a view of the Organ Mountains.
Looking out the front windows we have a distant view of Las Cruces, which ain't to bad either.
Now that we're all set for our 3-day visit it's time to head out and find some lunch. Tricia found a highly rated Thai food restaurant just a few miles down the road so off we went.
After lunch I remembered the other half of the comment that Lucy Schultz made last week. She said, "Both sides of the Organ Mountains National Monument are stunning". Since we were already halfway around the mountains we went ahead and visited the Aguirre Spring Campground on the other side. It's the only "official" campground located inside of the National Monument and they have a reccommended maximum length of 23-feet for anyone towing a travel trailer.
After traveling the entrance road with just ROVER and "NO" POD I could see why there is a maximum length posted. There are numerous tight turns and several switchbacks to negotiate on the way up to the campground. It is however just a recommendation and not a restriction, we saw several trailers up there in the 25'-30' range.
Yes, the Organ Mountains are just as stunning from the eastern side.
While we were enjoying the views from the eastern side of the Organ Mountains there seemed to be a little bit of wet weather brewing back over on the western side where THE POD is at.
None of this snow was happening when we left for lunch just a couple of hours ago!
While we may be at 5100' in elevation here at our campsite...
...a few of those mountain peaks up there are at 8100' in elevation.
After most of the weather cleared out we were left with quite a good dusting, all the way down to the base of the mountains and that by the way is exactly where we are camped!
TUESDAY - ❤️❤️❤️ HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! ❤️❤️❤️
I was so intrigued by that 20-foot tall roadrunner we saw yesterday that I just had to research it to find out what it was all about.
Here is what I learned!
It's called the "Recycled Roadrunner" and was first constructed in 1993 by artist Olin Calk. The roadrunner by the way is the "Official State Bird" of New Mexico. It was originally located at the city landfill and was made exclusively of items salvaged from it.
In 2001 the artist stripped in bare and rebuilt it before moving it to the Rest Stop on Interstate 10 where it could be seen from miles away and gained a large fan base.
In 2011 the Recycled Roadrunner was looking pretty sad, between passersby picking souvenirs off of the bird and exposure to the harsh elements here in Southern New Mexico, it was time for another rebuild.
The artist took it to his home to rebuild it and then waited three years before the city decided to return it to the Rest Stop location in 2014. It was then placed on top of a fake rock to make it more difficult to "steal a souvenir" and signs were placed around the sculpture warning of rattlesnakes being present.
Does any of this sound interesting to you? Well it did to us, enough so that this morning we drove 23-miles back down the road to get an up close look at the bird.
We found it was only accessible while traveling eastbound, so we had to drive past it to the next exit, make a u-turn under the Interstate, and then made sure we didn't miss the entrance to the Rest Stop. There is plenty of space for 18-wheelers, RVs and passenger vehicles in a circular parking lot on the top of a hill.
There are also bathrooms and picnic pavillions located here. All vehicles (including RVs) are permitted to remain in the parking lot for 24-hours before being ticketed and fined $100.00!
RECYCLED ROADRUNNER
20' tall and 40' wide makes this one unique "Big (non-yellow) Bird".
It appears that "shoes" make up most of this birds skin.
Most of the neck area is also made of shoes.
When you get to the wings I start seeing keyboards and crutches.
Finally the tail appears to be a wide collection of different stuff.
The upper legs are entirely made of white shoes...
...while the legs are all old tire treads.
Maybe the Roadrunner got so huge by eating a "Big Red Chile" like this one?
THE EVERCHANGING MOOD OF
THE ORGAN MOUNTAINS
All photos were taken while viewing from our campsite!
(shown in order during our 3-day visit)
SHORTLY AFTER OUR ARRIVAL - Day 1 at 11:13AM
Day 1 at 11:14AM
Day 1 at 11:15AM
LATER THE SAME DAY - Day 1 at 3:31PM
Day 1 at 4:09PM
Day 1 at 5:09PM
Day 1 at 5:09PM
Day 1 at 5:09PM
Day 1 at 5:09PM
Day 1 at 5:18PM
Day 1 at 5:18PM
Day 1 at 5:18PM
Day 1 at 5:18PM
Day 1 at 5:22PM
THE NEXT DAY - Day 2 at 11:17AM
Day 2 at 11:17AM
Day 2 at 11:17AM
Day 2 at 12:45PM
Day 2 at 12:46PM
Day 2 at 12:46PM
Day 2 at 12:46PM
Day 2 at 1:16PM
Day 2 at 1:16PM
Day 2 at 4:27PM
Day 2 at 4:27PM
Day 2 at 4:27PM
Day 2 at 4:27PM
Day 2 at 4:27PM
THE FOLLOWING MORNING AT SUNRISE - Day 3 at 6:55AM
ONE HOUR LATER IS WAS SNOWING ON THE MOUNTAINS - Day 3 at 7:55AM
ONE MORE HOUR AND IT WAS SNOWING ON THE CAMPSITE - Day 3 at 9:06AM
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