Return to New Mexico

We left Roy, Utah around 1:00 pm, which was not our plan, because I went to the shooting range with our son.  It was worth the delay.  Because we got started so late, we hit the rush hour traffic through Salt Lake City.  We arrived in Price, Utah in time to find a spot in the Walmart parking lot.  Dinner was a trip to the in-store Subway.  Do not plan on camping in the Walmart parking lot if you expect quiet.  A Semi refrigeration truck pulled in close to us with his motor running all night.  We moved to another location on their lot, but it did not help much.

This was our first rest stop at Tie Fork.  It is surrounded by some beautiful rock formations.  Behind the building in this view is a nice grassy area with benches and an old re-stored train.

Engine 435, the restored narrow gage train that ran out of Helper, Utah.

As you can see, the engine was restored, or created to be like the original by Original Creations, INC., Helper, Utah.

This interesting rock formation is visible from the parking lot of the visitor's center.

Here is a typical water tower for supplying the water for the steam engine.

We traveled through Moab without a stop and headed for Farmington, New Mexico.  We were hurrying because we wanted to get there before the DMV closed.  We thought we needed to get our new pickup and trailer inspected and licensed.

Before we arrived in Farmington we received a call from an angelic like employee of the New Mexico DMV informing us our pickup was licensed and our registration was being sent to our address.  She also emailed us a copy so we could show proof of registration if necessary.  Because it was for a new vehicle, no vin inspection was necessary.  The same was true for the trailer but it took longer because the dealer took his own sweet time sending the inforation to the DMV.

Our next stop was at Navajo Lake State Park in New Mexico.  It is one of the largest lakes in the state, and it spans the border of New Mexico and Colorado.  I thought it was ironic since we had kayaked Navajo Lake, Utah with our son, Ben.

This photo was taken from the dam across the Colorado River that forms Navajo Lake.

It is a beautiful lake, but we did not spend much time here because we could not find a suitable camp site.  We were able camp for one night in a reserve site.  There was a site we could get into on Friday.  We had arrived on Wednesday, but could not find a site for Thursday so we headed for Heron Lake State Park.

There were no First-Come sites available at Heron so we went on over to El Vado Lake State Park.  We camped there for 10 days, then moved over to Heron on a Sunday morning and found an almost perfect site.  It was a pull-through surrounded by trees and shrubs, affording us privacy and quiet.

At El Vado we were kayaking when we got caught in a thunder storm.  In one cloud burst we got drinched.  It let up, and before we got back to the dock another storm moved in.  Lightening stuck the side of the mountain about a mile from our location.  We were holding our breaths and silently praying we would get back to shore safely.

We took up our hobby of hummingbird watching at Heron.  This time we had our own feeder.  In this view you can see a Roufus hovering by the feeder.  This little guy was very territorial and shelfish.  He fought off as many other hummingbirds as possible.  One time he actually locked feet with another mid-air, and they fell to the ground.  Both got up apparently uninjured and continued to fight for a sip of sugar water. 

New Mexico sun sets are always beautiful, and a good way to bring this blog post to a close.  The next post will take us back to Leisburg, Manzano, and Rock Hound State Parks.