Two Familiar Stops in New Mexico

We left the Arizona  Desert with its many beautiful cacti and spring flowers and headed to the higher desert of New Mexico. Our first stop was a few day stay at City of Rocks State Park, where we have stayed several times. City of Rocks State Park includes unusual rock formations set in a rather flat part of New Mexico near Deming. We got a spot that are butted up next to some of the rocks.

There are 64 sites with a small number of sites with hooks grouped together and the rest set among the rocks. A lot of people come for the day to climb among the rocks or even to do some rock climbing though it was pretty quite when we were there. A fun place to spend some time.

Then we were on to one of our fav spots to stay, Santa Fe. We love this town and even though of buying a small condo near the Plaza area at one time. Anyway, it is a great place to visit with lots to do. We stayed at Santa Fe Skies RV Park, where we have stayed several times. It is just south of Santa Fe and is on a hill with views of the Sangre de /Cristo Mountains and the Rio Grande Valley.I had read in someone else's blog that they had recently stayed here and talked about the spots in the back area which have the best views. Those had been filled when we were here during the busy summer season but we were able to get one of the nicest spot, a pull thru with no obstructed view.

It is an interesting resort with much of its electricity coming from a large array of solar panels right in the park. They also a number of art sculptures throughout the park, fitting for the artsy town of Santa Fe.  Below are just a few of them.

Joe was still recovering from his stomach virus the first few days, antsy to be well enough to sample some of Santa Fe's many excellent restaurants.
One day we took a drive up to Hyde Memorial State Park. It is really for smaller vehicles than our Beast but it was a nice drive. If you continue up the hill it ends at a Ski Resort. It was a nice drive.

Love the southwestern houses that just blend into the scenery. We had a lot of weather most of the time we were here. Lots of wind, thunder, lightning, rain. We went to the Saturday Farmers Market. It was cold and we even got a few small snow flakes. The vendors were shutting up early as it looked like it could rain but we purchased some spinach and a couple of types of potatoes including purple fingerlings. from the part of the Market that is indoors. When Joe felt better, one of the first restaurant trips was to Harry's Roadhouse, a popular restaurant that was on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. We have been here a number of times and Joe always get their turkey meatloaf.
We did get a nice day and were able to go walk around the Plaza area. Joe wanted to get a hat but I was the one who ended up getting one. Didn't get a picture of me in it but will probably get one one of these days. I also got some sandals and a new chain for my Spirit Bear turquoise pendent I got in Vail years ago. We had lunch that day at the Blue Corn Cafe, where we have eaten before. Joe, who loves loves hot spicy food had a green chile stew that he admitted was pretty darn hot. I had green chile mac and cheese with chicken. Yummy!! It is also a brewery and Joe had a flight of beers. I tasted a few when not sipping on my margarita. Another day we went to El Farol, Santa Fe's oldest restaurant. It is known for their tapas and during the evening they have flamingo dancers performing. We just went for lunch. It was a little chilly or we would have loved to sit out on their patio. More good food. Our favorite was flash  fried avocado with a lime yogurt sauce. We also had a cheese plate with four different cheeses
( IDIAZABAL lightly smoked sheep milk served with sliced pear

CABRALES Spanish blue cheese with marcona almonds & honey

QUESO de CABRA baked Spanish goat cheese served with roasted garlic & Jamon Serrano

MANCHEGO Spanish sheep milk cheese with membrillo

 We also had chorizo with fig aioli and also  an empanada with salmon.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the Plaza area as we have a lot from previous trips. Below are some pictures from one of our trips from several years ago.

We spent a lot of time just relaxing in the motor home with the inclement weather. There is lots to do here. Last year when we were here we drove the Turquoise Trail, which is a scenic drive south towards Albuquerque .Other past trips included a day trip to Taos and also to the area between Santa Fe and Santa Fe,where Georgia O"Keeffe lived and painted many of  her famous landscapes of this beautiful area.  We also went to a number of the many museums in town, including Georgia O'Keeffe's and also on what is called  Museum Hill.where we went to the Folk Art Museum and a few others. Of course, there are many Art Galleries and other interesting shops.
While hanging around the RV Park, we took a few walks around the 3/4 mile loop around the park.

Behind this are the garbage containers.

We love this place and kept adding days to our stay which ended up about 10 days. But, we are onto another state. We head north to Colorado.
Oh and the Ducks won the Ducks Calgary series 4 games to 1. They are onto the Western Conference Final, the first time since 2007 when they went on to win the Stanley Cup. GO Ducks!!!!!

More Art, Slab City and Salton Sea

Thursday we decided to take a drive to the small town of Niland, on the east side of the Salton Sea. It is known as the home of Slab City and the infamous Salvation Mountain. Slab City was part of the book and movie "Into the Wild" that was out a few years ago. Slab City was formerly a military training facility that was closed and completely dismantled by 1961. The only thing left were the cement foundations of former buildings. Soon after, rv campers started coming to take advantage of the free area to camp, especially during the winter's mild climate. Some of the residents try to make it a nice "town" with social clubs and an area for books for sale or trade among other things. Unfortunately some don't and there are areas with lots of trash. It is an interesting area to check out.

   Right near the entrance is Salvation Mountain.      It is a colorful art installation created by a man named Leonard Knight as a tribute to God and to Universal Love. The hugh structure is made of adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint.   He does not accept money donations but has always accepted paint. He also has painted  cars and machinery, that are on site, with biblical quotes Until recently he lived on site in a small cabin on the back of a large Chevy truck.                         
 His project is an unauthorized one on state land, however, Salvation Mountain was placed under protection in 2002 when Senator Boxer entered it into the Congressional Record as a national treasure

On the way back, we stopped at the Salton Sea Recreational Area visitor center. The Salton Sea is one of the largest inland seas and the lowest level at 227 feet below sea level. It was created in 1905  when high spring flooding on the. Colorado River crashed the canal gates leading into the developing Imperial Valley.   It took 18 months to stop the flooding and ended up with 130 miles of shoreline by the time it was finally stopped   Salinity is slightly more than the Pacific Ocean and continues to get saltier every year. Most fish are dying off due to the large salt content and the Talipia is one of the few fish left. It is rather a bizarre place and a land of contrasts as you have many different types of birds and the beauty of the sea yet thousands of dead fish lay on the shoreline causing a rather nasty odor at times. Natural at its most interesting.

      It was a most interesting day in this unique area.                                                                                                          

Art in the Desert

We spent a little time in Newport until a date for our Mom's memorial was set. As the Celebration of her Life will not be until the 22nd, we decided to go back out to the Desert. Before we left, we took our kids out to dinner to celebrate Karol's BDay. We went to El Ranchito in Newport, which is a great Mexican restaurant. Thursday we headed to J & L Repair to have a couple of things fixed and have one of the slides tweaked a little. They got everything done on Friday and we left to return to Oasis Palm RV. While checking in, we discovered that there is going to be a Chili Cook off on Saturday. Cool, I had a new chili recipe I wanted to try. Saturday night, we took our chili that had cooked all day in the crock pot over to the meeting/game room. There were 14 different chili dishes and all completely different. Lots of fun tasting. There were also some salads and desserts. We had a good time talking to the people there, some of who were here when we were here before. The San Francisco/NewOrleans game was on the big screen and yippee, San Fran won. Hoping for them to be in the Super Bowl.

Tuesday we took a drive to Borrego Springs. In the middle of the desert, are these awesome sculptures.
Dennis Avery, land owner of Galleta Meadows Estates in Borrego Springs envisioned the idea of adding 'free standing art' to his property with original steel welded sculptures created by

artist Richard Breceda. There are 129 metal sculptures all over the town.

                                                          

                                                 



350' Serpent starts on one side of the street and ends on the other


The sculptures are on the Estates, which are privately owned but there is no
fencing and you can drive right up to them for close looks. In fact the owner allows camping
on his land for up to 3 days. What a great person.