Southeast New Mexico

 

From Roswell, I headed south to the bustling town of Las Cruces. I lucked out and was able to score a campsite at Leaburg's Dam State Park for a few days. It was about 20 miles north of Las Cruces, NM. Las Cruces was full of wonderful activities and joyful moments.

The drive

Leasburg Lake Campground - that is me on the left

My view from the camper

While I was waiting for my old-time Rving friends, Lou and Davey to meet up with me here, I was able to put myself in the lap of luxury with a massage. I need to train myself to think that massages are a necessity and not a luxury. 

Lou, Davey and I will travel together for a few weeks and then go our separate ways. I'm just glad that we have this together time now. It is fun to have somebody to hang out with and do things with.

This guy was in the Natural History Museum. 
I just like turtles  

We decided to go to Old Town in Las Cruces. It reminded me of the Plaza in Santa Fe, but not quite as cool. Lots of touristy shops with a church on one end of the plaza. We dutifully went into every single shop and then had lunch at La Posta. There is lots of history in this building. It was here, in 1854, the Gadsden Purchase ceremony was held. The Gadsden Purchase gave us southern Arizona and parts of southern New Mexico.

Every town with a central plaza generally has a church as a cornerstone. 
This church, the San Albino church was not just any little church. 
It was classified by papal direction, a minor basilica.     

It is a little chilly here in Las Cruces.

Ten miles east of Las Cruces lie the Organ Mountains. These mountains were named because somebody thought they looked like organ pipes. I looked and looked but I've got to say – I'm not seeing anything close to organ pipes. That said, these mountains had a certain charm all their own. We were a little short on time, so we only got in a short hike in toward the end of the day.

Organ Pipes?  Still not seeing them.

Photographer Lou

On our way north, up to Albuquerque, we spent the night at the Elephant Butte State Park located on Elephant Butte Lake. This lake is actually a reservoir on the southern part of the Rio Grande. They say that this reservoir is the 84^th largest man-made lake in the U.S and the largest in New Mexico. I'm not sure if it still has that status as the lake was super low. The Southwest United States has had a two-decade long drought. I heard some official say that it is the worst drought in 1200 years.

I wanted to visit the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. It is a favorite wintering spot for the sandhill crane. Alas, most of the cranes had migrated north already. I'm thinking they are all nuts. While it is cold in New Mexico right now, it is frigid up north.

 

Cranes and snow geese

Red willow grass