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Welcome to New Mexico

14 05 2023

Welcome to New Mexico

After 6 nights and almost 900 miles, we’ve finally departed Texas – it’s a big state!

We’re meeting friends at Conchas Lake State Park just north of Tucumcari, NM. Here, we’ll be 3 nights in site B-19, a nice private back-in site with lake views in the Bell Point campground. As has been common all across the west, and especially at this time of year, the water level at Conchas appears to be down around 20 feet since our last visit. However, after our departure, the lake saw over 12 feet of elevation gain in just 1 week as winter runoff and the monsoons started.

Lake Conchas State Park, New Mexico

Between Covid and low water levels the marina and other local business have all closed. The nearest restaurants are back in Tucumcari, which is about 40 minutes away. However, these cliff side campsites provide great views of the lake, sunrises, sunsets and are peacefully quiet this time of year. And, with a nearby T-Mobile tower, our internet access provides work and streaming speeds.

Santa Fe Skies RV Park, Santa Fe, New Mexico

From Conchas, we’re headed to Santa Fe, and one of our favorite RV parks, Santa Fe Skies. The park provides about 100 sites south of town with great night lights views out over Santa Fe. We’re parked in site W3, a long, level pull through right next to the office. Friends are backed in next to the doggie park in Yucca #5.

Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen, Santa Fe, New Mexico

While in Santa Fe we nearly always enjoy the festive atmosphere of the farmers market and of course the cold brews at the Second Street Brewery in the Railyard. This trip we also found two new restaurants. We loved Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen on Cordova Road known for their homestyle Mexican food and over 100 varieties of margaritas. And, enjoyed our visit to La Boca, an excellent Spanish tapas restaurant just off the main plaza in old town.

2023 Spring Road Trip

After 2 nights in Santa Fe, we’re headed home from the 2023 Spring Road Trip adventure. We’ve traveled over 4000 miles and spent 103 nights in 25 different parks and RV resorts. During a trip “timeout”, we traveled to South America, over 10,000 air miles and cruised nearly 4000 nautical miles on our voyage around Cape Horn, from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Puerto Valparaiso, Chile. We’ll be home for about 2 weeks before departing for the Montana Owners Rally in Heber City, UT. More from Utah!

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Tags: lake conchas, mexican food, santa fe, santa fe skies
Categories : Spring Road Trip 2023

Memorial Day Weekend at Lake Conchas

30 05 2016

Lake Conchas State Park, New Mexico

We’ve just spent 4 nights at Lake Conchas in northern New Mexico. We last visited Conchas on the return from Texas about 4 weeks ago. Once again we’re parked in Bell Point, on the cliff side site #19 with friends in sites #21, #22 and #18.

We departed Danver on Wednesday for a quick overnight at Pueblo Lake SP. We enjoyed electric only back-in sites #46 & #47 with great views over the lake to the south. On Thursday, with miserable winds from the South, we crossed Raton Pass to Las Vegas and then across highway 104 for about 70 miles of rough, windy road. Perhaps a detour down highway 84 between Las Vegas and Santa Rosa would be a bit easier drive.

After a windy evening Thursday, we enjoyed high temperatures in the 80’s and lows in the 50’s each night. On Friday we had a brief thunderstorm that produced a bit of rain and caused cancellation of our evening campfire. It should be noted that only a few sites at Conchas have fire rings. #21 and #29 are probably the best sites with fire pits. The downside to #21 is the proximity of the dumpster. With the campground full nearly all weekend, this dumpster was pretty smelly by half way through the weekend.

We’re currently enroute to Taos, NM where we’ll spend one night at a favorite RV park, Taos Valley. More from Taos…

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Tags: lake conchas, new mexico, pueblo, taos, taos valley rv park
Categories : Summer Camping 2016

A Weekend at Lake Conchas

2 05 2016

Lake Conchas, “Out the Rear Window” site #19

With winter storms still complicating our return to Colorado, on Saturday we opted to move a bit further north to Lake Conchas near Tucumcari, NM. We spent time at Lake Conchas last year waiting out storms along the front range, and decided it would be a good spot for that again this year. Arriving on Saturday afternoon, sunny skies and warm temperature slowly gave way to a cold, windy drizzle that lasted through Sunday evening. But, temps weren’t all that much warmer in Roswell, so at least we’re another 200 miles closer to home.

We’re parked in site #19, a cliff-side site that enjoys a beautiful view of the lake and northern skies. There’s virtually no over-the-air TV at Conchas, so one of our first tasks on arrival was to set-up the DirecTV satellite. Utilizing a free 30 day demo of HBO we enjoyed a very relaxing rainy weekend of movies.

After 2 nights at Conchas, Monday morning dawns as a beautiful sunny, wind-free day. Just the right kind of day to continue our trek north. From here we’re bound for Lathrup State Park right outside of Walsenburg.. More from there…