Back in my happy place

Clicking the pics brings a moment of joy.... And then hours of regret.

Sunrise at the Elephant.

It sure feels good to be off-grid again, except my refrigerator is begging to go crawling back to a plug-in. But the fridge can whine all it wants, I'm happy boondocking, and my happiness is the only thing that matters when I'm traveling.

Since I've been camped at a regular reservation camping spot, I haven't seen very much of the boondocking areas that I've always used until this morning when I went looking for a boondocking spot to use for a few days.

I knew the water in the reservoir had come up, that was easy to see, but I had no idea how much. Driving to my favorite boondocking spot near the beach, I was amazed at how much of the beach had disappeared and taken lots of boondocking areas with it. My observation of the amount of beach boondocking that was available was based on many years of drought that New Mexico had experienced. I had never seen Elephant Butte with a normal amount of water. Well, now I have, and many of my favorite boondocking areas can only be reached with scuba tanks, which I sold when I left Miami, assuming they would be of no further use.

So it looks like, assuming this is going to be the normal water level, I will have to do some exploring here at the Elephant to find some new, and maybe even better boondocking areas.

Theboondork

Sunset boondocking.

Elephant Butte Marina.

New Mexico skies.

My new boondocking spot up on a ridge overlooking the lake and the marina.

The white trailer is setting exactly where I boondocked about five months ago. The difference is when I boondocked the beach was about 100 yards away, which is why I parked up here in the trees to stay away from the noise and the partyers on the beach. But it appears the beach has now come to me. There was also a lot of room up here near the trees for a dozen campers to boondock, now there's only room for one.... It looks like I'm going to have to regroup.

I took this picture Thanksgiving day 2022. I'm parked right where that white trailer is and as you can see by the  size of the RVs in the background parked on the beach, I'm at least 100 yards away from them. I can't believe how different this place looks with a semi normal amount of water in the reservoir.