theboondork's RV blog

Boondocking at rockhound state Park New Mexico

3/26/2022

Clicking the pics will take you to Rockhound State Park... Or back to Tombstone if you hang on till the end.

Boondocking rockhound state Park New Mexico Picture

Now that I have an annual pass this boondocking spot is free to me.

I feel a little guilty because this spot is a huge pull-through that I would love to get if I was here in the Arctic Fox. But me and the little bronco take up so little room I hate to take up such a large spot. But it's all they had available. But tomorrow I get to move about 100 feet to an electric site for four dollars a night because I have a reservation and that's all they had available when I booked it.

I moseyed east this morning on I-10, pulled into a Walmart in Deming, New Mexico, and bought a few groceries. I then drove 10 or 15 more miles to Rockhound State Park, where I purchased an out-of-state annual camping pass, pulled into the only boondocking site available for tonight, and started unloading my groceries.

It's good to have a new view for a change, and the weather guessers are calling for a week or so of partly cloudy weather, so I'll at least have a chance of getting a decent sunset picture while I'm here. Of course, the sunrise has to come over some nearby mountains, making getting a decent sunrise picture pretty iffy.

Diesel fuel was $4.49 a gallon here in Deming, New Mexico, that's cheaper than Arizona. Arizona has always had high gas taxes. The remainder of my winter travels will be somewhere in New Mexico, so hopefully, the diesel fuel will stay somewhat reasonable even though that's double what I paid last year. It's amazing how after spending over five dollars a gallon, four dollars a gallon now sounds reasonable.

I've still got about two months of travel before the weather in Colorado is reliably warm and, for the most part, snow-free. And New Mexico is usually where I spend those two months. So even though that out-of-state camping Park pass is $225 a year, I feel it's well worth it to boondock at all the state parks for free and have electricity for an extra four dollars a night. I don't know how you can beat that unless you don't stay here long enough to make it worth your while.

Theboondork

One of my neighbors. There's a business name on the RV so it must be a tax write off.

View from my back door.

This is my last sunset at Tombstone last night. Looks like I won't be seeing this again until next winter.... I'll miss it, but I miss everyplace I go because the only reason I go there is because I enjoy being there so much.

10 Comments

Judith

3/26/2022 08:02:39 pm

Oh. What a view out your back door. Sigh.

Tom

3/26/2022 08:26:17 pm

That is a pretty view Judith. I took some pictures of the sunset tonight I'll see how those turn out when I get a chance to look at them tomorrow morning.

Tom

Larry Worsham

3/27/2022 04:08:42 am

We have stayed at several NM State Parks over the years but never long enough to take advantage of their great pass. We have stayed at Storrie Lakes, Manzano Mtns, Santa Rosa, Oasis, Bottomless Lakes, Brantley Lake, Oliver Lee, City of Rocks, Bluewater Lake and Rockhound. The have always been clean, reasonably priced and have had space available. Bluewater Lake was laid out oddly. The night sky at Rockhound is something........

3/27/2022 09:32:01 am

Wow Larry! You've stayed at more New Mexico parks than I have, and I live on the road.

The parks that I stay at in New Mexico tend to be along my route getting back to Colorado from southern Arizona on I-10, and I-25, which is why I'm so often in the areas of Tucson, Deming New Mexico, Elephant Butte state Park, and Storrie Lake state Park. They just happen to be places I enjoy staying, and for long periods of time if necessary, since I've always found New Mexico, even down south, a little chilly for my taste during the winter,

I guess you could safely say that I run around Arizona during the winter, because I find it more comfortable than most other places because of its low humidity, and almost endless sunshine.... Remember I live on sunshine and Arizonas sunny cloud free days is what keeps me boondocking comfortably for most of the winter. And I just use New Mexico to slowly make my way back to Colorado during the Spring when New Mexico is pretty nice.

Tom

3/28/2022 06:02:23 am

The trips through NM were getting from Tx to Oregon and back. I tried to stay at different places while traveling through NM. I would like to try to visit the area between Las Vegas, NM and the Colorado border west to Taos sometime.

3/28/2022 09:21:20 am

The area of New Mexico you mentioned is probably one of the prettier areas of New Mexico. I've only been to Taos once, and that was to visit the grave of Kit Carson, famous frontiersman and Army officer. Unfortunately it was winter and it was so god-awful cold that I got out of there as quickly as possible without enjoying much of anything Taos has to offer.

Now days since staying out of cold weather is my goal in life, and the area around Taos being about 7000 feet, I mostly stay out of that part of New Mexico and down lower where it doesn't get so cold. But if you're there in the summertime, it is one of the nicer parts of New Mexico to be in.

Tom

Linda

3/27/2022 11:58:27 am

That's the way I felt about the BLM annual pass. You have to stay ten weeks to break even but even if I didn't do that I sure liked being able to come and go at will and never have to worry about where I was going to dump and fill and get rid of trash all winter long. And I would take water to friends who didn't have a pass. Since that's also a place I met up with some of the few groups I joined it really did make sense to me. But, I still never went to the big tent.

3/27/2022 12:33:03 pm

Yes Linda that Long-Term camping permit is a great deal, and it does solve a lot of problems if you stay in the general area of the LTVA's.

But it's really the crowds in the whole Q area when the big show is going on that I can do without. I don't like waiting in lines at gas stations, or restaurants, or the Pit-stop trying to get a few gallons of water, and even at the LTVA when I have a two-week permit, I've had to get in a pretty long line to dump my tanks, and pick up some water when the big show is in town.

I've gone into the big tent twice, once to see what was going on, and the second time to make sure I was right about what was going on the first time.

Tom

3/28/2022 03:00:03 pm

Since I tended to stay in the general are of Q/Parker most of the winter that pass paid off for me. I would dump and fill just before the big tent opened then try hard not to do it again until after the show was over. But, since I was in a van, I didn't mind too much waiting in line if I had to do so because I had all the comforts of home right there. I could read, eat, use the bathroom, whatever between bouts of moving up one vehicle length at a time.

3/28/2022 03:21:49 pm

Yeah Linda, there's a lot of good things about living in a van, like being able to swivel the drivers seat around facing the back and say to yourself "I'm home" is one of the better things about living in a van.

If they weren't so darn popular, and by being popular, so darned expensive, I would probably be in a van right now. But the timing was all wrong for me to buy a van, I should've done it a few years ago, but a few years ago I still had the bigger is better mentality.

Tom

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Boondocking at rockhound state Park New Mexico

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