Have I overstayed my welcome?

Clicking the pics shows interest, inquisitiveness, or maybe just nosy.

Sunrise this morning boondocking on the beach.

The current propane tank that's hooked up should empty within the next day or so, and I will take that opportunity to take it to be refilled, do some shopping at Walmart, and probably change boondocking spots.

And speaking of changing boondocking spots, I've been enjoying myself at Elephant Butte State Park to the point that I've been paying no attention to how long I've been here, but it appears, looking back at my blog, I've been here for 19 days, and technically two weeks is the maximum amount of time campers are allowed to stay here.

But... I've always felt that the two-week camping rule that most government agencies, both state and federal, use is there for two reasons. One is to keep campers from moving in and living there for long periods and treating that area like you own the place. And the other is to keep long-term campers, such as myself, from taking up all the campsites, so there's hardly any room for the local weekend campers.

As far as I can tell, how strictly the Park Rangers enforce this rule seems to be based on a couple of factors. First and foremost, how "gung ho" your friendly local Park Ranger is. Some Park Rangers will enforce the letter of the law no matter how dumb or nonsensical it is.

Some Rangers may take a lackadaisical attitude towards the two-week rule based on how difficult you make life for other campers or the Park Ranger himself.

 And it appears there are some Park Rangers that look at the situation in their particular Park and feel that they have so much empty space for boondocking that as long as you don't look like you're living there permanently, and you could leave at a moments notice if they wanted you to, they simply leave you alone.

As for New Mexico, I feel the folks that purchase an annual camping pass, especially the out-of-state annual camping pass, are kinda, sorta, left alone by the Park Rangers. And if that's true, it could be because they feel that purchasing the annual pass makes you more like a loyal Park participant. And if you're an out-of-state Park pass holder, it proves that you will be leaving sooner or later.

So there's a couple places that don't bother me to overstay my legal limit. One is Quartzsite, where the boondocking is for all intents and purposes endless, so anybody that wants a boondocking spot can easily find one no matter how many people are there. And the other is Elephant Butte. Where there is plenty of boondocking areas to park, that go unused for the entire year other than a handful of holidays.

Theboondork

I climbed up a sand dune the other day as I was scouting the area for other boondocking sites and took a picture of the camper. You can see the back of the bronco in the picture.

This boondocking site has a nice view. There's a neighbor boondocking off to the right. Keep in mind around here there's boondocking almost everywhere. On the shore, on the beach away from the shore, in the trees away from the beach. As a rule of thumb if you don't see a sign saying no camping then camping is probably okay.... And if you guess wrong, the worst that's gonna happen is the Ranger will come by, apologize for disturbing you, and suggest you move over there.

Here's another boondocking site with a nice view.

In a place that's as big and spread out as Elephant Butte State Park, one of the things you can do to find out where you can boondock, is visit the park during a holiday. And just drive around looking at where you see people boondocking. And at the Elephant their boondocking just about everywhere.

I took this picture while I was down on the beach. It shows a Game Warden parked next to the bronco on a little hill, using binoculars to watch people fishing from the shore. That way, when he drives down to the beach and wants to see your fishing license he already knows for sure that you've been fishing.

This is a picture of the main beach, obviously during the Easter holidays.

I used to think that boondocking was only allowed on the shoreline because that's where everybody was. But Au contraire, almost everybody's on the shoreline because that's the cool place to be, and there's a lot of soft sand on the rest of the beach to get stuck in.

But boondocking is allowed everyplace you see in this picture, including Rattlesnake Island [which at the moment isn't an island] it's that little hill you see in the lake looming over all the RVs.

But before you can enjoy a comfortable nights sleep on Rattlesnake Island, you first have to get the islands name out of your mind..... And then make sure there's no holes in the bottom of your RV.