surprise

Clicking the pics is a right not a privilege.

Sunrise this morning at the Elephant. It sure gets peaceful around here when all the weekenders are gone.

Not much going on today, just relaxing and mentally preparing myself to leave the Elephant tomorrow morning for parts unknown. And I keep it unknown until the last minute so I can surprise myself because I like surprises when I travel. And how do I managed to do that? Simple! I look at some of the places in the direction I want to go, I determine the possibility of boondocking in those places, and as I drive by those places I stop at the one that feels like a good place to be at the moment based on various factors including ....

How tired I am of driving.

How nice is the view.

Is it crowded.

And does it look safe.

if I can check those things off my mental list, I have found a home for the night.

                                                                                  Theboondork

I took these pictures of the Elephant Butte dam yesterday. I walked to an overlook but there was an 8 foot tall chain-link fence topped with barbed wire all around the observation area and I couldn't get a decent picture through the fence. So I walked to a different area, climbed up a small, but steep hill, and got these pictures.

I thought maybe I could see the Rio Grande rushing out from somewhere on the dam, but I didn't see anything like that, wherever the river water was coming from was out of my view.

I believe that's the top of Elephant Rock poking out from the top of the dam. Everything around here is named after that rock because it looks like an elephant.

This is the Rio Grande downstream of the dam.

Leaving the dam, I pulled into this boondocking area next to the river that I've stayed in several times before when the riverbed was just a few scattered puddles of muddy water. But as you can see now it's a very pretty area with the Rio Grande running through it again.

I found some Prickly Pear Cactus with blooms on them. A lot of cactus don't bloom until early summer when I'm back in Denver, so I seldom get to see any cactus blooming.

Prickly Pear Cactus.

Elephant Butte state Park New Mexico.

my boondocking spot, its a pull-through with a view of the lake.