Valley of fires

Every pic deserves a click, it's what they live for.

The Valley of Fires, New Mexico.

Some of the boondocking sites at the Valley of Fires are pretty big. But I can't believe this whole thing is all mine. If this was a commercial campground they would stuff five or six RVs in this site.

I drove away from Elephant Butte State Park this morning at about 8 o'clock, knowing I would miss being there despite the high water and the loss of some boondocking areas. But, there's still plenty of room for someone like me who enjoys being off by myself but also likes having folks around I can talk to whenever I feel like it.

I pulled into a boondocking site at the Valley of Fires about two hours later and set up housekeeping. The fee for a boondocking site is $12 a night, but since I have a Federal Geezer Pass, I pay half of that. I could've got a water and electric hookup site, there were some available, which would've cost me $9, but I didn't need it being perfectly happy boondocking. So I try not to take those hookup sites myself since other folks need them.

The BLM runs the Valley of Fires, and they do a good job here. The hosts take care of everything and keep things clean and running smoothly. In all the times I've been here, I don't recall seeing an actual government worker; the hosts are the only ones I see doing everything that needs to be done.

I think I will spend two nights here, but I'm unsure. I'm on my way back to Denver now, but I'm not in a hurry; I'm just enjoying the final leg of my journey north.

Theboondork

When I'm at Elephant Butte and have lots of boats, the Marina, and folks on the beach to take pictures of, I usually don't bother taking snapshots of the landscape. But I did take a few while I was there I just never used them. So I figured I would put them all here to be the last pictures of Elephant Butte until next year.

I had to finish up my pictures of the Elephant with the sunrise this morning.