Today we drove 170 miles to Las Cruces, New Mexico because Ron found something for us to see and do. Yeah! Driving into El Paso we saw a massive dust storm whipping across the city blocking out the mountains.
As we travel I-10 West through El Paso along the Rio Grande the contrast between Mexico and the USA is amazing. To our right we see miles of big box stores, scores of restaurants and huge medical centers with gigantic signs beckoning for people to stop, shop, eat and come in to get your flu shots. We drove through here last year in the evening and the bright lights from the city were blinding.
In stark contrast across the Rio Grande in Mexico there are no big stores or bright lights.
We stopped at a KOA because the Passport America CG we stayed at last year was closed. Generally, we avoid KOA’s because they are usually dumps and super expensive. This KOA is quite nice sitting on a hill overlooking the city Of Las Cruces. Ron even paid the additional $6.00 to get a site overlooking the city.
We asked the woman in the KOA if she knew anything about the Trackways National Monument but she did not.
http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/las_cruces/trackways.html
The road to the location of the prehistoric tracks is a one mile off-road experience. Off- roading is not my thing but there were not other options.
The roadway in is not clearly marked so it is hit or miss that you are actually heading in the right direction. After some thinking and assessing the landscape Ron got us safely to the top of the hill overlooking where the tracks were found.
We reached a point where we couldn’t go any further at the top of a very steep hill. We opted to get out and walk down to the site where the prehistoric tracks were located.
The person who discovered the tracks removed over one thousand that now sit in a museum. There are some small tracks still visible like the one in the top left hand corner of the rock below.
We looked around and saw a few small tracks in the river rocks but without signage they were difficult to locate.
Then it was back up the hill to the jeep. First try at hill climbing with the “new knee.”
The hike up wasn’t bad and the only discomfort I experienced was in my right knee – not my operative knee. Yeah!
Getting out of the area was a challenge. The roads are not marked and we ran into a dead end overlooking a 40 foot drop. YIKES! Turning the jeep around was a challenge but my driver did it despite my panicked little noises that I couldn't keep to myself.
It was an interesting little off-road adventure. Ron told me I was “no fun” and he wouldn’t be off-roading with me in the near future if at all possible. Yeah for me!! LOL
We went to a local restaurant for some very spicy but good Mexican food then to Wal Mart to replenish our groceries. Back at the CG we settled in for the night trying to readjust to yet another time –change,. We are now in Mountain time but once we get into Arizona we will be in the Arizona time zone which I believe is Central time again!!!!! But Ron tells me that since Arizona does not participate in daylight savings time we will not have to change our clocks again.
The plan is to work our way to Quartzsite, Arizona where 250,000 RV’ers dry camp for the winter in the desert on BLM land. This week they are having a huge Sports Vacation and RV Show with approximately 1000 vendors. Oh, the crowds! If anyone knows Ron, they know he dislikes crowds. HMMM, so why are we going there??? Because if you own an RV and travel, Quartzsite is a must on the bucket list.
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