White Sands Missile Museum

This was well worth a stop but sort of confusing to get into. You have to stop at the military reception area prior to the gates but somehow we missed that and had to back up after approaching the gate. Once they checked our identity we got passes into the museum.

The most interesting displays were in the two buildings. They had local history, history of the base and military history as well as missile history.

White Sands National Monument

I must admit to being underwhelmed. It may be because we only drove on the paved area. Maybe the better sites were beyond that. At the visitor center it said the non-paved area was OK for RVs. But we didn't stop there on the way in, but rather on the way out because we wanted to see the sand while it was still cool enough for the dog. I really like Great Sand Dunes in Colorado so the White Sands had a tough act to follow.

 I did get a very cool set of nesting baskets at the visitor center.

Silver Campground Cloudcroft NM

The drive to Silver Campground was beautiful. Green pastures with a pretty stream and cows grazing. Very tall and thick pine trees. I felt like I was in Switzerland.

We were the only people at the campground. The host was at the overflow lot and the next campground over only had their host. So we totally loved it. But I think this campground had site spacing too close so I do not recommend it. The next one over (which I don't remember the name) seemed to have better spacing.

Carlsbad Caverns

The big destination for the trip was Carlsbad Caverns. It did not disappoint. But I had read in advance to bring a flashlight, but then didn't. I wished the whole time that I had.

Of course what goes down must go up.

We stayed at the White City rv park which was just a gravel lot but there was a small park near the more permanent RV residents that was good for taking the dog out.

 

From there it was an easy drive to the Caverns which had RV parking.

We spent the day there and stayed for the bat flight program. Unfortunately between the kids running up and down the stone steps and the guy with his cell phone on, even though the instructions were to be very quiet and turn off all electronics, the bats did not make an appearance. The park ranger could have more forcefully emphasized the requirements but I suspect he is tired of clueless idiots who can't tell their kids to sit down and/or turn off their electronics.

Roswell and the aliens - Spring River RV Park

We decided to do the next night in Roswell and wanted a place in town so we could easily visit the alien museum and other attractions. Spring River RV park fit the bill. It is basically a gravel lot but it backs to a good size city park which was perfect for walking the dogs. There is also a trail from it that goes downtown, although it is quite a hike to the alien museum.

The wind was ferocious the day we were there so we didn't do much, mostly sheltered in place but the UFO museum was interesting.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park

Our next stop was Santa Rosa Lake State Park. This one was a disappointment. Site was OK but the there was only one trail we could find and it wasn't very nice, rocky and not very scenic. But if you are on I-40 and want a place to overnight it probably isn't a bad option. There also may be more to the park than we saw.

Second first trip of 2018 - Pueblo Lake State Park

After changing our our speed sensor we took off again. We selected Pueblo Lake State Park because it is pretty close to home and if anything else went wrong we could easily get it fixed or head home. But nothing did. For the rest of the trip all was fine with the RV.

This park had nice trails and several other campgrounds. Not sure if those are RV campgrounds or not. The site spacing was nice.