Seattle to New Mexico (and on to Texas): Aug 14 - To Cimarron Canyon State Park, New Mexico

Sunday morning we headed out from Pep to Cimarron Canyon State Park, near Eagle Nest, New Mexcico. We took SR 209 north from Clovis to SR 409 through San Jon to Logan. We came off the Caprock Escarpment, the transition point between the level, elevated plains of the Llano Estacado and the surrounding rolling terrain, near San Jon.

Coming off the Caprock

The city park at Roy, New Mexico

After crossing the Canadian River we connected with Hwy 39 north to 412 and then to I-25 at Springer. After gassing up it was short hop on I-25 to Hwy 58. There is a whole lot of nothing on that drive, let me tell you. There is the Kiowa Nataional Grasslands, but they don't look a lot different from the surrounding ranch lands... and near Springer the Santa Fe Trail crosses the Canadian River... but we didn't know that at the time.

Bryan, Hannah & Maggie at Eagle Nest Lake

Eagle Nest Lake

Some kind of beautiful grass with daisies at

Eagle Nest Lake

After arriving at the Cimarron Canyon State Park alongside the Cimarron River. The Park was pretty small, squeezed between Hwy 64 and the Cimarron River. Our site was #41 and butted up against two small lakes - which we learned were prime trout fishing spots. We parked the camper, and then drove up to Eagle Nest for dinner and to see the lake. Upon our return, there was another car parked in our camping spot, next to OUR camper. And then the fun began... The back of our camper was about 4 feet from some bushes lining the the lake - which turned out to be a trail for everyone to use to access the lake. We placed a chair there and they would just step over it and keep going - giving us dirty looks every time the dogs barked at them. Like, really? YOU walk through OUR campsite and get mad at us. Bryan was furious and getting madder, I was getting mad at him for being so mad... so at 8:30, we just went inside & went to bed instead of enjoying the 60 degree weather outside. The next day we decided to check out the NRA Whittington Center, about 45 miles away near Raton (that's another post).