We visited this park back in 2000, or maybe it was 2004,
during one of our big roadtrips. I remembered the setting pretty well, I
thought, being nestled up against the mountains with the campground sloping
down so that most sites have a lovely view of the valley.
My memories didn’t really do it justice. And we snagged a
pretty great campsite, possibly my favorite site of the entire trip. The back
view is the mountain range, craggy and golden. The front view is the desert,
all greens and browns, with more mountains beyond, all charcoal and purple. The
only view that’s not grand is to the north, which is the campground itself, but
even that is wonderful desert vegetation (rather than another campsite).
Even better, we are next door to the smaller of the campgrounds
two restrooms, so (unlike at Brantley) any middle-of-the-night bathroom runs in
the cold will be brief. And the larger restroom—the one with flush toilets and
showers—is a nice walk away during the daytime.
We have paid for 5 nights to start, which should be plenty
of time to do the wonderful visitor center here and hopefully some trails (if
they aren’t too steep for us!), make the 35 mile drive over to White Sands once
or twice, and take care of some business (propane, post office, grocery,
hardware store, etc.).
If it’s as wonderful here as I hope, we can always stay
longer.
