Monday, October 16, 2017

Caballo Lake State Park, NM - quick update

We're still in the Elephant Butte, TorC, Caballo Lake area.  It's so pretty here, so easy to camp and find a great campsite, nice people, great walking, beautiful lakes, super weather.  Why would we want to leave?

I've been camping with my friend, Don, for a while.  We spent some time at Caballo Lake after leaving Elephant Butte Lake in NM.  Caballo has lots of places to camp - right on the lake, on the Rio Grande, overlooking the lake, in developed campsites, and electric/water sites.  Some of the camping areas are pretty stark, some are lush, and some are overgrown looking.  We drove through the area the day before we moved to Caballo, checking for empty campsites, and deciding where we would head next.

We decided on the Appaloosa Campground, it has no-reservation electric campsites and the temps were still high enough to want air conditioning from time to time.  Then one day when we were on our usual morning walk we noticed the gate at one of the reserved camping areas, the Stallion Campground which had been closed, was OPEN.  So we walked over to the Visitor's Center and asked if that campground was now open to anyone.  I guess it's been so crowded, they decided to open up that one, and since it was October, no reservations were required.

We hustled back to our campsites, packed up and drove to the Stallion Campground.  There was no one there and we got the pick of the sites. We had great sites!  Quiet, private, lots of trees and bushes and I even had a view of the lake.  I've been so lucky with campsites this year in NM state parks.

Look how big this site is, and my only neighbor is Don, next door on the other side of The Palms:

Beautiful view of the mountains, and see my little lake view through the trees?

Most mornings we walked down to the lake and all around the campgrounds near us.  We got some great exercise.  I'm trying to walk a target number of steps each day, and am going about a mile or more over my goal most of the time. :)

This might sound dumb to some of you, but I've been walking so much I've discovered a new muscle in my legs that I've never felt before.  I was talking to my son on the phone and reached down to rub my leg.  What's that???  I realized it was a muscle that was obviously getting more developed so that I noticed it. I looked it up to see what it's called:

"The large calf muscle, or gastrocnemius, has two parts or heads -- medial and lateral -- which extend from your knee joint to your heel bone. While the medial head is positioned on the inside of your lower leg, the lateral head runs along the outside. The two parts work together to extend your ankle downward."   Pretty cool to notice new muscles at my age!  🙃

Now if I could just stop eating chips and dip and chocolate covered almonds, LOL.

View of the site from my dinette window:

I think Don's site was even bigger.  One day he was gone in his car for a while, and some people drove up, looked at his site, parked and walked over to his empty casita.  They looked pretty happy.  I'm watching them through my window, wondering, what the heck?  Another car, part of their group, drove up on the other side of the site and parked.  He was getting out when I went outside to see what was up.  I couldn't believe they were planning to use the site.  The half with the casita.  Ummm, no.  "This is part of the campsite belonging to that motor home over there.  Sorry."  They were embarrassed and apologized, got back in their cars and drove away.  It would have been funny if I wasn't there to see them, and Don got back later with half of his campsite occupied by strangers.  I don't know if they were there for the day or planning to put up tents, but...  I've never seen that happen before. 🤔

Nighttime walk, the evenings were beautiful:

I've been pretty busy and haven't taken many photos - almost none while at Caballo Lake.  That's unusual for me, but campsite pics will have to do for this location.  We've moved on, and I'll post from another location next time.  :)

From me and Katie, have a great week, everyone!   😁😎🙃

20 comments:

  1. Those sites looked fantastic!! You really have to wonder sometimes what people are thinking when they do something like that.

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  2. That is great to have developed be muscles!! Helps keep those legs strong along with muscles and tendons and all that!!
    Your site is amazing!!! Does Don have a Casita? We used to have a Casita!! Love the fiberglass!! Ours is now an Oliver, a little bigger!!

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    1. No, I wasn't referring to his motor home. I never know what to call those things, casita, shade structure, covered picnic table. I meant that stone thing on the concrete slab with the tin roof. LOL What do people call those? I love your Oliver! I'd never heard about them until you guys got one. :)

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  3. That's a really beautiful location. I could be very happy looking out my window at those views.

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  4. Now you have me looking for my other calf muscle. .. Clearly I need to walk more!

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    1. Are you kidding? You hike and walk SO MUCH MORE than I do! You've just gotten used to that muscle being there, and I JUST noticed it. LOL

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  5. I had that happen to me 2 years ago in Montana. The man was on a bicycle and had set up a tent by my picnic table. I was surprised but told him he could stay the night if he wanted to. He seemed embarrassed and moved to an empty site.

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  6. I'm a single woman traveling in a Class C Rv. What places do you consider safe or unsafe? I'm looking for places in Arizona to camp for the winter months. Any suggestions?

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    1. Kasha, I usually camp only in free BLM or Forest lands, New Mexico State Parks (with the annual park pass, $225 for non-residents) or the $180 LTVA - Long Term Visitor Pass - in Arizona. Wherever I am, I want people to be around. Even in the NM state parks, which are really nice, you can have an Elec site for $4/night with purchase of an annual pass, or park for free ALL YEAR with the pass. 14 days in the park, 6 days out, and then you can return. but even there I want a couple of other rigs within eyesight. I've only camped totally alone once, and that was my first night boondocking with my new solar panels. I was pretty nervous. So... Quartzsite is good, always people there and you can be as close or far away from other rigs, and the BLM and Forest Lands up and down the state. Get motor vehicle maps from BLM and Forest offices - they are free and show where you can legally camp. Also, there are tons of websites where you can check and see reviews. Google Free Campsites in AZ and see what comes up. Hope that helps. :)

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  7. We're heading to Monticello Point soon. We usually spend the winter going back and forth between there and Caballo. We've been at El Vado and Heron for a few months and loved it there. This was our first summer at those parks because we had heard there was no wifi or cell signal but we had 2-3 bars of both Verizon and AT&T at multiple campsites all summer. I wanted to give you a heads up about that because I remember you left there once because you had no signal.

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    1. Thanks, Pam! That's really good to know. You're right, I left and never went back because there was no Verizon signal. Maybe I'll check out that area again next year. :)

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  8. Another nice place to be camping, and so nice that you are getting out and doing lots pf walking. Enjoy your next destination.

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  9. Glad you are getting out and walking more. I go through phases where I walk a lot and then get lazy for a while. We have even had parking conflict here at Cherry Creek Rd. A person came in last night and parked in an open spot. The guy parked beside the spot came over and said he was saving that site for his buddy that was coming in the next day. Created a little friction. I'm not fond of people saving sites on public land. Sorry to rant on your blog!

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    1. No problem, Dale - and I agree completely. It's first come first serve, how did it turn out? Did the new guy leave?

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  10. You really did snag a great site. I wish they all were that nice.

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  11. Than you so much Barbara (my sisters name)!!! I'm on my way to Az from Indiana/Michigan. I'm not crazy about boondocking by myself. Glad to hear Quartzite is ok.

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