“That one looks good”, I say to hubby as I point to the campsite. “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive around the loop?”, he questions. “Nope, looks perfect and level”. Within fifteen minutes we’re all set up in site #25 at Rockhound State Park near Deming, New Mexico.
What a pleasant surprise this little state park turned out to be. All the sites are large, well spaced, and most are pretty level. I’ll admit I was tempted to return to City of Rocks State Park as I was so enamored by that place last winter, but that campground is located 30 miles north of the interstate and Rockhound is only 12 miles off the interstate.
Since we’re only staying one night we even tossed around staying at the Escapees Club Park – Dream Catcher RV Park. That RV Park is right in the town of Deming making it easy on and off the interstate. But you know me, it’s all about the views…. gotta have those views! I’ll gladly give up hook-ups for views, but here I’ve got views AND electric…. score.
While my chauffeur checks out his MacGyver’s handy work to make sure the repairs held together after a 4 1/2 hour drive, I check out the hiking. How convenient for us to be parked right across the street from the Thunder Egg Trail trailhead. This is an easy 1.1 mile trail that leads from the campground to the day use picnic area. It meanders along the Small Florida Mountain Range.
There’s prickly pear in every direction along with various yucca plants. But the main attraction here are the rocks. Folks come here in search of precious gem rocks. The gathering and collecting of rocks is ok and expected.
Yep, feel free to help yourself to a few rocks. Personally, I didn’t take even one rock as visions of Lucille Ball in the Long, Long Trailer came to mind.
All in all, we loved our one night stay at Rockhound State Park and hope to return for a longer stay next year.
Moving on down the road, we continue our journey toward the town of Alamogordo, New Mexico……
Live Laugh RV 
34 responses to “A Pleasant Surprise”
I have bookmarked this for when we get out to this part of the country again. This looks like a lovely place to stop and your images are always so very special Ingrid. 🙂
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Yes. That is a great park. DK mentioned the drive up to Cloudcroft being tough, well we came down that mountain towing our fifth wheel and lived to tell the tale. That trip put us off mountain travel ever since. Great views if you keep your eyes open.
Ruth from At Home on the Road
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I’m sure the trailer was pushing you down. That is indeed a lot of elevation change in a short distance, but I must say we’ve experienced worse and it’s always stressful. All part of the adventure LOL!
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I agree with you, Ingrid. If you’re going to travel via an RV, there had best be a view! 🙂
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Absolutely….. what’s the point if I can’t have a great view? 🙂
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Looks Lovely. Have to put it on our list! 🙂
Why mess around looking for something better when you have everything you need already. Sometimes I think that’s one of the things wrong with this world.
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Rockhound SP and City of Rocks SP have become a couple of my favorites. Both have nice scenery and are easy to get into 🙂
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All those beautiful rocks and electricity too. What bliss! Great photos, Ingrid. 🙂
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Thank you Sylvia 🙂
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Another nice spot to land. We stayed at Dream Catchers in Deming – it was pretty nice and after having been on the road we were happy to be someplace close to shopping, etc.
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Dream Catchers is very conveniently located and if we were in more of a hurry we most likely would’ve stayed there.
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The sunset photo is stunning Ingrid!
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Thanks Sue …… love those sunsets 🙂
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We enjoyed Rockhound SP too, there is also a neat museum in town. Think it’s time to watch Long Long Trailer again, it’s been awhile.
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I was thinking the same thing about watching Long, Long Trailer. You count on me NOT collecting rocks especially with all the mountain driving we do 😉
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Cool Beans, We thought about staying/stopping there last year also, now it is much higher on our list. And it’s right on the way back to http://www.riverbendhotsprings.com this spring! Rhonda wants to find a GEODE! Enjoy Alamomgordo and we heard (but did not get there) a run up to Cloud Croft is a cool drive. Great review, thanks
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We had a great time exploring Alamogordo and have already moved on to San Antonio. Spent a couple of days without internet connectivity… argh! Highly recommend stopping at Rockhound 🙂
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What a Beautiful Place – Happy Exploring 🙂 Happy Week!
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Thanks Renee, we really enjoyed our stay 🙂
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Looks like a nice place to spend a little time.
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Turned out to be much nicer than anticipated 🙂
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I don’t think I can stay in this park. I love rocks and find it impossible to pass up a pretty rock. This could be a tough place for me and our weight limit!!!
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LOL …. besides, only 30 amp and that might be too much roughing it for you 😆 Seriously, I think you’d really like it!
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It’s so green! When we visited years ago it was dry with lots of tumble weeds. We liked White Sands. There is a good Petroglyph site not too far from there. And hopefully you can see the thousands of Sandhills cranes and geese at Bosque this time of year. Love that movie with Lucy. Another favorite was the show where they were hunting uranium.
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The desert this year is very green with all the excessive moisture this past Aug/Sept. We enjoyed White Sands and Alamogordo and have already moved on to San Antonio. I’ll be seeing lots of Cranes along the Gulf coast this winter. Thanks for the recommendations 🙂
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We were delighted to find Rockhound SP several years ago, and have ended up there a few times in our travels. I agree with you, views score big points in our decision about where to stay! If we were traveling according to our original plan for this year, we might have been neighbors. Sigh. Have fun crossing Texas!
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Too bad about the needed dental work impacting your travels. I was looking forward to meeting you. Oh well, we’ll just need to target 2015. 🙂
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We need to get back to NM..what a treasure that state it…I own that movie The Long, Long Trailer..I brought back a gazillion Rose Chalcedony rocks from Ajo AZ…Some people make jewelry from them. I had so many rocks in my jeans pockets that my jeans were hanging off me when we came back from out walks!
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Donna you are so right about NM being a treasure. We’re always pleasantly surprised when we explore something new in the state. Glad you didn’t loose your pants with all those rocks LOL.
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Lovely post. Will definitely keep this one in mind for the future. Alamogordo is a fun place. Just don’t try to climb the road up to Cloudcroft with the RV. Hope you can drive up there in your regular vehicle, though. I think all of the campgrounds in the national forest closed a few weeks ago, but the drive up that road, and back down, has some amazing views. Can help with more info on both towns, as well as Ruidoso, if needed. 😉 You may have already come and gone from there, too. Have fun!
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Yep, that is a steep climb from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft. We’re already in San Antonio but definitely look forward to exploring more of NM…… so I’ll be sure and ask for recommendations before our next time thru – Thanks 🙂
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Don’t float away! We got almost two inches here earlier today and it’s headed your way. 😉
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Love your reference to the Long, Long Trailer. I think of that movie whenever I want to bring a rock back for a souvenir!
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Probably not a wise hobby to be a rock collector while living in a RV, eh! If I had a stationary home, I definitely would’ve picked up a few 🙂
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