Carrizozo Acoma, New Mexico.

We spent three days at the Valley of Fires Campground. This campground is operated by the US Bureau Land Management, it has good facilities and beautiful views. The Lava flow in this park occurred approximately 5000 years ago. It is four to six miles wide, up to 160 feet deep and covers 125 square miles. 

We made two side trips while we were here. The first one to Lincoln, this is the town made famous in the late 1800”s by Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. 

Sunday we went to Fort Stanton, this fort is still active today and can boast about it”s leaders from Kit Carson to Blackjack Pershing. It was also home to many Germans during the second wold war that were rescued from a sinking merchant ship off the US coast before we were involved in the war. They were unable  to be sent home and spent most of the war here.  After the war they were sent home and many of them returned to make the US their home.

View from the campground.

Another view of campground

Tower built for protection by the first settlers of Lincoln.

The tower has three levels, women and children were on the lower level.

Saint John the Baptist Church in Lincoln.

  

This is the re-enactor  that gave us a tour of Fort Stanton.
He is playing the bones.

This is the Catholic Chapel at the fort.

The Germans that were house here disassembled  it 

and moved it to this location at the fort.

An old adobe Building in Lincoln.

Our next stop was a two day stay at Acoma. We visited The Acoma Pueblo lacated on a high mesa. This pueblo dates back to the eleven hundreds. The Spanish invaded the natives in this area in the sixteen hundreds trying to make them give up there religious ways for the  Catholic religion. To this day they honor both religions.

This is the Church the  Native Americans built. The nearest trees that could be used for

timbers for the roof were located 30 miles away.  They were forced to carry them 

by hand the entire way.

 View of some of the buildings of the pueblo.

 More houses of the pueblo.

View from the pueblo.

 We left home on April 9 and headed for Lowesville Va. We spent The first night at my sister Alice’s house and had the opportunity to visit with my sisters Becky, Alice, Gena and my brother Alan. We left the next morning after breakfast.

We went through North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and into New Mexico. We spent one night in each state with the storms to our east each night.  

We arrived in NM on Friday. Since we arrived we have visited Sitting Bull Falls, Carlsbad Caverns, Carlsbad River Walk and the town of Artesia.

The weather here take some getting used to, the temperature has been in the mid to upper nineties and the relative humidity is 2% with a dew point of -16 degrees. 

We will leave here on Friday the 22nd headed for The Valley of the Fires in Carrizozo, NM. We will be there for three nights dry camping and no wifi. Even though it is only 150 mile drive the weather will be much cooler.

 Horses on the road in an open range area.

 Different types of cactus.

Sunset at campground. 

Park in Downtown Atresia.

Bronze sculpture in Atresia honoring the oil workers.

Cattle Rustler sculpture.

The start of an 800 foot decent into the caverns.

 Inside the cavern, it was a one mile walk to go around the 

of the Big Room. 

One of the columns.

This is Sitting Bull Falls, it doesn't seem like much, but it is a lot of water for the desert.

It hasn't rained here for six months.