Bottomless Lake, Albq, Bluewater Lake

April 16     Brantley Lake - Bottomless Lake State Park     88 miles     2 hours 30 mins

Today is Easter so when we arrived at this park there were a lot of locals picnicking for the day. We got lucky and got a decent site with electric and water. We'll be here for two nights. The lake area was full all day with people enjoying the water because it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. People stayed till late, it gets dark around 8pm and still had people in the water.

Campground on the left

The park is located along the Pecos River. The unique lakes at this park are sinkholes, ranging from 17 to 90 feet deep. The greenish-blue color created by aquatic plants is what gives the lakes the illusion of great depth.



April 17

Bottomless Lake State Park is located a few miles out of Roswell. Today we drove to Roswell and went to the International UFO Museum.

There was an incident in July 1947. It was reported in the newspapers and radio stations around the world. The next morning the article given to the media from Gen. Roger Ramey stated the "saucer" was really a weather balloon. This was the start of the best known and most documented UFO cover-up. The events of July 1947 were exposed and the quickly silenced for 30 years. It wasn't until Stanton Friedman started investigating the Roswell Incident in 1979 that the public was introduced to what happened in the Roswell area that July in 1947.

We had mixed feelings about this place. We're not UFO buffs. The exhibits are mostly newspaper clippings, photos, and signed affidavits of people who "witnessed the crash".

We're not truly convinced that aliens exist but it gives you something to think about.....

Lunch was at La Escondida Cafe. I found this place on Yelp and it turned out to be very, very good. Joe had chimichanga and I had enchiladas. The servings were huge and we also had chips and salsa and sopapillas for dessert...we ate everything.

In the late afternoon we took a walk around the campground and the lake. The water was real nice and it was hot so we changed and jumped in. It's like swimming in ice water but you adjust to it and it feels real good.

The water was pretty clear.....for a lake

April 18     Bottomless Lake - Albuquerque     226 miles     6 hours 15 minutes

Our initial plan was to drive to Santa Rosa Lake today and go swimming at the Blue Hole. It's going to be windy out there for the next 3 days so we decided to skip the Blue Hole and drive straight to Albuquerque. We've been to the Blue Hole before so its okay to skip it this trip.

We're staying at Enchanted Trails RV Park for 2 nights. They offer a Passport America rate so for 2 nights its $36.13. We have to catch up on our laundry, its been almost 4 weeks. Kind of tired of washing my underwear by hand. They have a pool but when we got here, it wasn't filled...bummer.

On our way over here, we stopped at Costco to fill gas, have lunch, and shop for food. That's why we took over 6 hours to get to Albuquerque.

April 19

San Felipe De Neri, oldest church in Albuquerque 

We drove to Purcell Tire in Albuquerque to rotate and align the tires on the RV. We dropped it off at 8am and was told that it would take about 2 hours. We took a drive out to Balloon Park, then drove to Old Town Albuquerque to find something that Miki wanted us to pick up. We had lunch at Cracker Barrel which we always enjoy.

Miki's special order

We went back to Purcell Tire around 12pm but it wasn't ready. They told us 2 more hours. We were not happy. We took a walk to Costco and had ice cream to kill some time then went back and waited some more. The RV was finally ready at 245pm. I was really pissed but they took off about $60 for the inconvenience.

Camping World is right next to our campground so we took a walk over there to check out some motor homes. We got some valuable information about buying and registering in New Mexico.

April 20     Albuquerque - Bluewater Lake State Park     92 miles     2 hours

This is our last New Mexico State Park. This serene lake, located 25 miles west of Grants, is set in a pinon-juniper landscape with views towards the Zuni Mountains. The drive to the park is about 7 miles south of I-40, and requires going up and down the mountain. The elevation is over 7,000 feet here and the air is thin. It's also very chilly.

The lake wasn't that attractive, water very dirty looking. We have an electric site for 2 nites. No water at the site but water stations located around the park.

Our walk around the lake

We took a long walk along the lake and through the campground. Also walked to the edge of the canyon. Looking into the canyon was pretty impressive and very scenic. This park has wild horses that make an appearance in the early evening. Plenty of horses walking through the campground just cruising, pretty awesome.

Looking for food around the campsites

April 21

It's very windy and cold today. When we woke up at 7am it was 37 degrees. We took a walk around the campground then went up to the Bluewater Lake Dam overlook. I think the high today was about 70 degrees.

Dam Overlook

RV's camping right along the shore

To recap our New Mexico adventure....we bought a New Mexico State Park Pass for $225.00 and went to 7 parks. We spent 25 nights at the parks....in the end we just about broke even. With the pass we spent $13.00 per night. If we didn't have the pass we would have paid $13.68 per night.

The good thing is, our pass is good until March 2018. If we decide to come back to New Mexico before it expires, we will camp for very cheap.

Aloha New Mexico, off to Arizona tomorrow.