Oliver Lee Memorial State Park

April 06     Leasburg Dam - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park     90 miles     2 hours

One of the many chile stands in Hatch

We drove to Hatch and had lunch at Sparky's before leaving Leasburg Dam.

Hatch is widely known as the "Chile Capital of the World", for growing a wide variety of peppers.

In the works for more than 20 years, Sparky's was born from one couples combined dream. Josie Nunn's love of design and handcrafted coffee, and her husband, Teako's desire to make exceptional wood fired barbecue and made from scratch, green chile cheeseburgers.

Sparky's has grown to be a major roadside attraction known for their World Famous Green Chile Cheeseburger and great BBQ and live music.

This restaurant was fun. Decorated inside and outside with vintage memorabilia, there was so much to take in and enjoy. The food was good...of course I had to try the World Famous Green Chile Cheeseburger.

After a very satisfying meal, we drove back to Leasburg Dam, packed up the RV, hooked up the car, and drove about 2 hours to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. When we got there, there was no electric sites open so its dry camping for us. This campground is not that nice, I guess better suited for smaller campers. Plenty small and uneven sites. But got some nice hiking trails.

Named for Oliver Milton Lee, a pioneer southern New Mexico rancher and state legislator, Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is located at the mouth of Dog Canyon in the rugged Sacramento Mountains 10 miles south of Alamogordo. Water flows year-round in Dog Canyon, creating a quiet green oasis in contrast to the surrounding prickly desert setting. For many centuries, human visitors have been drawn to this place of surprising beauty.


April 07     White Sands National Monument

We moved to an electric/water site this morning. We got lucky and found a good one.

We'll be staying three more nights.

Road in White Sands

After moving sites, we hopped in the car and drove about half an hour to White Sands National Monument.

Like a mirage, dazzling white sand dunes shimmer in the tucked away Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico. They shift and settle over the Chihuahuan Desert, covering 275 square miles - the largest gypsum dunefield in the world. White Sands National Monument preserves more than half of this oasis, its shallow water supply, and the plants and animals living here.

Our lunchtime entertainment

We packed a lunch, so we stopped and had a picnic. There were 2 couples trying to sled down the hill. Was pretty entertaining to watch. We drove around the park enjoying the scenery. It's a different kind of sand, very fine and powdery. It's so bright, it kind of hurts your eyes.

On the way back we stopped at Lowe's, its a local market. Was pretty interesting because from the outside, it looked like a regular market. When you go inside, it's pretty amazing. The first thing we noticed was the bar area...I mean full on bar!

There was a deli area, hot fresh bakery, someone rolling sushi, pizza baking in a stone oven, then on the other side of the market, they had a whole set up making fresh tortillas. We've never had fresh tortillas, so of course, we bought some and boy were they good!

April 08

Kind of a lazy day. We went walking around the campground this morning and then took a walk up to the visitors center. The lady working was very helpful in giving us information on our next move. We need to go through some mountains so it was useful to get some local information.

In the afternoon we went to a tour of Oliver Lee's Ranch House. Oliver Lee's Dog Canyon ranch headquarters has been completely rebuilt from ruins. Some of the everyday items the Lee family used during their residency from 1893 to 1907 are also on display. Ruins of the barn, corrals, and chicken house still remain, and Lee's extensive orchard and vineyard has been started up again.




April 09

We started polishing the RV this morning, just a section. Joe likes to put on a coat of wax every time we travel so we need to pace ourselves because it's so big to polish by hand.

Then we went on a short hike. The Riparian Nature Trail is a short and scenic hike into the canyon along side Dog Canyon Creek. This hike is moderately strenuous due to flood damage.

After lunch we went to McGinn's Pistachio Tree Ranch. Such a cool place to visit. They had free samples of all kinds of pistachio candy and plenty different flavors of pistachios. I had to try most of them.

They also make their own wine and offered free wine tasting. Again, I had to try the different wines.

We went on the farm tour and learned a lot about pistachios and how they're processed. A lot has to happen to get these nuts processed, now I can understand why they cost so much.

Clusters of pistachio starting to form

After the tour, we went to the gift shop, bought our goodies, and ate some ice cream.

Our goodies