Elephant Lake State Park...a change in direction

While in Pueblo, we read a FB post from friends, Mona Liza and Steve, The Lowe's RV Adventures
(thank you) and they mentioned they were at a campground at Elephant Butte Lake State Park. We originally were going to make a more northerly entrance to our Gold Canyon winter home through Gallup, NM then Winslow, AZ but we made a change in direction. We've been to Elephant Butte but didn't know about this campground so we just had to check it out. This was a campground about 10 miles north of the main campground in the town of Elephant Butte. This is the South Monticello campground. They have pull throughs and back in sites and many of them have wonderful views of Elephant Butte Lake. We got on Recreation.gov and found a back in site with those incredible open views of the lake.

Sunset by the lake

Since we were committed to moving on to get to our winter destination we only stopped for 2 nights. We happened to be there when the winds were fairly gusty and blowing at about 20-30 mph steady. That's the chance you take when in an open desert area along a lake. We did our best to make the most of the one full day we had there. We arrived early on our first day and had to wait a about 20 minutes for the prior campers to leave the site before we could move in. After getting set up we took a walk around the campground and even found a geocache near a closed boat ramp.

The next morning after some study of the campground map we saw a trail nearby. We drove about a mile or two and located a parking area. This was a fairly flat wide trail among the cactus and scrub. Unfortunately there were a few sections that had been washed out from prior rains but it looked like it was been worked on to repair the damage.  The temps were heating up now that we were moving southward so we didn't go too far. Again I noticed a few geocaches along the trail and picked up 2-3 along the way.

Well that brought us to lunch time so we had quick showers and made our way into Elephant Butte. As I mentioned we've been there a couple years ago and stayed at the RV Resort in town for a couple nights. While there we found a really cool local Mexican restaurant. Probably more of a take out style but they did have seating in an outdoor area. Great tacos and burritos with beans and rice.

So we knew that's where lunch would be. They were open and we enjoyed a delicious meal.

After lunch we took a little drive to the next town, Truth or Consequences, got some supplies at the Wal Mart and fuel. The town of Truth or Consequences used to be Hot Springs, NM however in 1950 as part of a publicity scheme to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ralph Edwards’ very successful game show on NBC radio, (more info on the name change)  Hot Springs became Truth or Consequences, Mr. Edwards traveled to town annually, celebrity friends in tow, for nearly 50 years to celebrate “Truth or Consequences Fiesta.”  Mr. Edwards has been gone for some time now, but Fiesta continues to this day.

Usually we have all our reservations made well in advance of our travels but for some reason we hadn't been doing that as we moved west. That turned in to a fantastic opportunity to check out a new campground in an area we've been too. Making our plans in Jello. Like our friends Steve and Debbie from Down the Road, we decided to play it Fast and Loose. That's how WE roll.  Now I get it. :-)

Next up, Kartchner Caverns State Park

Thanks for following along.