Of all the dirt roads in the middle of nowhere...

Saturday - July 12 

Camped on the side of the road 30 miles from
any gas station

We are going to start with the weirdest thing that has every happened in all of camping experiences in the RV.   How is it that we started out camping here on a panoramic mesa 30 miles northwest of Taos, NM (or any other place with a gas station) and ended up in the Taos Walmart parking lot?

We had had a busy day starting off with mountain biking and then a visit to the Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, CO.  Our plan was to camp in the mountains between Tres Piedres and Tierra Amarilla, NM.  But, by my mistake, we were running low on gas (diesel) in the RV when we got to Tres Piedres.

We had passed some signs for BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land coming into Tres Piedres, so we turned around and went back to a gravel road that had a sign that said that camping was allowed in the area.  We only drove about half a mile off the highway and found a dirt road off the gravel road leading to an old abandoned ranch house and corral.  We could see that a single truck had been down the road in the last  few days, but not much other sign of traffic.  It was already after 6 PM so we wiggled the RV into the closest thing to a level spot next to the road, almost blocking the dirt driveway and proceeded to make camp.  I was a little worried about getting the RV too far from the gravel road with the storms coming.  The RV is not much of an off-road machine.

There is not a functioning gas station within
30 miles of where we are camped... at party central

All went well... we grilled vegetables and pork loin for dinner as the storm approached.  Luckily the storm turned south and we only got a few sprinkles.  Beth and Nicholas set up a game of Catan and Nicholas whipped us again!... It was 10 PM, but we thought we would get in another game since this was to be our last night before heading into Albuquerque.  Beth looked up and saw headlights coming down the road, the first we had seen all night... not just 1 set, but 2, 3, 4, .... 5, 6 sets of head lights.  Then they turned right in front of the RV, barely clearing our front bumper and headed down the dirt driveway, one right after another.

Now it is Saturday night, but how is it that within a county with a population density of 1.4 people per square mile, 3 miles from the nearest thing called a town with a post office, we end up parking where the locals come to party on Saturday night???

Now this is northern New Mexico, where there are still a number of folks that think if you don't have relatives back to the conquistadors with direct ties to a Spanish land grant, that you are an interloper.  It was clear that with 6 cars and who knows how many per car, we were clearly out numbered... And discretion clearly being the better part of valor, we pulled chocks and headed to Taos.  And at 11PM, where better to camp than the Taos Walmart parking lot! ... and we weren't the first to be camping there either.  At least 5 other vehicles had spots staked out, but we were pretty sure they were just there for a place to park over night.

Mountain biking on a logging road.

Otherwise, this had been a really nice day.  From our camping spot in the BLM land south of Buena Vista we dropped the mountain bikes.  We first followed some cow paths near our camp site, then riding overland  in the pine meadow until we were back to the dirt road heading into the mountains.  We followed the dirt road until we found a logging road heading higher up the mountain and followed it for a while.  Nothing too difficult for a novice mountain biker or a tandem that doesn't make tight turns of any kind, but it was good to be out on the mountain on a beautiful day.  We headed back to camp for a shower and some lunch, then on down the road.

We kept waiting for one of the guys at the top to try to
sand surf down this gigantic dune on his "sand board"

We headed for Great Sand Dunes National Park about 20 miles northwest of Alamosa, CO.  It is really unusual to see 700 foot high sand dunes at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains at the eastern edge of a huge mountain valley (about 40 miles across the valley in places).  You can go to the National Park Service website if you really want to hear the theories of how they formed.  Needless to say they are a long way from any ocean beach at 8000' in elevation and very impressive.


Sunday, July 13 - Back Home
After our short night in the Taos Walmart parking lot, we drove a short way out of Taos on highway 518, also known as the "high road to Taos" and a favorite for cycling toward Santa Fe.  Beth and I hopped on the tandem and road over the first pass (1600' of climbing in the first 10 miles) to the junction of highway 75 and then Nicholas hopped on his single to ride on to Chimayo.  The ride from Penasco to Truchas is 20 miles of steep hills with 2000' of climbing.  I had forgotten how tough this ride can be.  At least the last 10 miles from Truchas to Chimayo is a screaming down hill with good road and a lot of fun.

After we packed up the bikes, we headed to Santa Fe to find somewhere that Nicholas could watch the end of the World Cup finals between Argentina and Germany.  We ended up at the 2nd Street Pub.  The place was packed with people watching the finals. Nicholas had to stand along the wall to see the game and was a little disappointed when Germany won in overtime, but at least he got to see the finale.

Then it was back in the RV for the short 50 mile drive back to Corrales and home.  While we didn't get to do a lot of what we had planned or hoped to do this summer, but we still had some good times, got in some nice rides, saw some new sights and checked off a couple of more state capitals.