We spent the afternoon yesterday at Rock Hound State Park. The state parks in the southwest are certainly different than we are accustomed to. No rivers, lakes, grass or trees with leaves on them. However, beautiful in a different sense. Desert scenery with mountains for a backdrop.
The park has a very nice campground with large sites and water and electric hook-ups at some of them. The cost is $14 a night and they waive the $5 daily entrance fee. If we had known that, we would have probably stayed at this park rather than where we are now. No two mile dusty gravel road to travel down.
Here’s a picture from the entrance to the park. You can see the campground on the left. The mountains are called the Florida Mountains.
A very unique feature to this park is that visitors are allowed to take up to 15 pounds of rocks with them. We hiked two of the trails totaling about 2 miles. I couldn’t believe how quickly I got out of breath. We climbed about 4,000 feet in elevation on our drive from Phoenix to Deming, and I definitely was feeling it as soon as I started climbing uphill. Supposedly, you can find the thunderegg rocks in this park, but since we didn’t know what we were looking for, I have no idea if we saw any :)
Next, we drove a few miles to Spring Canyon State Park. This is a day-use park with some picnic shelters. We hiked about another mile on a trail in the canyon. Here we are at the start to the trail. No animal sightings. But there sure were a lot of flies on all of the trails! What’s up with that?
As you drive around this area, you see quite a few orchards. I couldn’t imagine what type of fruit trees they were growing out here in the desert. It turns out, they are pecan trees. Did you know that the pecan tree is the only nut tree native to North America?
This area has lots of agriculture including cotton, pecans and red and green chili peppers. It’s all about the irrigation. I am so amazed that there are all these crops growing in the desert. I sure have learned a lot these past few months.
It’s quite windy again today. When we arrived, we asked the camphost if it is always this windy. She said only in March and April. We’ll be in New Mexico for two more weeks. I guess we’ll find out if she was right.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!
