It’s been such a busy week, that I’m so ready for a slow down….It’s been a great week, but now it’s time to stop and smell all those wild flowers that are blooming in the air.
We moved from Heron Lake (and just in the nick of time) to a RV park in Chama. We normally don’t like or do private parks, but this one in particular allowed us to “boondock” in a tent site (which saved us oodles of money) and this also allowed us to be closer to the train ride.
At Heron Lake we got spoiled in almost having the campground to ourselves with a few other campers, but as Memorial Weekend approach-so did the campers. It was time to move on out.
We went to Twin Rivers RV Park at the Chevron Gas Station in Chama. We had been doing business with Eddie and his wife Sonja since arriving in Chama and they are a wonderful couple. their campground isn’t fancy and don’t have much too offer, but they offered the peace and tranquil that Brian and I like.
We choose to go in two days before our train ride, so that we could go to the Cumbre & Toltec Station and get some pictures before we got on board on Sunday. I was able to get some great pictures of the steam engines on their first day run. Amazing!!
The day before our train ride we got hit with such fierce strong winds. I don’t ever recall being in such winds on a continuous basis we were that particular Saturday (May 26th). We had sustain winds between 35-45mph with gust reaching over 60+mph! In the park we had a tree knock down a power line. It landed across one of the picnic tables (one we almost took-glad we didn’t!). But what no one saw until later was that the power line came down behind an RV that was in storage and caught the grass and the motorhome on fire!!
Another couple of minutes and the motorhome would have exploded with gas and propane being on board. The fire dept. did a great job in getting it out.
Sunday morning arrives and we were so excited and pumped for our train ride! We spend quality time in the morning with Leah before leaving her behind for nearly 9 hours. We also woke to a second morning of record low-21 degrees-Brrrrr!
We enjoyed our train ride immensely! We were told by a local to take the bus to Antonito and ride the train back to Chama. So that is what we choose to do.
We boarded the bus promptly at 8:30am. Both Brian and I were a bit surprised that there were not as many as we thought there might be. I think there was maybe 60 all together. We arrived at the Antonito train station about 9:45am, boarded the train and it left the yard at 10:00am on the dot.
I kept going from the car to the open platform car to take plenty of pictures (nearly 500 shots). We stopped for about a 45 minutes lunch at Osier and then back on the train again.
The train arrived back in the Chama’s yard right around 4:10pm. We stayed on scheduled the whole trip. I guess the day before (the 1st day run) the everyone ran about an hour behind…don’t know why….
Then it was up bright and early Monday morning (Memorial Day) to head towards Taos and our next destination-Cimarron Canyon. As we got away from Chama we started to hit some really beautiful country! I instantly fell in love with the view and the area.
Driving was a breeze, nearly not another soul on the road way. We came across several elks grazing and I manage to stop the motorhome in the middle of the road to shoot a picture of one!
As we got closer to Taos, traffic started to pick up and by the time we parked at Wal-Mart; it was beginning to be a zoo on the roadway. That was okay, we could parked, unhook the car and head to the grocery stores and refuel up both fuel tanks, food and our bellies!
By 2:00pm the roadway was quieting down and it was time to finish the last leg of this trip. We thought we shouldn’t need Ms. Garmin’s help since we stay on Hwy 64-WRONG! somehow we missed our turn! I found a place to pull over but to get turned around, we had to unhook the car and back the motorhome safely to get it turned back in the opposite direction. Hook the car back up and turned on Ms. Garmin!
We had first planned on stopping over at Eagles Nest State Park, but being it’s still a new park, I guess they haven’t gotten the sign posted yet on the highway and couldn’t find the entrance to the park.
We thought that many, many years ago we were at Cimarron Canyon, but to our surprise we have not. When we finally reached the first campground, we unhooked the car and left the motorhome parked in the day-use area and went searching for a spot.
We again were surprised at both the lay out of this state park and the campgrounds and how busy it still was for a Monday afternoon. There are 3 campgrounds with-in, however to access each one you have to stay on Hwy 64. Never seen such a thing like this before.
Brian and I jumped in the car, first checking out Toby Campground, then went farther down to Maverick and just about got hit several times by the same group of kids on bike! Very rude little munchkins and parents just sitting back not caring. Decided that this park was NOT for us this time. We were told by the host that we would like Ponderosa-it’s mainly older folks. but to our surprise and dismay-we felt like we were parking at a Wal-Mart parking lot! Only one site that we might have liked.
Being very disappointed in the park system here and not sure what we would do and being tired (and yes a bit cranky), we again took another look at Toby. We found a site that fits us perfect with a great view of the creek. The downfall is the site next to us, their parking is right next to our slide-out. All the sites are very, very close together and we are not impress with that one bit.
You can clearly see where the next site is close to us
Anyways, we are making the best of it here, even with a couple of problems; like another tent camper trying to come literally on top of us and having an issue with the host and getting the ranger involved (Scofield’s win-host and camper lost)
Leah really loves it here as well and is now completely wore out and sleeps the night through.
Now that our bodies has had a few days to adjust yet another elevation (8000 feet now) climb. We hiked the one and only trail (out of 4) that is open to hike. We took Clear Creek Trail and at first it became a nightmare-but that’s another story for another time. When we actually got on the right trail system we enjoyed it greatly and found 3 waterfalls!
Our spot is shaded 90% of the time-so solar doesn’t work the best. No cell phone signal; unless you climb up the hillside. However, Brian put up the antenna on the car and we can get a good signal but in 1x instead of 3g. We can check messages (twice a day) and check FB. But the rest has to be done when we go back to an area that we can get the phone to work (or drive over to Coyote Creek and use their internet).
Plenty of wood to be found and been having campfires every night and even during the day. We both enjoy cooking over the campfire as well. As soon as our pile goes down, we go back in search for more and again we are stocked for another week of enjoyment around our campfire.
No siting yet of bears, but they are in the area and hoping to see one (from a distant-of course). We think we might had one through the other night and even the host dog got up in the middle of the night carrying on.
the weekends seems to get busy around here. We did end up having a neighbor next to us; however they were a very nice couple that we met early in the week and had to move off a reserved site.
We took a quick drive to Eagles Nest just this past Sunday (June 4th) and soon found that we could not get back home to the campground! There was a serious accident on the road; blocking it from both side. At first the fire dept. estimation was that it would be 3 hours to clean up. Then we were told that the 3 hours could be much longer!
We told the fireman that our camper was back at Toby and we had a small dog to get back to and if there was any other way around. There was-but it would have been 189 miles-and we were only 3 miles away! We then asked if we could “walk” around the accident back to the campground.
The fire chief gave the fireman permission to allowed us to ride in the fire truck rig to the scene of the accident, escorted us around the accident and then we hiked the rest of the way home. We got back around 9pm. The accident wasn’t cleared off until after 1:00am! It took at least 3 tow trucks that we knew of…..
So you see, we have not had a dulls moment since being here at Cimarron Canyon and plan on enjoying the remainder of our time here at this park.
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