Last day here.......REFERENCE POST

Our Location: 

BLM near Carlsbad, NM

I was awake around 6 am MDT but didn't get up. I was lazy and since there was no brightening in the skies I figured a cloudy day was in the offing. I grabbed my laptop and read blogs for a while. I can tell you that I finally closed the lid and turned on the water for a hot drink just shortly after 8 am. 

I don't think the clock works well....

I see a circus coming to town Matey......

We had plans this morning to find a place to rid us of our trash and to fill the Big Dog's water bowl. I can say we accomplished that feat within a few miles of our current location. Fuel was $3.19 per gallon and while I probably could have found it cheaper down the road tomorrow I am happy to have a full tank starting the day. 

On the way back home we checked out the other 'free' campsite area in this location. It's on Whites City Road and I can say that we wouldn't be staying there. However I will use this as a reference post again for future use or just information for others. 

Whites City Road is a hard packed dirt road (it may have been black top on gravel once) that is rough and somewhat washboard like, although not as ugly as it sounds. I would think after a rain it would be more muddy than anything else. There is a bit of dust but not much. We made note of two or possibly 4 spots that were okay sites for staying. The first two were best but close to the main road. The second two were further back but are currently being used by the construction company working/worked on the road. It appears they've buried something (possibly pipe lines but no signs indicating such) along the road. These two sites have been beaten up by the use of big trucks and we didn't see any fire pits there but all indications are they were once sites.  The other issue with this road is the quarry a bit further back. It's a working pit I would imagine the noise level would not be nice going all day. Numerous trucks of varying sizes are also visible. We went further back past the quarry but didn't see anything of interest although I'm certain there were other places further back. It would be too far off the main road on this less than wonderful road. So there you have it, not our cup of tea but definitely a couple of good over night spots if you could find some how to get level. 

 

Riley loves the Aliens...

She doesn't care what colour.....

We are parked at MM 10 on the east bound side of the roadway but there is no way to get to the road going west unless you go to MM 9 and make a U turn before coming back on the East bound road. Actually that's not quite true, there is no LEGAL turn road but many have simply crossed over the dirt median to get to/from the West bound lanes. It's a pretty big bump though and so you would need to be very careful. We did check out a well paved road just after using that LEGAL turn around over the median. I have no idea what it's called but it's between MM 9 and 10 east bound. There looks like a couple of spots that would be good for overnight but no signs of fire pits. If you think one of the side roads offers a spot, forget it, they lead to oil wells with no spots available. 

 

I believe this is a bat....

I think that one may be a chuck wagon...

So there you have it, our little tour of the day. We went less than 6 miles to get some fuel at a place that is between the roadway and the Cavern Parking lot. Multiple little things to see, an RV park there also, no idea the name though. 

Back home we noticed only ONE other rig, when we came back. There had been two when we left. The lone rig sits close to the road and is also a 5'er. Otherwise no one else is here, not a tent to be seen anywhere either. 

I'm guessing these are rental units. 

Tomorrow we'll be pulling out and making our way to a free overnight in Crosbyton, TX. We found this park courtesy of Ken and Shirley (Seeing America with Ken and Shirley) , so thanks for the heads up folks!! We'll actually be staying for two nights before getting back on the road as the wind is forecast to be pretty high and gusts will also be making life miserable for any drivers in the area from Sunday afternoon into Monday. Tuesday looks to be a great travel day.  Why do we not stay where we are located you may ask and I will say that we are heading toward Tennessee and that will be 250 miles closer for us. We hope that the two night stay will be a bit less rock 'n roll like as we will maybe have some protection from the town buildings, other RV's etc. Here we are out in the open with no where to hide. Also we're that much closer to getting out of the wind tunnel areas and flat lands. We will be on the road fairly early as the winds here are supposed to be minimal then, and be off the road by 3 pm hopefully before they pick back up.

So there you have it, thanks for stopping by. I hope you've managed to have a wonderful day. 

 

The Whites City Road location for free camping. See the quarry? That pile of gravel I believe is in one of the camping spots. The other picture is the road way, looks good but is a bit rough.

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

Deb

Reference post, do nothing day......

Our Location: 

BLM on US 62 East, near Carlsbad, NM

Tonight's post is more of an information or reference post for those interested in this particular BLM land or for my own future need to remember. So if you have no interest in using this location than you will probably not enjoy the post. 

 

I believe some bunnies have been having lunch....

Most of these prickly pear cactus are pinky purple in colour and in among grass or branches...hard to get a good picture.

 

Our night here was very quiet, the peace was very much like our Saddle Mountain area with no noise of any kind. A quiet that was eerie in it's silence but wonderful in it's own way!! We both slept long and without a hint of disturbance. I will admit I was late waking up, almost 7:30 am MDST and I just listened to the quiet. 

Some buds and blooms......

I wasn't fast enough to catch all of him, just his head and ears... I thought of you Patsy and had to laugh at myself...

 

We did nothing today except rest. We both spent time in our recliners doing some reading, surfing, etc. I went for a walk, not far only a mile or so before coming back and just crashing for a 2 hour nap. I started off reading but of course that didn't last long. 

Notice some of them appear dead, some a bit droopy, but not others...

Various pieces of oil equipment. You can turn around in this yard, a big spot to make a circle if needed.

 

I thought I would give my impression of this place for future reference and for others as well. 

An indication of the road, the top right picture is taken past the oil pipeline and shows the high raised center of the road, the top middle picture is also taken past the pipeline and shows the bigger stones becoming more evident with use. The rest were taken between our location and US 62. The bottom picture shows you that a large motor home made it back with no issues and also gives you a bit of an idea about the size of his site.

These pictures give you an idea of what the sights look like, some are great for tents, small motor homes, truck campers, etc. while others are better for bigger rigs. The one with the truck camper on the trailer was the site we had originally chosen but when we walked back to the Dogsled and pulled forward with the Igloo behind us these folks had moved from their previous site further down the road into this one. It is one of my pet peeves when little rigs like this take up big spots that bigger units need.

The new place is very similar to Saddle Mountain. We can see the roadway but can't hear it. It's low scrub type foliage but with the odd semi type tree and you can see for a long distance. The road way is better with no big ruts or boulders in them so far as I've looked. Not nearly as many spots to park though, from what I've seen less than 20 BEFORE the pipeline. The spots seem in some cases less defined but would probably make wonderful tent locations. Most spots look pretty level but a little boost may be needed here and there.  Difference here is cows roam freely and there are droppings around (just like being back at our summer location). There are places where you can see a yellowish type long grass but in other places you wonder how anything survives, it's dusty, dry and crisp, with little or brown, perhaps dying vegetation. The Yucca/Immature Joshua Tree growths are green topped with weathered bottoms, and some form of green tree be it a type of cedar or perhaps a desert oak, also offers some green tones. In the distance some vegetation looks very dark but not sure what it is. Almost all cactus growth is around small bunches of grass like stalks so not readily seen in some photos. The spines are also very long on the prickly pear but that hasn't stopped the rabbits from having a lunch from time to time. Eating a few of them right down to the base root. Some of the taller looking cacti seems to be drooping whether from natural growth or lack of moisture I don't know.

Love this pretty purple cactus, no idea what it is but is sure is a big bunch and the only one I've seen here so far.

Some form of Yucca or an immature Joshua Tree, it's hard for me to tell the difference as this is what I noticed at various heights in Joshua Tree National Park as well. 

The low level mountains are to the west and north of us but with no peaks of interest, pretty level tops except in a few places and those aren't very visible.  We can see a few places where access to the tops may be permitted but from this distance I have no idea if it's off road only or not. I see what looks like a town to the north of us, I believe it may be Whites City but I can't be certain, we haven't been there yet. 

 

Not sure what to make of the signs but they are pretty numerous just before you enter the oil storage tank area.

I would say they've had a leak at some point.

The roads here are pretty good, As I said similar to Saddle Mountain but with less big ruts, dips, holes and boulders. These ones are very dusty. Past the oil pipe line which is buried under a bit of gravel and leaves a hump that might cause a lower clearance vehicles some headaches (although a large motor home crossed it today without any issues), I did notice in the short distance I walked there that the more prominent stones are getting bigger and the area between the tire tracks is more raised, so that may also cause some issues with lower clearance rigs. However before the pipeline is fine for all types of rigs I think. Just slow down and proceed with some sense you should be fine. If you do get back to the fork in the road and don't wish to continue on past the pipe line, the spot is big enough to turn around if you're small or very good at backing up but you can also go to the left toward the oil tanks as there is a pretty big space there that you can turn around in, although it says authorized personnel only I doubt anyone would say much, just don't run over anything vital. We are further back than I wanted to go and parked to the left at the fork in the road, it's not much different than any of the other sites, but it does seem pretty dusty here in this location. The dust is fine and seeps in the tiniest opening so be prepared for dust. 

The view from out the yard, low level hills with no visible peak to catch one's attention.

 

Amazing what you can see out there, isn't it?

As you will see in the pictures tonight I've tried to document a few sites and give you an idea of what you could expect, also what the road looks like as I don't recall ever seeing this particular location on a blog but of course I could be wrong.  As near as I can figure it, we are located on Dillahunty Road, which looks like it may connect a number of oil holding tanks, pipelines, etc in this Eddie County. According to Google these are the co-ordinates: 32.067196, -104.392226 to our spot. 

They just kind of fold along into each other maybe, it's hard to tell from back here....

 

Can see the road up there? That white camper is the spot we originally were going to park in.

So there you have it, my information post I guess you can call it. Nothing of great interest but for future reference it's good. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Feel free to leave a comment if you like, I promise to read and answer them all. 

Looks like small town or settlement off in the distance. I wonder if it's Whites City?

I took this picture to give you an idea of how far back we went past our original choice, just so you have some idea about the distance to the pipeline. Our first choice was about a mile from the roadway and you can see us tucked in about the middle of the picture.

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

A peaceful view from here, good night.

Deb