New Mexico ADV loop - Day 4

The manager and Maid of All Work, Safphire (sic) was a whirling dervish in the kitchen and had the whole house fed in good style! Will and I packed up and rolled back down to Alamogordo, bundled up against the just-above-freezing temps. We then had to run across White Sands, poking along at 60 while the speed limit is 75… then down into Cruces.

We thought we could pick up a paper map at AAA, but they were closed on Sunday, so we carried on along a little back road that followed the Rio Grande and was bordered by (alternately) giant pecan orchards, cotton, and chiles. We arrived in Hatch, had a beer and Will picked up warmer gloves at a hardware store, then continued on side roads up to TorC. We checked out the brewpub, then went to the bowling alley to eat (yes! It’s the town hub, with decent food) and then rode out to Elephant Butte to camp.

There were a surprising number of people camping. When Anna and I camped there previously, it was utterly deserted. Apparently October is more popular.

Some people can’t read directions, so I found not one but two camp fee envelopes mis-filed in the envelope supply bin, with two $5 bills in each one! So that covered our camping fees :-) We scavenged some wood and had a jolly campfire, along with some “crowlers” from the brewery and the last of our good cognac, guaranteeing that we would not make an early start the next morning!

Mileage for the day: 167
Trip mileage: 500
Google maps Route