Las Cruces, La Paloma, and Elephant Butte

Caravaning to Las Cruces

Over our last break Meris and Seth headed to Las Cruces while I hung out at the ranch with Meris' parents. We had an expedition every night to try to spot some elk but alas we did not see any. While in Las Cruces Meris and Seth bought a new trailer for hay. Therefore, on Friday Meris and I headed back to Las Cruces to turn in the old trailer, get the truck tuned up, and pick up the new trailer. We also got to go to lunch with Meris' parents who were in Las Cruces for the day. I got a delicious piece of  lemon pie from the Village Inn. We made a quick stop to get some horseshoe nails and the supply store had a variety of animals outside. It was funny to see camels, goats, and ostriches all thrown together. 

Camel and bison

 Meris and I had caravaned to T or C so I could spend the night there and hit the hot springs. I stayed at La Paloma and it was amazing! It was so quiet and peaceful. 

One of the baths at La Paloma

Sunset at La Paloma

They have unlimited soaking for overnight guests which I took advantage of even though the pools were over 110 degrees. It was just so dang peaceful I couldn't resist. Along with the relaxing, I was finally able to upload a bunch of my pictures to Facebook and Skype with my family for a few minutes until it froze. It was nice to see everyone's faces and to see Felix running around. I took one last soak at La Paloma and then headed in for my massage. It was a perfect way to spend a day away from the ranch and relieve my muscles. 

Rio Grande

Dam

I decided to head over to Elephant Butte State Park since I had never been to that side of T or C. I drove up to the dam to see the "elephant" then down to the Rio Grande on the other side of the dam.

The elephant

 Then I drove over to the main entrance to the beach. Apparently out  here the protocol is to drive your vehicle right to the edge of the water and set up a tent/canopy/shelter. I was nervous about driving in the sand and almost got stuck once so I decided to stick to the hard packed sand and walk down to the beach. 

The beach

The water was clear and warm and shallow. Of course as soon as I got out of the water I was roasting on the hot sand.  I debated setting up my tent since I had it in the back of the Mazda but I didn't want to lug it down. I decided to just grab my little black umbrella from my car and huddle under that. It did the job of keeping the sun off but I ended up spending most of the day in the water. The beach was busy but not crowded. I was amazed at how huge the lake was and how extensive the beaches were. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. After I had thoroughly roasted, I grabbed an ice cold slush puppy to cool down, filled up with gas, and headed out for the drive home.

Beautiful views

Lots of sand and water!