Rockhound State Park, New Mexico
Rockhound State Park, nestled in New Mexico’s Little Florida Mountains, is a site to behold. From about three miles away, as we made the final turn toward the mountain, we could start to see something on the slope that might have been a tiny village. That’s when LeeAnn said that’s probably the campground. Sure enough, it was. Approaching it all I could say was “Wow” while taking in the scenery. For someone used to rugged mountains, it’s probably nothing exceptional, but for flatlanders like us the sight was awesome in the true meaning of that word.
The campground itself is very well maintained by a team of camp hosts that seemingly never take breaks. When we first arrived, one even met us at the visitor’s center, checked us in, and led us to our site. And what a site it was, larger than we’re used to, but there were even bigger ones available. Unlike any park we’ve seen many sites have island cactus and wildflower gardens. I don’t know if intentional, but ours provided a nice bit of privacy for sitting at our picnic table under the casita.
There was a native botanical garden path between our site and our neighbors, which may have been the reason LeeAnn chose this site in particular. I’m not sure how many times we walked the path during our three-night stay, but we spent some time there.
Our first afternoon there, LeeAnn, Barnie, and I walked the Thunder Egg Trail, named for a geode-like rock found in the area. It’s a short, moderate trail starting near our campsite that goes along the mountain’s slope and roughly follows the shape of the campground from a few hundred feet above it. After completing the trail, we were walking through the campground back to our site when a couple sitting outside their camper asked us if we saw the deer. We hadn’t. The pointed out about eight deer on an adjacent slope walking along browsing. It was a nice finish to a fairly tough trail for its short size.
There are about eight deer in this photo. Do you see them?
This is just a gratuitous picture of Barnie looking out our back window as the sun rises.