City of Rocks State Park, NM

We arrived in the City of Rocks State Park early in the afternoon on Monday. Approaching the park the formations look strangely like Stonehenge, only we're not in Britain, we're in New Mexico!

We'll be staying here for the next three days as we take in a bit of the surrounding area and recoup. After all, it was almost a 50 mile drive to get here!

This is a unique area geologically speaking. Formed of compressed volcanic ash that has metamorphosed into stone, then eroded over thousands of years, the formations resemble those in the Alabama Hills in California. Those formations are largely composed of granite however, so aren't counted among the six places in the world that have a feature like this.

We opted again for one of the few sites with power so we could safely leave Molly in the rig when we are out for the day. The electrical sites here are really nicely laid out. They're long, wide, nicely landscaped, and each has a small permanent shade over the picnic table which is sitting on a concrete pad (we could really have used that kind of setup in the Oregon rain!)

This mural includes 20 species who live in the area. 

It was in the high 90's when we first  arrived, so we took advantage of the cool interior of the visitor's center, admiring the murals and chatting with the host. Turns out we had met him last year at Rock Hound State Park. When we commented on the smoke in the air the host said this was really very moderate smoke, as a few days before there was a fire closer by and they had all been packed and ready to evacuate if necessary. 'Glad we missed that episode!

A quick drive around the perimeter of the campground gave us a better sense of the layout.
They have done a beautiful job of tucking campsites up in the rocks, providing privacy and a bit of shelter from both sun and wind for each of them. Each site has a picnic table situated on a perfectly level gravel pad, terraced with local stone.We noted this type of construction in other parks in the area. It's a really nice way to organize the sites without getting in the way of parking your RV, and helps slow down erosion.

The soil here seems to support a much wider variety of plant life than we saw in the Alabama Hills, and judging from all the last-year's yucca blossom stalks it must be breathtaking at the peak of spring bloom.

There is a Botanic Garden featured in the campground. It's well laid out, and does have a nice variety of species, but as a gardener, I must say it could use some loving attention. Overall the park does have a nice variety of vegetation and many of the yucca are in full bloom. There are a few stray wildflowers here and there, and many types of cactus have fruit that are starting to ripen.


There is also a really unique aspect to this park. It has an observatory.  The Simon Observatory is located in the group camp area, surrounded by picnic tables in alcoves formed by the rocks. there are also several placards describing various astronomical features. The solar system and space theme has been carried out in several ways around the park. There's a "campground scale" replica of the solar system, which starts out with a little garden with placards just behind the visitor center (oriented as if it were the sun) and then extends into the campground, and each of the sites has a name taken from the celestial systems. We're staying in Zena, for example (it's the 10th planet, now known as Eris.) Each site has a name taken from astronomy.

As evening approached the smoke in the air became even more obvious. As much as we've complained about the smoke, it does make for a colorful evening sky, a nice backdrop for all the yucca flowers and interesting rock formations. We're up over 5,000 feet, so the evening cools off quickly.We very much enjoyed sitting outside and watching the changing shadows as the jackrabbits and cottontails grazed around us.

We'll explore further tomorrow, as well as visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  For a few more shots of the area visit the album.