Hike Report: Brantly Lake State Park (New Mexico)

During our stay at Brantley Lake State Park outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, we hiked the short trail there that goes from the campground to the Visitor Center and back. The trail is 1.6 miles long, so it is 3.2 miles round trip.

We found the trailhead at the east end of the campground. The trail is very level and an easy trail. Just over a quarter of a mile, the trail crosses the park road just west of the trailer dump station. It then continues over a typical Chihuahuan Desert landscape to the Visitor Center. The section of Brantley Lake next to the dam is visible throughout the hike, as is the long earthen dam. There are several information kiosks along the trail as well as roughly two dozen numbered markers that identify animal prints. I would guess that there may be a pamphlet at the Visitor Center that details the markers and provides information about the tracks. Unfortunately, the Visitor Center was not open at any time we visited it, so I can't say for sure.

We watched storm clouds to the west and north as they gathered, especially on the return leg of the hike. Just after getting back to the trailer, we did get a few drops of rain. The lake, by the way, appears to me to be very low, as are many lakes in the American West. However, since I've never been to the lake before, I can't say for sure.

Below are some pictures I took of the hike.

Trailhead for the trail in the east section of the campground.

This little cottontail was along the trail and posed for this picture. We saw numerous rabbits, road runners, and other small critters during our stay in the park.

This picture near the trailhead shows several things. First, notice the earthen dam in the distance. Also, you can see the trail in the foreground, but look near the left center of the picture just below the dam to see more of the trail in the distance. The three poles are some of the numbered markers I mentioned in the text above.

Dam and low water of the lake.

Look closely to the left of the end of the dam and you'll see a cluster of trees. This is the Visitor Center and our destination.

This is where the trail crosses the park road just west of the dump station.

One of the information kiosks along the trail.

The Visitor Center was never open during our stay.

The trailhead at the Visitor Center, with storm clouds dancing in the distance.

One of the numerous numbered trail markers. At the base of each marker is a set of animal tracks.

The campground as we approached it at the end of the hike.

Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad, New Mexico

The next stop on our winding way home was Carlsbad, New Mexico. We decided to stay at Brantley Lake State Park during our time here.

The park is just northwest of Carlsbad, on US 285. It is located on Lake Brantley, the southernmost lake in New Mexico. The lake is fed by the Pecos River. It offers various water sports (boating, swimming, fishing, etc.) as well as hiking, bird watching, and camping. The park has 48 developed camping sites with water and electricity. 38 sites have 30 amp service while 10 have 50 amp.

When we made our reservations at the park, we were billed the full amount. We thought this was odd. When we arrived, we sort of figured it out. There was no one at the headquarters when we arrived, so we drove on through the open gate. We knew our site number, so once at the campground, we drove to our site. Sure enough, on the little sign with the site number, our name and the dates of our stay were attached. So, we set up. During our entire stay there, we had no contact with anyone representing the park. The official host site was vacant, and we saw no host on duty. I did see a park truck on the road once, but other than that, I felt that all the guests, including us, were mostly on our own. Also, we noticed signs pertaining to the first 15 sites in the camping loop. It indicated that electricity in these sites was not working. Three of these sites also had sewer hookups, so that was a real shame.

Our site was level for the most part from side to side, but from front to back there was nothing level about it. We did like the covered picnic table at our site. We also enjoyed the little visitors we had, which included rabbits, road runners, and prairie dogs. The campground was at least half full, so there were quite a few campers. A short distance away is a day use area, but when we went down there, no one else was there. There is a playground for youngsters next to the restroom area, which included 3 showers. All park roads are paved, as are the sites.

We were unable to pick up any signal on our TV antennae, but we did pick up 3 or 4 radio stations out of Carlsbad.

I didn't take many pictures of the park, but below are a few.

Our site, #27. Note the slope from the back of the trailer to the front. Nice covered picnic table. Nice trees.

The back side of our trailer in site #27. We had water and 30 amp service.

Looking west along the campground road from in front of our site.

Looking east along the campground road from in front of our site. Notice the vacant site at extreme left.

View of Lake Brantley from the campground.

Playground area near restroom. A portion of the lake near the dam in barely visible in background.

We're in Carlsbad

Donna and I left Alamogordo yesterday morning. We enjoyed a beautiful drive through the mountains around Ruidoso before emerging onto the Plains west of Roswell. We're getting closer to home all the time.

We are now at Brantley Lake State Park just to the north of Carlsbad. We will spend 3 nights here and play tourist in the area. We do not have WiFi here, though, so I'll not post any entries for several days.

On Thursday, we return to Texas. I'm excited. I simply do not enjoy traveling as much as I once did, and I'm ready to be someplace where I feel I belong.

But, we have no home to return to, so we will continue traveling for awhile. We'll spend nearly a week in the area near our daughter and her family. We have to see those grandsons, whom my daughter is now calling "hardened criminals." Yeah, they are giving her fits; they are my heroes! We'll then spend nearly a week at Hord's Creek Lake near Coleman before heading to San Angelo. We have business to take care of in Angelo, so we'll spend a good week there. We have made no concrete plans beyond then.

So, travel along with us on the blog. We may even show up at a park near you.

New Mexico Museum of Space History, Alamogordo, New Mexico

A visit to Alamogordo, New Mexico, is not complete without a visit to the New Mexico Museum of Space History. You might ask why locate such a museum in Almogordo, New Mexico. But what state is more associated with space age activities than New Mexico? Think of Los Alamos, Trinity Site, Roswell, and all the other places around the state associated with the space age.

The museum complex sits on a slope of the Sacremento Mountains. The tall building in the center is the main museum, and the building with the torquise top is the Imax Theater.

The museum is actually a complex on the western slopes of the Sacremento Mountains on the eastern edge of Alamogordo. Views in all directions are really impressive. The main building is the place to start your tour. Just outside the main building is the John P. Stapp Air and Space Park, which displays larger exhibits. Inside the main building is the Museum of Space History and the International Space Hall of Fame. The Museum of Space History contains exhibits such as Robert Goddard's early rocket experiments near Roswell. The International Space Hall of Fame honors those men and women who have been instrumental in our attempts to conquer space.

The John P. Stapp Air Park sits just outside the main building. It contains larger exhibits.



This is Little Joe 2. It was used to test the Apollo launch escape system.

This is the Vengeance Weapon 2, the world's first long-range ballistic missile. The "V-2" was used by Germany near the end of World War II as a weapon of terror against Allied targets. After the war, German scientists helped the US military develop this technology. This particular exhibit was used in testing in nearby White Sands and was recovered from there.

The main museum is a 4 story building. I enjoyed its uniqueness. After paying our admission fee, we were directed to use the elevator to go up to the 4th floor to begin the tour. When the elevator opened, we were delighted to see that it looked like a control center, complete with sound effects. At the top floor, you pass through numerous smaller exhibits. Once you finish viewing all the exhibits on a floor, you take a ramp down to the next level and the next set of exhibits.

This is actually the inside of the elevator.

This moon rock was collected by Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt. Technically, it is mare basalt. It is believed to be 3.7 billion years old. 

This is a space suttle simulator. You can sit at the controls and, by using the throttle and the monitors, attempt to land the space shuttle. I failed miserably and crashed the space shuttle. Security escorted me out. They told me I was better suited to use the exhibit pictured below.

Skylab toilet

Down the hill from the main museum is the Imax Theater. At the time of our visit, the theater was showing 3 movies: Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure, Digital Star Show, and Tornado Alley. We opted for Tornado Alley, and I really enjoyed this informational film, especially since our home is not that far from Tornado Alley. It followed the attempts of two separate teams to chase down developing tornadoes to collect data and footage.

Overall, the museum is a good way to spend half a day or so. It is a one-of-a-kind museum, and it has some unique items.

Heart of the Desert Pistachio Farm, Alamogordo, New Mexico

When in Yuma, Arizona, you visit a date farm; when in Alamogordo, New Mexico, you visit a pistachio farm. And that's exactly what we did. I don't know how many pistachio farms there are in the Alamogordo area, but there were 2 within half a mile of our RV park. We decided to visit only one, Heart of the Desert. It was interesting.

Visitor Center and Gift Shop

One of the things that attracted us to Heart of the Desert is that they offered a free tour of their farm. I like free. Heart of the Desert claims to be both the oldest and the largest pistachio farm in New Mexico. The climate around Alamogordo is similar to that in Iraan, where pistachios have been grown for centuries.

Our tour began in the Visitor Center, where we watched a short video about the farm. A tour guide then gave us a brief introduction before leading us outside to view the actual trees. There is roughly 1 male tree for every 10 trees. The males are generally a bit taller and a bit wider than the females. The season runs from early spring to early fall. During our trip, the trees were leafless, as they are decidious.

Part of the large orchard. The tree in center is male; it is taller. It gets to pollinate all those beautiful females around it. Lucky tree.

We next donned hairnets and toured the building where the pistachios are sorted. Machines do most of the original sorting by size before being passed on to real humans to finish up. Next stop was the building where the nuts are roasted. Next step is packaging the nuts, and then they are stored in a refrigerated area.

Employees sorting nuts by hand. Our tour guide is on the left.

This large machine sorts nuts by size.

Roasting oven

The Visitor Center is also a gift shop, and you can, of course, purchase various pistachio related items. Heart of the Desert also produces wine, and you can pick up a bottle or two of good wine. There are numerous pistachio products. Some are simply roasted, while some are spiced. I opted for a 1 lb bag of unsalted and roasted pistachios. I sampled the chocolate pistachio bark products, and they were also delicious.

Road goes down the center of the orchard. The San Andres Mountains are in the western background, and if you look carefully, you can see the line of white gypsum sand from White Sands National Monument at the base of the mountains.

One of the things about traveling, especially in retirement, is you have time to visit places like this and learn something. This was a good outing, and one we really enjoyed.

White Sands National Monument

We arrived in Alamogordo, New Mexico, 2 days ago, on Thursday. First on our list of places to visit  was the White Sands National Monument, located about 15 miles to the southwest. The white sands of this area are formed from gypsum sand, and the monument covers a large part of the Tularosa Basin, a valley ringed by the San Andres Mountains to the west and the Sacremento Mountains to the east. The entire area of the white sand dunes encompasses an area of 275 square miles making it the largest gypsum dune field in the world.

Satellite view of White Sands.

We started our visit by stopping at the Visitor Center, located on US 54/70. The Visitor Center has a gift shop as well as a short film on the area and a few small exhibits.

Visitor Center

Exhibit in the Visitor Center

From the Visitor Center, we drove into the dunes on Dunes Drive, an 8 mile road. The first half of the road is paved. For the first 2 miles or so, the dunes are not really visible. Slowly, the white sands begin to appear, intermixed with the native vegetation. Technically, the first section of the road is labeled a safety corridor, and no stopping is allowed. However, near the halfway mark, the Interdune Boardwalk appears. This is a good opportunity to walk out a few hundred feet on a secure boardwalk, with numerous information plaques.

Interdune Boardwalk

Just beyond the Interdune Boardwalk, the pavement ends. The remainder of the road is packed sand, ending in a loop with several day use areas. In these areas, you can wander the dunes, slide down them on sleds (which you can rent from the Visitor Center), and even hike.

Is it snow, or is it white sand?

The first 4 or so miles of Dunes Drive are paved, but the last 4, including the loop, are packed sand that is graded regularly. This really looks like snow.

The San Andres Mountains form the western backdrop for White Sands.

The Sacremento Mountains are in the east.

Alkali Flat Trailhead. Can you see the trail?

White Sands National Monument is a strange environment. It is a living land with a variety of plants and animals. Children love playing in the sand. But you have to put up with the sand, because it gets everywhere.

Tombstone, Arizona

Tombstone, Arizona, is one of the best known of the wild towns of the Old West. It has long been on my bucket list, so during our stay at Kartchner Caverns State Park, we moseyed on over to take a look.

Tombstone is located in the southeastern portion of Arizona, not that far north of the border we share with Mexico. Today, it is a rather small town with about 1,300 citizens, but when it was founded in the late 1870s, it became an overnight boom town because of rich silver deposits. People poured in to this desert town and its population soon swelled to well more than 10,000. As with all booms, the bad comes with the good, and Tombstone soon developed a reputation as a rough and tumble town, offering at one time more than 100 saloons, numerous gambling parlors, and more than its share of brothels. But it also offered some good things, such as schools, churches, banks, newspapers, and even an ice cream parlor. But booms don't last forever, and Tombstone's boom died about a decade after its birth. By 1910, there were fewer than 1,000 people in the town. Today, it relies on tourism as its main source of revenue.

East Allen Street. 2 or 3 blocks of this street are blocked to vehicular traffic, making it safe for pedestrians. Most of the interesting shops of the town are located here. The OK Corral is near the end of this street on the right.

What really put Tombstone on the history map is the legendary "Gunfight at the OK Corral," which really did not happen at the OK Corral but rather in a vacant lot next to the OK Corral. But "Gunfight at the Vacant Lot Next to the OK Corral" just doesn't have that ring, does it? The fight was only a 30 second affair with about 30 shots fired, but it has gone down as the most famous gunfight in the Old West. Personally, I can think of some other gunfights I consider more interesting, such as the fight between US marshalls and the Bill Doolin/Bill Dalton gang at Ingalls, Oklahoma. The gunfight at Coffeyville, Kansas, when 4 Daltons and several townspeople were killed is another interesting fight. The fight involving the 3 Earp brothers and their friend, Doc Holliday, pitted against the Clantons and McLaurys in Tombstone has somehow captured the public's imagination more. Today, the gunfight is reenacted for tourists several times each day, but Donna and I passed up the chance to spend lots of money for a 30 second show. For my money, the gunfight as depicted in Tombstone starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer would be hard to top.

The OK Corrall. The gunfight actually happened in a vacant lot behind this building.

There are lots of shops in town, especially along East Allen Street, and all of them are willing to take your money. Various tours are available, including underground tours and ghost tours. You can ride a stagecoach on a guided tour of Tombstone. Whatever your interest might be, you can find something in Tombstone. We are notorious cheapskates and declined almost all activities. We did, however, tour the Tombstone Courthouse State Park. The old courthouse contains numerous exhibits that cover the history of the town. The courtroom on the second floor was the scene of many trials, some including the Earps and Clantons.

Tombstone Courthouse Museum

The gallows behind the courthouse.

Stagecoach tour coming down East Allen Street. Now, I'm not a horse expert, but those look like Clydesdales to me. I've never heard of Old West stagecoaches being pulled by this breed.

We also visited the Boothill Graveyard on the northwest side of town. I enjoyed this. You can wander the graveyard, free of charge. The number of graves there resulting from violence is a bit disturbing, but it does reflect the nature of Tombstone in those days. I was especially drawn to the graves of Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers who were killed by the Earps and Doc Holliday at the infamous gunfight. They rest together near the fence next to the parking lot. The Boothill Graveyard site provides information on all the known graves, and the words on the tombstones often make interesting reading.

Boothill Cemetery, with its graves dug from the rocky terrain.

Some of the graves have humorous markers, such as this one, which reads, "Here Lies George Johnson Hanged by Mistake 1882. He was right, we was wrong, But we strung him up, and now he's gone."

Graves of Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury, and Tom McLaury, killed by the Earps and Doc Holliday in the infamous gunfight. Billy Clanton's father lies to his right in another grave.

I've seen Tombstone now. I don't need to go back. But for the western enthusiast, you need to walk the streets of this old town at least once; you need to get the lay of the land, so to speak, to see the hills surrounding the town.