Thursday morning Sadira and I beat feet to get out of Texas. Honestly, we couldn’t leave it fast enough. The beauty of the concave desert landscape is truly in the eye of the beholder. Of which we aren’t. The best part of TX, besides leaving, was spotting an Alaska license plate in the hotel parking lot.

Alaska!

We were so excited to cross into New Mexico and even more excited when we started seeing mountains on the horizon. Unfortunately, we didn’t heed the the last pit stop before we started across the NM desert and with no facilities available for 60+ miles, we had to use the facili-trees. Along the drive we saw lots of cute prairie dogs popping tall and welcoming us to NM. Our first stop was in Taos, NM. We enjoyed lunch at the Taos brewery. Delicious beer & pizza.

Lunch

Before heading to our campground, we drove out to the Rio Grande River Gorge. We bravely crossed the bridge on foot and held our breath when we looked down!

Rio Grande River Gorge
Windy Hair
Don’t look down…

Elephant Rock campground was smaller with perfectly acceptable pit toilets. Our neighbors felt the need to preach thereby encouraging us to plug in some tunes. The higher elevation was cool and optimum for star gazing.

Dinner was campground gourmet. Chili, cheese, canned wine and altitude puffy Fritos.

All in all – it was a first night of successful camping.