7 Apr - Roper Lake SP, AZ, and Rockhound SP, NM

We drove from Tucson to Roper Lake on Thursday and spent two nights there. We sat on the lawn chairs outside my rig, enjoying the beautiful view of the lake ← with the mountains behind. The weather was gorgeous the first day - sunny, 70s. Steve and I walked around some of the trails, out onto the "island" (peninsula), over to the hot spring, along the lake, and saw lots of birds. There are lots of birds here because the lake is on their migration route. I saw a ruddy duck, with its bright blue bill ↓ , for the first time ever (it's only blue during breeding season). I saw some other birds that I’d never seen before too. There are lots of yellow-headed blackbirds here. I loved watching them filling the trees, flying so fast, playing on the wind.

Our second day at Roper Lake wasn't as pleasant, as it was pretty windy. The sun was shining, though. A dust devil came right over my rig, and blew my lawn chair into the road, right in front of a truck that ran over it! I'll have to replace it, though that will be hard, as it was very lightweight.

We left Roper Lake around 8 AM Saturday, just ahead of the oncoming storm. We lost an hour when we crossed into New Mexico, as New Mexico uses daylight savings time, and Arizona does not. We ran into high winds and a duststorm so bad that there were times I couldn’t see a thing in front of me - reminded me of a North Dakota blizzard. We arrived in Rockhound State Park near Deming, New Mexico, around 2:30 pm. Although the campground was right up against a mountain, and somewhat protected from the wind, we stayed in our RVs the rest of the day, as they rocked and rolled with the wind. The forecast was for 50 mph winds, and that's sure what it felt like we had. Sunday early, before the wind started to blow, we hiked up the canyon at Spring Canyon State Park, which was right next door. It wasn't a long hike, but it climbed up into the mountains, so we got our exercise for the day. ← We saw incredible views of the valley way down below. Again I saw a couple birds I'd never seen before - some black and white lark buntings, and another I haven't identified yet.

I enjoyed the drive to Albuquerque on Monday; I'd never driven that route before, through Hatch (famous for its chiles). I love driving through the desert in the West, with the wide-open spaces, the big skies, the cacti, and the mountains on the horizon. My rig is parked in front of Steve's house in Albuquerque. I'm looking forward to getting to know Albuquerque better!