3/12 Rockhound SP, Deming, NM

My next stop was a place I have been to before--Rockhound State Park in southern New Mexico.  I had hoped to see some flowers and cacti in bloom, but it was a lot colder this year than the last few years, and there has been almost no rainfall in the past year, so everything was dry and not yet leafed out or in bloom.  

BUT, it is still one of my favorite places in New Mexico because it is so quiet and beautiful in this small state park where you can actually pick up and take home any gemstones you find! 

 

I enjoy this state park because it is on the slope of a mountain with nice views of the mountains and valley in the distance.  In addition, it is also a small state park, and sites are large and well-spread out. The result is a very quiet and scenic place to spend a few days.  This time, I spent 10 days. Unfortunately, it was chilly, and we had some major problems with wind and nasty dust storms, so I did not spend much time outdoors or do much walking.

When I arrived on Sunday, the campground looked like this, with nice, blue skies.    

 

 

The sunset made everything look red tonight.  

 

A few of the other campsites.  Notice how far apart they are.  This is a full campground, by the way. 

 

 

 Looking towards Deming and across the valley.  The far mountains are about 20 miles away. 

 

The Dust Storm!

When I checked in, the camp host warned me of strong winds and a dust storm the next day, so I made sure to fill my fresh water tank with at least three days of water.  

The next morning, Monday, it started to get dusty about 10 am.  This first photos looks at the trailer across the roadway.  The closest hill here is only about 500' away. 

 

 

I took this and a few other photos through my windshield with my cell phone because I did not want to go outside.  This one below was taken during the worst of the storm, at about 1 pm, and the hills in the distance have almost disappeared.  

 

 

I could see dust coming in through the weep holes on the windows on the passengers side of my rig, so I stuffed them with wet paper towel.   Notice that I had not put a tablecloth on the picnic table or even set up my rocker chair outdoors so nothing would blow away. 

 

 

This photo was taken looking west over the town of Deming, which is 8 miles away, and the valley in the distance, except you really cannot see either. 

This is looking east, towards the big mountain next to the campground.  It also has almost disappeared.  At this point, I was REALLY happy I did not have a dog who needed to be walked!   Until the storm abated about 6 pm, I saw almost no one outside of their RVs.

The bad news is that after a calm evening, the storm started up again the next morning, Tuesday, and lasted all day.  On Wednesday, I drove to Deming to do several loads of laundry, pick up some groceries, and get gas.  It was good planning because on Thursday and Friday, we had a duplicate of Monday and Tuesday with strong winds and dust blowing everywhere.

However, the weekend was very pleasant as was Monday and Tuesday of that week.  I headed north on Wednesday.  It was windy, but not as bad as the four days of the previous week.  The biggest problem was that it was a sideways wind to my vehicle which meant I had to keep a tight grip on the steering wheel so I could quickly react to stronger gusts.  Driving a tall motorhome like mine is a lot like driving a billboard in the wind. 

On the weekend, I took a quick walk on the short nature trail next to my campsite.  Some views from the nature walk, even though nothing was yet in bloom.

These are last year's fruits on a barrel cactus.  I had not realized that these were edible, but I looked them up and found this interesting article.  Its hard to find a place where you can pick them, and I am not sure I want to go through the preparation process, but the recipes look interesting.   https://foragerchef.com/barrel-cactus-fruit/   The good news about these fruits is that they have no little spines that require burning or scraping as do many other cactus fruits!

 

 

Having found such an interesting article on barrel cactus fruit, I decided to see if you can eat cholla buds.  These look like last year's buds, and the articles I found mostly talked about harvesting the buds just before the flowers bloom, so I am not sure what you can do with these that I think are from last year.  https://tucson.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/its-harvest-time-for-cholla-buds-a-subtle-versatile-native-food/article_c9e74554-3c65-5976-ac29-bd3668399c5a.html 

Also, there are many types of cholla, so do some research before you pick some and eat them.  They have tiny spines on them, so you will need tough gloves and special harvesting tools. 

By the way, if you ever notice a large collection of cholla segments surrounding a burrow in the desert, know that this is the burrow of a pack rat.  The pack rat uses the prickly segments of this plant to surround its home so that snakes and other predators will be dissuaded from entering and killing its babies.  Pretty clever!