TEXAS.
Day 166 – We were up by 7:30 and the wind was back. 24 degrees and a few clouds. We had planned to explore the State Park and take a hike, but after checking the wind forecast, we saw it was going to get worse out and remain that way until Sunday. We decided to move on rather than deal with the wind for 2 days. We could hopefully come back here another time to explore.
280 miles
Bottomless Lakes State Park, Lake Lea Recreation Area Campground, 545 Bottomless Lakes Rd., (a.k.a., the 409), Roswell, NM 88203, (575) 624-6058, http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/bottomlesslakesstatepark.html. Located along the Pecos River about 15 miles southeast of Roswell, NM, this Park has many sink holes of different sizes, most of them have water in them, and colorful red cliffs surround the area. There are four designated campgrounds, 3 of them have only a few tent sites each. Lake Lea Campground has 32 campsites, six have full hook-ups, and the rest have water & electric hook-ups. There is a dump station, too. One of the larger, water-filled sink holes is Lake Lea and some of the sites are on the lake, along with a large day use area. The sites are nicely spaced from each other and the campground was clean and well maintained. About half the sites are reservable; the other half are first-come, first-served. $18 for full hook-ups; $14 for water & electricity. We would come back again.
We left at 8:50 a.m. after dumping tanks & filling up with fresh water. We headed back to Roswell, turning northeast on Highway 70, eventually crossing the border into Texas. We stopped for propane for the RV, then proceeded northeast on Highway 60, stopping only for a lunch break, travelling straight through to the pan handle of TX and to Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, northeast of Amarillo. Most of the drive was flat; small towns were few and far between. Many, many dairy farms, and lots of huge milk trucks, and the very depressing views of large farms with way, way too many cows confined to and crammed into small pens. Then passing through the city of Hereford, TX, we saw signs declaring themselves to be the “Beef Capitol of the World”. Enough said about this; no pictures of cows were taken. Later there were some rolling hills, lots of large grain silos, and some oil & fuel industry. Amarillo was by far the largest City we encountered on today’s route. It reached 61 degrees today, partly cloudy, and windy. But we think we’re beyond the heavier winds that were supposed to hit in southeastern NM.
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We’d turned off Highway 60 after Amarillo, taking Route 136 north to Fritch, TX. Then we followed signs to Meredith Lake. We arrived at our campground at 3 p.m., 51 degrees, windy. Meredith Lake National Recreation Area includes the large lake and area surrounding it in northwestern Texas. The Lake is surrounded by colorful cliffs, and the water is deep blue. It’s beautiful. There are many campgrounds here which are free & you can stay up to 14 days. There are no amenities, although some of the campgrounds do offer picnic tables & fire pits, and two of them have dump stations with water. We drove to a couple of campgrounds and chose a site at the second one – Sanford Yake Campground – on a cliff in an area protected from the wind, overlooking the Lake. Just gorgeous. The campground was empty when we arrived, but since then several other campers have picked sites. We can’t see them from our campsite. We lucked out finding this site so quickly. It’s now 8:10 p.m. and we’ve unpacked and had dinner. The girls have eaten and they’re happily running around like maniacs. Guess they like it here!
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