Mammoth's Arizona Adventure, Day 3

Fri 10 Mar

On to Rusty's RV Ranch!

As much as I liked the little RV park in Anthony, it was still too near a city with lights, traffic noise, trains, sirens, and NO wildlife. A few birds, nothing special. I'd recommend it, and I'd stay there again if I needed to, but I was happy to leave it behind.

We had a very short and simple drive across New Mexico on I-10. We pretty much went from one edge of New Mexico--Anthony is a suburb of El Paso--to the other, near Rodeo New Mexico. The mountains we can see to the west are in Arizona, I think...yes. We are less than a mile away from the Arizona border.

 So it was a boring drive, but from time to time we could see mountains scattered in the distance, some with snow on top. When we got off I-10 to head south on highway 80, we could see the Chiricahua mountains off to the west with a scattering of snow on top. We headed down, down and more down a very long, slow slope for miles and miles, with the snow-frosted mountains still on the western horizon. And then we arrived!

This place is beyond all comparison the best private RV park I've ever seen. And pretty much the best place we've ever camped, period. At the moment I can't think of any place better. Mountains to the west, south and east, birds all over the place. A huge property with very large spaces for the RVs, about twice as long as we need. While they've grouped the spaces in pairs with the utilities in between, each person's door-facing spot opens onto a large plot of ground with firepit, picnic table, little trees and shrubs and other desert plantings.  We've encountered not a single stickerbur in the dogs' paws so far, either.

 

And so beautiful!  It was warm and sunny when we arrived, almost too warm. About the only thing that would have been really nice would be an awning or big picnic umbrella to cast a little shade. We don't use our awning anymore (which is stupid) because it is too prone to tearage and too expensive to replace when it does. So it's pretty much useless to us.  If I'd wanted to sit outside and read I could have gotten my chair out and put it under a tree.

Since we left pretty early (8:45) and only had a 3-hour drive, we took a quick jaunt over to the Chiricahuan Desert Museum. The reptile exhibit was really good and well worth the $7 admission, but the garden out back was even more so. Awesome! Full of birds, too.

Review Rusty's $35/night
I can't say enough good things about this place.
Beautiful, beautiful view, way out in the ranch lands of southern New Mexico. It's dry there and the winds were gusty, but Rusty and her team have made the place into a sweet little oasis on the range. Trees, a couple of ponds, and enough birds to drive a birder wild. Stargazing is great, too--no matter how cloudy it was during the March days we were there, by bedtime the Milky Way was out in full force.

Utilities work fine--50-amp electric, water and sewer. Spaces are spacious. The ground is mostly dust and gravel, and can be a little dusty in the wind, but hey--this is New Mexico.

It was less than half full when we were there, so it seemed very quiet and peaceful. Other campers were considerate about their outdoor lighting, too, keeping it to a minimum. Just lovely.