City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico

See my previous post for more information about The City of Rocks State Park.

The alarm went off inside my tent at 6:30AM but when I opened my eyes I didn’t see any sun out there though my tents rain fly. By 7:00 I crawled out of the tent, it was a bit chilly outside still and the sky was cloudy, although the sun was behind the clouds and it looked like soon it would be breaking through. Since the main bathroom wasn’t scheduled to open until 7:30AM, I decided to take a short hike and stop at one of the pit bathrooms. It was quiet in the park, most of the people were still sleeping I guess, even my noisy neighbors from last night.



I woke up to a cloudy sky



The sun peaking through the clouds



My campsite - #1 Bootes



Looking at my campsite from behind the boulders



My tent surrounded by huge rocks - I love this camp site, so cool

After my hike I went to check on the bathroom. It was now 8AM, but to my surprise it was still closed and there was a group of people waiting outside for the doors to open. I really like this park but this locking of the bathroom for water conservation from 4:30PM to 7:30AM, I don’t care for that. Especially since no one came to open it up at 7:30.



This guy was guarding the bathroom door, funny how I looked for rattle snakes all day yesterday, worried that I’d step on one and never saw any - walked up to the bathroom and didn’t even see this guy, but then I heard the rattle - he was letting me he was down there on the floor



A cool lizard and matching rock



More cool rocks in the park, see the boulder above the picnic table (right), wouldn't want that to fall on my head as I eat my lunch











The campsites are far enough from one anothe, this is the campsite next to mine after the noisy people left, this picture was shot from the top of a boulder



This cool rock was just behind my campsite

I decided to eat breakfast and start packing up some of my stuff meanwhile. After 9AM I made it back to the bathroom, it was open and I took a shower. By the time I walked back to my campsite it was already warm outside, upper 70’s. The sun was shining and the clouds were all gone. I took down my tent down, packed the rest of my stuff up and started to walk my stuff over to the bike. After packing everything up on the bike I got going. It was almost 11AM now. My next stop… White Sands National Monument.



There were some awesome flowers in the park, like this blooming cactus



I don't know what these cook looking flowers are but the top left magenta one was also a blooming cactus



This one was really neat, it was actually a pretty large bush - I love desert flowers