Dallas to Albuquerque
One of the
interesting things about staying at Hickory Creek Campground on
Lewisville Lake in the Dallas area was the large number of wading birds
that visited the lake. There would usually be at least a few birds
around almost all the time during the day; but just
about every morning for a short time just about the time the sun came
up, there would be 20 or 30 great egrets and a few blue herons at the
little inlet near where our site was. On the morning we left, Paul
finally managed to catch a photo of a large group of the birds.
We finished packing, and took off for our next overnight stop at Copper Breaks State Park.
Located about 12 miles south of the small town of Quanah, TX, Copper
Breaks is an out-of-the-way state park that might be one of Texas' best
kept secrets. We were there in the middle of the week, and the camping
areas were empty except for us and the campground host. The photo below
shows our site at Copper Breaks State Park.
Copper Breaks has paved roads, gravel pads, water and 50/30 amp electric hookups, tepee-like lean-to shelters, and widely spaced sites. There are hiking trails, an equestrian trail, and mountain bike trails. The campground is in the middle of nowhere (that's Zeller-speak for there isn't a Walmart nearby), and it was very quiet. Unfortunately, it was 90 degrees and we had to run the air so we couldn't enjoy the quiet.
About
dusk, it had finally cooled off enough for us to go for a short walk.
We were just in time to catch the sun dip below the junipers.
The park takes its name from the gray-green streaks of copper ore that run through the red rocks. Even in the waning light, the colors were very striking.
The next morning, we were on our way again for another one-night stop in Amarillo, TX, where we stayed at Oasis RV Resort.
Oasis RV is a relatively new campground, and it is very well designed.
The sites are fairly widely spaced and are completely paved with gravel
between. Oasis is a member of Passport America, but the 50% discounts
are temporarily suspended because they are offering a special $20 a
night rate (their regular price is about $33 - the going rate for the
area) to everyone to try to keep the campground as filled as they can
after the high fuel prices last year and the poor economy this year.
There are a lot of empty sites around us in the photo below because
quite a few people had already left that morning.
From Amarillo, we drove about 5 hours to Albuquerque, NM. We will be spending a week at American RV Park. American RV has mostly pull-throughs with back-ins around the perimeter. Some of the pads are paved and some, like ours, are gravel and sand. The sites are a little close, but not too bad. American has full hookups including cable, and they have Wi-fi. Like most of the campgrounds in Albuquerque, American RV is located right along I-40, and there is some traffic noise. The photo below shows our site at American RV.
This is our first visit to Albuquerque, and there are a lot on our "want to see" list. We'll be sure to share what we find.