New Mexico Adventures

Hi y'all, When I was interning in New Mexico in 2015, the wife (then girlfriend) and I had found a really pretty meadow in Lincoln NF and disperse camped there after spending the day at White Sands. Since then, Lincoln NF has seemed too far away to feasibly visit. However, I had a job interview in Roswell and drove past the Capitans, so I thought I'd do some research. Turns out, Socorro is a lot closer to Lincoln NF than I thought! After doing a bunch of research, and calling the Smoky Bear ranger station, we landed on Oak Grove campground as our destination. Ruidoso had gotten some nasty storms that week, so road conditions were uncertain. However, future expeditions will definitely involve the Upper Bonito dispersed camping area. More on that later! Because of a late afternoon meeting, we didn't leave Socorro until 5 pm, and thus didn't get to Oak Grove until about 7:00 pm. Fortunately, we made pretty good time on NM 380. The road up to Oak Grove is paved t...

Hi y'all, I've wanted to go to Quemado Lake for awhile, as it's the nearest lake that isn't on the Rio Grande (and therefore super popular). We wanted to go back in May, but something had come up. So, we packed up our fishing gear and camp stuff and managed to arrive around 5 pm on Friday, July 27th, 2018. We followed US-60 out to Quemado, with a nice drive through the Datil, Crosby, and Sawtooth mountains around Datil. We experienced some drizzle in Quemado on our way in, but it went away not far down NM-32. NM-32 had recently experienced some roadwork and didn't have center stripes when we traveled down it. Turning left onto NM-103, you're on pavement until just before Quemado lake. There, the road turns into graded but well maintained gravel. I didn't anticipate and didn't experience any issues in our sedan, but we did hear some trucks pulling RVs pumping and sliding. There are quite a few camping options at Quemado Lake. The first two that ...