Leaving Caballo Lake State Park today and heading to Pancho Villa State Park, just a couple of miles north of the Mexico border.
Not a long drive, about 2 hours, but a totally different environment. No nearby mountains, relatively flat and cacti everywhere! The park grounds display many different types of cactus and other flora, which are maintained on a daily basis by campground host volunteers.
After getting Rosita settled into place, a quick trip to the restroom was in order. Funny, the door was locked on both the Men’s and Women’s side. Oh well, sometimes parks shut down one of the restrooms in the off season, so trundled over to the other restroom. Locked as well! One of the campground hosts must have seen us milling about in confusion (and with some urgency at this point) and came over to inform us that due to a septic problem the restrooms closed about 2 hours earlier! Noticing that we were both hopping from foot he went on to mention that the washrooms at the visitor centre were being left open for campers.
The next day two port-a-potties appeared and the visitor centre washroom were closed at 4pm. No showers for us for the next few days! (the dogs didn’t complain too loudly, they know where their kibble comes from). A little worried that 2 one-holers were going to result in line-ups, but that never happened (phew) as several campers left when the port-a-potties showed up.
The park was built on the grounds of the US Army Camp Furlong. In 1916 Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary, stage a raid on the camp and the nearby village of Columbus. In response, the US Army dispatched General John J. Pershing and 10,000 men to capture Pancho Villa.
The punitive expedition ventured deep into Mexico (which understandably caused some friction with the Mexican government), but failed to capture Pancho Villa.
Under General Pershing’s command planes were used by the US Army for the first time. These planes were used for observation.
In another first for the US Army, motorized vehicles were used to transport supplies to the camp and to support the army as it chased Pancho Villa into Mexico.
The park has a small, but very good, museum describing the history of the camp, and has a short (20 minute) video which is worth watching.
The sunsets are incredible (my camera does not do them justice), and the moonlit nights are incredibly clear, casting sharp shadows beneath the trees in the campground (I wish my camera could capture these moon shadows!).
We spent a day driving to El Paso (80+ miles) and back because we had to get dog food and the nearest Costco wasn’t near.
Along the way we saw Trump’s wall, it was continuous from where we left the park until we hit El Paso. Quite incredible to see this wall (really a fence) the whole time we were driving.
The campground is different from anything we have stayed in so far. In addition to cactus everywhere, there are only small-medium sized trees, no grass anywhere (just dirt/gravel) and the campsites are marked out by rocks.
Steak and baked spuds for dinner one night, so we created a base of coals in the firepit using some wood we had left over from a previous campground. We then spread some “Cowboy Charcoal” (yep, that’s what it is called) on top. The charcoal sparked so much we were glad that we were in the middle of a desert-like area with nothing to burn!
Trip Summary:
Depart from: Caballo Lake State Park, NM
Depart time: 12:00 pm
Odometer: 129147 miles
Arrive time: 3:45 pm (Pancho Villa State Park, NM)
Odometer: 129251 miles
Gas Summary (fill-ups):
Odometer: 129168 miles, 19.5g @ US$3.70/g (US$72.14)
Dec 9 (trip to El Paso):
Odometer: 129431 miles, 18.9g @ US$3.23/g (US$60.98)