We saw so much in January. According to the map, we drove for 30 hours and covered 1,800 miles. We focused mostly on two states (Arizona and New Mexico), although technically we started the month in Las Vegas, NV.
This felt like a good pace. Not too fast. Still room to go slower. There are a few places I would have stayed longer, but overall we were ready to go when we did. And when we wanted to stay longer, we would.
We spent the first half of the month in Arizona and mostly in Tucson. We stayed in that city for almost a week as Mark flew out to join a work event in Florida. The girls and I enjoyed warm sunny days, visiting lots of museums, and swimming in the resort pool.
We visited the museum of miniatures, the Arizona-Sonora museum, and the Biosphere 2. When Mark got back, we explored the Saguaro desert, and spent a day at the Old Tucson attraction.
After we left Tucson, we had a lovely visit at a Harvest Host location that was also an Alpaca farm. The girls loved learning about alpacas, llamas, sheep, and how to care for and make a business out of raising alpacas.
We spent a few days in the super cute town of Bisbee, AZ. We toured the copper mine, and loved walking around the crazy town full of artists, hippies, great restaurants, and funky spaces.
We got a great recommendation to go to the Chiricahua’s which were epically beautiful!
The second half of the month was spent in New Mexico. We took the long, windy road up to the Gila Hot Springs and Gila Cliff Dwellings. We found an amazing campground that was on a river with hot spring pools right next to the banks. Sleeping there put us in the perfect spot for a morning visit to the Gila Cliff Dwellings nearby.
Other adventures in the month included camping at a dark sky campground, seeing a friend in the tiny town of Datil, and visiting the VLA (very large array of satellite dishes).
After a lot of go-go-going, we were very ready for a slowdown. We stopped in Truth or Consequences, NM which is known for it’s abundant hot spring water that is piped all over town into hot springs. We spent several days there soaking, getting massages, doing yoga, exploring the town, doing the local scavenger hunt, and visiting the local history museum. After several days of rest, we were ready to continue on.
Aiming ultimately for White Sands national monument, we made several fun stops on the way — in Las Cruces, camping at the base of the Organ Mountains, and visiting Leasburg Dam State Park.
We had a lovely day at White Sands National Park, sledding down the super soft white sand dunes and meeting two camels.
We also spent a day in Alamogordo where we visited the New Mexico Air and Space Museum. This area has quite the history of NASA involvement as well as missile and bomb testing…
RV repairs took us back north into Albuquerque. We hadn’t planned to go that far north because of the colder weather, but we’re glad we did. We had a lovely visit with an old friend of Mark’s, and Parker got her haircut!
We wanted to spend a day in Roswell, NM, and we picked Bottomless Lakes State Park. We ended up spending the afternoon at the park rather than going into Roswell right away. And we’re so glad we did. It was a gorgeous place and a relaxing day.
Roswell was full of alien kitsch and entertainment. We’d watched a video about Area 51 and the government alien coverup conspiracy which made walking around the town that much more fun.
Our last stop of the month was at the incredible Carlsbad Caverns. These caves are huge, well preserved, and were an amazing place to visit.
Looking back on the month, I’m amazed by how much we’ve seen and done. I joke that each day is a field trip for school, but I think that’s really true. Not a day goes by where we don’t have some amazing experience or learning opportunity or adventure. How blessed I feel that we are able to do this trip and we did all the hard work to make it happen!