Clayton Lake State Park
We arrived at Clayton Lake State Park before noon. The Visitor's Center was closed, so as we were walking around to see if there was a Camp Host, we spotted a Ranger who we flagged down. He opened the VC for us so that we could purchase an Annual Camping Permit (for out-of-state visitor's it costs $225 and allows you to dry camp in New Mexico's state parks for free for 21 days...or you can have electrical hookups for $4 per day).
Before finding a site, we filled up our fresh water tank and then headed out to find a place to park for at least the next week. We found a nice long site and were able to get level so that Earl could attach the Level Master and bracket we'd bought when we were in Sturgis.
I made hummingbird food, and in less than 1/2 hour of putting out the feeder, we had two Black Chinned Hummingbirds feeding from it...a male and a female.
Clayton Lake State Park is located 15 miles north of Clayton, New Mexico which is at the crossroads of two major highways: the coast-to-coast Highway 64 and the Canada to Mexico Highway 87.
The landscape of the park is characterized by rolling grasslands, volcanic rocks (it's not too far from Capulin Volcanic Monument which we'll probably visit while we're here), and sandstone bluffs, set on the western edge of the Great Plains. The Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail passes just north of the park.
The park also has one of the most extensive dinosaur track ways in North America (over 500 tracks, which we've yet to view). Eight different kinds of dinosaurs left their footprints on the ancient mud flat some 100 million years ago.
Miles driven: 66.4
GPS coordinates: N 36° 34.455' / W 103° 18.125'
Before finding a site, we filled up our fresh water tank and then headed out to find a place to park for at least the next week. We found a nice long site and were able to get level so that Earl could attach the Level Master and bracket we'd bought when we were in Sturgis.
I made hummingbird food, and in less than 1/2 hour of putting out the feeder, we had two Black Chinned Hummingbirds feeding from it...a male and a female.
Clayton Lake State Park is located 15 miles north of Clayton, New Mexico which is at the crossroads of two major highways: the coast-to-coast Highway 64 and the Canada to Mexico Highway 87.
The landscape of the park is characterized by rolling grasslands, volcanic rocks (it's not too far from Capulin Volcanic Monument which we'll probably visit while we're here), and sandstone bluffs, set on the western edge of the Great Plains. The Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail passes just north of the park.
The park also has one of the most extensive dinosaur track ways in North America (over 500 tracks, which we've yet to view). Eight different kinds of dinosaurs left their footprints on the ancient mud flat some 100 million years ago.
Miles driven: 66.4
GPS coordinates: N 36° 34.455' / W 103° 18.125'
posted by Earl and Linda at
Saturday, May 19, 2007
2 Comments:
Hello you all
Please don't stay away for so long.Really enjoy your pictures. Is the annual pass only good for 21 days per year? Or 21 consective days than you leave and come back for another 21 or whatever days.
Wayne
The New Mexico Annual Camping Permit is good for one full year from date of purchase. You can stay in any individual state park for 21 days. I really don't know whether or not they require you to be out of a particular park for a certain amount of time before coming back. Since there are nearly 30 state parks that have RV camping, if you were to spend 21 days in each one of them, you couldn't visit all of them during the year that the permit is good for!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home