Cimarron Canyon State Park

Since Cimarron Canyon State Park isn't that far from where we're staying at Coyote Creek State Park, we decided to go check it out to see what area might be good for us.

The drive up through Angel Fire and Eagle Nest is beautiful, as is the area where the state park is located: Along the Cimarron River and through the deep canyon it has cut through the Cimarron Range, the easternmost flank of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. These mountains, themselves, are a southern extension of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

There are three campgrounds in the park, not including the walk-in tent only area at Blackjack: Tolby, Maverick, and Ponderosa. The first two campgrounds (Tolby & Maverick) are in heavy trees, the roads are narrow and the branches haven't been cut to allow larger RVs to navigate the roads without scraping the roof. The sites are also close together...in other words, not a good place for larger RVs. Popups, truck campers, smaller Class Bs and Cs, maybe, but we wouldn't camp at either one, even in our relatively small 32' fifth wheel. The last campground (Ponderosa) is nothing more than a paved parking lot with RV parking around the outside edges next to the curb, and in the middle. While we would be able to get our satellite Internet tuned in here (which would have been difficult in the other two campgrounds because of the heavy tree cover), it isn't a place at which we'd spend any length of time...maybe an overnight on the way to somewhere else.

After driving all the way through the park (which is strung out along US-64 between Eagle Nest and Ute Park), we decided to drive into Las Vegas where I could buy a new mouse for my computer, the other one having gone to mouse heaven. After buying the mouse, we went by Arby's to pick up something to eat on our way back to Coyote Creek SP.