Now Near Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

I got up early this morning since today was travel day however the temperature here at 6700 ft. was in the mid 20's F (-4C) so we couldn't travel until the temperature got above freezing. I had no doubt that once we got down into Albuquerque the temperature was already above freezing but trying to pack things up (like electrical cables and water hoses) when it's this cold isn't easy!

Gordon has been rethinking our travel plans. Instead of going to Caballo Lake, he wants to spend 4 nights at the park in San Antonio, NM so he can take more time at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and from there our next stop just for overnight would be Deming, NM, then on to Arizona where it's hopefully a lot warmer than here. Plans change again!

We had an uneventful 2 hour drive from Tijeras, NM to San Antonio, NM. Our RV Park called Bosque Birdwatcher's RV Park is about 1/4 mile from the entrance to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge although the Visitor Center is about 5 miles from here. The park itelf isn't much, it's behind someone's house and it's all gravel but we have 50 amp service and a clear view of the southern sky so we're happy. We were set up by about 2:00 p.m. so off we went to the Wildlife Refuge.

Just as we entered we saw a couple of flocks of three sandhill cranes and then another pair.

We stopped at the Visitor Center but not for long and then paid our $3 to enter the park (such a deal!). We had just started down the Loop when I saw something in the middle of the road. It was Wily E. Coyote! He started toward the truck and just kept coming so Gordon opened his door and it came around to my side. Hence a full frame photo of Mr. Coyote!


This is an incredible place for birds and for beautiful scenery. The backdrop of a lot of photos is the mountains.


We saw flocks of geese flying and swarming, fields and fields of sandhill cranes. There must have been thousands of them. It's an amazing place to be and I'd highly recommend it. Unfortunately my camera didn't get a good photo but in the distance you can see dots, those are sandhill cranes and we saw at least three fields of these.



Those white dots in the distance are geese.

There was supposed to be a fly in at dusk but it was pretty disappointing so we started home and found this huge flock of sandhill cranes just inside the park boundary.