We wanted to stay warm so we headed south…

This should get us to February 25th.

Leaving Arizona was hard…but New Mexico is warm and beautiful too….

We tried a different KOA this time…The KOA at Las Cruces and we were able to get one of the last sites. That worked out well as this is a small RV park with many of the big rig full service sites packed in together…we took a water and electric site for truck campers and we had a beautiful view…we ended up staying longer than anticipated.

One of the KOA hosts suggested La Mesilla as an attraction as it was where the town started.

I didn’t know that, but it is in Wikipedia…

Now a gift shop.

Native art at the plaza.

The Butterfield Overland Trail came though here too…

The Gazebo was busy with a wedding, but I managed to get an unobstructed photo.

Basilica of San Albino…we couldn’t get in though.

Then off to go hiking.

The KOA host also suggested this place.

Lots of hike to do and we did the Dripping Springs trail.

A fairly easy trail to get to the livery of the resort that was there in the 1920s.

This is where the stagecoach livery was.

Part of the multi-roomed resort.

Linda on the hike.

Some of the rooms of the resort.

An overview from a more difficult trail.

A Panorama from one of the higher points.

This was also used as a sanitarium and hospital for tuberculosis patients at one time in its life.

Our shameless selfie …the beard is getting long and annoying.

Someone mentioned that there is a higher trail and we went to the beginning of that trail…all you have to do is keep going.

This was a big cistern. I thought it was to supply the hotel with water.

Linda standing on a big rock.

Lots of climbing from the high point to the easy trail.

We stopped at the big road runner. The Bayfield Bunch had camped at this rest stop a few weeks before and it’s just outside Las Cruces…this is NOT Pisano Pete who is in Fort Stockton…it is the Recycled Roadrunner.

If you look closely the legs are tire rubber, the white underbelly are white running shoes, there are keyboards, vacuum parts and all sorts of strange objects that make up this largest of Roadrunners….

Off to Fort Stockton next … and our first Chicken Fried Steak!