Year 1 Day 41 Coronado Campground, Bernalillo, New Mexico

This morning we packed up and moved on, waving goodbye to Trinidad and Trinidad Lake State Park.  We were on our way south to the town of Bernalillo, New Mexico which is just about 15 miles north of Albuquerque.  Located there is the Coronado Campground.  It is a city campground located on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande River.

The drive was very easy with Mary Margaret and I sharing the 275 mile, 4.5 hour drive (with stops to change drivers a few times).  It was freeway (I-25) all the way.  Shortly after starting we drove down the Raton Pass and were on the grassy great plains that abut the Rocky Mountains from the east.  As we drove, we spied another heard of antelope feeding on the grasses next to the freeway.  Mary Margaret asked if I thought that our deer whistles we have installed on both our bus and car were working.  It appeared to me that they were as some of the antelope raised their heads and turned to look toward us.  The whistles give out an ultra-sonic whistle that humans cannot hear but many animals included deer and antelope can.  They are supposed to scare them away so they will not bound in front of you.  After our “up close and personal” encounter with the mule deer last month, we ordered and installed two whistles to each vehicle.  I cannot really attest to how well they work but at least so far, we have not had any more “close encounters”.

Our new campground is pretty nice with a clever layout of the various sites.  We have a screen of trees in front of us that blocks the view of the main road which is about 1000 feet away.  We have a nice casita which houses a picnic table and with the large tree on our site, our view of the next camper is more or less blocked also.  Our view to the back of the site is of the open grasslands and then Sangre Del Cristo mountain range in the distance.  We have 50 Amp service and water at our site and a sump dump that is located near the park entrance.  With a nice BBQ grill and a campfire ring our site is complete!

Views Of Our Campsite

We plan on spending the next few days here which should give us time to explore historic Albuquerque, catchup on some chores and relax a bit.  Life is good.