We are more precisely about five miles east of the town made famous by popular music at the park next to the reservoir.  Camping here is literally dry.  There is no potable water, but there are about a dozen paved sites with picnic tables and grills.  There is a restroom, but a notice states that the water is not potable.  The fee is zero dollars.  This fee and the lovely view of the high desert and the red rock lined lake below make the campground ideal for an overnight stop en-route from Tijeras (near Albuquerque NM) to Henderson (near Las Vegas NV).  We seem to be sharing the campground with one fifth-wheel trailer, but the occupants have not appeared at this seventh hour in the p.m.

We had planned to stay at Homolovi Ruins State Park a bit northeast of here, but the State of Arizona has closed it to help address a financial “crisis.”  The fee there would have been ten or twenty dollars, but we have fond recollections of staying with our children there and listening to coyotes howling in the evening on our last “family vacation.” 

Our stay in Albuquerque was fine.  We found some birds and shared the company of the Doolittles on three days.  I earlier commented on finding two life birds, rosy finches, in the Sandia Mountains on the day after our arrival.  That Good Friday evening we visited with Helen and Jim who were upset by notice that their housing plans might have to change.  Anne brought fixins and prepared a wonderfully different macaroni and cheese dinner for all of us.  We listened to the concerns and provided a bit of sympathy.

On Saturday we awoke early and in sub-freezing temperatures walked up a trail in a canyon.  There we saw our first Bushtits, Canyon Towhees, Western Scrub Jays, and Juniper Titmice of the year.  Only the towhees were singing and none of the “summer birds” had yet arrived, but the desert landscape was pleasingly different to behold in the spring sunshine.

In the afternoon we joined Jim and Helen and Craig and Mark for conversation.  All of us went to the Sandia Peak Tram, which carried us up the slope to the High Finance Restaurant where we dined in style watching the sun set over Albuquerque from an altitude of five thousand feet.  A snow bank obscured the view a bit.  The snow was piled at the rail, but elsewhere it was two feet deep and fanned by a cold fierce wind.  What a contrast to the warmth in the desert below.

On Sunday, Anne and I started the day on a trail on the slopes of the Sandias where a slightly different community of birds flit among the pinyon pines and junipers.  There snow was left only in scattered banks.  It made the walking difficult at times in places being icy and slippery and in others slushy and mud forming.  Still the day was a bit warmer and the sun was bright.  In the afternoon we again joined Jim and Helen and Craig with his two children and his girlfriend, Inola.  We dined in a fine Mexican restaurant.  We returned home with Jim and Helen and made our final farewell.

Our RV Park in Tijeras was adequate and reasonably priced.  Situated in the “Hidden Valley” of its name, the roads and pads were gravel, but the restroom was decent and the library was wonderful.  There we borrowed three good movies and used the Wi-Fi to stay updated.

On Monday we made a day trip to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge a couple of hours south of Albuquerque.  Easterners often forget that the Rio Grande flows south through the heart of New Mexico before turning southeast at the Mexican border.  In the spring the river flows fresh through a broad flood plain with scattered cottonwood woodlands or “bosques.”  The United States Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a string of ponds and grain fields in the floodplain at refuge.  This provides winter and migratory refuge to thousands of waterfowl and sand hill cranes.  The cranes and most of the geese were already gone, but we found our first Snow Goose and several birds of the season.  Ironically the Snow Goose was with two Ross’s Geese.  We had seen a Ross’s Goose in Elkhart KS and so didn’t need it for this year’s list.  This seemed humorous because in the East where Ross’s Goose is so rare, we often scan huge flocks of Snow Geese on the chance we might uncover a Ross’s Goose hidden in the mass.

Monday became our first warm day in Albuquerque, but it cooled in the afternoon and the forecast was for another blast of cold weather today.  We made preparations for departure and enjoyed our last supper in New Mexico at home.  This morning we resumed our westward course in the face of a strong opposing wind.  The forecast for tonight is 23 degrees.  We have pulled out the new propane catalytic heater for use tomorrow morning.   We bought the unit because it does not use electrical power and should allow us longer stays of “dry camping.”

The run to Las Vegas should be about eleven hours.  We elected to make it a two-day trip with a stop here.  The weather forecast for Las Vegas during our stay is very good, clear with highs in the 70’s.  We are hoping for slightly warmer weather.  In ‘Vegas we will visit my cousin and nephew.  We won’t stay long, will make our visits and move out on Sunday to at last reach the formerly Golden State.  We should arrive just as the migratory birds begin their rush north along the Pacific coast.