We spent the morning on I40 heading to Albuquerque where we stopped just long enough to buy organic groceries at a Sprouts Farmers Market.
The Coronado Historic Site at Bernalillo, on US 550 protects the ruins of the Kuaua pueblo. Today we enjoyed the small museum and ate lunch under a ramada overlooking the Rio Grande where tiny lizards scampered around.
Studying our maps over lunch, we decided to go to Chaco Canyon so we headed north on US 550 to the town of Cuba. There we drove into the Santa Fe National Forest on NM 126. The free range cattle crossing the road required alert driving.
We spent the night under tall pines in the Clear Creek Campground. The campground has level sites, vault toilets, and hand pump water. We heard a bugling elk at sunset but otherwise it was very quiet with only one other occupied site.
We ate our dinner by the campfire, but unused to chilly evenings we did not dress warmly enough and went to bed cold.
Lesson learned: Wear more clothes in the evening. If you get in bed still cold, add a blanket or wear warmer pajamas even if the furnace is on.
Lesson learned: We usually wear Crocs on the road since they are soft, easy to slip on and off, don’t absorb water, and insulate against both hot and cold. Today we learned that a footwear check is required before re-entering the truck or camper because they are magnets for stickers and thorns.
Lesson learned: Those Arkansas mosquito bites are still incredibly itchy. Wear mosquito repellant in Arkansas.