Catch up

After our sensational burrito breakfast we drove north to Quemado Lake.  Route 180 out of Silver City took us just to the west of the western edge of the fire.  We were close enough to see flames along with all the smoke.  We have a picture and although it appears out of focus, it's actually all the smoke.  The wind relented a bit overnight so the smoke disbursed in all directions.

New Mexico fire

As we traveled along there were several staging areas for the firefighters.

Fire fighting helicopters

Our goal was to get a campsite at Quemado Lake, a Gila National Forest campground called Juniper.  We looked at it on line and saw there were only 18 sites and they don't take reservations.  We figured with it being a weekday we wouldn't have any problems.  We even looked at Google Earth to see the access and where it was situated on the lake.  It looked like and it was described that it was on the lake and had a paved road going all the way to the campground.  First surprise the paved road ended about 1 1/2 miles before the campground.  Almost turned around then, but we persevered.  Then we stick our nose down into the campground itself and find it is almost completely full!  That wasn't bad, but what was certainly not expected was how the laid out the sites.  We are used to most Public campgrounds, both State and Federal, to be big, spread out, with lots of privacy and space between RVs.  Well, here they actually had 6 campsites in which they shoehorn in 3 RVs!  To say it's tight is an understatement. 

Pretty friendly, huh?

We managed to get in a spot, but being packed in like a sardine is not our idea of a good time, so we only stayed one night instead of two.

The lake was nice though and if the campground was a bit better, I think it would be a nice place to spend several days.

We are now up in Grants, NM, about 75 miles to the west of Albuquerque.  We plan to stay here for two days.  There is a lot of volcanic activity in this area with many extensive lava fields, so we are going exploring.