Tuesday, October 17, 2017

We decided to stay in Santa Rosa, NM for a couple of reasons.  It's too hot in Alamogordo, our next stop, and we wanted to get some caching done in this little town.  We had good luck and have surpassed 4900 caches found to date.  Caching did take us to some interesting places, as usual.  We found one near the Santa Rosa State Park, which we didn't even know they had a state park.  Nice camping area, but it's about 8 miles north, out of Santa Rosa.  Farther than we want to go for an overnight.  Then we went south to Puerto De Luna, which was a beautiful drive along the Pecos River.  The terrain there is so much different from Hwy. 54, that we usually take out of here.  Unbelievable!  It's very rocky, with high cliffs, and red rock.  It took us to the area where the Spanish Conquistador, Francisco de Coronado was believed to have camped here in 1541.  He was on his mission to find the Seven Cities of Gold, which he never found.  The caches there took us to two cemeteries, much alike, but one serves the residents on the east of the Pecos River and the other on the west side. 

I didn't post any pictures yesterday, but this is our entrance into New Mexico, from our motor home.

I took this view of the Pecos River and the high rocky cliffs to the right.  It was a pleasant drive.

This is a sampling of the cemeteries in this area.  They are laden with many flowers (fake) but they are very colorful.  They also put many symbolic statues on their graves.  Notice the high cliffs in the background. 

This is the little church that is close to the cemetery, and it looks like it would hold 6 people!  There is a larger church in the little town of Puerto De Luna, so this must have been a very early church.

This marker is just on the edge of the little town, telling of the history of Puerto De Luna.  We found it very interesting.

This is the Blue Hole, where the water is 81 feet deep, 60 feet wide, and has a constant temperature of 61 degrees.  The outflow is 3,000 gallons per minute, and is called an artesian spring.  A geo-cache brought us here.  They had two caches here, but one was to scuba dive to the bottom of the pool to get some information.  We do have limitations!  We have always seen the sign for 'The Blue Hole', as we passed through town, after spending an overnight in the campground.  Today we found out what The Blue Hole is all about. 

Santa Rosa is on the old Route 66 Highway, and they have a Classic Car Museum in town.  One sign for the Route 66 Highway said it was dated, pre-1936.  We've enjoyed our stay here and will move on.

This following picture is for our friend, Jeanie.  She mentioned that they sell Barbecue Ribs in the restaurant, connected to the campground office. We tried them tonight, and they were quite good.  We'd do it again.  I didn't use a flash, so it's not as bright as it should be, but you get the idea.