Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge

It has been one year on July 12 that I started my fulltime RV’ing lifestyle. I can’t believe it has been a whole year. I took the time to go back through this year and show you some of the highlights of my adventure.

Be sure to click and then click again to enlarge all photos.

July, 2010 – Inyokern, CA – My very first campsite at the beginning of my adventure. I was really a rookie back then.

July, 2010 – Sequoia National Park – Boondocking in Fish Creek Campsite in the Sequoias.

August, 2010 – Sisters, OR – Camping on the Metolius River outside of Sisters, OR. What a fantastic spot.

August, 2010 – Crater Lake National Park. Words cannot describe this beautiful place.

September, 2010 – Eugene, OR – Getting my solar panels installed. My boondocking will be much quieter and more efficient from now on.

October, 2010 – Albuquerque, NM – Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta – 10 fabulous days with other fun Lazy Daze owners.

October, 2010 – Palomas, Mexico – Central park. Visited there after attending Escapees Chapter 21 Rally.

October, 2010 – Deming, NM – Rockhound State Park – This a rock hounds dream park. Lots of different rocks.

November, 2010 – Socorro, NM – Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge – Visited there during the Festival of the Cranes event.

December, 2010 – January, 2011 – Death Valley, CA – A beautiful view of Death Valley during an annual Lazy Daze Rally.

January, 2011 – Quartzsite, AZ – Got together with a bunch of Lazy Daze owners during the Quartzsite RV Show. It was a blast boondocking in the desert. Lots of food, a campfire every night and the BIG TENT RV Show.

February, 2011 – Anza-Borrego, CA – Boondocking in the Anza-Borrego Desert.

February, 2011 – Niland, CA – Boondocking with the LOW’s (Loners On Wheels) at Slab City. Everyone should go there at least once.

February/March, 2011 – Benson, AZ – The winter SW Lazy Daze Rally at Pato Blanco RV Resort. Lots of great food and people.

March, 2011 – Picacho Peak, AZ – A civil war re-enactment at Picacho Peak State Park. Event lasted all week-end with gun battles and actual tents and other equipment during that era..

March, 2011 – Douglas, AZ – Visiting with friends at Bell Starr’s Silverado Ranch. Belle is wearing the pink hat. We all helped Belle work on her ranch projects. A MUST see. She is quite a lady.

April, 2011 – Alamogordo, NM – White Sands National Monument. Very surreal.

May, 2011 – Carlsbad, NM – Carlsbad Caverns. A MUST see.

May, 2011 – Melvin, TX – I just had to visit there.

May, 2011 – San Antonio, TX – The Alamo in downtown San Antonio, TX. Another MUST see.

May, 2010 – San Antonio, TX – The San Antonio River-walk. A really neat and fun place.

May, 2011 – San Antonio, TX – The Tower of Americas. The view from the top is spectacular.

May, 2011 – Luckenbach, TX. I just had to visit here because of the song made famous by Willie Nelson and Waylan Jennings.

May, 2011 – Blanco, TX – My campsite in Blanco State Park. How about that for a back yard?

June, 2011 – Fort Worth, TX. The highlight of my year. Being able to visit my family. It was sooooo much fun.

July, 2011 – Karnack, TX – Caddo Lake State Park. I spent a week here and loved every minute.

It has been a wonderful year. I have traveled 12,702 miles in 6 different states and 2 different countries. I have attended 8 RV Rallies where I have met a lot of people, learned a lot about things I never knew anything about, and spent money upgrading my rig.

This year has been much better then I even anticipated. I met a lot of great people who I continue to keep in touch with. I am looking forward this next year to travel to places I have never seen before and meet more wonderful people.

I planned to fly back to CA to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I began heading north to Albuquerque where I was going to catch a flight to Orange County. I was on my last campground at Elephant Butte State Park before leaving for Albuquerque when I got a call from my friend Jack to meet him at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge where the annual Festival of the Cranes was taking place. He had located a campground just a few miles from the refuge. So I was off to the refuge.

Once I got there and checked in we both took our rigs through the refuge (which was free using my America the Beautiful Senior Pass). What a place!! You could drive through the refuge and stop anywhere to view the wildlife. Our first stop was a pond where we saw thousands of Snow Geese. They were everywhere making lots of noise.

Farther along we came across a corn field where the Sandhill Cranes were feeding. The Sandhill Cranes feed on the corn during the day and then migrate to the safety of the ponds before sunset where they will stay all night. This protects them from the coyotes.

The cranes fly in packs to the ponds. They look like planes coming in for a landing.

I was able to get a pic of the sun setting over the pond.

The next day I checked out the Visitor’s Center where they had all kinds of displays that related to the wildlife in the refuge. There were many people that brought injured owls, and hawks that had been found that they nursed back to good health but were unable to survive in the wild.

Even had a beautiful wolf that was very tame.

Here is a Red-tailed Hawk.

This turned out to be a wonderful weekend. I learned a lot about the wildlife and how the Wildlife Refuge works. Thanks Jack for calling me and let me know about this event.