VINTAGE CAR & TRAILER AT THE RV PARK - 1954 Vakashunette & 1950 Hudson Commodore “Evelyn”
Left the flat, hot desert of Carlsbad, NM on April 30th and drove about 5 hours north to Albuquerque, NM. Nice to finally see some lusher scenery like green grass, trees and mountains. Plus it was only 80F when we got to the RV park in the afternoon which felt fantastic after baking in 90-100F in Carlsbad.
We stayed at the Enchanted Trails RV park and trading post, on old route 66, just off I-40 and right beside a huge Camping World (convenient!) on the west side of the city. Perfect location to check out the area, close to the city but not in it and right on our way to the Grand Canyon.
The RV park itself was like a huge parking lot, all gravel sites, a few trees and they also had a few vintage trailers that they rent out. The Trading post there was also full of Route 66 memorabilia so it had a “campy” kinda atmosphere that was pretty cool. Had a pool too which would have been fantastic had it actually been open. Our bad luck with pools continues this road trip as well.
We were only going to stay 3 nights but we discovered there were some really interesting places to check out here so we ended up staying 5 nights. Lost one entire day waiting for the truck repairs to be completed...yes, chalk up another almost $700 repair bill. There was this unusual, high pitched whining noise that was coming out of the engine when we were towing the trailer uphill accompanied by a bit of power loss. Turns out there was a rotten rubber clamp, somewhere in the engine that was causing both problems. They replaced those pieces as well as doing a good safety check and an oil change. The expense is worth it to know everything is working well when we get into these higher elevations. But enough with the repairs already!
Albuquerque's historic district is called Old Town and it encompasses about ten blocks of historic adobe buildings around a plaza. We spent a couple of hours walking around one day, had a good Mexican lunch. The city has a real mix of historic looking, but brand new adobe houses mixed in with traditional looking homes even in its new suburbs, I found it quite unique and visually very appealing.
Enchanted Trails RV park and old town Albuquerque Album
But what we were really interested in was the indian pueblo ruins and the sites where you can see all kinds of ancient petroglyphs.
Petroglyph National Monument Album
We also ended up at Kasha Katuwe, Tent Rocks National Monument which was stunning. I’ll let those pictures speak for themselves. One of the coolest, day hikes we’ve done.
Kasha Katuwe National Monument Album and another hike near there.
There was plenty more in the area to see so I think we’ll come back and spend more time in this part of New Mexico next trip!
Onward to the Grand Canyon!