Heron Lake State Park

Very quiet (with one exception) is about all I can say about Heron State Park even memorial day weekend there was only 5 of us camped in this campground. 

My first campsite was over run by Hobie Catamaraner's (not sure if thats a word), which was a boat club. They even started camping in my site, so rather then show off my ninja skillz, and cat like reflexes I turned the key, and moved two campgrounds over. Turned out a to be a much better camping spot.

There's 7 or 8 different campgrounds at Heron Lake, and primitive beach camping on the shore. Been pretty muddy though. Verizon cell service is best on the south shore of the lake in the campgrounds across the dam I been using a booster, but others in the area are getting along fine without it. Heres a few more pics of the area........

On Easter 2011 a plane crashed into the lake. Only pieces of the plane, pilot were recovered, but 23 kilos of cocaine were found floating. Supposedly a drug runner for the mexican mafia was the pilot he was flying out of Prescott AZ. Theres still rumored to be cocaine at the bottom of the lake about 150 ft down 

 Rio from the dam. Another Osprey nest in the upper right.

 Rio Chama withe heron reservoir draining into it.

 Chama Canyon

Thanks for visiting! Good Day!

Osprey

 A pretty common sight in northern New Mexico are these man made birds nest placed on the top of telephone poles. They must like them cause everyone I've seen has been occupied.

 I've moved from El Vado Lake to Heron Lake, and plan on bouncing between the two until mid June. Hoping the snow will be melted up on Wheelers Peak by then, so I can make an attempt at the 16 mile trek, and see NM from its highest peak. Here's a few more pics from El Vado....

If anyone know some good free camping around the Taos area shoot me an email, or a comment below. Thanks for visiting, and Good Day!

El Vado Lake State Park

 Someone told me that its a long a drive to anywhere you wanna go in New Mexico, and I am beginning to understand what they meant. El Vado lake is located about 120 miles north of Santa Fe, so I stocked up on a good 4 weeks worth of rations.

Heron State Park is the neighboring park. Located only 5 miles from here, but around a 25 mile drive, so I'll be bouncing between the two until supplies run out. Here's a map and some more pics...

 Web pic courtesy of NM State Parks. Little blurry, but download it if needed. The main campground is located around the park office, and pinion beach offers some very nice remote sites not far from the showers.

Primitive camping can be found at Sandy Cove, Hangroves point, and on the Peninsula. All of the primitive is currently closed due to low water levels.

Ideally if one was to do this on a budget they could spend the whole summer bouncing between the two. Better yet if the peninsula was open the 2 parks appear to butt up to one another right there, which would make bouncing between them a simple task. Ill investigate further when I reach Heron. 

One of the campsites on pinion beach.

75 today snowed earlier in the week. Camphost invited me over for homemade chili, bread, and cocktails, so turned out to be a good snow day.

 Goose

 Geese

 Tons of deer encounter them everyday.

My view in the main park. Walking distance to the hot showers. Only had 4 campers in the 2 weeks I've  been here. Thanks for visiting! Good day!

Wilson Yagi Antenna Review

 Purchased this Yagi antenna in February, so I could stay connected in very remote locations, so far Ive only had to use it two occasions. Here at El Vado Lake I got a fading in and out between 3G and 1X signal, which wasn't unreliable at all.

After hooking up the Yagi managed  to pull in a solid 3 bars of 4G! It was a little under $100 for all the fittings, antenna, and cable already owned the wilson 4g booster.

 In the lower position not sure how it would hold up in the winds in the higher position, both worked great.

Used a flag pole holder to hold the antenna. Will be looking for something a little more stable in the future. Wouldn't trust it in the high position in high wind.

The antenna  is mounted on a 1 inch wooden dowel. The yagi is a directional antenna so to find the tower I downloaded a app called Open Signal in the app store, which points right to the tower.

Here's a link to a page I created with  all the components needed for the system.

Click Here

Thanks for visiting. Good Day!

Elephant Butte Map, and Sandia Casino

 Already north Of Santa Fe sitting on the Lake. Playing blog catch up! I know there is few of you reading this that plan on doing the park pass in the future. Wasn't until my second stay at elephant butte, that a realized how much more camping was available. So figured I would share.

 Long point, and Three sister point, and South Monticello Point are very quiet with rarely anyone camping at them. Good spots to let the pooches run. I am assuming you the rest of the points after South Monticello are part of the park system as well?

From South Monticello Point there is about 9 miles of hiking, and biking trails down to the Rock Island Marina.

 Odd rock formations and Three sister site. Three sister is primitive camping does have a vault toilet up on the hill. Pretty sure one could be unoticed for a good period of time down in the trees.

 Squash, or gourd plant?

 Sandia Casino. Just North Of Albuquerque Exit 234 allows rvers to stay the night.

The Casino also offers a delicious $2 burger (fries not included), and $25 in free play money, after the burger, and stay I managed to walk out $6 ahead.

View of the mountains from the parking lot. Would have stayed here longer, but was ready for some pine trees. Good day!

Rio Grande

Left the Rio Grande almost 5 days ago now in which I've moved 3 times since then, so fallen behind a bit on pictures. Life as a nomad certainly has its struggles :) I took the following pictures using bracket photography. While at the River.

Its all new to me, but in general what your doing is taking 3 pictures of the same shot at different exposure levels. My camera has a feature that does this on it own with the push of a button, and it a pretty cheap camera. Even new cell phones have apps for this.

As I understand your eyes are constantly adjusting to the light. Camera's get one exposure to the shot, by taking 3 pics and combining them. Your getting a better picture of what the eye actually see's, or at least that's how it was explained on one website. Heaven only knows how many times I've said it looked a lot better in real life.

 This and the next one are a bit more surreal, but cool what you can turn your pictures into.

To combine the 3 pics I used Photomatix essentials which can be found here, or if your creative you can probably find it for free :) Thanks for visiting. Good Day!