Cochiti Recreation Area

It was raining cats and dogs in Steamboat, and had been for what seemed like forever, so we took off on a trip south to the Santa Fe area. We had reservations at the Cochiti Recreation Area, but had planned to stop part way there since it's about a 9-10 hour drive. However, it rained most of the way, so we just kept going. We got to Cochiti close to midnight, so we didn't see much of the area. But we didn't have any trouble finding our camping spot, and the gate (thankfully) was not locked!

When we awoke in the morning, we found that we had a lovely view.

The spots are nicely laid out at the Juniper Loop of the campground, so there is some privacy. We had water and electric, making our three night stay there pretty luxurious. One night, a Native American family camped close by and came over with some freshly roasted corn to share. New Mexican hospitality!

On our first day, we visited the Coronado State Park, which is right along the Rio Grande. It's the site of (maybe) a takeover of a Pueblo village by Coronado. Our docent was knowledgeable, and the boys enjoyed going down into the kiva. Being afraid of heights and not liking enclosed spaces much, I stayed outside.

We followed that with a trip to Petroglyph National Monument, but were fairly disappointed. It is comprised of a set of separate trails, all of which are closed and locked at 5:00 p.m., even though there are several hours of daylight left. There is no driving access to the park, other than just to a very small ranger station. The trail we tried to take was littered with broken glass, making it less than desirable for walking on with the dogs.

We drove into Albuquerque to see Old Town, which is very similar to Santa Fe. We weren't in the shopping mood and had already planned dinner back at the trailer, so we went back to Cochiti for a lovely steak dinner the husband cooked on the grill. Since the small gas tanks that our camping stove is supposed to use are not refillable, we've got a hookup to a standard gas tank that we take along as backup for our trailer, so it all works out well without making us feel terrible about adding additional metal tanks to landfills!

A trip to Tent Rocks and some geocaching rounded out the weekend, with a less gourmet hot dog dinner the next night. On the way back, we detoured through Taos and stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge. The weather was attempting to spit some rain at us, and our exchange student wasn't keen on walking the 1/4 mile from the parking area to the bridge, so we just viewed it from the side and headed back to Steamboat.

Things we realized we didn't have but needed on this trip: (1) towel rack(s) in the bathroom; (2) tongs for grilling; and (3) RV toilet paper. We'll have all three by the next trip out!