Manzano Mtn SP, NM - Oct 2008

After a fun and activity-filled 10 days at the Balloon Fiesta, we spent another busy week in Albuquerque taking care of some maintenance and repair chores on the RV and the car. We finally left on Monday 10/20 and headed to Manzano Mountains State Park -- about 70 miles southeast of Albuquerque.

This tiny state park has only 16 spaces and only 8 with electricity. We opted to stay in one of the vacated camp host sites and enjoyed a private patio that was nestled in the pine trees.


We spent two weeks there -- enjoying the peaceful setting and doing some hiking. The smattering of oaks were at their autumn finest and the days were sunny and warm. At 7,600', the nights were perfect for sleeping -- chilly enough to need that extra blanket.


One tree that is unique to this area is the Alligator Juniper. You can see by the bark how it got its name.


One of the interesting critters at the park was the Tassel-Eared Squirrel (aka Abert Squirrel.) Its large, tufted ears and white tail set it apart from other squirrels.


While our stay at the park was delightful, we had a really awful problem with these nasty stink bugs. There were hoards of them and they could crawl inside the RV through the smallest of openings. We couldn't even leave our windows open without them squeezing through the gap between the screen and the glass. Our first night there, we went to bed and discovered eight of them crawling around the bedroom walls -- ick ick ick. When smashed, they exuded a terrible odor, so we had to squish them with a plastic bag and then toss it outside. The next morning, I turned on the water heater and smelled a noxious odor. I quickly went outside and saw smoke coming from the water heater compartment vent. I carefully opened the cover and saw the remains of a dozen or so charred stink bugs -- ick ick ick. We spent the rest of the day devising a way to seal off the compartment as best we could. For a week after leaving Manzano, these little stinkers were still crawling out of their hidey-holes in the RV.