City of Rocks, Silver City NM

One of the smarter things that Paul and I did in the last three days was to "pre-pack" the trailer. We took two full loads up there and set things up as much as we could. Its amazing how much stuff we had to bring back after being gone for 2 months.  Because of our time spent pre-packing, this morning was easy and pretty much stress free.  We put together our last minute stuff, and the cat,  and took off right after breakfast.  We weren't going too far today, only about 170 miles, which also kept the traveling stress free. We arrived at our campground around lunchtime, which was none too soon as far as Dozer was concerned.  He must have forgotten what it was like to travel in the truck because he was one unhappy kitty. 

   After lunch we headed to  City of Rocks State Park. 
Both Paul and I had the same thought - that it would be an incredible place for kids. It would be so much fun to play hide and seek or tag!  The volunteer told us about the trail through the boulders that we could take to the end of the park (its a small park) but we abandoned the trail after about 2 minutes in order to climb among all the rocks.  We had a great time scrambling around for a couple of hours.
We were surprised that there is a campground in the park- with very unique campsites nestled in and around the rocks. Its nothing like anything we have seen before and really seems like it would be a great place to stay for a few days.
The boulders were created by a volcanic eruption a long time ago, and have been eroding away slowly. This area was inhabited by early indians, around 1300 A.D.  and in later years by  the Chiricahua Apache.
Once we had our fill of rock climbing, we explored Silver City for a little while, but we weren't really in the mood to shop and most of the stores close early, since its only Tuesday.
Tomorrow we head to Gila National Monument to see the cliff dwellings.