BLM Camping in Alamogordo, New Mexico

Boondocking

Alamogordo is where I tried my hand at boondocking. I am a fan of regular electricity and hot showers so this was a tad out of my comfort zone. However, at the end of the 4-day adventure, I could see myself camping this way often. More about this experience as well as tips and tricks here.

Tularosa

Haven’t heard of Tularosa before? Neither had we. There was a campground offering a discount for Passport America members that was near our planned boondocking site. We enjoyed the evening by exploring the gulches around the camp. Being from the Northwest, gulches and flash floods are not something I am used to. This canyon was about twenty feet deep and absolutely beautiful.

Mountain Meadows RV Park was a great place to stay. It was quiet and the pads were level, although they were gravel. Our neighbors were friendly. The three-year-old neighbor boy rode his bike over to ask if I needed help unhooking the trailer! The showers were hot and they even offered towels.

Giant Pistachio and Wine

So, this one has been on my list since I first started looking up roadside attractions, 150 miles into our first RV trip. The husband loves pistachios and I love large roadside oddities so it seemed like a perfect destination! They also had pistachio wine, so of course, I had to do a tasting. To be honest, all the white wines that I have tasted across Texas and the Southwest have been WAY too sweet for my liking and I’m a Riesling and Moscato kind of girl. But, now I can say I’ve tried it and it was tasty.

White Sands

I had seen White Sands all over Instagram, Pinterest and blog posts that I follow. I was so excited to finally go there and see it as part of our adventure. This was my first experience with the real thing not being as cool as it seemed on the internet. We mainly have explored little known areas so there is not a lot of hype beforehand. There were van loads of tourists with selfie sticks, screaming kids, and none of the sand was as pristine as promised. We walked out pretty far to get away from the crowds to no avail. Z, who LOVES the snow, was very excited about this place. He rolled in the sand, sniffed the sand, licked the sand, and eventually figured out that it wasn’t snow and was a very confused puppers. We enjoyed the sunset and headed back to camp.

Now, I am not one of those people who believes everything they see on the internet but I was excited to see something that so many had raved about. We went mid-week to do our best to avoid crowds but it didn’t work. It just didn’t look like what all the #wanderlust people had posted about. Thus, beginning my constant disappointment of largely publicized natural sites. But, if you do go, make sure to take a sled. 

Lake Holloman

Lake Holloman was a wonderful place to stop and test our boondocking adventure. We read reviews about people complaining about the bad smell, but we couldn’t smell anything. This place was a little tricky to find because there are no signs. Be on the lookout for a brown sign with binoculars and “61” on it. It’s between White Sands and Holloman Air Force Base. There are no hookups or toilets. It truly is dry camping. I’ve read quite a few reviews from people complaining that the military police come through a couple of times per day. Personally, we liked the security it provided and it made us wonder what those complaining about were up to.

I loved the fighter jets flying over for most of the day because it reminded me of summers spent on Lake Washington watching the Blue Angels. I may have dropped a few (ok, a lot) Top Gun lines and played the theme song. Lance was not amused. There were plenty of spots for RVs of all sizes. As always, park near the gate and walk to find the perfect spot. Our spot was right on the lake and very relaxing. The people we met here while taking Z out for walks were fantastic. We visited with people who had some very interesting stories and as always, we learned more about where to go and what to see. After 5 days we needed to head back south for some appointments and I wasn’t ready to go! We even debated coming back up to Alamogordo to spend another week of boondocking but ended up heading to Santa Fe.