Springtime Campground

Adventure Location: Springtime Campground, Apache Kid Wilderness, New Mexico
Teams Location:  Elephant Butte State Park, South Monticello Unit, New Mexico

Late in the day the decision was made to try to escape the heat for a bit and go check out a campground the Teams passed by a few years ago when we drove through the Apache Kid Wilderness. By following the DeLorme map the Truck was able to find FR225 and up we went. It is 14 miles of road from the highway to the campground. For this Team it is a 45 minute drive without any stops.  We had several stops to check out the available camping areas.

The first couple of miles are open BLM ground just waiting for you to set up camp.  It is rather barren. Here is one fairly flat campsite we found among many.

After the BLM land and before the Cibola National Forest starts are some private ranching lands. Just about where the NF lands start you enter this pretty valley.

At the end of the road is the Springtime Campground.  The truck in this picture is parked right at the gate into the campground. As you can see the Team is at the upper end of a canyon.

To the right of the truck is this set of peaks keeping watch over everything.  Two hiking trails are marked as beginning near where the Truck is parked.

The campground is rather tight and getting the Castle into there is not going to happen. However there are dozens of nice locations outside the campground that the Castle can fit into easily.  Here is a regular campsite inside the campground.  That Adirondack type shelter was new to me.  It is the first time I have seen one of them in a campground.

There were about a dozen campsite scattered along the north side of the “creek”. Here is the creek.

What made me nervous are the large boulders in the campground that had fallen from the cliffs above the campground. This one is actually a medium size one that the OFM is standing next to.  The picture was taken by another friendly boulder.

The altitude is around 7400 feet and just walking around taking the pictures for tonight had me huffing pretty hard. It is not likely a good idea for me to spend a lot of time that high in the sky. Don’t worry there are lots of other places to head for while trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.