New Mexico's North

Initially, New Mexico was one of the most desirable places for us to visit and we expected to spend a lot of time here. In our imagination, it was a place full of hippies and hidden communities of full-time travelers. However, now that we have seen it all, we have realized, that the beautiful mountains and sand dunes do not distract from the reality of an image of the state damaged by "Trump 2020" flags, poverty and messiness. Santa Fe, Taos and even Albuquerque were charming cities even if all the stores were closed. We enjoyed window shopping and eating take-out. But besides that, it is hard to find something positive to say.

As we entered New Mexico once again (we've previously spent time in the southern part), it was clear we have missed the spring season and summer is already here. At the time of writing this post, US is celebrating the Memorial Day weekend, which is considered to be the start of summer. So I will use this as an opportunity to review what travelling during the off-season was, when most people would not even think about going camping.

We started traveling late last August and our first weekend was Labor Day, officially the end of summer. It was still warm in Oregon and even the weather in Seattle was perfect with clear blue skies, where it normally rains. Weather only became an issue when we realized that we can not visit Glacier Park in Montana anymore in October. We rushed to visit Yellowstone, where the temperature immediately dropped to -20C providing us with an opportunity to experience real winter camping.

Fortunately, this was as bad as it was going to get. Since then, we pushed on south and have mostly stayed in the southern states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Even though it was cold at times, most of the nature spots stayed open even during the winter season. I feel like we have been productive at sightseeing and the winter had little effect on us apart from the freezing pipes in the trailer.

On the other hand, it is not worth traveling above the northernmost latitude of Arizona into Utah or Colorado before May. Roads will not be plowed and a lot of the parks will be closed. We tried going to Utah in March, but quickly turned back south again.

At this point, we are absolutely ready to trade the yellow and red shades and dry rocky landscapes of the south for the lush green forests of the north. I can not wait to go swimming again!