Blog 4: Ruidosa Downs, White Sands and Faywood Hot Springs

March 14-17, 2019

From Bottomless Lakes going west, we decided to cross the mountain ranges in the Lincoln National Forest south towards Alamogordo, where the pass would less likely have ice. The northern route towards Corrizozo has a narrower, more curvy road at higher elevation. With the all the more northern routes still having winter weather conditions, we chose to take the lower elevation southern route across New Mexico via I 10.

Ruidoso Downs, a city surrounded by mountains and forests, was a beautiful place, so we stayed the night at the Rainbow Lake RV Resort, only 91 miles from our previous campsite at Bottomless Lakes. The RV park is nestled in the pine trees around an altitude of 7,000 foot. There is a ski resort nearby and snow all around us at higher elevations. The air was cold with subfreezing temperatures at night.

Leaving the next morning for our next overnight destination, Faywood Hot Springs, 204 miles away, we saw the snow capped Sierra Blanca Peak, the most southerly peak in the lower 48 above 11,000 feet. When we arrived at White Sands National Monument south of Alamogordo we noticed the San Andres Mountains on the western horizon were covered with snow.

A rare desert snowfall happened the previous night and early morning making the surrounding mountains a remarkable winter wonderland. White Sands is the largest gypsum dunefield in the world. From a distance it looks like a snow covered landscape.

Faywood Hot Springs is located north of I 10, 29 miles from Silver City, 26 miles from Deming and 73 miles from Lordsburg. I love the seclusion this privately owned hot springs offers. This was my third stay here and it makes for a nice place to camp before entering Arizona. Prices for camping are per person and very reasonable. When you camp you get 24 hour access to three different soaking areas, one exclusive for campers. Two of the soaking pool areas are clothing optional. The place is very quite and nestled in a tiny oasis of small trees and bushes. There is a store on site supplying items you might have forgotten. A nice touch are the peacocks roaming the property and they sometimes are grazing near the pools for close observation. For day soakers the hours are 10 am to 10 pm. The campground has primitive tent camp sites with water only and fire rings and RV sites with electric and water and a few with sewer as well. My brother liked it so much we stayed two nights.

Our next destination is an RV park in Willcox, Arizona.