Sunday, September 26, 2010

Abiquiu Lake, Riana Campground, NM

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We’ve spent the past two nights at Riana Campground, a beautiful spot overlooking Lake Abiquiu. I called before we left Heron Lake, and the camp host said all the power sites were full, but she just had a cancellation so she would hold it for us, which was quite nice of her. Several people recommended this campground, and we weren’t disappointed. It is run by the Army Corps of Engineers, but the pricing was the same as New Mexico State Parks, $14 for water and electric, $10 for dry camping. Had we wanted a free night, we could have picked up trash on Saturday morning for Public Lands Day. I felt kind of guilty for saying no, but when the camp host said they had over 200 people coming to help, I got over it.

We took a ride around the area yesterday to get a closer look at some of the red rock formations we saw on the drive from Heron Lake. Felt like we were back in southern Utah.

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Just a few miles up the road from here is Ghost Ranch, where famous American artist Georgia O’Keefe spent many summers painting, then bought a house in Abiquiu where she spent the last couple decades of her life. You can understand why an artist would be drawn to this area. One of her favorite landscapes to paint was Cerro Pedernal, meaning flint hill in Spanish, which we have a great view of from our site.

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We didn’t have time to visit Ghost Ranch this weekend, but when we come back here again we definitely want to hike some of the many trails there.

We did walk along the Lake Vista Trail which runs behind and above the campground and goes to the Abiquiu Dam Visitor Center, which was closed yesterday morning. Guess they only open it in the summer season.

It was quite a scenic trail, and the weather was perfect, 70’s and calm. We were surprised there weren’t more boats in the water.

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Today we’re off to Santa Fe.

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