We wanted to camp for a long weekend, but it is winter, so we headed south.
First stop: Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. I love that the monuments no one has heard of are not crowded but still cool.
Later we found good BLM camping at Three Rivers Petroglyph site. We enjoyed the full moon and poking around the 21,000!! petroglyphs scattered among the rocky ridge.
White Sands the next day was, of course, unreal. We had good clouds, which made everything more photogenic.
Given that we spent quite a while at White Sands, we decided to stop at City of Rocks to camp, a little short of the next day's destination. Fortunately there was a good site left amidst the rocks.
The next day Gila Cliff Dwellings was well worth the long windy drive.