Thursday, December 17, 2009 - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM
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Lava field dawn, Valley of Fires, Carrizozo NM, April 28, 2009
Back on Saturday, December 5, 2009 - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM I mentioned New Mexico's plan to close the park system December 23rd and 24th this year as part of an employee furlough program the State put in place to help deal with their budgetary shortfall.
It's time to start drifting toward a solution to the problem of where to make my Night Camps those nights so tomorrow I'm going up to Valley of Fires Recreation Area, Carrizozo NM. From there I'll head west over to the Rio Grande valley and hopefully touch base with friends at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and Elephant Butte State Park as I drift down the valley before making a blast over to Henderson NV to spend a few days with cousins Ken & Connie between Christmas and New Years.
Night camp
Site 42 - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM
- Verizon cell phone service - Access is via Extended Network, roaming
- No Verizon EVDO service - access is via the Extended Network and service varies with many drop-outs.
- See a list of the nights I've camped at Brantley Lake State Park
- Locate Brantley Lake State Park on my Night Camps map
- Go to Brantley Lake State Park website
- Locate services on my Resources map
- Check the weather here
Absolute Silence
I remembered hearing of a backcountry Park Service ranger who was cleaning up after dinner one evening when he heard a chilling scream. He ran out of his cabin in time to see a mountain lion standing with a dead deer next to her. The lion saw the ranger and bounded off. The ranger realized this might be a rare opportunity to closely observe a mountain lion, so he stationed himself a short distance away from the deer carcase. He sat in absolute silence, and listened closely as night deepened. After sitting in darkness for well over an hour, he gave up hope of the lion's returning and stood up. In the powerful beam of his flashlight, he could clearly see that the dead deer was no longer there. ...
Caught in Fading Light: Mountain Lions, Zen Masters, and Wild Nature by Gary Thorp