And so here we are, at the end of the summer <tear>. I love summer. It’s by far my favorite season. Sunshine, water, green trees–I love it. And got outdoors a lot this summer so here is a review of the spots, starting with my favorites.

Fawn Lakes Campground; Red River, NM I LOVED this site. There was a little creek running through the campground, gorgeous pines, and it was only 2 miles from the town of red river that has an amazing coffee shop (Steam) and a candy shop (win-win for mama and kids–maybe fudge and giant lolipops) . We played for hours in the creek (adults included!), had campfires, I read an entire book–ahh, this place was a great experience.

*The creek at Fawn Lakes campground was so fun!*

Chama RV park; Chama, NM I am not an RV park person, but this place was beautiful. It was right off the highway nestled in a magical forest of cottonwoods. The place was so clean, and right on the river and there was a train track right there in the campsite (major perk for my 2-year-old).

*Train tracks for a 2-year-old? Totally awesome.*

Redondo Campsite; Jemez, NM The Jemez is just gorgeous–Valle Caldera, Las Conchas–you can’t beat it. We only stayed here for a night, but it was just a no-nonsense beutiful forested site that had a lot of loops so yeah, bringing the bikes next time!

*Hike to Lake Gregario during our stay in the Jemez.*

Hopewell Campground; Between Tierra Amarilla and Tres Piedras, NM This site is beautiful and has a lake right next to it. The reason its toward the bottom of my list is that someone poached our reserved site, and we got a pretty crummy site on the side of a really windy hill–but the place is right near a beautiful little reservoir that made for some great paddle boarding. The loop was also really nice to bike the babe around. There is some trails too around here that are quite pretty.

Cimarron Campground; Colfax County, NM This might of been one of the most stunning drives–you drive past a place called Valle Vidal and its just a gorgeous mountain valley. The down side is 14 miles of really rough washboard road. and then once we got to the campsite, there was a chorus of generators all weekend. Someone put their generator in our site so they didn’t have to hear it, and started it at 7 am. It is a horse site–so I think it attracted some pretty massive trailer-folk that wanted their movies. on a projector. at 12 am.

*Driving out to Cimarron campground. Not to be confused with the one in CO, or the town of Cimarron which is actually quite far from this place.*

*This is Rio Grande–amazing picnic/floaty spots near Pilar, NM.*

That’s all the camping I remember! We have 1 more camp trips planned, and a yurt bike trip–so maybe I’ll update this blog. Other note-able adventures was going down to the Rio grande to paddle board and just cool off, visiting Angel fire to hike and paddle board, and visiting Santa Cruz lake which is about an hour from here and totally worth the drive. We also did a trip to Lake Tahoe which was quite amazing to isolate on a lake–best memories being kayaking with the girls, river rafting, and drink margaritas on the paddle board on the lake. And of course, just being in Los Alamos–the trails are so gorgeous this time of year, and I did quite a bit of mountain biking thanks to all the winter Peloton training. So yeah, totally ready to sit down at my computer for the next 9 months and let my sunburns get a chance to recover…

Brenda Fleming | New Mexico Art