It’s been a very mild winter here in Santa Fe. We’ve only had a couple days with any measurable snow, and the high temperatures have consistently been in the 50s or even 60s. The entire state of New Mexico is experiencing a serious drought, and the lack of precipitation or snowpack is going to be a real problem this summer.

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make delicious lemon squares—preferably with a shortbread crust and just a light dusting of powdered sugar. So we’ve decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather by taking off on a spontaneous winter camping trip. We’re hedging our bets by heading to southern Arizona, where it should be warm and sunny even if winter finally descends on Northern New Mexico over the next week.

The Route

Don’t squint! Click for larger map.

Given the season, our goal is to travel south; but getting from New Mexico to Arizona also involves a big chunk of going west. We plan to do most of our westwarding on desolate Highway 60, passing the Very Large Array radio astronomy complex (featured in several science fiction movies, most notably Contact) and spending the night in tantalizingly named Pie Town.

After crossing into Arizona we’ll turn southward again, spending a couple days in the Phoenix area and then visiting Tucson before we buttonhook eastward and back into the Land of Enchantment. Depending on the weather forecast back in Santa Fe, we might dawdle for a few days in the warmer climes of southern New Mexico before we head home.

The Technology

A big reason for this trip is to make sure all our camping gear is in good shape before a much longer excursion to New Orleans in April—and our gear has evolved a bit in 2018. Rambles is going multimedia! The plan is to supplement these posts with short videos showcasing highlights of our adventures. We’ll post links here, but if you’ve spent any time watching YouTube then you know I’m supposed to tell you to “like and subscribe” at our channel, whatever that means.

So far, this whole video endeavor has really just been an excuse to buy a bunch of gadgets, including a new iPhone X and a fancy drone. Now that the credit card bills are starting to come in, we need to justify all those expenses by doing something productive with our new toys. In fact, we’ve already made a few videos here in Santa Fe, which you can check out while you wait for us to do something more interesting on the road:

• Stroller Roller, starring Zora and her new mode of geriatric travel
• Grasshopper Canyon, a cool hiking trail just up the road from our house