Santa Fe NF ElPorvenir Campsite 14

Everything is so dry that the only place you are permitted to have a fire is in a fire ring at a campground in the National Forest so we headed into the Santa Fe campground

We found that site 14 would suit our needs and made it our home for the next 10 days.

We collected firewood and started a campfire!

It was Tuesday night so we had spaghetti dinner for our campground hosts, Jerry and Fran and one of the hikers, Micheal.

It seems the local fire department didn't get the word that in the park you could have a campfire because they came and were telling us to put it out when Jerry stepped in and talked with them.

Well, our second day a group of students arrived, about a dozen of them.  They had hiked down the mountain and were resting up waiting to be picked up tomorrow by bus.  Other than their language they were not too bad across the street.  We liked to watch them take turns sitting on The Rock.  The boys liked to throw water or frogs at the girls and they would yelp and giggle.  Reminded Kathy of her days of taking her students out for a week of camp.  Our Campground Hosts were very attentive and walked around and just their presence helped keep things calm.  Oh to have a campfire!  Ours started of will big logs and lots of flame and heat and soon got smaller, but just as grand.  The flames dance around the twigs and logs devouring the precious fuel.  Sometimes you can hear the release of gas from the wood or watch as the sap bubbles.  In the end all that is left is white ash and the smell; of that sweet smell of a campfire.  Meghan said to Kathy once after a camping trip, "You smell like a campfire!"  It should be a perfume!

After our first day Will had piled rocks on the grill so we could make a small fireplace sort of fire and have the heat and the view of the fire. We cooked our sweet potatoe and veggies over the hot rocks and heated our water too.

Moon rise.

One morning Natasha came up to us and asked if we had any spare coffee; she was with her nephew and his friends and they only had warm Dr. Pepper.  She is from Colorado and came to spend twelve hours camping with her nephew in a spot he had camped with his mother as a kid.

We collected wood each day.

And Will cut it up into little logs.

 Fran brought Will a few mystery novels she was finished with; we traded her a book around the stars and planets. Will fixed the box on the back of the roadtrek.  Kathy sorted and scrubbed inside.

We had a happy hour each day.

And yummy meals.

And campfires.

Will even made pancakes in the morning.

We had visits from our campground hosts

And lots of time to relax.