Visiting Elephant Butte and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico Part 3

After leaving Santa Fe, we headed south on I25 towards Elephant Butte. It was a spectacular drive, especially leaving the Santa Fe area and descending over the buttes; at least that is what I think these rocky ridges are called. It seemed at one point like the earth was opening up to my right with these rocky drop offs to the valley below and mountains in the distance. I couldn’t get any pictures because I was driving the RV but I can still visualize it.

views at Cedar Cove RV Park in elephant butte, nm

This was the view behind our rv

We arrived at Cedar Cove RV Park early afternoon. This park is situated in the desert just outside of Elephant Butte. The main attraction in that town is the Elephant Butte Lake State Park with its large lake surrounded by mountains. The park didn’t provide a view of the lake but had very nice desert and Mountain View’s. We quickly discovered that there isn’t much in the town and Big Foot Restaurant that the RV park recommended was only open Thursday through Saturday. If you like a quiet area with scenic beauty and access to UTV trails, this is the park for you.

our site at cedar cove

great mountain views behind the rv storage area

Trent and I enjoyed daily walks around the park and out the driveway to main road. I liked that the road was paved, so safe to walk the dog and enjoy the desert on both sides of us. We didn’t see much wildlife except tons of birds which Trent wanted to chase.

We were only staying 4 nights and that was plenty of time to visit everything in the area. The two main things we stopped for was to visit the state park and to soak in a hot spring. The area, especially the neighboring town, Truth or Consequences, is known for natural hot springs. We had never gone to a hot spring before so definitely wanted to try one. We chose Riverbend Hot Springs and booked a private pool for 6 PM Thursday.

the rio grande before the sunset

our private pool as the sun was setting. loved the golden glow as the sun was setting.

The private pools are enclosed on 3 sides and the open side faces the Rio Grande river. The temperature of our pool was around 102 degrees so it was a bit hot at first. Since the sun was going down, we had a view of a nice golden glow on the river bank and with air temperature cooling off, the hot tub felt wonderful. Their website described it as the ultimate zen experience. I definitely agree. It was extremely relaxing. I would definitely recommend this hot spring.

deb enjoying the soak.

Elephant Butte Lake State Park is the other attraction in the area. We spent a day exploring the park and really enjoyed driving around taking in the lake views. I am sure the marina and beach area are very popular in the summer. We also cruised through the campground and I sort of wish we had stayed there. Most of the sites had very scenic lake views and it was very reasonably priced. If we ever go back, that is where I would stay.

beach area at elephant butte lake state park. a few rvs were boondocking in this area.

even though the water level was low, the lake was beautiful. those rvers have a great view from their boondocking spot.

it was pretty empty when we were there and very peaceful.

Since Bigfoot Restaurant was open on Thursday, we decided to have a late lunch there before our soak. What a good choice; the food was delicious and their outdoor patio was really nice. We liked it so much, we went back for lunch on Friday. Definitely a good way to end our stay in Elephant Butte. Form there, we headed to Alamogordo which I will cover in the next blog.

till next time…..