Monday, May 8, 2017

Santa Rosa Lake State Park–Could You Believe Another Tornadic Storm?

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico

So we have slowed way down with our miles now…352 miles in two days of traveling with one day of having a day trip to the canyon.  Today we drove over to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, turned northeast for 10 miles and ended up at Santa Rosa Lake State Park.  $14 for electric and water and fairly good view.  If one wants a super view of the lake, then just dry camp down at the shoreline.  But it was in the mid-80’s, and we wanted electric over view.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico

No TV, but 2-3 bars of 4G with our booster on our Verizon Aircard, and loads of music on the Kendal and movies if we choose to watch any.  And for a few hours, peace and quiet…how nice that was.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico, storm    Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico, storm
Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico, storm

Around 4:30 the storm started to descend upon the area…and more and more RVs entered the park to hunker down for the night. 

New Mexico Tornado Warning

Around 6:40 a State Park worker came by to let everyone know that a tornado was spotted about 10-15 miles to our east.  “If you see a bad cloud coming over that lake, just head for the bathrooms,” he said.  Well, I had been following the radar very close…the storm was headed north to northeast…the lake is to our east, the storm was not coming our way.  In fact, other then a few sprinkles, all we had was some wind and some mighty views.  I was happy that we did not “spend the night in Tucumcari” as we have a few times in the past at a Passport America park…Tucumcari looked to be getting it hard at this point.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico, storm

The view to the west was amazing as the sun started to go down over the horizon.  Made me wish we were on the other side of the lake so we would have an unobstructed view.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico, storm

Not too much later the clouds to the west had moved out, and sun was setting.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico, storm

But the skies to our east never did get pink.

8:30 radar for our area

Even as I write this, 8:45 mountain time, severe storms are passing to our east by about 5 miles.   Tomorrow, assuming we don’t get blown away, we will be at another New Mexico State Park, this time over by Grants…hoping we can get one of the 14 electric sites in that park too.

Bubba    Skruffy

Of course, before the storm I did get a chance to take the dogs for a walk or two. Don’t know what is up with Bubba’s tongue, this is the second time he stuck his tongue out at me when I took his picture on this trip.

Desert Flowers      Desert Flowers
Desert Flowers    Desert Flowers

Also had a chance to get some pictures of the desert flowers which were still blooming.  The first one is called by either the Indian Blanketflower or the Firewheel, both names are common.  Not sure about the other ones.

PS:  The last storm blew through just before posting this at 9:25...some light hail, some wind, not too bad, only 5 minutes long.

6 comments:

  1. Oh how I hate those storms!! Sort of glad I'm in crappy Central California!! LOL

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    Replies
    1. Well, these New Mexico storms are nothing compared to the Oklahoma, Arkansas (south in general) type of storms. But the higher elevation sure brings on the hail, though pea sized hail (thank goodness).

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  2. How do you put movies on the Kindle? I have the fire.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you are a Amazon Prime Member, there are many free movies that you can view. Most of these movies can be downloaded through your Kindle to the Kindle. You typically have a few options as to the quality level of the movie...the higher the quality the more room it will take up on the Kindle Fire, and the longer it will take to download. Consult the Amazon Prime Page for more information.

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  3. Wow! we're not that far away at Storrie lake in Las Vegas, NM. We had a fine day yesterday, just a little rain late evening. But this morning we had booming thunder and some heavy rain. It's supposed to rain for a couple days, so we're just going to hunker down.

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    Replies
    1. I think it is going to be pretty good storm going your way! Be safe now. I thought about going to Storrie Lake, but I think we want to go see the Grand Canyon and Sedona before hitting Phoenix for the Celebration of Life for Marcia's friend. After that, not sure what we are going to do...

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