Sugarite Canyon State Park, New Mexico - April 3rd, 10th and 11th, 2024
For the Total Solar Eclipse in 2024, we took a one week trip to Texas to view it. We stopped at two state parks on the way and the same two parks on the way back home. This post covers our visit to Sugarite Canyon State Park in New Mexico, both as the first stop on the trip and again as the last stop on our trip.
Our Solar Eclipse trip started out a little rough, but nothing too major. As we were carrying the last few items out to the RV, Keith dropped his only can of beer. It busted open and spilled its contents. Inside Red Tail, he rinsed the beer off his ball cap, a bag of pepperoni, and his wired ear buds, but we left the puddle of beer in the street gutter. Our neighbors will probably be annoyed when they discover the aroma of beer we left behind.
We stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts, not for donuts, but so Keith could get a coffee, his favorite coffee, for the road. Ann didn’t sleep well the night before, which is typical for starting a trip. She was hoping to get a Coke, but Dunkin’ now only carries Pepsi. When did that happen? No, thank you.
Next we stopped at the bank to get some rolls of quarters. After waiting in line for a teller, she found out that Easter had wiped the bank out of quarters. They wouldn’t get resupplied for a couple more days. In the meantime, Keith tried to go to a nearby liquor store to get some beer, since he was now totally out of beer. However, the store didn’t open until 9:30 am and it was just a little past 9 am. We were anxious to get on the road, so we’ll find somewhere else further down the road. Ann finally got her Coke at the gas station next to the bank.
We headed south on I-25. It was no longer rush hour, but traffic was still heavy and slow through Denver. These days, traffic is always bad through Denver, no matter what time of day it is. The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS - paid link) kept losing communications with the front driver side tire. We just replaced the batteries in all the TPMS sensors, so we’ll have to troubleshoot what that issue is. Whenever we stopped that day, we would check the tire, just to make sure there wasn’t an issue.
It was lunch time by the time we reached Pueblo. Of course we had to follow our family tradition of stopping at Angelo’s Pizza Parlor on the River Walk. On Main Street, just before reaching our usual parking lot, we hit a bad bump. Things in the bedroom went flying. The Everything Keeper (paid link) popped open and dumped its contents. Ann’s watch popped off the charger. Keith’s charger came off the mount; evidently the velcro was not seated completely. The top of the essential oil diffuser came off. The Bluetooth speaker was hanging from the shelf by the bungee cord. The bins between the beds had jumped over the metal lip we had installed to keep them in place.
Our luck seemed to turn around at lunch. It was sunny and the temperatures had reached 70 degrees. We sat at an outside table at Angelo’s, with pleasant views up and down the River Walk. The food was good as usual. We both had the lunch special, a slice of pizza, a side salad, and a soft drink. Ann stuck with our family tradition of pepperoni, roasted garlic, and sliced tomatoes on her pizza. Keith tried the pepperoni and mushrooms on his. Ann thinks he got mushrooms so he could easily tell our pizzas apart, as they got switched on a previous visit. He is not a big fan of garlic.
After lunch, we stopped at a grocery store in Pueblo. Keith got his beer. He also needed deodorant. The store keeps their deodorant locked up in a case. A staff member announced on the PA system that a key was needed in the deodorant isle for us. We stood in the isle and waited for a few minutes. There were security cameras filming us. We pushed several of the service buttons located next to the locked display cases. After a few more minutes, still no one came. Finally, Ann wandered the store and found a staff member with a key who followed her back to the isle. Finally, we could get some deodorant. We almost gave up and left. We wonder if the store loses more business through frustration and hassle than they gain by preventing theft.
South of Walsenburg, we stopped at a Love’s Truck Stop for gas and restrooms. We noticed that this location also as an RV Park, called RV Stop. We’ve heard Love’s was opening up camp sites, but we didn’t expect them to be that big or nice. There are 75 partial hook up sites (water & electric) along with private showers in a bathhouse, two RV dump stations, pickleball, basketball, playground, and a dog park. Wow! They even take reservations. It’s not our style of camping, but would be a great place for a large rig to stay.
We arrived at Sugarite Canyon State Park in the late afternoon. We stopped at the Visitor Center for information. We did not have a camp site reservation because the campground was first come/first serve for that time of year. The friendly woman inside recommended we secure a site before checking out the park, as the campground was filling up fast. The Lake Alice Campground has 13 sites (plus 2 camp host sites), some sites had partial hookups (electric & water) and a couple of them were full hookups. The water wasn’t turned on yet, as they were still having freezing temperatures at night. We didn’t need any hookups, so we took one of the four primitive sites. Some sites were more level than others. We tried one site, but it wasn’t level enough, even with leveling blocks, so we moved over to another one. By the end of the evening, the campground was full. There were also overflow camping spots on the other side of the road, but those remained empty.
There is another campground, Soda Pocket, which is further into the park, up a dirt road. The reviews on Compendium said a 4WD vehicle was needed to reach the campground, so we didn’t even check that one out. There are 23 primitive camp sites up there.
After setting up camp, we wanted to get about an hour walk in. The Lake Alice Trail leads from the Lake Alice Campground back to the Visitor Center, alongside Chicorica Creek for a little over a mile. However, from the campground, the trail starts out by crossing the creek, with no bridge. The water at the time we were there was more than ankle deep. No thank you!
The Lake to Lake Trail heads in the other direction from Lake Alice, going all the way to Lake Maloya, two miles away. So we took the Lake to Lake Trail. About half way to Lake Maloya, a patch of snow covered the trail which, at that point, was along a somewhat steep slope. We didn’t bring our trekking poles with us, so we decided to turn around and head back to camp. We probably could have crossed the patch of snow with no problems, but we didn’t want to risk falling and getting hurt on the first day of our trip. We’ll be back near the end of our trip and try to remember to bring trekking poles with us next time. Even though it was rather short, we counted the two miles of 210 feet of elevation gain that we completed in 49 minutes as hike number eight of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2024.
The trail was soft dirt and little bit muddy in patches. The soft ground made it easy to spot tracks. In addition to human and dog prints, we saw quite a few different animal tracks. It was fun trying to figure out what type of animals left their mark in the dirt. We’re not experts, but we think we saw the tracks of deer, a small bear, wild turkey, and raccoon.
Lake Alice Campground is above 7000 feet in elevation. When we arrived, the temperatures were in the 60’s. According to the staff at the Visitor Center, the overnight temperatures may dip below freezing. So we closed the windows and turned on the furnace in Red Tail before turning in for the night.
On the way back from Texas, a week later, we retraced our route from Caprock Canyons State Park in Texas to Sugarite Canyon State Park in New Mexico. Like we did on our way down to Texas, we stopped at Kella Hill Park in Dalhart for a picnic lunch and at Mock’s Crossroads Coffee Mill in Clayton, New Mexico for chai. They were out of the cinnamon rolls this time, so we skipped having a sweet treat with our drinks.
We arrived at Sugarite Canyon around 3 pm. There were plenty of camp sites to choose from. We didn’t need any hook ups, so we opted for the cheaper tent sites. We pulled into site 13 again. It was one of the tent sites that was decently level.
Since we had plenty of time before dinner, we decided to try to hike the Lake to Lake Trail all the way to Lake Maloya and back. The last time we were here, we started up the trail, but turned around when we hit a snow patch that covered the trail. This time we brought our trekking poles with us. However, the trail was clearer than last time, as more snow had melted during the week we were in Texas. There was only one patch where we had to walk through the snow, but it was not along a steep slope. So we could have made the whole hike without poles, but we would rather have poles with us and not need them, then have to turn around because we are not prepared.
We made it to the lake this time. The lake was in a pretty setting. A person was fishing near the boat ramp. No gas-powered motor boats are allowed on the lake, only electric motors or paddling are allowed. On a warm summer day, the lake would be perfect for a paddle board. It was too cold and windy while we were there for Ann to be tempted to get her SUP board out.
On the way back from the lake, we came across a handful of deer. They saw us before we saw them and they scurried on their way. By the time we returned to our camp site, we had gone 5.1 miles with an elevation gain of 515 feet in one hour and 49 minutes. It was hike number 10 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2024.
Due to the high elevation, the temperatures dropped in the evening so we turned on our furnace, just like we had the first time we camped here.
Before we hit the road the next morning, we stopped at the Visitor Center to check out the Coal Camp Trail. We noticed that next to the Visitor Center was a bathhouse with flush toilets and showers. There were only vault toilets at the campground, so it was nice to know that there were showers available.
The Coal Camp Trail is an interpretative trail that meanders through the ruins of the Sugarite Coal Camp. Sugarite was a coal mining town that helped fuel the railroad. The small town housed about 1000 miners and their families. The Visitor Center is in the building that was the Sugarite post office and the home of the postmistress. It now houses an interesting little museum about the area. We’re glad we stopped to walk the trail and check out the Visitor Center.
From Sugarite, it was pretty much a straight shot up I-25 to home. Of course we stopped in Pueblo again to have lunch at Angelo’s Pizza Parlor, as was our tradition. It was a little cooler outside compared to the beginning of our trip, so we ate inside this time. To get more fresh air, we walked a little bit of the River Walk before hitting the road again.
Denver traffic was bad as normal. The street sweeping crew was out on the interstate, so it took us about an hour to get from south Denver up to Broomfield. Welcome home!
Our one week trip was complete. It was a great shakedown trip for the start of the season. We got to test out all of the systems in our RV and get our e-bikes in shape. Plus we witnessed a total solar eclipse for the first time in our lives, serving as icing on the cake.
Check out our related video: Sugarite Canyon State Park, New Mexico
(Ann)