Out of Our Rut: Hobbs NM to Mineral Wells TX

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Chris has family in the Dallas/Fort Worth (Grapevine) area and we have plans to stop there for a few days to catch up. It's just over 500 miles from our current spot near Carlsbad NM and we have 6 nights before our reservation in Grapevine. Admittedly there aren't a lot sightseeing opportunities along this drive. We found a state park in Mineral Wells about 100 miles west of Grapevine and booked a few nights there. We decide to stop at a city park in the town of Hobbs New Mexico for a couple nights. The campground there is small and doesn't take reservations. But we will be arriving on a Thursday so we think getting a spot won't be a problem.

The drive to Hobbs goes smoothly and Harry McAdams Campgrounds only has half a dozen spots occupied. It has a unique layout. There is a 300 foot diameter circular road with 8 spots on the outside and 7 on the inside. Each are angled nicely to the road so backing into any of them is simple. We like to have our nose facing north or east to reduce the afternoon sun coming thru the windshield so we pick a spot that satisfies that criteria and also has a nice covered picnic area. There isn't an office or park host, just an iron ranger - the metal lock box you drop your registration form and money. The sites have water, sewer and electric with the only ding being just 30 amp not 50 amp. A big bonus was the very decent free wi-fi. A pretty good deal for $18 per night. The campground is surrounded by a nice park with ponds, playground area and even an 18 hole disc golf course. Just across the street is a golf course.

Large Welcome Sign to Hobbs

The whole area used to be part of the Hobbs Army Airfield. An army training base built just days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. We went for a bike ride around the area doing a few geocaches. The runways are still in tack but few buildings remain. There are remnants of foundations or footings for many of the buildings and a few signs describing what the base was like back in the '40's.

Our Site at Harry McAdams Campground

It was very convenient to just walk out of our rig and head over to the nearby start of the disc golf course. It was a good course for our skill level - reasonably level and not wooded although there are trees and the ponds to contend with at times. Some of the tee boxes use old concrete foundations from the base and a few of the baskets are in side old bunkers. The closest we got to losing a disc was Chris throwing her disc in a tree. It wasn't a tree that could be easily climbed so throwing other discs to dislodge the disc was my best alternative. Needless to say it took a while and I one point I managed to have two discs stuck. Of all those throws count towards our score for that hole, I suspect I had a quattuordecuple (14) bogey!

There is a nice concrete path that follows New Mexico Route 18 back into town. We biked it and headed to a nice little park a few miles south of the campgrounds. The whole town seemed a lot nicer than either of us were expecting. That night, we did discover how the runways have been repurposed. Hobbs Motorsports Park had drag racing on Friday evening. The track was not quite a mile away so it wasn't too loud but it was definitely noticeable. There was one entertaining feature I forgot to mention. There are lots of birds in the park and they are constantly around chirping away or just walking the grassy area looking for a bug to eat. We had a rabbit that tended to chill out underneath our rig and it was none to pleased when a bird got too close. We each saw the rabbit run after birds and chase them away. I ended up placing the GoPro beside the rig to see if I could get any action. In the several hours of recording, I caught two occurrences of the bunny in attack mode. This place seemed like a great place to stay if we ever make it back to the area again. There might not be lots to see and do but it was a peaceful spot to just relax.

Park in Hobbs

We had 320 miles to cover to make it to Mineral Wells Texas from Hobbs New Mexico and two days. We found a spot about halfway and headed to the Snyder Texas Walmart. It's been well over a year since we stayed at a Walmart. We have switched to using Elks Lodges for those brief stops as we travel distances. I already mentioned there isn't a lot going on around this part of Texas so not too surprisingly, there isn't an Elks Lodge either. We got a level spot and decided to head to Towle Nature Park. It's about a mile from the Walmart but we had time to kill and plenty of daylight left. We found the two geocaches in the park and enjoyed the walk after a day's drive. The pizza joint across from Walmart sounded easier than heating up something.

We Saw None of These Animals

A reasonably quiet night(for a Walmart) gave us a good night's sleep. The drive to Mineral Springs continues along US Route 180. Along the way, I noticed all sorts of flashing lights coming our way. The two lead vehicles were police on motorcycles. They waved for me to stop and I then noticed what was coming our way. Some huge structure on a rather large truck. There were utility trucks out in front dealing with any wires that might be too low. The narrow bridge in front of me forced the truck to come down the middle of the road before moving back over leaving plenty of room to get by.

Bud Matthews Switch - A Geocache Stop

We got to Lake Mineral Wells State Park and I unhitched the Jeep while Chris was checking in. I'm glad I did because the road back to the camping area had a sharp turn, down a short steep grade as the road went along the dam that forms the lake. But this road wasn't along the top of the dam like one might expect. It was about 4 feet or so below the water level of the lake with part of the concrete dam on one side and the concrete spillway on the other side. Fortunately no traffic was coming the other way so it was uneventful just a bit odd. Our site was nice but was in a location with a little bit of a side slope to it. They had paved the pad to make it level but that meant there was a 12 inch drop off from the asphalt to the surrounding ground just outside our entry door. Not a huge problem as long as you are careful when exiting the rig.

On the first full day here, we got the bikes out to try the trail that is associated with the state park. It is part of a lengthy rail trail. Access to the trail from the campground was not the greatest so we drove to an intermediate trailhead in the town of Garner. There are numerous geocaches placed along the trail. We end up heading several miles back west towards the campground then turn around and have lunch back at the car before heading east to the town of Weatherford. This part of Texas isn't perfectly flat but it's darn close. We ended up doing 26 miles of riding getting many of the geocaches. Plus we got to experience a couple things we haven't run into in many, many months - humidity and poison ivy. Two things we really aren't looking forward to as we head east.

Cow Watches the Trail

Water Crossing

The next day we stayed local and hiked some of the trails in Lake Mineral Wells. The Crosstimbers Trail heads past an old army base. Not much to see but for some above ground munitions bunkers. Even though the trail continues on, we turn around after we run out of geocaches on the trail. There is another area on the opposite side of the park that sounds interesting. Besides the beach area with picnic tables and canoe rentals, there is a place called Penitentiary Hollow. People come here to climb the rock walls. I was expecting a rock face of a hill but it is actually a maze of crevasses carved out by Mother Nature years ago. It is possible to get to the lower level via safer means than climbing down the 15 foot drop. We didn't run into anybody that was actually climbing so after checking it out, we headed along the trail. All along the trail were signs of a recent wildfire - lots of burned underbrush and many charred trees some with leaves that are now brown and dead. Turns out they did a controlled burn here just a few weeks ago which accounts for what we saw and the strong smell of burnt stuff.