Sunset Reef Campground

Before arriving at the Sunset Reef Campground, I had never been so nervous about camping. The lead in was an exercise in getting schooled with things I just didn't know yet. Here are all the things I know now that I did NOT know before arriving here:

1. When your mapping app tells you the time of arrival - despite mentioning that your destination is in another time zone - it will not project an accurrate local arrival time. 
2. If you ask Siri what time sunset is someplace in another time zone, Siri will tell you the time for that location's sunset on your current clock.
3. Arriving at a campsite after dark is not the end of the planet; especially if you can turn your car in such a way as to use the headlights to set everything up.
4. It is much easier to arrive with daylight, though locating a campground that is just off the highway on a dirt-road turn-off is augmented by seeing the lights from RV windows glistening in the distance.
5. Camping on Bureau of Land Management land is delightfully freeing.

Here's a photostream to take you through some of the things that caught my eye:

There can be abundant life in the desert! I was astounded. This is the Chihuahan Desert in early winter with the southern edge of the Guadalupe Mountains profiling the background.

This campground was developed from a former oil drilling platform. The fencing was made of metal pipes used for drilling and was a strange reversal: the humans were inside the corral.

The name promised sunsets, and golly, did the desert deliver.

Rainbow horizons. 

Y'all, it's the little cream-filled kind!
(Also known as a dung beetle for those of you who did not see the original Lion King film a kajillion times in the 90's.)

Sunrise. I knew the desert was dry. What I didn't know was the way that it felt to be that dry; to have your eye sockets, skin, lips, hair - everything! - just have all of the moisture sucked out of it. The desert is a feeling of dryness in addition to the warmth from the sun.

Piper was just hanging in the tent while I was getting ready for bed one night. It's nice to head into a cozy, snuggle-ready tent at the end of a mere eight hours of daylight.

I would 100% recommend this campsite to anyone looking to have an off-grid, yet established, camping experience. Word of warning: you might be awoken by the mooing of grazing cattle in the morning and fall asleep to coyotes singing at night.

For more about my daytrips to Guadalupe Mountain National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park and other exciting campground finds, keep coming back!