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20050510 Clayton NM Picture Link
Nice day, a little warm, very windy (20+ mph, gusts to 35mph) out of the south.
The drive from Altus to Clayton isn't on anyone's Scenic Drive list. It's flat overall. Mesquite. Some beef. Lots of windmills turning, trying to fill the pond that the wind empties by evaporation. Lots of little soon-to-be ghost towns that show western origins and a hard life.
Over the day we climbed from 1,300 ft above sea level at Altus to over 5,000 ft at Clayton. It didn't all come at once, but we noticed that we didn't come downhill as much as we went uphill. The truck worked hard through the crosswinds and climbing, but came through just fine.
The route was west from Altus to US-287, NW to Amarillo, then NW on US87 to Clayton.
We arrived here at 1:30pm Mountain Daylight Time (changed at the TX/NM border) and checked in at the local KOA (very friendly folks). We thought we'd go west with just the truck to see Capulin Mt volcano, some 50 miles away, but Nicole of the KOA said it would be brutal getting to the top in this wind. She recommended going to Clayton Lake State Park, some 12 miles out. She also recommended the Eklund Hotel for food.
We unhooked and went to the State Park. The place has a few nice campsites, a boat ramp, and a stocked lake. We entered and went to the end of the park toward the dam, where we paid our fee and walked a half-mile to the dam.
When the dam was under construction, the workers uncovered a flat area to one side and left it there. Over a few years, rain washed out the mud and sand from the sandstone under it, leaving the impressions of hundreds of dinosaur footprints. There's now a walkway around the site with signs interpreting the footprints. At least eight types of dinosaurs made the prints at what was once a beach or maybe a low-land between two bodies of water.
It's a little eerie looking at these large (18 to 24 inches long) three-toed footprints of 25 to 30 foot long dinosaurs.
We walked back to the truck and drove back to town. On the way, we saw some sort of hawk fighting the wind while looking for food and one small antelope.
We fueled the truck, then drove downtown and parked right in front of the Eklund Hotel. We took a table after looking at the bar (nice large room, beautiful back-bar). The half-carafes of wine were huge. We had the vegetable soup, then Dolores had a 10oz ribeye with baked potato while I had chips and salsa and then an enchilada plate. All of it was very good, and the bill with coffee and tip was under $50. An example of pricing - Dolores's half-carafe of chablis was $5.95.
We looked around the room, which was part of a two million dollar upgrade to the hotel done last year. It was very nicely done, the artwork was appropriate, the furniture looked just right and the walls were done well. I'd be happy to come back to this hotel and stay a day or two, so I could look more at the details.
We came back to the campground, did the internet email and returned to the trailer. The sun set shortly afterward and the place got black. No close-by street lights. We'll do the notes, read a bit, and go to bed.
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