After our exceptionally windy night at Valley of Fires Recreation Area we were on the road moving east again, and found ourselves in a chilly Capitan, New Mexico, home of the Smokey Bear Historical Park. The historical park (both indoor and outdoor displays) features a lot of vintage Smokey items, as well as Smokey's history, and Smokey's grave. Despite the "all fire is bad" messages of the past, there were displays acknowledging that fire is…
The day after Thanksgiving we packed up and departed the Navajo National Monument. The weather forecast was predicting quite a change in the weather, with a shift to snow and cold, so we scrapped our initial list of northern New Mexico sites to visit on this trip, and made a big move south. We stopped off for a quick break at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site which has been in operation since 1878.
After leaving the White Pocket we spent the afternoon driving further east, to the Navajo National Monument. We arrived with just enough light in the sky to set up camp, but not much else, which was fine, because the next day was a layover day, and also Thanksgiving.
