Have you heard of the Frugal RV Guides for boondocking?

I've spoken about Frugal RV guides in past posts as we had these four guides for our Maiden Voyage.

source Frugal RV

Since we purchased our guides they have written a California guide which had to be broken into two guides as the State was too vast to cram all the info into one guide. While purchasing these two guides the other day I noticed they had an affiliate program for recommending sales of their guides.

So please click on the link in my side bar or here:
 Click here to visit Frugal Shunpikers Guides to RV Boondocking.
and see what you think. If you are at all interested in boondocking in California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah or Arizona these guides will be a wealth of information and savings on camping fees. I haven't read through the California guides yet but if they are anything like the previous four they will be an amazing too!

Your purchase will benefit me but I offer it to you as an amazing resource. We have used these guides in the past. We will use them again in the future and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for wonderful bookdocking ideas as well as information on attractions, hikes etc near these boondocking areas.

Happy Travels everyone!

Don't forget to click the link to go to Frugal RV's site and learn more information about these wonderful guides. They also provide lots of other information on their site.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

We LOVED Carlsbad Caverns National Park. (entrance fees covered with our America the Beautiful Pass)

I first heard about these caverns through another blog (sorry I can't remember which one) telling me about the bat flights. Each spring the bats return and depart the caves in a mass of bats. The bats have only recently returned and numbers are still low (normally around 1000-10,000 nightly) and guided tours don't begin until the end of the month. You are permitted to go to the natural entrance and watch (no photos) but since the park closes at 5:00 we would have had to return at 7:30 to see the bats, then drive 40 miles to camp so unfortunately with our air conditioning still out, we are in a hurry to get to San Antonio so we skipped coming back.

The caves though were amazing! We could have spent another day here too in the caverns...darn that air conditioning but it is oh so NEEDED here!

The pictures are not great...I didn't have a tripod but they give you a feel for the Big Room which is the one we went into. By the time we arrived, had lunch and got into the park, it was 3:30 and we were told to hurry down the elevators as the park closes at 5:00 therefore we had to be back up and out by 5:00 and were catching the last elevator down! (Forgot to remember that tidbit of info so if you are reading this and are planning on poing to these caverns...go EARLY...you will love it and want more time I am sure.)

 



Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park

This morning we went to the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park in Carlsbad.

It's a fairly small park but we enjoyed our morning learning about all the plants and animals that live locally. This zoo only costs $5.00 per adult, 7-12 years are $3.00 and 6 and under are free. For that price don't expect to see San Diego Zoo because you will be disappointed. However if you go in and just enjoy your time walking the self guided tour of each animal habitat you may learn a thing or two and have fun while doing it.


Aayal enjoying the touch table. Fly Aayla Fly!

Sierra liked all the antlers but wasn't a fan of the
tarantulas they had in containers!

We have had 2 road runners run in front of us while driving but I have never been lucky enough to snap a photo of one
and Sierra had always missed seeing them so she was
very excited today to see a Road Runner at the zoo



Daddy Road Runner got in trouble for leading us back to the nest...

Sierra is wishing this lizard would just crawl up into daddy's hand :)



Trying to find some of the animals hiding...

Sierra was uninterested in the bear

Owl with one eye

They have a progrsm here to help these endangered wolves

Sierra quite likes the snakes from a distance



Gila Monster

Awww Mommy and baby Prairie Dogs

Bison

Having a good look at Carlsbad in the distance

This cactus was beautiful to look at!!!
But bending down to smell it..pheww stinky!!!

There were many different cacti from around the world in the greenhouse

A lily flower from their pond area

Sierra looking for tadpoles

I Love dragonflies :)

We saw many other animals not pictured here too. There was also a nocturnal display which was quite interesting. All the animals in the zoo are brought there as they need help. (like Mr one eyed owl). They don't "catch"animals from the wild. They help them heal and give them a home if they can't fend for themselves.

We bought an annual membership here. This zoo accredited by the Association of Zoo's and Aquariums and is part of the reciprocal program. This means for our entrance fee of $10 plus only $30 more ($40 for the annual membership and then you have free entry for a year) we are able to visit over 150 zoo's and aquariums in the USA (and 2 in Canada), for either 1/2 price or for FREE depending on the zoo.

( Click here for a list of 2011 participating zoo's and aquariums) Acouple of the zoo's and aquariums we want to go to on this trip are part of the program so it won't take long to get our membership fees back in savings!


Stay tunned...Carlsbad Caverns coming right up :)